• Faith,  Life

    Pending Merger: APPROVED

    November 10, 2015

    I normally have some sort of idea of what I’m going to write when I start my posts but today that is not the case. I have some news that I want to share with you all but don’t really have a format on how I want to share it or what I want others to get from this post lol. As anyone who has been reading along with my blog might already know, the bank that I currently work at has been pending a merger for over three years. We just found out about a month ago that the merger was finally approved, which meant that most people in the building I work in would be losing their jobs.

    When I first heard the news back in 2012 that I would be losing my job, it wasn’t quite such a big deal because I was only working part-time anyway. I was still in school and had health insurance through being a full-time student. Then the merger was postponed and I graduated from college and moved up in the company during that time. Right now I am the Imaging Supervisor and I do enjoy what I do but I always knew that there was a strong possibility of losing my job if the merger was approved.

    So hearing that the merger was approved about a month ago wasn’t surprising to me. I had a feeling that it was going to happen anyway so I never held too tightly to this job but have stuck around because I will get a severance check if I stay till the end. I just found out yesterday that my last day is going to be March 14th, 2016 and I’m both excited and annoyed about it. Most of the rest of my floor’s last day is December 31st, 2015 and I was really expecting this to be my last day too. I was getting prepared to have to look for another job starting the beginning of next year. The other bank that is merging with us is giving us health insurance for a year after our termination so I am not too worried about that, but one of my goals is to move out next summer and if I stay until March, this gives me a lot less time to look for a job before the summer. Although I am happy about having an income until then.

    I really am unsure about what I should do honestly- stay until March to collect my severance (which would help a lot with another one of my goals) or look for a job that is permanent sooner. So this is where I am, excited but confused about the possibilities ahead. It seems silly to have waited all this time to not wait it out and collect severance. Maybe God is just calling me to trust Him a little bit more- having a shorter timeline to find a full-time job but I’m really unsure about what is the right decision but I’m glad I just do not have to make the decision now. I’m going to spend some time in prayer and really seek out what God might have me do.

    Well this post was different for me but I really enjoyed it. I think I’ll write more about just what is going on in my life lately more often- especially since those are my favorite ones to read from other bloggers.

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  • Life

    That Moment I Realized I Was A Real Adult

    October 26, 2015

    Am I the only one that has ever questioned whether or not they were considered a “real” adult? I mean what happens if you pay for your own car, pay for all your own bills, but still live with your parents? Or what if you live on your own but still are attending school? I’d say both of those situations qualify for the “real” adult title but how do we really know? We’re considered “adults” when we turn 18 but most of us are still in high school at that time and we still aren’t allowed to drink alcohol. So when do we cross over that line- the line of being considered an adult into the “real” adult category?

    The moment I realized I had actually grown up and was a “real” adult happened quite recently and I don’t know if I am happy or sad about it. The moment I realized that I had entered into real adult territory was when I bought myself a watch. I know, I know, not exactly what you thought I was going to say I’m sure but honestly who wears watches? Adults….. lol. When did I become so old? Just last year I was still in college- sure I had a full time job but I hid behind the “student” part of my identity so I didn’t have to face the fact that I was an adult then but there isn’t anything left to hide behind. Except maybe the fact that I’m living at home still?

    Being a real adult is actually something that I have honestly always wanted. I’ve always been very independent and haven’t enjoyed relying on others. I’ve always been hoping and dreaming of the time of my life when I was a “real” adult and didn’t have to rely on anyone else at all. I mean I technically haven’t reached this stage completely- I still live with my mom. I still can’t wait to move out completely and be able to afford my own apartment but for now this is the only thing that I can’t yet do on my own.

    But anyways- if you’re wondering if you reached the level of a “real” adult, just ask yourself have I bought myself a watch yet? Or maybe someone has bought it for you- then they must feel that you’ve reached the level of “real” adult 😉

    What do you consider being a “real” adult? When do you remember crossing over that line and what triggered those thoughts? Or maybe you haven’t crossed over that line yet- what do you think will cause you to feel like yes- now I’m a real adult?

