New job

I started a (very) part time job yesterday and I really think I am going to love it. I will be the graphic designer for the graduate school at Wheaton College in Illinois. You may be wondering what a girl living in Milwaukee is doing working part time in Illinois and I'd say you're not the first person to wonder that. (In fact, the HR office had called me before I interviewed to make sure I knew that it was only a part time job and that in fact was in Illinois haha) I wondered it myself at times during the interviewing process but this is the door that has been opened to me. So for now, I know I will  enjoy 15 hours of work each week and if it leads to more in the future then it would be my dream job. I'm really excited for what God has in store for us ;)

Hope you guys have a great weekend. I have lots of catching up to do on the blog next week including our vacation (that seems so long ago) and our adventures so far with Katie (who moved in with us over the weekend) so be excited.

My Papa

Life has be very busy and crazy the last few weeks. When we got home from vacation, I learned that my grandpa had passed away. I was really sad and poor Adam, who had never seen my emotions to that degree, didn't quite know what to do. I was really blessed however to be able to find a decent flight to get out to the east coast in order to see my family and go to the funeral together. It was a really sweet time. My grandpa had told my grandma a while back what tie he wanted to be buried in (a bright tie with smiley faces and "Jesus Loves You" all over it), the sweet poem he wanted in his program, and the last part that really made me tear up at the visitation, was the paper he wanted in his hand had the plan of salvation on it. My grandpa was faithful to the Lord even to the end. My family was so blessed to have him as our patriarch. He lived a full life and I have hope of seeing him when I join him in heaven.

I don't have the originals of any of these photos but managed to snap a few on my phone to be able to have for now.

 My grandpa had a real life fox and hound. How cool is that?

 This is my grandma and her sisters. In the top photo, she is the second from the left. In the bottom photo, she is all the way on the right. I wish I could wear all her cool clothes!

My grandma and grandpa were married for almost 68 years. What an awesome legacy.

Leighann already wrote a beautiful post about my grandpa and I don't feel like I would do it justice if I didn't at least link to it.

Silver Lake, Michigan {vacay weekend 1}

We unexpectedly had internet this weekend so I thought I would update for at least the last few days. We'll be camping a lot this week so I'm not sure how much we'll have access to anything.

Adam was working in Chicago on Friday so I got to hang out in the big city. Went shopping, met a friend for lunch and worked on some freelance in a coffee shop. It was a beautiful day.

The swanky hotel that Adam's company put us up in had the best bathroom lighting... ever... I want it everywhere in my life. #unashamedselfie

I got to stop at my favorite places to get macaroons. {Leighann, they weren't as a good as last time but I still managed to eat 2 before I could get a picture. So still pretty good.}

We stopped at the cutest restaurant ever called The Stray Dog. It just confirms that I need a dog in my life {good thing Jack and Katie are coming in just 10 days!}

 This was our home for the weekend. {Adam's Uncle and Aunt's Lake Cottage}

Remind anyone of Chevy Chase in Vacation? 

On Saturday, we played on the dunes.  When you are out there, it feels like you are in the desert. 

 We jumped in Lake Michigan even though the water was very freezing. We decided we have to do that for the other lakes we visit on this trip. Lake Michigan is going to seem quite balmy compared to Lake Superior.

 We had invited some friends to come on our trip but the timing didn't quite work out. Until next time!

We, of course, went mini golfing. I'm still trying to win a puppy.

On Sunday, we played on a different beach in between watching football {adam} and laying out {me}.

What a cutie.

Visited the Little Sable Point Lighthouse just like we did when we were here back in May.

Saw the lighthouse at sunset.

and made a dog friend. Seriously, I think Adam threw a stick to this dog for at least 30 minutes.

This weekend was so relaxing but I'm ready to see new things.

I have a phone interview for a part time graphic design position at Wheaton College today. Pray for me if you think of it. We'll see what happens.

VACATION

We have no food! We did such a good job eating the perishables/leftovers. Yay us!

Adam is working in Chicago today so I'm just along for the ride. Hoping to meet a friend who worked with me at Kohl's for lunch and other than that hang out in the big city. I'm super excited. Then we head into Michigan tonight to start our vacation. I'm super excited! I don't think I'll be able to update the blog next week but I'll take lots of pictures so I can update it when we get back. Also my sister, Katie, moves in with us (for her final Occupational Therapy placement before she graduates) 5 days after we get back from vacation. We have been talking about this for over a year so I can't believe it's finally here. We are going to have to much fun!!!! We're going to be friends while Adam is soooo busy with school and work it's stupid.

Anyways,  I'm off! Adios for a week.

New Beginnings

via

Today is my last day at Kohl's. It was a hard decision but one that I have thought and prayed a lot about and then decided to give my notice a couple weeks ago. The thing is, I have nothing bad to say about the company or the people I work with and never would but it just isn't for me. I look around at people flourishing in their position and I go home a lot of days wondering if design is for me. Some of it could be because I developed carpal tunnel in both arms which really makes you consider your work because the pain reminds you that you are doing just that, working. The position is temporary and for the unforeseeable future will be. They have open positions but because of the hiring freeze they are unable to fill them and I as a freelancer am unable to do some of the jobs that deal directly with merchants/vendors. I therefore have decided to take a leap of faith and see what doors God will open for me. I don't have anything lined up at the moment (which is a really scary thought) but I need to be moving into something that is furthering my career and that enjoy and my current position will never be that. It's a bittersweet because I have made some really good friends here and I finally know what I'm doing at work but I know there will be other opportunities and other friends to be made. For now, all I can think of is I'll be unemployed after this day and I'm going on vacation. Two very different thoughts but exciting nonetheless.

