3 Weeks

3 weeks ago today I landed in Phoenix and so much has happened in those 3 weeks.

Week 1:
My first day here Mark took me for a drive through the mountains and past our hopefully future home.  My second day here Mark and I joined a bible study. The third day I went to a job fair for the new Tanger Outlet mall that opens in November.  The rest of the week I spent my time applying for jobs online and helping Mark at work.

Week 2:
Mark left for Germany and I stayed in Phoenix.  While Mark was gone I did the best I could to fill in for him at work.  While he was gone I set up 3 interviews for the following week and I continued to apply to several jobs online.  On Saturday I met up with, Sarah, a friend from high school for lunch and a little shopping. Sarah filled me in on so many places to go and things to do in Phoenix.  Sunday night she sent me a text message saying one of her close friends knew of some open positions at Grand Canyon University and that I should apply there. 

Week3:
Mark got home Sunday night, just in time for my crazy busy week.  Monday morning I went into work with Mark and looked up Grand Canyon University.  I applied to several jobs on their career board.  I finished my applications in time to get to my 1st job interview if the week.  Tuesday I didn't have any interviews so I planned on helping Mark at work.  That morning I received a call from Grand Canyon University wanting to set up an interview on Thursday morning, which made 4 interviews in 1 week.  I was pretty excited!  Wednesday afternoon I had an interview along with 2 interviews on Thursday.  When all of my interviews were done I looked back and felt they all went pretty well.  I was excited for the coming week and hopefully hearing back from one of the interviews and hopefully setting up a few more.  First thing Friday morning I received a phone call from Grand Canyon University offering me a job!  Not even 24 hours after my interview and I have a job!  I'm so excited for this great opportunity and I have Sarah to thank for telling me about it!!! Saturday night Mark and I met up with Sarah and her boyfriend to celebrate.  We're both so thankful to have friends in Phoenix!

Grand Canyon University is a private christian university.  I start work Monday October 15th.  My title will be Student Intake Matriculation Specialist.  For now that's really all I know, lol but I'll let you all know more when I know more.  I'm excited to see the great opportunities God will bless me with through this job.

I'm so blessed God provided a job so quickly!  Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us and this move and all of the unanswered questions.  God is answering all questions in His time.  Hopefully the next question he answers will be about our housing situation.  :)
Love you all!!

Move to Phoenix, AZ

I'm such a horrible blogger!  I know I've said this before but it's my goal to post more often with updates of what's going on in our life.  

Let me start with the most recent and very large update.  Mark and I moved from Cedar Falls, Iowa to Phoenix, Arizona.  Here is how it all began.

Friday, June 8th, Mark took me to a nice dinner and told me about the possibility of moving to Phoenix for his job.  I was nervous but open to the idea.  Mark kept telling me that it was only a possibility and might not happen so I shouldn't get my hopes or expectations up.  When Mark first mentioned the possibility of moving he told me that if I wasn't comfortable or didn't want to move then we wouldn't.  All I had to do was say no and we would stay in Iowa, close to family and friends.  I told him that where he goes, I go.  We're a family and I'm okay with moving to Arizona as long as we're together. 

Monday, June 11th Mark picked me up from work and took me to lunch.  I was suspicious right away because I knew Mark had already eaten lunch.  He told me it was looking like moving to Phoenix was becoming more of a possibility then originally thought.  Wednesday, June 13th, we got the news to go ahead and "pack our bags" we were moving to Phoenix.

Many of you know, I moved around quite a bit growing up.  Even though I didn't enjoy moving around as a kid, looking back I can clearly see God's purpose in each one of the moves my family made.  I know that God has a purpose for this move as well.  Mark and I have said from the beginning of our marriage, that we don't want to close ourselves off to what God might have for us.  I know God used my previous 5 moves with my family to prepare me for this move with my husband.  Mark and I prayed and talked about moving to AZ and came to the conclusion that if the opportunity presented itself that we would take it.  Here we are 3 months later. 

