October

The first week of October, I had "associate on-boarding" at Bath and Body Works. I am a seasonal temp worker at the Cookeville BBW! Including my training days I have worked four days total and I don't think I've done too much damage. I'm doing fairly well at my first EVER job. It only took me twenty-two years on God's beautiful earth for me to land my first job, but here we are.  I think I will like it pretty well. I am getting faster at ringing people up at the cash wrap and I'm gaining more confidence to approach customers and provide them with assistance. I found out this morning that I did make a pretty big boo-boo yesterday but I won't find out how mad they are at me until my next work day (I was off today!) I'm glad I'm gaining some experience so that whenever Brian graduates and we move, I will have something besides education on my resume. It's all about making yourself look better, right? Haha! Even though I've only technically worked two days, I think this will be a fun job. It's not something I'd want to do forever but it's definitely okay for now. I wouldn't mind working there until May, but they aren't looking to hire people after Christmas. Bummer.

This past weekend the whole Gunter family trekked up the mountains to a cabin above Pigeon Forge.  There is no possible way Brian or I could have driven one of our cars! The drive was so steep and gravelly! The view was pretty awesome. I wish more of the trees in my line of sight were in their full fall spectacular, but it was still amazing. The only downfall of the weekend was the cockroach invasion! My sister-in-law was ready to leave the place Saturday morning, so Jordan, Rhonda, Jaren, Brian and I went down the mountain (less scary in the daylight) to Pigeon Forge proper and had some fun on the go-carts. Go-carts are fun if you get a fast one, but not so much when your car is the absolute slowest one on the planet. I am not kidding. Brian and I rode together and Jordan and Jaren rode together and they nearly lapped us our car was so slow. I guess that was karma for Brian having the fastest when we drove singles ;)

Here are a few more pictures from the photo challenge. Since I haven't updated, I did several to catch up.

2. Pure White--my work shirts

3. Smile--a favorite photo on nightstand

4. Hat--from a raffle at UTM

 

5. Love--Our marriage certificate

6. Indulgence--pizza gone

7. Diva

8. Flowers

9. Postcard

Photo Challenge

Long time, no post... I remember sitting down at the computer the first of August to write, but I had nothing new to say. Each day is a blessing, but if it weren't for church service and Brian going to school, I'd have nothing to break up the monotony. I've been somewhat busy planning my parents' not-such-a-surprise 25th anniversary party. It's next Sunday and I'm pretty excited for my first real experience as a hostess. Next weekend is Jon and Jessi's wedding in which I'm honored to be a bridesmaid. They have been together forever it seems and I'm so happy for them that they are finally tying the knot! After their wedding, I should be off bridesmaid duty for quite a while, so that's a relief, haha! 
In other news, today marks 37 days until fall break, when the Gunter family is going to Pigeon Forge!

With all that out of the way, I'll get to the meat of the post. Since I don't have any knowledge or hilarity to share, I'm going to do a photography challenge. I've been doing photo-a-day challenges on Instagram with my iPod Touch, but I'd like to also get some practice in with my Canon. The challenge I'm going to try first comes from  divasanddreamsblog.com. I found it on *drum roll please* Pinterest! I won't do a daily post, but I'll try to do at least 1-2 per week. As pictured below, #1 is "high heels." Enjoy!

 

 

#1: High Heels

Hey, Good Lookin'

"Whatchya got cookin'?"

For as long as I can remember, I have always felt the need to be in the kitchen creating things.  When I was younger I would beg my mother and grandmother to let me watch them as they cooked and baked.  In high school I got to do a little bit of the cooking to help Momma with the household duties.  This came in handy in college at the COCSC where several of my comrades told me I was a good cook. Didn't hurt in snagging my man, either, ;)

I follow the idea of great chef Gusteau from the Disney movie Ratatouille, "Anyone can cook." The elaborate, exquiste dishes that can be tasted at high class restaurants may challenging to create for a less talented person, but other than that, I believe that given a recipe and the proper ingredients, tools, and patience, a delicious meal will result.  --Aside on the recipe statement: I don't always measure everything precisely with a spoon, cup, etc. I like to "eye ball it" as Rachael Ray says. Some people I know, ahem husband and old roomie, are so meticulous with measurements it almost drives me crazy, haha! Back to the point... So, if you tell me, 'Oh, this is great! You're a good cook!' I'll most likely reply with, 'Thanks, but it's not hard. You just follow the recipe.'