Friends come to visit

We had some friends come and visit us for the long weekend. It was so much fun ;) Some of this pictures are going to look like other visits from friends but that's only because I didn't take any photos of the other stuff haha

Travis was Adam's roommate for 4 years and his best man in our wedding. Him and his girlfriend came up from Kentucky on Friday Night and stayed through Monday. This weekend was also the 110th anniversary of beginning of Harley Davidson so there were a lot of bikers in town.

 On Saturday, we headed to one of our favorite parks in the city where we saw a lighthouse and played the par 3 course. It was a really nice day.

 Travis made a Lion friend

 I was the photographer because I'm trying to rest my wrists and golfing doesn't exactly provide that needed rest. Ally is a really good golfer. She could have played in college but decided to play Softball at Louisville. She's a pretty athletic girl.

 roomie tradition of celebration

After golfing, we tried to go to Lake Michigan but it was green again... not sure why this always happens when guests come ;( so we were heading somewhere else when we saw the cutest Lemonade stand and Adam always stops at lemonade stands so we stopped and had some really good lemonade.  Right as we were leaving the stand, 16 bikers stopped for lemonade. I'm not even sure the kids had that much.

 Next we headed to one of our favorite neighborhoods in the city, Bayview, to see if the lake wasn't as green.... It still was but they have a nice park where we could play catch and football so we hung out for a bit.

 The D1 softball player getting some "help"

 We saw a photo opportunity with a cool anchor so we took it.

We went to the Brewers game that night and since they were still giving out $10 food vouchers (because of Ryan Braun's use of steroids), we got $8 tickets with $10 vouchers. Not a bad deal. There weren't a lot of people at the game because of the Harley Davidson events and a huge wrestling/fight being held in Milwaukee, so we got to change our seats every inning for a different point of view. It was really fun. The game was close too which made it fun.

The next day, we went and played some catch since Travis and Adam used to play baseball together and Ally still plays softball. We also wanted to check out a local college's campus so we ended up at Concordia University's field. It was fun.

This is said college's view of Lake Michigan. Doesn't suck. This is really what the water looked like on Sunday.

We had a really chill weekend catching up. Glad that they could come to visit. Anyone else do something fun for the long weekend?

Orchards and Flea Markets

This weekend was jammed packed because that's how we do in summertime Milwaukee. Poor Katie didn't know what to expect.

After sleeping in and doing some chores around our apartment on Saturday morning, we headed to one of my favorite beachfronts in the area. It was a really nice day so we just walked around with Jack and had a lot of fun.

(I wish this photo hadn't been so overexposed hence why the coloring now looks crazy.)

After the beach, we went to our local farmers market because I love. Since Katie moved in, we have cooked ALOT so we were on a hunt for a lot of fresh veggies for this weeks meal plan. We walked around getting items and checking off our list. We ended up getting our corn from this sweet old man who calls himself the singing farmer. When you buy corn from him, he sings a song to you. It was really sweet until I realized he was singing something like We'll be together again and he reminded me of my late grandpa who loved music. That's when this little trip to the farmer's market became really not fun. I started to tear up and then looked at Katie who saw me crying, so she started crying. So there we are crying in front of the singing farmer with everyone looking at us and us trying to explain our tears so maybe the man would stop this sweet but too close to home song. I seriously felt like we had been kicked in the gut after we left that vendor. We both wandered around for a couple minutes trying to remember what we still needed but both just wanted to go home and curl up in the fetal position. It kind of sucked. But after a few minutes, the market became fun again and we finished up our list.

1. My children of the corn 2. The early apple picker culprit 3. We got pears too! 4. Sometimes you have to look cute in an orchard.

Next up, we headed to a local orchard that was really cute. It had apples, pears, pumpkins, raspberries, and apple related items like cider and pies in their gift shop. I had never been to an orchard (or at least not that I can remember but maybe went in early grade school) and we had fun running up and down the aisles picking things. You were supposed to lightly twist the fruit and if it came off, it was ready to go. There were a couple times however, we won't say who (Adam)  just really wanted the certain fruit because of the color so he might have actually pulled it off the tree. Who knows if it will be good but it was really funny.

Surprisingly there was still time in day for us to finish it off with a small group cookout. It was a fun way to end the night.

On Sunday, Katie and I got up super early to go with another friend of ours to this awesome flea market. Our friend, Shantay, had been telling me about this particular flea market all summer long and this was the last one of the season so I decided we just had to go. It was so worth it. There were so many trinkets, collectibles, furniture, clothes, and crafts. It made me wish I had a house to fill up with all these awesome antiques but I still had so much fun bartering and getting really neat stuff. I spent $63 and got 2 christmas gifts, 1 wooden box that I can use as a shelf, 1 old cheese box I have wanted forever, and a zucchini (there was a fresh veggies vendor and we hadn't found it yesterday). I can't wait to go next year. We chilled the rest of the day and got ready for our week but overall we had a very jam packed and wonderful weekend.