Oops!

So, we've established that God is trying to teach me patience, right? Well, apparently He's trying to teach me to slow-down too... in running to get our ringing phone, I slammed my foot into the side of our chair and broke my toe. Yup - it's official, my first broken bone. Unfortunately, I couldn't go to urgent care because I was getting ready to leave for a Stampin' Up party I was doing that night, so we taped it and I decided to do the party and wait until today to go in to the doctor. (Now that's dedication to stamping - huh?!)

I did get into urgent care today and they did x-rays and confirmed it was broken. So, I'll be sportin' a fashionable black medical shoe (to act as a splint since you can really cast the forth toe), buddy-wrapped toes and a beautiful shade of purple-blue skin on my puffy foot! ;) I'm actually feeling fine, it doesn't really hurt unless I put pressure on it or bend it when I walk. Of course, they told me to keep it elevated and iced over the next couple days, and to get plenty of "rest" - whatever that is! ;)

Why, do you ask, was I running like a maniac for the phone all day yesterday? Well, I'll tell you, so I can justify my stupidity a bit! :) We received a phone call yesterday morning from the President of Efficient Attic Systems (http://www.efficientattic.com/) wanting to talk to Collin about a job opportunity. Of course Collin wasn't home, so I took a message and after a round of phone-tag, I was finally able to give him a number to reach Collin. I figured once Collin spoke to him, he would call me back and let me know what it was all about - hence all the maniacal running for the phone every time it rung. (See, it doesn't sound too stupid now... right? Okay maybe it still does.)

Anyway, the phone call turned out to be quite interesting after all. He told Collin a bit about the company (located in Dallas with offices in Houston) and that, because of their growth, they're opening a location in San Antonio - and they're interested in Collin for the Director of Operations for the new San Antonio location!! Crazy, right? Basically, he'd be starting the offices out there, with the Sales Manager and Installation Manager directly under him, and he'd answer to and be trained by the heads in the corporate office in Dallas. They had a good long phone call and it ended with Bob, the President, asking Collin to call him during the 2nd week of September so that he can have things on his end prepared, and so they can discuss a possible interview in Dallas when Collin is there for this hiring conference during the 3rd week of September. The only concern was that he's looking for this new Director of Operations to start in October (not sure when in Oct) so they'd be ready to open up the new business around January, and we're not sure how quickly we'd be able to separate from the AF in order to get down there in time for October. We figured God will make the timing work if this is the position He wants for Collin - but again, it's all a waiting game.

Well, that's my update. The 10th of September will be a big day for us, since that's when we'll find out whether Lucas Group will have any/how many interviews for Collin in Dallas, and he'll get to talk to Bob at Efficient Attics again. Please be in prayer for us over these different opportunities, that God will show us where to go from here. As always, we appreciate all the dedication of our family and friends to pray for us during this time! We definitely feel your prayers! :)

A quick update

I just have a quick update on the job stuff today. We've heard back from our contact at Lucas Group in charge of finding interviews for Collin, and we should have more information by the 10th of September. That's when we'll find out if he has any interviews and how many, so that we can make the decision on whether it's worth going to the hiring conference this time around. Please pray that there will be at least a few good companies interested in Collin, if that's God's plan, so that we can continue our plan for him to attend the conference.

I've been struggling over the last few days with my spirits being down over all this, but I think it's primarily been due to a cold that's was on it's way, and has now hit me in full force. I'm actually feeling better now that I know why I was feeling so crappy! As soon as you make the decision to trust God wholly, it seems like that's the moment you're attacked on all sides. Fortunately, we had some encouraging things happen yesterday. Collin was search monster.com for more job postings and found one for an H-E-B (big grocery store in Texas) Warehouse Manager. He thought it looked good, so he applied and monster sent him back a bunch of other postings similar to the one he applied for. After looking them through, we were happy to see there were several others that he was interested in and qualified for! He ended up applying for 5 or 6 more positions yesterday, which really raised our spirits, because we felt we were in a dry spell where there just weren't any new postings that applied to him. On top of that, he heard back from one of those companies a few hours after we applied, stating that they were interested in him for the position and wanted him to send his resume in a Word doc and fill out his answers to some "pre-screen" interview questions! Yea! :) Finally, a company in San Antonio that we'd be interested in has gotten back to us - and pretty quickly too! Anyway, whether this is where God will ultimately place us, we don't know, but it really helped our spirits and feel like the ball is finally rolling!