Mark "moved" down to Phoenix in July while I stayed in Cedar Falls.  Fortunately we didn't have to worry about selling a house and our apartment was a month to month.  My mom, dad and Alex came down the weekend of August 18 and helped me move out of our apartment.  Marks parents, Kevin and Laurie, have been gracious enough to give up a garage so we could store all of our stuff until we actually have a place to put it. They blessed us by letting me live with them until I came to Phoenix, however long that would be.  It only ended up being 2 weeks.  Monday, September 10th, I "moved" to Phoenix.  I'll write a separate post about the process of finding a place to live. ;)

In my first week of being in Phoenix I have driven to the post office, the grocery store, and of course Target.  I'm beginning to find my way around and feel comfortable.  I don't have a job yet but I've been applying for jobs like crazy.  My 2nd day here, Tuesday Sept. 11th, Mark and I joined a bible study for young adults with BSF.  My 3rd day here, the 12th, I went to a job fair for the new Tanger Outlet mall that opens in November.  I've been helping out at Wayne where ever I'm needed.  In the past week there have been a few emotional moments but for the most part everything is going well.  I'm enjoying the nice warm weather, which I love, and the beautiful mountains.  It still doesn't feel real that Mark and I live here and not in Iowa.  I'm not sure when it will feel real.  Anyways, that's all for now and I'll try to be better about blogging updates. 

Update

Wow, I'm really bad at blogging.  It's almost been a full year since I posted.  I know I've said this before but I'll try to be better.

There has been so much that has happened in the last year that I don't even know where to start.  Instead of trying to re-cap the last year I'll start fresh with what is happening now.

Mark is really close to finishing his MBA.  He hopes to be done this fall.  He is currently take a class in Germany.  He left today and will be gone for 3 weeks.  I miss him already!  I was able to drop him off at the airport this morning, that was really difficult!  I'm looking forward to picking him up.  Right now I'm hoping the next 3 weeks go by really quickly and I'm sure they will.

We both have been crazy busy.  It seems like every weekend we're going here and there or someone is coming to see us.  I love having plans but at the same time I'm looking forward to having a free weekend where we can sit back and do whatever we want.  As of right now that won't happen until the 2nd weekend in June.  I'm sure something will come up though.  :)

I think that's about all for now.  I'll try to be better about keeping everyone update.
Thanks for being patient with me.  

Missing my Mommy

As many of you know my family lives in South Dakota.  Sadly, they're 8 hours away.  I try to keep in touch as much as I can so I don't miss out on to much.  I talk to my mom every day on my way to work and on the weekends.  Every semester Kayla and I look at her schedule and decide what day works best for her to have a phone date.  I talk to my dad and Alex about once a week, usually on the weekend.  Then I'll talk to Alex, through Mark, as they play Call of Duty.  That normally doesn't last very long because they both get frustrated that I'm distracting them from their game. 

As many of you know, last summer my entire family traveled to Norway to visit my moms sister and her family.  Well my mom took her mom, my Nana, to Norway this summer.  They left June 1st and they should be arriving in Minneapolis tonight around 5:30.  While she's been gone I've called home and talked to my dad and Kayla a few times just to see what's been going on.  I miss so much being 8 hours away.  This past week I've really missed my morning calls with my mom!!! I'm ready for my mom to be back in the U.S.  and I know the rest of my family is too!  Praying for safe travels!  :) 

I've been gone for awhile

I'm such a bad blogger.  I'll try to be better.  For now let me catch you up on the past few months and why I haven't blogged.

To start with, Mark has been out of town, for work, A LOT lately.  Mark was gone for 2 weeks in April, he wasn't able to come home that weekend. Those 2 weeks were really difficult on me.  I can keep myself busy on the weekdays with work but during the weekend, now that was rough. Then May came.....

