Pictures from this week...

Richard with the gator at the golf course

The feast Richard prepared for us!

J swinging on a tree at Botany Bay

I found a conch shell!!

Since you can't take the shells, people display the pretty ones.

Edisto Driving Range

My garden Thursday, April 15

Our first cook out!

J using our new grill for the first time

Digging our toes in!

This has been a great week!

J has been training to Fayetteville and getting off earlier. :) He has training again this week.

We went to the gym a couple of times, and I think we are going to join tomorrow.

Monday, we got our grill! We cooked out, and we are still eating all the food we cooked. It was a success!

My garden continues to grow! I took a picture Thursday (which I will post later), but tonight when we got home several of the plants I planted from seeds had sprouted! Very exciting. Check in next week for a picture of the new plants. :)

Friday, when J got off work (he actually had to work Friday), we headed to Edisto Island to see Richard. We had so much fun! It was beautiful and windy. We had never seen a beach quite like that. Richard made us frogmore (maybe that's how you spell it), and it was AMAZING! Today, the boys played golf. It was ridiculously windy. I am sure I have more windburn than sunburn from my trip to the beach.

Back to the Grind

It was a great week, but tomorrow it is back to work! J has training in Fayetteville this week and next week. I only have 2 more months of school!

Thursday, when J got off work, we headed to Lowe's to buy stuff for my garden. We also bought a lawn mower and a water hose, etc. And yes, I did have coupons!



I have squash, tomatoes, zucchini, bell peppers, chili peppers, broccoli, onions, spinach, lima beans, green beans, and okra. I am just hoping to get most of it to grow!

I also bought some flowers to put on the front porch. I am not really sure what they are, but they are pretty!



I have a couple of other pots with flowers, too. Our front porch is the prettiest on the block... well you know.. minus the paint. :)

J mowed our yard for the first time Friday night. It was mostly weeds, but it looked better for a couple of days!

Also, I have been having some computer problems- poor thing has died twice this past week, but I do have it functioning at the moment. Who knows how long it will last!?

Saturday night, we went to Apex to eat with Anna. We ate at Anna's Pizzeria. It was very good, even though none of us got pizza! I had an eggplant panini... yummy! Sunday after church, we tried out Cook-Out. Their menu was crazy! We both got burgers, and they came with two sides. Side choices included: hushpuppies, fries, onion rings, CHICKEN WRAP, BACON WRAP, CHICKEN QUESADILLA, CHICKEN NUGGETS. Um, yeah. I want a burger with a side of chicken nuggets, please. It can happen! We both got quesadillas, which weren't too bad. They also have more milkshake choices than DQ. We stuck with strawberry and chocolate. We each enjoyed our milkshakes. :)

We enjoyed a lazy Sunday, and are hoping to have a great week!

Happy Easter! Happy Spring Break! Happy Birthday!

Sorry it has been so long since a real update!

So far J likes his job. Something he likes even more? Being able to play golf!

Last Monday, I went to a workshop in Winterville, NC. It was okay, but not great. Oh well, at least I got paid mileage to go!

Thursday, J went to the dr, and we are hoping to hear this week when he will start his new medicine!

Friday, we woke up EARLY so I could catch my flight. My flights were even early on the way to KY! I had a great time in KY. Lots of food. It was so good to see my family. I even got to meet Brian, Caitlin's current boyfriend. We also worked a lot on our trip to Seattle in June/July. We will be renting a townhome in West Seattle near the beach with a rooftop deck! I can't wait to watch the fireworks from it! We had a little birthday party, too. Caitlin gave us all web cams so we can skype now. I also got the cutest lunch bag! I got some money, which has been spent on curtains, new dress shoes, and some pants. The rest is for my garden, which we will hopefully be starting tonight when J gets off work!

I also got to see the kittens. They are so cute. I picked out Runt, and we hung out the entire time we were there. I also sneezed a lot... hmmmm....

I made it back to Raleigh last night at about 9. The plane in Nashville had run out of carry-on space, so I had to check my luggage. I was so scared it wouldn't make it all the way from Nashville to Raleigh. Thankfully it did! J picked me up and had all my birthday cards from everyone and some tulips! We stopped and ate some BBQ on the way home. We just can't like Carolina BBQ. We need some real BBQ! I got home and started opening the mail because J wouldn't let me go anywhere else in the house. He had made me some cupcakes and bought some candles! So sweet. Then he led me back to our bedroom (don't worry, this is rated G), and there was a beautiful hanging plant for our front porch. There is a hook in the ceiling of a room, so J put it there so I wouldn't see it when I first got home. I am so spoiled!