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  • Faith,  Life

    Life To The Fullest

    October 19, 2015

    I’ve discovered the secret to living life to the fullest- well God’s let me in on the secret and well actually it’s not much of a secret at all….

    Do you ever feel like there are so many things that you want to do but never really have the time for? Things that you think you’d enjoy but after doing all the “regular” every day things that need to get done you don’t feel like you have the energy to do anything else? Things like going for a run. Or reading that book that’s been sitting on your shelf for months that you’ve been meaning to get to.

    For the longest time this is how I felt and still do feel most of the time. There are always things I wanted to get done but I always feel like I lack the motivation to actually get them done.

    The past two weeks I’ve been trying to get into the habit of running regularly and it’s been hard. This week I’ve slacked a lot actually- I only ran once but I feel like I can hear God’s voice more clearly when I’m out running. Out pushing myself to do the good things that I know I should be doing to better myself. During one of these runs I felt God telling me why I hadn’t had the motivation to get all the things that I wanted to get done.

    The problem was I wasn’t seeking Him first.

    But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. – Matthew 6:33

    God spoke to me so clearly on this one particular run and He told me that when I seek these things first- the desire to be healthy, or be more adventurous and try new things, or even just try to read more- I am not putting Him in His rightful place. When I don’t seek God first, these things become my main goal and they were never meant to be and that is why I lost focus of them so quickly. I’m still struggling with this now. I desire to wake up a little earlier each morning and spend time with God before starting my day- but far too often than I care to admit I choose sleeping over this.

    God showed me how when I seek Him first, He’ll give me the motivation to get done the things that He knows are good for me- like running or reading. He rearranges my day and gives me time to do these things and I don’t have to worry about that.

    I am striving to spend time with God first and not worry about all these “secondary” issues that aren’t mine to arrange anyway. I know that the things that I want are good things but they turn rotten when they are out of order in my life. I wish it were easier to seek God first. It’s convicting to realize how often I don’t but I am committed to continually striving after this until I can get it right.

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  • Life,  Marriage

    Bahama Vacation Recap!!

    October 12, 2015

    Okay so today I decided it’s finally the day to recap the vacation Tommy and I went on to the Bahamas almost two months ago! 🙁 I can’t believe it’s been that long already and I still miss it so much. I kept putting it off because when we were on vacation we took all our pictures on Tommy’s phone and I thought it would be easy to send them to mine but by the end of the vacation we had over 100 pictures so it wasn’t as easy as I thought. I wanted to wait until I had the pictures on my phone so I could use as many as I wanted in the post but it looks like that isn’t ever going to happen so I’m just going to do my best to recap it the pictures that I do have on my phone before I forget too many details of it.

    bahama beach pano

    We went to Freeport, Bahamas at the end of August. The trip was actually a graduation gift from Tommy and my best friend Kristin. They surprised me with it and it was by far the best gift ever, I literally couldn’t think of something better if I tried. So anyway it was a four night, five day trip to an all inclusive resort and it was so much fun.

    When I went to book the flight it accidentally got booked to fly out of Pittsburgh instead of Philadelphia like they purchased from Groupon so at first this was really bad and I tried to get it changed because Pittsburgh is over a six our drive from my house. I called and explained that it was supposed to be from Philadelphia not Pittsburgh but they told me that it was too late to change it and I would have to pay 500$ to fix it. There was no way I was paying that much money so we decided we would just figure it out and we did. We drove to Pittsburgh the night before the flight and stayed in a hotel and flew out the next morning. It actually turned out to be a fun little trip (minus the ride back) but it was worth it.