Mark left early the Monday morning of May 2nd for Arizona.  Friday May 6th he flew to Sioux Falls, SD where I picked him up and we went to my grandparents house.  We were in South Dakota for the weekend to celebrate my sister Kayla's graduation from college.  We got home Sunday May 8th in the afternoon around 4.  I spent the rest of the night doing laundry and helping Mark pack again. 
Monday, May 9th, Mark flew out early in the morning to Dallas for an Expo.  Friday May 13th, he flew back into Waterloo around noon.  I picked him up from the airport and we headed out to South Dakota again.  The weekend of May 14th-16th we were in Groton, South Dakota celebrating my brother Alex and my cousin Sam's graduation from high school. 
Monday May 16th we made our way home and we got home around 5 in the evening.  Once again the rest of that night was spent doing laundry and getting Mark packed again.  The morning of Tuesday May 17th Mark flew out to Arizona again.  This time he wasn't able to fly back until Wednesday May 25th.  He got into Cedar Rapids around 5:30 but his first class of the summer semester started that night at 6 so Mark didn't get home until 10:30 that night. 

As you can see things have been pretty busy with Mark gone so much.  As of right now his next trip isn't until June 20th and he'll only be gone 3 days.  Hopefully things will start to calm down a little, but we'll see.  I think now more then ever I should get a puppy.     :) 

Great Surprise!!

Sorry I haven't blogged in awhile!  I don't have any excuses other that I haven't had anything to blog about and the few times that I have thought about blogging, Mark was out of town and had the laptop.

Mark's most recent trip was to Phoenix, Arizona.  He left April 5th and wasn't supposed to get home until April 15th!  That is the longest Mark and I have been apart, since we've been married.  I hate to say this but I actually did pretty well this time.  I only cried once and that was over the weekend that he was gone.  Unfortunately I think I'm getting used to Mark traveling so much.

If you know me then you know that I LOVE surprises!  I love to surprise people and I love it when people surprise me.  Now I'm not talking about jumping out of a closet and yelling SURPRISE and scaring people half to death.  I talking about doing something special for someone when they're not expecting it.  That is one of the ways that I like to show people that I love and care for them.  In return I love it when people do little things for me.  This leads me to the great surprise Mark gave me when he got home.

It was Monday night, April 11th and Mark had been gone for 6 days.  He mentioned that he could wait to get home and give me his surprise.  I started guessing right away what I thought it might be, t-shirt, jewelry, a new food he tried, he said it wasn't any of those.  We did this for the next 2 nights and I could never guess it. Then on Thursday night Mark called around 9 o'clock.  We made small talk for a little bit, asking each other how our day was and what we were doing.  When I asked Mark what he was doing he said he was sitting in the airport waiting to board his flight.  To which I said that wasn't funny and it was mean to get my hopes up like that.  He said, " You're right babe, I'm sorry. But seriously I'm in Minneapolis and my flight boards in 15 minutes.  I'll be home in about 2 1/2 hours."  I couldn't believe it, Mark had changed his flight and was coming home an entire day early!!!!  This meant so much to me and was one of the best surprises I've ever received.  I'm so blessed!

Puppy Crazy

Recently I've noticed that there are a lot of people around me are either having babies or they are baby crazy and want a baby.  I, on the other hand am not baby crazy.  Don't get me wrong, I love babies and someday I too will be baby crazy, just not right now.  Instead I am puppy crazy.  I want a puppy so bad!  Here's why: 

1) They're adorable!!
2) So I won't be lonely when Mark is on the road, which is going to start increasing.  :(  There's a possibility that he'll have to be gone for an entire month!!! 
3) To help prepare us for parenthood.  I know lots of people have kids without having pets but Mark admits he isn't ready to be a dad just yet. 

I think those are 3 great reasons to get a puppy.  Plus, Mark's sister told us when we got married that her wedding present to us would be a puppy, when we're ready.  You might be wondering what's stopping us from getting a puppy.  Well our apartment doesn't allow pets.  We just moved in the end of October so we haven't been here very long.  Now comes the dilemma, do we move so we can get a puppy or do we stay where we are and not get a puppy.  Before you decide take a look at the kind of puppy we want.

Isn't he cute!!!  Now don't you think we should move?  :)