It's Been A While

We've had house guests for most of the last two weeks, so I haven't had much time to myself. Here's an update:

House guest one: Our friend got married on Sept. 16. His sister, who is a missionary in the Middle East, stayed with us for four days or so. She was really nice and totally easy to have stay with us. Oh, and the wedding was good, too.

House guests two and three: Two days after house guest one left, my husband's parents came to stay for a week. For some reason I have a hard time with family staying with me. I feel like they are judging me, so I'm always on edge. That coupled with the fact that my back was really hurting (I finally went to the chiropractor today) made me cranky, as usual. There were some things that happened during that time that I will probably get into another day. Let's just say that I'm glad that we are taking this financial seminar because there were some things that happened that cost a bit. That would have really upset me before, but I'm experiencing more peace about our finances every day. I'll definitely get into the details of the exploding toilet especially on another day.

House guest four: In the middle of our visit from my husband's parents was the local marathon. My husband being a runner has made friends with several runners from the area and he has pretty regular contact with one in particular. Well, he came for the race and stayed overnight with us. He's really easy to have stay here because he comes late and leaves early the next day for the race, then comes back, showers, and leaves.

It has been pretty draining, but we got through it. I think I had some spiritual breakthroughs during that time, too, which maybe I'll get into later, as well. I won't get into them now, though, 'cause I'm pooped. I've been working really hard and it's been good, but it takes it's toll on the body. More about how work is going later, too.

Job and New Shoes

It's Thursday and I have about 36.5 hours in at work already this week (since they won't let me get over time, I have to keep track of my hours) with one more day to work. Looks like I'll be off by eleven a.m. Friday. Not too shabby. Anyway, I'm loving it. I get to do whatever I want as long as it doesn't go against corporate policy, so I've been doing lots of big projects right from the start so I can have everything exactly how I want it. I'm making it my own and it's great. I've had a lot of help from the out-going manager and the store manager, so things are coming together. It's a lot of fun. Also, since I've worked there for a while now, I already know most of the stuff that I need to know to be a manager, so I'm ahead of the game (which is good, since the old manager decided to only train me about twenty-five hours over four days).

I spend about eight to ten hours a day on my feet, so after working ten hours on Sunday, I decided to get some new shoes. I had heard that Crocs are really good for being on your feet all day and that nurses wear them a lot because they are really comfortable. I had also heard that the Airwalk version of the Crocs are more comfortable and less than half the price. Well, I went out and bought a pair of the Airwalk ones and I am in love. I thought that they looked like slippers, so I avoided them for a long time, but now I don't think I can wear any other shoes ever again. Or, at least not to work. I can stand for nine hours and my feet don't hurt, my back doesn't hurt, my legs don't hurt. They look like slippers and they feel like slippers and it's great. I have a pair of black ones, so I'm going to try to get a pair of brown ones and then I can wear them every day. Yeah!

My new job

So, I've never really described what it is that I do here. That's kind of good, because it changed starting today. Here's the scoop:

I work in a cafe/books/music/video/video game store that also rents videos/video games/books on CD (yeah, it seems like a lot, but it's really, really cool). Before today I was a barista (cafe)/books/backroom (receiving) associate, as well as a shift manager. Starting tomorrow, though, I will be the Music department manager. I'm pretty excited to have something to call my own there. I'm kind of sick of being a jack of all trades. This will give me focus and it'll be good for me.

The drawback: It makes me feel like I need to get a cell phone. I don't really like them, but if I'm going to need to be more reachable, then I probably should get one. Yuck.

The upside: Big fat raise with benefits and a pretty regular schedule. It'll be great.

Financial Peace

I never thought I would be excited about a financial seminar, but I sure am. Growing up my family never had a lot of money, so I never learned how to manage money at all. Now that I'm grown up and married, I actually care about what happens with my money. Anyway, the plan is to get out of debt as fast as possible then save, save, save until we have enough that we don't have to work anymore. That might not happen, but we'll follow this road wherever it leads. The whole seminar is Biblically-based and, from what people who have taken it in the past have told me, it really works. I haven't even taken it yet and I'm telling everybody I know that they should take it, too. God wants me to be a good steward of His money, so hopefully this class will teach me how.