Today, I checked out a gardening book from the library and bought some curtains for the living room. The sun shines in in the afternoons and heats it up quite a bit. So now we have some color, and it will be cooler!

Tomorrow I plan on working in my garden to get everything planted and ready! I will be sure to take some pictures!

Kitties!

Milkshake and her kittens at 9 days old!

Milkshake is the stray cat mom and dad adopted. She got out during January, but eventually came back- pregnant!

It's been a great week!

I am trying to remember what we have done this week, but all I can remember is from Friday morning to today!

J got a phone call at 9 Friday morning, offering him the job in Dunn. We were both in shock because we were both so convinced it wasn't going to happen. After work, we headed to Raleigh to celebrate. We ate at The Cheesecake Factory. Cheesecake is definitely a celebratory food! We waited forever, but the food was good. And so was the cheesecake!

Saturday, we headed to Smithfield to the outlets to get J some clothes. He got some ties, a couple of shirts, and a pair of pants. Success!

Today we went to church in Fayetteville again, then went to Fuquay to go to Kroger and Harris Teeter. I had to get some more chicken!

Tomorrow is J's first day. I am going to Winterville for a workshop, so it will be a long day for us both.

Since J got a job, we decided it was best if he didn't ask for another day off, so I am headed to KY by myself. Instead of driving 12 hours, I am flying. I am a little nervous flying alone, but I am sure it will be fine. I will be in KY from Friday- Wednesday.

This week is coming back to me now! Tuesday, J went to the doctor. J liked him, and he had a different idea for treatment, so that's good! They had to do some bloodwork to see if this new medicine will work. I think we find out next month at his next appointment.

Thursday, we went to the local golf course so J could play some. It was such a pretty day... until we got there. Then the sun went away and it got windy. :( We both still enjoyed it.

That's all for this week. Payday is Wednesday! Yay!

YIPEE!!!!!!!!!

J GOT A JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are so excited to be DINKs! (Double Income No Kids)

J will be working in a town 15 miles or so away in a credit union!

God never seizes to surprise us!

Brackets have been busted!

It has been a beautiful week here in NC. We have kept the doors open most days! Gotta love that sunshine!

Monday, Anna and Elizabeth stopped by on their way to Raleigh. It was fun to hang out, even if it was short. We also ate at Andy's and got free ice cream! As we were leaving for Andy's, I looked down at the ground, and what do I see shining? My black and white diamond ring Kate Kate gave me for graduation! We lost it while we were moving, so I figured it was gone. But nope! There is was! It was a little dirty, but I put it in my cleaner, and it looks great! Not a single diamond missing.

J's interview went well Wednesday. He has to go in again tomorrow, so keep praying for this opportunity!

I ordered a bookshelf with doors this week! So we will have a place to put all of our groceries now! I used swagbucks and only paid $19.99 for it! I will post a picture when we get it. Now I am saving the next two weeks' swagbucks for a grill. :) We can't wait to grill out! (I got 3 lbs of turkey burgers for $1.24, so we can grill A LOT!)

Saturday, after I got back from Kroger, we headed to Raven Rock again. We took a different (and shorter) trail. It was fun, but the other trail was much prettier. It was also very crowded out there. It was sunny and 80, so I understand why!

Basketball has pretty much consumed our lives lately. I am beating J in our bracket though!

I am off to do paperwork- my favorite thing to do!

Beautiful Week!

It has been a beautiful week here in NC. Upper 60s, Low 70s and sunny most everyday! I think Spring is almost here.

We got our North Carolina license tags this week! I guess we are now North Carolinians! I also got my actual driver's license. I have now been a resident of three states in the past year. Life sure is crazy wonderful!

I am also proud to report that I don't have TB... I got my work physical this week and that's about the only thing I found out! J has a dr. appointment next week. We are also working on going to the eye doctor and dentist. It's going to be an expensive couple of months with all the doctor visits since we haven't been regularly!

We watched lots of basketball this week. Of course, our bubble burst, but our blood is still MAROON!

