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Tuesday, May 25, 2010

grateful.

I know it might not seem it from some of my recent posts that seem full of anxiety, fear, doubt, lack of faith about not selling our house,
but I am truly grateful for what I do have.

I was reminded again today of just how blessed we are.
I thought I should take a minute & remind myself of some of the many things I'm grateful for...

our health & the ability to enjoy life,
joy,
my husband,
our families,
our church,
our homes (I have 2, when some people do not even have 1),
my job,
our educations,
our wonderful friends,
kind neighbors,
cars to take us places,
food to eat,
clothes to wear,
a bed to sleep in,
a little extra money in the bank,
the list could go on & on...

I'm trying to focus on being grateful and being patient in waiting.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

100 days.

Our home has been on the market for 100 days...

243 online hits,
33 showings,
1 official offer,
lots of so-called "interested" buyers that never followed through,
2 price drops...

lots of frustration,
losing patience,
getting anxious,
fearful,
feeling desperate,
wishing we could do more...

just praying for the right buyer to come along SOON!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

bookworm.

I have once again become a bookworm.

I used to read all the time.
It was uncommon that I wasn't reading at least 2 books simultaneously.
I'd read 3 or 4, sometimes more, books a month.

Since starting back to grad school I don't know that I've finished 10 books in 2 years... :-(.
I'm back on track now.

I've been off of work for a week since this coming weekend is my weekend to work.
In the last 8 days, I have read 2 books & have started a 3rd...

1. To Kill a Mockingbird-unbelievable that I'm 26 & had never read it. I started it twice but never finished.
2. From Potter's Field (Cornwell)-I'd never read any of her books before, but she had me sucked in from the 1st 10 pages...love a book like that!

It's been wonderfully refreshing to read what I want again!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

2 of my favorite things!

Two of my favorite things:
1) Winning free stuff
2) Children's books

Pink Nothings
is giving away 2 signed copies of a new children's book by Lezlie Evans,
"If I Were the Wind".


Hurry...the giveaway ends on May 21st!


Tuesday, May 18, 2010

another countdown begins...

The countdown to my graduation is over, so the countdown to another big event now begins!

3 weeks from today Chris will be through with his PhD defense & I fully believe that I will be calling him Dr. Tarr!

I'm so proud of my man & all of his great accomplishments...go babe!

graduation day!

Sunday was graduation day!

Our families were here & made it such a special day for me...
thanks guys!
It felt so good to walk across the stage & pick up my diploma (although it was a "dummy").

My mom has the best of the pictures on her camera, but here are a couple...


It feels good to be done with school!
Several people have already asked when I'm going back for my PhD...
it'll be a while people, it's time for a break!

Friday, May 14, 2010

countdown...

2 days until graduation...wahoo!
It is amazing to me how quickly 7 semesters have flown by!
Even Chris' 5 years seem to have gone by so quickly (not sure how much he believes me on that :-))!

Mom & dad will arrive tonight &
the rest of the crew will be here tomorrow evening.

We're looking forward to celebrating our educational accomplishments with our families!

Sunday, May 9, 2010

we have a new home!

After a whirlwind trip to Nashville this weekend,
we officially have a home waiting on us when we move!

We left here Friday @ 5 p.m.,
drove to Knoxville,
slept for about 6 hours,
drove from Knoxville to Nashville before 10 a.m.

We found the house,
drove around the block and beyond several times,
met with our new landlord (Robert),
toured the inside of the house,
decided we could make it work,
met with Robert's wife to make things official,
grabbed lunch & hit the road home and made it back about 10:30 last night.

Whew!
It was a quick trip, yet productive so we're happy about that.


The house...
*sits on a corner lot
*has a perfect front porch---I'm picturing 2 black rocking chairs with throw pillows, a fern hanging basket, and rectangular planters with gorgeous flowers!
*2 bedrooms---one for us & one for an office/room with a sleeper sofa for guests
*1 bath---pretty decent sized with a linen cabinet
*large eat-in kitchen---I'm a little nervous about not having a dining room, but it was a concession we had to make
*large foyer---I think we'll put our piano there along with my tiny black Pedestal table which should fit perfectly
*lovely fenced-in backyard---it's rectangular with a tall fence so it feels pretty private. I'm invisioning lots of garden parties! We'll be on the look-out for some small storage building to put yard tools & camping gear in.