However, I do enjoy cooking quite a bit, and more than that, EATING. Hence the previous post of the diet. It's been so hard to not eat everything in the cabinets. Pinterest doesn't help either. I've pinned so many scrumptious-looking goodies that I plan on making for family get-togethers and church potlucks. The problem is I want to make them now. So I have. Fortunately, though, I decided to experiment with some recipes that look healthier than most.  The wonderfully talented Chocolate Covered Katie has a blue million recipes but I chose to make one of her baked oatmeal recipes, Cookie Dough Baked Oatmeal Bars! (found here) I mulitplied the recipe by 4 in hopes that I'd like it and to eat them this week for breakfast. Verdict? They're very yummy and only about 200 calories! I hadn't eaten yet today when I tried one, but when I did I wasn't hungry anymore. I see these becoming a regular on the breakfast menu. I plan on widening my tastes and trying the other varieties, as well.

I also decided to go ahead and cook my supper for this week and I found some ways to spruce up chicken. Garlic-brown sugar, BBQ with a little extra flavor, and lemon pepper. I think I'll pair a piece of chicken with rice and veggies or a salad. I'm excited!

Aren't they beautiful? And so good!

Finding Opened Windows

Last night, I finally heard back from the company with which I interviewed.  Apparently it was a "hard decision" but they chose the person they wanted to hire, and it's not me. Bummer. Once again I have found a path that God didn't want me to travel down.  I guess the endeavor of working every weekend for the next who-knows-how-long isn't right for me or my marriage right now. I had planned out all sorts of scenarios in my mind to settle my unease about being away from Brian on his only days off, but it still did not feel right. I would not be able to visit with any of my friends, my family, or go on a trip if I were to be hired in that job position.  On top of all those missed opportunities, I would not be able to attend Sunday morning worship and I guess that's not the best plan for us, either.  Even though this is yet another closed door on my journey to finding my career, there will be a window, somewhere, somehow. I've just got to trust that God will shine some light through that window, even if it's just slightly cracked open, and I'll be able to find it and jump through it. 

"Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Isaiah 40:28-31, KJV

The Gunters Go on a Diet

Hoorah. Right? Okay, so it's not really a diet diet just us deciding to eat better. We've been married a month (tomorrow) and the whole newlywed-whateverpounds isn't going to get the better of us.  The plan is to enjoy a wonderfully monotonous diet. For Brian a little more monotonous than me, but it goes a little something like this: Breakfast, oats. Lunch, fish and rice (yum!). Supper, meat slop.
WHAT??!? SLOP? What are we, pigs? No, but this stuff is actually okay. The first batch's spices aren't my favorite so I'll let Brian enjoy it all to himself, but I think we'll have to experiment with next week's batch so I can get on this. What is "meat slop" you say? It's a recipe that a friend of ours found on the interwebz. If you want to go to the actual post, I'll provide the link here but if you are offended by some crude language, I'd just keep reading my post :)

What we put in our first batch of meat slop: (and I really need to come up with another name for this!)
2 pounds of lean ground beef (the 93/7 from Wal*Mart)
1 head of red cabbage
1 red onion
2-12 ounce cans of tomato paste
1 can of mushroom pieces (yucky!)
approx. 1 cup water (enough so that it doesn't burn while cooking)
tumeric
red curry
black pepper
Cayenne pepper
garlic
chili seasoning

Finely chop all the veggies, break up the beef, and throw it in a big ole pot.

It looked like this:

Let that cook on low-medium heat for about 30 minutes. It smells really awesome, but I don't like the taste of tumeric or mushrooms. I think it would be awesome with tomatoes and some Italian type seasoning, maybe even get a Mexican vibe with some Ro-tel. This big pot we divided into 7 1-2/3 cups servings that look like this:

The best part about this slop is that it will fill you up due to the bulky cabbage and that it is super cheap! Burger: $5 + Onion: $2 +  Cabbage: $2 + Tomato Paste: $2 + Mushrooms: $1 + Random spices: on hand = $12, or $1.71 per supper meal for the week! This is awesome news! Additional bonus: I don't have to cook! This is SO easy: throw some veggies in a food processor, simmer in a pot for 30 minutes, and BOOM: seven meals. Hoorah!

All of this manly man food made me want something sweet, so I got out my handy dandy strawberries and had a snack. They're even better dipped in melted almond bark :)

Happy eating! :)

Waiting...

...is the hardest part.

Re-post from September, 15, 2011

It Doesn't Get Easier...

...coping with someone you've lost. Or it hasn't yet. There are so many things in my life that I wish I could share with my Grandpa. Prom. High school graduation. College achievements. Mission work. College graduation. My wedding.
 His funeral was the first day of homecoming week my junior year of high school. I will never forget that day. It was "twin day" and my best friends wondered why I didn't wear what we had planned. We were so busy with arrangements and such I guess I wasn't able to tell them the funeral was so soon. He passed away early Saturday morning; visitation was Sunday and Monday morning and the funeral Monday afternoon. I didn't want to be at the funeral home all day (and wanted to keep my perfect attendance track record) so mom picked me up at 11. That day was the first (and last, at this point in time) time I saw my father cry.