We also filed our taxes. After weeks of waiting, we finally got J's W-2! We will be getting a small refund, but hey.. we didn't make much at all last year! Just my check alone will bring in at least 8x what we made last year :)

We went to church in Fayetteville again. We feel like this will most likely be our church, but we are still going to visit a while longer before committing to anything. It is a bit further than we would like, but what can you do?

And as always, we are still praying J hears something soon about a job. We have so many dreams for our future, and J finding a job sure would help us work toward those!



Edited to add: J got an interview for a banking position in Fayetteville! We will find out more tomorrow. He had emailed last week about the job, and tonight he got an email saying they did not actually receive his resume. He quickly emailed it in, and she emailed back saying she wanted to meet with him Tuesday or Wednesday! Please pray he gets this job!

Just another week...

Well, we didn't really do much this week.

Thursday, J had a phone interview for a banking position. He thinks the interview went well, so we are HOPING AND PRAYING he gets a call for an in person interview! It would be great if he got this job!

Friday night, we went to Raleigh for Anna's birthday. It was fun to meet all her friends. And some of them are really good cooks!

Saturday, we just sat around and enjoyed doing nothing.

Today, we tried out a church in Fayetteville. It was a shorter service than at Fuquay, that's for sure! They weren't as friendly, but we still liked it enough to keep it on our list. :)

We also tried out a Mexican restaurant in town- Mi Casita. Apparently, it is the place to be in town. It was packed. The food was good, but a little more expensive than we were used to for Mexican. But we will probably still go back sometime!

As promised... house pics!

Living Room

Living Room

Bedroom

Bedroom

Guest Room

Hallway

Wonderful patching job

Our landlady credits God for providing her with more of the beautiful wallpaper

This is our junk room.. I mean office.. moving on

Bathroom

Kitchen from hall

Dining Area

Kitchen

Kitchen

Our $2 wall art :)

Snow plow... they do exist! They even plowed our road!

Snow this morning

Snow this morning

House from when Richard came

Edenton, NC

Breakfast Sunday Morning

Main Course Saturday Night

Menu Saturday Night

Captain's Quarter's Inn- Our room is the round one on the 2nd floor.

Granville Inn

Breakfast Saturday Morning

Breakfast Saturday Morning

Our hexagon sinks!

Captain's Room By The Sea

Arrrrrg, what a mystery!

I had a LONG week full of meetings. But Friday finally came! And Friday was PAYDAY! My first one! Yay!

Wednesday, we opened a local bank account. They didn't give us any checks though, and it will be 7-10 days before we get our debit cards. Don't guess we'll be using that money!

Thursday, J had been talking about going somewhere this weekend. I had been in meetings all day and was exhausted, but googled away. I found this cute B&B called Captain's Quarters hosting a mystery weekend. 5 minutes later, we had booked a room!

Friday, I had more meetings and some work to do. J got his NC license, got a (terrible) haircut, and an oil change. We packed our bags and headed to Edenton! It was a little under 3 hours. Not too bad. We checked in about 5 with the mystery beginning at 6. At 6 we had hor d'oeuvres and read part of the story. We then drove around town and got some ice cream. (We had filled up on hor d'oeuvres.) Saturday morning, we woke up with coffee and bread in the hall. At 8:30, we had an amazing breakfast. At 10, the hunt began. The clues had us going into different shops downtown. We enjoyed looking around at all the shops. We finished in just under two hours. We ate lunch and went back for a nap. When we woke up, we worked on solving the mystery. Saturday night, we had a 4 course dinner. It was SO good! Sunday morning, there was coffee and muffins in the hall, then we headed to breakfast at 8:30. Again, the food was amazing! There were two other couples there, and we read our solutions to the mystery. We were the closest!! We won t-shirts. We were excited our solution was the best! After we checked out, we headed home... only to turn around because we forgot to give the key back. Oh well, it was a great weekend! So glad we decided to go. Pictures in the next post!

Forgot something!

I forgot to post pics of what we made this week. We decided to pull out our cookbooks and pick something to cook since we usually stick to the same things.

First up, Mexican Lasagna
It was seriously good. And we still have some because it made a lot.
This will be made again in the future. :)

Then we made Apple Dumplins Pioneer Woman style.
Of course, these were amazing. :)

NC: Week 2

So this week, I was on my own teaching students. It was not bad at all. Of course, I was still on their old schedules where everyone was crammed into 3 days, so this week I will be on my schedule. I also had my first IEP meeting last week and have another Tuesday afternoon. I am just jumping right in. I really like my job though!