It's not perfect by any means, but we're not buying it-just renting.
This is what we keep telling ourselves over & over.
We're too used to being in buyer's mode!
The biggest downfall of the house is the lack of storage.
There is no pantry, but lots of cabinets & drawers in the kichen so hopefully that will work out.
The are 2 closets in the master bedroom & 1 in the 2nd bedroom, however they are teeny, tiny.
There is a large shelf in the cabinet where the washer & dryer will be so that will give us a bit of storage too.

Because of the lack of storage, 2 things will happen...
#1: A massive purging operation will soon be under way.
We have plenty of things that we don't need.
What better excuse to consider what we really use & need & part with the rest!
#2: We're going to have to get creative with how we store things in our new place...I've already got some ideas (some of which Chris is skeptical about)!
We're also entertaining the idea of renting a tiny storage unit for larger items that we just won't have room for would like to have in close range.

I was bad & took no pictures of the inside of the house while we were there.
However, here's one shot of the kitchen from the internet.

Overall, we're very excited!

Please just continue to pray along with us that our house here will sell soon.
We will feel far more excited & ready for the move when that happens!

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

2nd interview.

I have a second phone interview today with the Dean & Associate Dean of the school of nursing at Belmont.

Say a prayer for me, keep your fingers crossed, whatever you can do...

I'm ready to have a job lined up!

is this it?

Could this be our soon-to-be Nashville home?

From what we can tell in pictures of the house inside and out as well as the surrounding area, we love it!

We've spoken with the landlord & will be headed to soggy Nashville Friday night to check it out in person.

Assuming we love it, we'll negotiate lease terms & hopefully sign a lease very soon.

Now, if we could only sell our house :-(...

Let's hope this works out!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

time flies!

Today was my students' last day in clinical.

It's hard to believe that I had been their instructor since the middle of January.
I remember their anxious faces on the 1st day of clinical (I was nervous too!).
They've each come so far, and now I see much more confidence in their faces and their actions.

Teaching this semester has been a wonderful experience for me.
The students challenged me constantly and taught me so much about teaching in a clinical setting---far more than I could have ever learned in any book about nursing education.

Working 2 jobs while finishing school has been trying and exhausting.
Yet, it's been the best thing I have done in a long time.

I have found that teaching is far more rewarding than I had ever imagined.
Good thing, since in 18 days I'll have an MSN in Nursing Education! :-)

My wonderful students even brought me a gift...
a Williams Sonoma cookbook---"Breakfasts & Brunches",
a set of 4 individual deep-dish pizza pans,
and some Williams Sonoma utensils.
So thoughtful!

After this experience, I am certain that pursuing teaching jobs in Nashville is the way to go.
I'm still waiting to hear from Belmont, so fingers crossed.
In the mean-time, I've applied for a faculty job at Nashville State as well.

Now that I'm done with teaching & school, I'm ready for a little "me time" before it's time for the big move and our next "adventure".

Thursday, April 22, 2010

D-O-N-E!

My final semester of graduate school is O-V-E-R!

24 days until I officially graduate...can't wait!

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

urban girl???

We visited Nashville a couple of weekends ago on a housing-scouting mission.

First & foremost, I have to admit that I (we) was (were) slightly disillusioned regarding just how urban Nashville is.

I know it's a "big city", but I still didn't have the mental image of crowded city streets with crazy traffic and such.

We have never lived in a "big city" & I quickly learned as I was navigating through 5 p.m. Friday evening traffic that this "adventure" is going to be interesting!

We did lots of driving around town---over 250 miles in & around the immediate city limits.
While we're driving around, I'm realizing just how much I'm going to miss suburbia...like a Target & a Kroger 5 minutes away.
Looks like 20 minutes to a Target or Kroger is going to be my new norm.

We were able to isolate a few specific areas of town that we would like to live in and several more areas of town to definitely avoid.
We made careful notes and have now catered our Craigslist searching to more specific areas.

So...all in all, a good trip.
For now I'm going to keep enjoying my suburban life until I have to become an urban girl!


gotta start somewhere...

Even the largest tasks must start with a small step.

And so it begins...packing up all of our stuff.
I finally put away our Easter decorations last week.
I figured I would go ahead & wrap everything up and box it for our move.

1 box down, a ton more to go...

P.S.- I picked up 4 rolls of clear shipping tape on clearance at Kroger last week for $1.38/each.
Clearly, little things excite me!

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

girly giveaway

What girl doesn't want to win a set of 7 lip glosses?

Head on over to V & Co. and enter to win a set of What's Your Virtue lip glosses.

They come in great colors and were designed to portray a positive image to women...gotta love that!

Hurry...the giveaway ends Thursday @ 10 a.m.