    Tommy driving through a mountain to Pittsburgh!
    Tommy driving through a mountain to Pittsburgh! (Blurry sorry)

    We flew out on a Thursday morning and got to the resort around 2ish I believe. We had to wait around for check in and it was raining the first day anyway so once we got settled in we took a 2 hour nap. We were exhausted from all the traveling and the nap was glorious. Once we woke up we decided to go and explore. I still have the first view of that water etched into my memory. I’ll never get over how beautiful the beach is.

    bahama beach

    Our days consisted of waking up, going to the buffet to get breakfast then heading down to the beach to relax. We did a lot of reading (I was reading the Mingling of Souls by Matt Chandler and Tommy just read the Bible). We went in the ocean a few times but there was a lot of palm tree branches in the water and it freaked me out to step on them lol. There was also a gorgeous pool that I think we only went in once but was also fun to sit by. For lunch we would head back to our room, change and go back to the buffet. The buffet had pretty good food but there was so so much and we literally ate way too much the whole time we were there (but that’s what vacations for right 😉 ).

    tommy climbing a tree

    After lunch we would hang out for a bit, sometimes go back to the beach but it rained a lot while we were there so sometimes that wasn’t an option. If we were stuck in our room it honestly didn’t bother us too much, we hung out and talked or watched Gossip Girl on my kindle ;). We played tennis one afternoon too and also went to the gym once too (yes this was Tommy’s idea haha). Also before we got ready for dinner we would try to always remember to take a dip in the Jacuzzi 🙂 I’m actually really wishing I could do that right about now!

    For dinner there were two options – you could either go back to the buffet, which had different types of food every night – of course we went to Italian night haha – or you could make reservations to go to one of the restaurants in the resort. One night we went to the Italian restaurant, which was pretty good and on our 10 month anniversary we went to an Asian restaurant, which was different but still pretty good. It was really exciting getting to celebrate our 10 month anniversary in the Bahamas.

    Italian Restaurant Night
    Italian Restaurant Night (My Fav Pic)

    After dinner we usually got drinks at the bar, and sat in this sitting room sort of place that was near the bar. This was actually something that we kind of felt like we had to do – to enjoy the time we had there the most we could – but our introverted selves wouldn’t have minded staying in the room and hanging out together after dinner haha. It was fun sitting and talking with Tommy at the bar though.

    walking on the beach

    So that’s basically it. Some fun/interesting stories include:

    • A guy came up to us on the beach and asked if we wanted to buy any drugs from him so that was interesting lol
    • There was another woman who makes money off of tourists and walks up and down the beach and literally just shouts at the girls “Hey lady… hair braided?” and she must have asked me about 5 times while we were there haha Tommy and I now have a joke about it and we’ll just randomly say it to each other now.
    • Tommy bought a conch shell that’s really pretty.
    • We didn’t get home until I think 1 in the morning the night we landed because we had to drive back from Pittsburgh and the next day was literally misery lol
    • There was a crab next to our room door the one night that we names Henry and there were stray little cats on the island and Tommy named one Arturo.
    • There was a lady that must have been on drugs in the Jacuzzi talking to everyone one day
    Henry The Crab!
    Henry The Crab!

    I think that’s all I can remember. I honestly wish I could go back tomorrow. It was so much fun and so relaxing. The only thing that we didn’t do that we wanted to was go paddle boarding but I kind of chickened out because I got scared to paddle at the waves lol. Maybe one day we’ll get to go back again.

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  • Faith,  Life

    A New Start

    October 8, 2015

    Hi friends. It’s been a while, I just wanted to drop in to explain why. When I first started this blog, I had NO idea where it would end up. I had no idea if I would write more than one post. I had no idea if anyone at all would read it or if I would get bored really quick and just never write again. This blog has already way surpassed my expectations for it. I started this blog because I started reading a few other lady’s blogs and slowly fell in love with the idea – the idea of sharing my life with others and giving advice to hopefully help a few other girls along the way and save them from the mistakes I’ve made.