Thursday, we tried to get our licenses, but our lease was not good enough to prove our residence. Instead, we went to Ribeye's for lunch. They advertised lunch for $5. Well, for that $5 you got a sandwich. Drinks and sides were extra. It was good, but $5 for a sandwich? Maybe their steaks are worth it. After Ribeye's, we went to Dairy Freeze for dessert. It was nothing special. They had soft serve ice cream and several other flavors, but they don't make it themselves or anything.

Saturday, we decided to go to Raven Rock to hike. We picked Campbell Creek Loop. It said it was 5 miles roundtrip. Well, we did it all (and a little extra since the trails weren't marked well at first :)) and we were/are exhausted. It ended up being over 6 miles. I don't know why we thought it would be a good idea for us since we are out of shape. It was still fun and pretty. Next time, we will go on the shorter trails. ;)







Sunday, we went to church in Fuquay again. The people are SO nice and friendly there. The singing is great. Annnnnd the preacher is smart. But maybe too smart? Maybe too good of a speaker? He spoke for an hour today, and his lesson only had one point. It was like 3 completely different lessons in one. That is really the only thing that is discouraging us from going there... and that's most of the service! We will just have to see what happens. After church, we went to eat with the Wheeler's. J's dad knew him from Columbus. We ate and talked, then went to the grocery store, of course.


Now I have to get some lessons ready for tomorrow, but I promise, one day.... house pictures.

Pictures!

View from front porch

Back Yard

Richard working on the snowman

J wearing my socks as gloves

R and J working on the snowmen (I built the bottom one, so don't think I was lazy!)

My snow angel

Frosty!

Driving to Raleigh to see Anna

Richard's feast he prepared for us!

Watching MS State B-ball!

House pics to come later!

Sweet Home... North Carolina!

We are pretty much all settled into our house. We still have some work to do (unpacking the office, finding curtains for the living room, etc.) I am glad to know the hard part is behind us.

I started my first day on Monday. I was supposed to meet with the director- but she forgot. Oops! I got my email address and my badge and headed off with one of the other teachers. I followed the two other teachers around all week, meeting students and staff. I met most of my students, too. It was pretty easy (and boring). Friday, I finally met the director and all the other specialists. It was a good week. I begin seeing students by myself tomorrow!

We have been trying out a few restaurants around the area. Here are our reviews:

West Front Street Restaurant- opened Monday, went Tuesday. It was not busy at all. The owner was walking around with her gross belly hanging out. :X I had a bourbon cheeseburger. It did not really have any taste. I was unimpressed. J had the meatloaf. He thought it was good, but pretty generic. It had too much (generic) gravy, too. We felt the extensive menu (burgers, pastas, chicken, steak, porkchop, salads, etc) was too big. We didn't really know what would be good there since they had so many options. Overall, we would not go back and probably wouldn't recommend anyone to this place.

Yamato- Japanese place in Dunn. I ate there with the two other teachers. It was very good. I had chicken terriyaki. It came with zuccini and fried rice. It was reasonably priced and good! The lighting was really bad though. That's my only complaint.

Andy's- We went with Richard Friday night. It's a burger place here in Lillington. They also have custard. :) I had a burger and fries. It was very good. J had a bacon cheeseburger, fries, and a chocolate milkshake. The burgers were VERY good. And J enjoyed his milkshake. It was also a good price for the food. We will be going back! (And for the record, Richard enjoyed his food, too.)

The Flying Biscuit- We took a trip to Raleigh to see Anna. This place was amazing. And very busy!I had french toast (and biscuits) and J had eggs, chicken sausage, potatoes, and biscuits. Everything here was so good! It was more expensive than most breakfast places, but thanks to Anna, we had a B1G1 coupon. We do hope to go back one day!

