The Next Chapter...

Well, I have been waiting to post for several weeks about some big new things, and I finally have the opportunity to! :)

Exciting thing #1: My husband is officially going to culinary school.

This is something that was lurking in the back of Corey's head for a while as something he would always love to do, and after he was having trouble finding work, it seemed like a nice thought. When he first mentioned it to me, I was a little surprised, but we started looking into it. We ended up picking the Art Institute of California - Sacramento, and we just got word on Thursday that he was accepted. Of course, we'd already had a meeting where we saw the campus, he'd been measured for a uniform, and everything was in place but the actual acceptance letter... therefore the delay in being able to tell the world! He is enrolled in the Art of Cooking program, which lasts for 5 quarters (1 year and 3ish months) and awards a diploma. After talking to some people we trust, we decided this was the best option to jump-start a cooking career for Mr. Man. We are SO excited! We are trusting Jesus to provide financially as we have confidence that this is His plan. Corey starts April 5th.

Exciting thing #2: We are moving to Sacramento!

Penn Valley to Sacramento is just over an hour. Therefore, for Corey to try to go to school there AND hold a part time job, we needed to move to Sacramento. This was only reiterated when I was moved to part-time at my job. The city will provide so many more opportunities! We went a couple weeks ago to apply at an apartment complex in the Natomas area (the nicer part) and we officially put on hold an apartment for move-in on May 1st! Unfortunately it could not be earlier because our lease here is not up until April. BUT we are SO elated about this apartment. It has a dishwasher, washer and dryer, DOORS inside the house, a REAL kitchen sink... It's one bedroom for an extremely reasonable price. The complex is gated with pools and tennis courts (which we are excited about) and even a fitness center. We can't see why we would ever want to move! Well, that's a slight exaggeration, but compared to where we are now, it's going to be paradise. So we just have to wait for two months... meaning for one month Corey will need to commute.

Slightly difficult thing #1 - My job situation

I need a new job! Especially because Corey will be in school, I need a job that will pay me well and that has benefits. We are currently living without health insurance and that is not comfortable! I have a grand dilemma about whether to look for work in Sacramento starting now, 2 months before we move, and commute VERY far, or to find alternate methods of floating above water until the move. So far, it looks like the latter.

Slightly difficult thing #2 - One of those "alternate methods"

For the last week or so, Corey and I have been sitting in front of stores asking people to sign signatures on CA petitions. We decided to do it because it pays almost $1 per signature, and we were assured we could make 400ish a week doing it part time. (So if someone asks you to sign in the next month or so, don't hate them) There are several problems with this, however... the first major one being that we hate it. I can pretend wonderfully that I like "sales" but I really really dislike it. I thought I enjoyed it for a while, but the pressures of persuading people to do something really caught up to me. Corey is not a people person whatsoever, so we are very unfit for this. Also, we pretty much don't like politics at all, judge as you will. So the angry voters out there try to argue with us about issues, and we really don't know what they're talking about. On top of all that, it's not proving to be as lucrative as we anticipated. Probably because we are bad at it. So do we quit? Or "suck it up, cupcake!"

Slightly difficult thing #3 - We are increasingly disliking our little residence.

The Lord gives us strength and I am grateful to have a place to live, but it just compounds our difficult situation to live in a place like this! We are fairly confident the neighbors (to whose house we are attached) are growing marijuana and it constantly smells. The walls are very thin and they have been doing work on the room with the shared wall to our place, so there is constant banging and we can hear everything they're saying. We don't like to think that they can hear us though, or we might go crazy from lack of privacy. The smallness of the place gets very noticeable as soon as we've been too busy to do the dishes for a couple days because you can't stack them in the small sink!

Exciting thing #4 - We have picked up tennis

We love tennis, and we've been playing it, especially since I work part time! I'm so lucky to has a husband who can love a non-sporty klutz trying to play tennis. :)

Exciting thing #5 - We got WiiFit!

We actually only got it yesterday, as the entirety of NorCal has been out of stock since my birthday, when I was originally s'posed to get it. It is AWESOME! I will probably write more on it later, as I haven't played it quite enough yet... but so far the rhythm kung-fu is rather amazing.

Slightly difficult thing #4 - I miss music.

My soul aches every day at the thought of teaching music and going back to school, but now is not the time. (I did pick up one voice student though!! YAY!) I am holding out for a little bit of hope that my next job could possibly be in a school somewhere? And yes, I've thought about substitute teaching, it's on the potentials list. :)

Overall point - God has an amazing adventure planned for us!

Although "times is hard," and the next two months are going to be interesting, we are so excited for what's on the horizon. We praise God for being in control of our marriage adventure and for providing for our needs. Moving to Sacramento also means we will need to find a new church, and we know that He already has one waiting for us to dive in! He is so good, and we are so grateful to Him!