Thank you all for your continued support, thoughtful e-mails and phone calls and especially all the prayers! I say again, keep 'em comin'! Much love to you all!

Texas Blowout!

Collin got off of work early today to take us to a family fun day at the Texas Blowout, a base-wide cookout and festival to benefit Operation Kid's Christmas. We had fun getting the kids faces painted and watching them in the bouncy castle, as well as petting horses and checking out the car show. Here are some cute shots we got of the most adorable kids in the world! ;)

Here's Moira showing off her pretty flower and the lollipop she got for being so cute!

Ian as a puppy-dog... he got a lollipop too!

Moira finally got a chance to play in a bouncy castle, since she was rained out of her chances in Texas for her birthday...

Ian wasn't as keen to be in there jumping with everyone else, but was content to just hang-out on the step and watch.

Name Frames

One of my best girlfriends, Dara, is temporarily working overseas. It's been so interesting to hear her stories and learn about other cultures. I've especially enjoyed the touching stories she's shared with me about some of the local people she's had the pleasure of working with and befriending. As she's drawing near to the end of her time there, she asked me to make a couple of name frames as gifts for two women she's befriended during her stay, which I was happy to do! I hope they'll serve as a reminder of Dara's sweet friendship and that there are people out there that care about them! Here's a look at what I created for her:


I had a little business going for myself in Montana, making these for people who asked me to do so, and I enjoyed getting the chance to do it again! I feel that these are that much sweeter because of the spirit in which they're being given!



I think I might start offering up my services again, and make them for people - I enjoy it so much! :) Dara has ordered 3 more now that these are complete!

Cute, cute, cute!!!

Okay, so those of you who know me know that I love casual clothing - I wear a lot of jeans, capris and beach clothes - but casual doesn't equal not cute! A girlfriend of mine from Florida, Amy (see "a busy weekend" post), sent me this link today of a website which sells the most adorable pairs of flip flops ever! Check them out:

These "Groovy Gal" flops are totally me!

"Bahama Mama's" are too cute too!

I also *love* these "Paisley Princess" pair!

If you want a pair as badly as I do, you can check them out at http://twinklingtootsies.com/. She's even having a Grand Opening sale on all flops through the 26th of this month! :) Anyway, I just had to share a great find with all my nearest and dearest out there! Don't be surprised if the next time you see me I'm sporting a pair -- I've already put the bug in Collin's ear as a birthday or Christmas idea -- *wink wink*! :)

Life goes on!

Well, here's my update from our busy, yet fruitful week last week and weekend! I spent most of the week getting ready for our garage-sale on Saturday, which went pretty well. Including the futon we sold just before the sale, we made about $650, which is such a blessing! It'll really help with some of the upcoming expenses we'll have with the job search and moving.

On the job search front, we're both feeling pretty good about it right now. Collin has submitted his resume to several different government defense contractors, put in for a few GS jobs, applied with several companies like USAA, HEB, and Valero as well as posting his resume on monster.com. He actually received a phone call last week from the Target Distribution Center in Tyler, Texas about the resume he'd posted on Monster! They were wanting to discuss an "executive management position" with him and were calling to see if he was interested. While we're not closing any doors entirely, we did tell them that we just started the job search and, one of the most important things to our family is to move back home to San Antonio, so for now we're not going to jump on this opportunity. Even if it wasn't our ideal location, it sounded like a pretty good opportunity, and it feels really good and raises our spirits to have companies calling us with job opportunities just because they saw Collin's resume online!

What's most exciting for us right now, is that we were just taken on by Lucas Group, an executive headhunter that also specializes in transitioning military members into the corporate world. Some of the guys Collin worked with have gone through Lucas Group and found jobs that they are very happy with, so we figured it couldn't hurt to have others helping us with the job search! Collin took quite a bit of time last week getting his Candidate Evaluation Package together for them, and we received a call last Thursday that they've selected him as a Candidate! They are well-respected and one of the largest and fastest growing headhunting firms in the nation, so they don't take on just anyone that applies. From here, they'll be working closely with Collin and their corporate clientele to see what opportunities there are that he'd be interested in and attaining interviews for him. The next step will be for Collin to go to a Military Hiring Conference in Dallas on Sept 20 and 21st to be intereviewed by any companies who might be interested in him. Please pray that all these plans go smoothly, as we only have one month before this all happens! All in all, we're continuing to feel God's hand on our lives and His blessings continue to be showered on us. Thank you all so much for your prayers, love and support - as I've said before, keep 'em comin'! :)