So as I mentioned, Richard came up to see us. While we were at Andy's it started snowing like crazy! We went back home to watch a movie (Wanted). When it was over we had 1.5 inches on the ground. We went to bed excited about waking up! R and I woke up early and waited for J to get up. We didn't wait long though, and went to play without him. That made J get up. :) We built a snowman and threw some snowballs. We had 3.5 inches! After we finished up, we went to Raleigh to meet Anna. We ate and then drove around Raleigh. When we got back to Lillington, we laid around for a while, then R started cooking fresh shrimp and potatoes. Anna came over to eat, too. It was sooo good! Thanks, Richard! This morning, we went to church in Sanford. It was unexpectedly small. There were 14 pews in the whole church (7 on each side.) The preacher was good though! They weren't as friendly as the last church though. We will continue looking, but both churches so far have their pluses and their minuses.

We got car and renters' insurance, so we hope to head to get our licenses this week!

Pictures to come later. My camera was in KY (or in transit) until Saturday afternoon, so most pictures are on my phone.

Oops!

My camera took a little vacation to Kentucky, so it will be a little while before I post pictures. :)

Our new adventure begins!

We are all in our new (to us) rental HOUSE! We are so excited to be in a house! No address included Apt. No upstairs neighbors. So far, so good!

Thursday, I finished turning over all the utilities. J's mom and I ventured to Fuquay to find the grocery stores and church and made our way to Apex. There is some amazing shopping there. HUGE Dollar Tree, AMAZING TJ Maxx, and a SuperTarget. Life is good. :) My parents arrived Thursday night, and after a meal at Waffle House, we went to buy a mailbox. I also showed them around Erwin and Dunn. While all that was happening, J, J's dad, and Dustin loaded the moving truck in the rain. Then, J and J's dad hit the road. They spent the night outside of Atlanta.

Friday, I, of course, woke up early. J's mom and I headed to the house to start cleaning. My parents joined us later. We cleaned and put together a few things. For lunch, we headed to Burger King. We should have known better. They had no burgers! Fail. We drove down the street to Hardee's. When we were finished eating, we guided the moving truck to our house. We then unloaded the truck in the rain/sleet. When it was almost all in, a transformer blew on our block. No power. I did know where our oil lamp and lantern were located, so I dug those out. It came back on about an hour and a half later. We finally finished unloading and got most things unpacked!

Saturday, J and I woke up at 6:30 because Lowe's called to tell us they had our stove, but not the fridge. :( They delivered the stove at 8 or so. We then go back to bed. 15 minutes later, the cable guy was here to install cable and internet. Who knew deliveries and installations actually happened on time?!?! We were up for the day. We finished unpacking, my mom and I ran to Lowe's to buy a cabinet, Anna came over, we hung some pictures, and I went to the store (see coupon blog.) It has just been an exhausting few days. But we are here and getting settled. We are going to a church in Fuquay this morning. Superbowl tonight. WORK TOMORROW! Ahh.

Pictures to come later. I promise. I just want everything to look good (read: better) first!

Oh, and I am sure to have some landlady stories for you. I will have to have a dedicated post for that.

Well.. I'm here!

It has been a while since the last update. And man, things have changed.

So last Wednesday I was offered the job in NC. We set a start date of Feb. 8. We spent the rest of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday packing. We went to Columbus Friday. Tuesday morning, J's mom and I headed for NC. We drove 10 hours in the rain, but we made it. We looked at two houses outside of Lillington Tuesday night. They were awful. Thankfully, things got better. :)

After we drove around town, we went to Waffle House and drank too much coffee. We woke up this morning and headed out for the coffee shop and to scope out the area. We met our first appointment early. It was a nice house, but not really ready to move in. It was also on the upper end of our budget. The outside was much nicer than the inside. We also looked at several apartments- one was extremely weird. It was a house divided into two parts. One was an apartment. One was a photographer studio. The photographer controlled the heat/air. Anyway, we didn't really want an apartment. We then went to the house we had been waiting to see. J had called last week about this house. A little older lady is renting it out. 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom. $495/mo. That was just insanely inexpensive. We were sold- but we had to buy a stove and a fridge. So off to Lowe's (in the neighboring town) we went after setting up the cable to watch the Superbowl. We bought a stove and a fridge and headed to eat. We will buy a mailbox later. The post office JUST started delivering mail not long ago. Apparently, everyone has a P.O. box.

Tomorrow we will go to some thrift shops and to get the rest of the utilities turned over to our name. Mom and dad should be here sometime tomorrow. It is all coming together! I can't help but think how much God has blessed us this past week. Everything is falling into place, and it is all His work!


(I am also excited to go to the grocery store Saturday after the fridge is delivered!)