    What I’ve slowly learned though is that blogging is such a huge community that I never knew existed and once I found out that this community of women were out there I put so much more pressure on myself. I would read other women’s blogs and feel that I needed to post as much as them, or on a specific schedule like them, or about a specific topic like them – well because I loved their blogs so if I wanted one just as great I should probably follow along in their footsteps right? What I’m learning is that the answer to that question is no. No I don’t have to follow along with others because even though I love reading what they’re doing doesn’t meant that I will love writing that way.

    Writing is such a new thing to me and I’m still developing my passion for it so I decided I really needed to stop putting so much pressure on myself to do it or I would completely lose interest in it. And that’s exactly what I was doing, I was putting so much pressure on doing as well as others and gaining followers and finding people who liked me that I forgot what I was here for in the first place.

    I desire for this place to be a place of encouragement, a place where you can come and hopefully through some amazing grace of God – get to know a little bit more about Jesus – and also maybe follow along with my life as well. I’d love to be your friend and follow along with your life too, even if you don’t have a blog (email me!). Jesus hasn’t let me forget about this little place though, even when I was putting so much pressure on myself, so I have a feeling that there’s a reason for that. I have such big hopes and dreams for this place. Just writing again now (even though I haven’t taken that long of a break) feels so refreshing. I’m so happy to be back. Jesus has also done some amazing things in my life in just this past week alone and I can’t wait to share! I feel like a new person.

    So all that to say I want to get back on track, and only write when I have words to say – when I have something meaningful to share. Not write when I feel like I have to or feel like I need a post like so and so’s. I want to be authentic and real and share my heart with you guys so in order to do that I need to take the pressure off and just be myself. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it but it’s okay if you don’t. I’m growing closer to Jesus along the way too so if that’s all that results from this page, that’s fine too.

    Hopefully you’ll stick around, I’d love to get to know you 🙂

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  • Coffee Dates,  Faith,  Life

    A Farewell Coffee Date | Blogtember Day 30

    September 30, 2015

    Coffee dates are one of my favs. I wish I had more friends who loved them as much as I do. I love how just being face to face with someone, with nothing to do but talk brings out the best conversations. It tends to really bring out our hearts and I just love conversations like that.

    If we were on a coffee date, I would really want to know what is on your heart. What are your fears, concerns, or worries nowadays? What are the exciting things, the happy things, the dreams that are coming true for you?

    If we were on a coffee date, I would try to be as real as I could with you. I would share my heart with you and what Jesus is currently doing in there (oh boy is it messy lately). I would tell you that I am in a season of waiting – waiting for big things, life changing things. I would tell you that I am equally excited as I am nervous. Some days just nervous, others just excited.

    If we were on a coffee date, I would hope to be at one that is small and more like a mom and pop one than at a Starbucks (though I do love me some Starbucks too). I just love the cozy atmosphere of the smaller ones. I love the noisy chatter of others sharing their hearts with each other. I love the sound of the keys typing away or the pages turning in a book. And of course I love the smell of freshly brewed coffee.

    If we were on a coffee date, I would share with you that I just found out today that my bank is in fact merging with another bank and that almost everyone in my building would be losing their jobs by the end of the year. I would tell you that as of right now all I can feel is peace. I know that this can only be from Jesus because I am not a fan of the unknown as I have mentioned before. I would tell you that today I realize that my job is not where I was meant to be long term anyway. I would share how a serious weight was lifted off my shoulders when I found out that I wouldn’t be in that field forever.

    If we were on a coffee date, I would tell you that I am learning, learning to trust Jesus one step at a time. Learning that He will lead me where only I could get to with His help. I would tell you that I am so excited to find out where that might be because I know it will be way more amazing than I could ever imagine.

    Let’s pretend we really are on a coffee date, share with me what is really on your heart today? I have loved the bloggers that I have discover through this month long linkup. I do wish I had joined in more but am glad that I got involved at all. Thanks so much to everyone who I have interacted with, let’s keep in touch 🙂

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