In other news, Moira starts her first day in the Pre-K class at preschool tomorrow! We took her to the school on Thursday to meet her new teachers, Miss Jennifer & Miss Sheila, and see her new classroom, the City room. The room was so cute, with a city skyline painted on the walls and a huge dress-up corner, not to mention a treehouse cubby that they've named "fairytale corner" since they hung fairies from the ceiling in there! She's very excited about going back to school after having last week off and starting in a new classroom with new teachers, although I'm sure she'll miss Miss Shelly in the Mountian room too. I'm happy that she'll now be going on Tuesdays and Thursdays, instead of Mondays and Fridays... that was just too long a stretch to go without school for her! :) Poor Ian wants to go to preschool with his big sister so much now, it breaks my heart to have to pull him away crying every time we drop her off and pick her up. They do have a 2 year old class, I've just been hesitant to put him in since we're not going to be here much longer and it would be an added expense - although I must admit that the idea of even just one morning to myself is super tempting! ;) We'll have to pray about it.

As for me, I've going strong with my stamping, getting ready for a party on the 30th and a stamp camp in early September. When we first heard about the RIF, my reaction was that I'd have to sacrifice my Stampin' Up business to save money and do what I can to help out; but after talking to Collin and my mom and sister, they've all encouraged and convinced me to continue. And, I'm so glad I didn't give it up - it's been my sanity for the last few weeks, helping me focus my mind and effort into something that I love, into something that I can actively be doing! Plus, I realized that I'll finally be able to settle down in San Antonio and continue my Stampin' Up business without having to move every 3 years! Yea! :) It's also allowed me to save money by making some fun gifts for some of our upcoming Fall birthdays and Christmas! Here are a couple of recent creations for (I hope!) your enjoyment!

These are hanging photo ornaments for my Grandmother's heart-shaped photo tree that hangs on the wall. She'll be getting them for her birthday later this month. I told her I'd make more for her other great-grandchildren once we get back to San Antonio!

I've signed up for numerous swaps lately, and these are some of the things I made for the Halloween swaps. The first set of cards is a Halloween themed "view master" card, the second is a mini-can of Pringles I dressed up, and the last is just a cute Halloween card that I love!

"I know the plans I have for you..."

It seems I'm overdue for an update! I've been holding off posting until I had the time to really sit down and tell everyone what's going on in our lives right now, and it looks like now is as good a time as any. So, here we go...

While we were home in Texas visiting, we received news that we'd been caught in the Air Force RIF (reduction in force) and that we have until the 29th of January to separate. Whoa - big news, I know. We actually knew that his year group was up for the RIF board, and seriously considered taking the voluntary separation pay and getting out, but decided in the end that we weren't ready to make that decision ourselves. Now that the decision has been made for us, we're really feeling quite peaceful about it... we know that this is God closing a door for us, which means He has something much better planned for us, and hopefully it's at home in San Antonio! :) So, since then we've been doing the whole job search thing and praying that God will lead us back to San Antonio to be in the city we love, with all the family & friends we miss so dearly! We feel blessed that we have almost 6 months to find a job (although we can get out sooner if we find a job sooner) and that we'll be getting a decent separation allowance once we do separate.

Our interim pastor preached a message on Sunday about following God's will for your life and trusting God's plan, and he said something that struck me and seemed very timely: "God's still on the throne." Meaning that no matter how much of a surprise this was to us, it wasn't to God; that just because we don't know what's next for us, God does and everything is going according to HIS plan! Whew, what a relief that is. We know God is using this experience to teach us to trust Him more and have patience (especially for me) that everything will work out in His timing. "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." - Jeremiah 29:11

We appreciate all the prayers that so many of you are lifting up for us, keep 'em comin'! We'll be sure to post updates on the job search as we have new information. Thanks for your love and support, what a wonderful group of family and friends we've been given - you're all blessings to us!

Texas Birthday Trip

We're back from Texas now, thoroughly exhausted from the drive home, but with many happy memories of our time there! We really enjoyed being back home and visiting with family, we all miss San Antonio so much. Moira had a wonderful Princess birthday party with her cousins! All the girls looked so sweet in their princess dresses, and we feel so blessed to have been able to share her special day with so much family! Here are a few pics from her special day:

We look forward to getting home to San Antonio again soon, to be in the city that we love, but more importantly, to be with the people that we love!