Re-post from April 11, 2012

I am deleting my old blog because it is making life difficult! Sharing old blogs here.

Are You there, God? It's me, Nicole.

With only 24 days until my college graduation, I'm beginning to get a bit panicky. I'm terribly afraid that I'm not going to pass two of my biology courses. Today I got back my latest cell biology exam with a big, fat, ugly "D" on it and had a quiz in invertebrate zoology, so I fought back tears all day long. Every second of the day I am thinking, "3 more points, 3 more points" so I can just get a "C" in each of those classes and they'll give me that stupid diploma. Long gone are the days of being upset of getting a "B" because of med school dreams. Hmmph. Earlier I made a very detailed list of basically every hour of my life until May 3, consisting of studying, studying studying, and I hope to stick to it. On top of all of this, the few places I found to apply for a job have not contacted me. Is it because I don't have my degree yet? Am I not good enough? What's going on here? I need some feedback, but I'm not the type to track people down and bug them until they hate me :S (ANNNDD I'm getting married in 59 days!)

Why did this happen? This semester was supposed to be eeeasy peasy so I could chill out, finish wedding plans, and not have to worry. Obviously, Someone decided to throw another curve ball at me to say, "Psst, hey, Nicole, remember Me? The One who is making all the plans?"  Oh.   Right. Tonight for the devo at Martin, J.T. spoke on fear and being courageous. I was like, "Ah, God, I see what you did there," putting yet another yield sign on the road. It's like He's always finding some way to tell me to trust Him because He's got my back. This is easier said than done, though. Sure, it's easy to think you fully rely on God when things are running smoothly, but as soon as school becomes terrifying instead of challenging, your baby brother has to have surgery, and your bank account needs to go eat a sandwich, you have to step back and actually THINK about your faith. Do I trust God? Do I actually believe that He is on my side and I can do all things through Him? So, yeah, life pretty much stinks right now, and say I don't pass those two classes. I will still become my best friend's wife. I'm still going to find SOME kind of a job, and I'll have to find a way to finish my degree. So what that the last four years of my life will have been wasted academically. At least it was free, right?

But say I DO pick myself up by my bootstraps, march my butt to the library, remember that I'm the co-pilot and God is guiding this plane...and I PASS. It's all going to be okay. My Father knows what's best. Maybe this is His way of showing me that I am not reaching my potential and is giving me a gentle push to success. Yes, it's okay to need to cry and vent every once in a while, but while you're doing that, you have to remember God is going to see you through the storm. Here's an awesome quote: "Sometimes God calms the storm, sometimes He lets the storm rage and calms His child." I think I fall into the latter part of that statement.  So, God, I know you're there, well, HERE. With me. And together we've got this.

Isaiah 41:10
Proverbs 3:6
Isaiah 43:2
Matthew 6:34

Pantyhose and Text Messages

This morning my alarm(s) went off at 6:30 a.m. as opposed to the usual 7:30. I got up, did my bathroom routine, then started to get dressed. On this particular morning, I had to put on a dress shirt, black suit, heels, and the ever-dreaded pantyhose. I tip-toed around the house as I ate breakfast, not wanting to wake up my husband. (He gets up at 7:30 to get ready for school.) You see, today I had my FIRST EVER interview.  I was scared to death! Since I got the phone call/email Monday morning with the news that I had an interview, I'd been mentally preparing and praying. Hard. Having just graduated college, with no job or intern experience, it has been very frustrating to find a job, much less one in the area of my degree. The job I interviewed for is a laboratory technician at the Perdue plant in Monterey. It sounds kind of gross, cutting up chicken and testing for unwanted bacteria, but hey, the science kid in me thinks it's pretty awesome.  If I get this job, I will run total plate counts on the hour, ten hours a day, four days a week. The ONLY bad part about the position is that the hours are on the weekends. Not ideal, but I have no social life in Cookeville anyway. During the interview, I tried to look as confident as possible, but still twisted my rings around my swelling, nervous finger. Overall, I think it went okay, but as this was my first interview, it may have been terrible-no good-very bad-awful because I have nothing by which to compare it. Moving on... Brian and I just got new phones (woohoo!) and with them, text messaging. It's quite useful sometimes! For example, the past three days, my sweet, sweet husband has sent me messages telling me how proud he is of me and that I would be okay in the interview. Other than prayers and strength from God, the message that I read this morning when I woke up was just about all the encouragement I could need. Marriage is SUCH a blessing, but that's a post for another day. :)

"Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”-Joshua 1:9, NKJV

"Strength! Courage! Don't be timid; don't get discouraged. God, your God, is with you every step you take."-The Message