Fun with beads and a milk allergy update

I had a lot of fun today in downtown with my fried Jen. We decided to make jewelry at a bead shop! I don't think I have done that since middle school. That is a picture of the necklace that I made. It is a great mix of blue and green, and I think I will have a lot of clothes that it will match with. It's nice to do something different for a change! The bead shop is connected to a pottery painting shop. We decided we'll do that one next time! Yay for a lazy Saturday with a friend. :-)

Now Greg and I are rounding off our Halloween with a "candy" treat of our own. We are heading out to get him a blizzard from DQ and me a pint of soy ice cream from the grocery store down the street. Yum!!

Speaking of DAIRY.....

My blood test came back negative for milk allergy!!!!!!! This is very encouraging news. On December 7th I will go back to my allergist to spend 2 hours doing a milk challenge. This is where I will try out progressively increasing my intake of milk up to 1 glass after an hour. Then I wait another hour to see if anything negative happens! I am nervous (blood tests are controversial in terms of accuracy) but I am so excited to know that there is a possibility that I have outgrown my allergy!

I also got my appointment with the best dermatologist in town moved up to November 24th from February 8th. This is extremely good news. My face is falling apart with all the wind, indoor heat, and weather changes we've been having. The humidifier in the bedroom is helping, but not enough. Right now I can't imagine risking a milk challenge knowing how bad the skin on my face is at the moment. But hopefully by December 7th, I will be in good enough shape to try it out!

Lauren's Visit! And musings about house hunting...

Greg and I had a wonderful weekend with Lauren and were sad to see her go today. It was comforting to see family again and fill up the weekend with sweet time with a familiar face and laughs. We showed Lauren Central Market and some other downtown areas, drove by Millersville U, my new office, and had some really yummy meals. We also got our fill of football! The Aggies won (I seriously can't believe it!) and so did her beloved LSU Tigers!

Lauren's boyfriend just purchased a condo unit that has great potential, so we spent some time brainstorming renovations and possibly room layout changes. I love thinking of renovation ideas, and I can't wait to see what they come up with. When we are in Houston over Christmas break, I will get to stop by and see what the place looks like.

It sparked my interest to stop by some more open houses today. One place I visited has both a realtor and mortgage broker onsite, so I took the opportunity to ask lots of questions about loans, down payments, future of interest rates, condo HOA dues, etc. So many ideas floating in my head right now. The mortgage broker said that we should see interest rates start to rise slowly beginning next January and that by this time next year he expects them to be around 6-6.5%. Ouch. Part of me really wants to get in to a place soon so that we get this 5% interest rate. But the longer we wait, the more house we can afford. Ya know? Plus we have a one year lease that is up in June....so deciding whether the lower interest rate now is a better payoff than the cost of buying out our lease is hard to know.

If you have any thoughts on houses, when to buy, etc. I'd love to hear any and all. We already know to have 20% down, not have a payment + utilities equaling more than 30% of our take home pay, etc. Thanks!

Fall/Winter all at once!

A few pics from the past week. I got my winter coat and LOVE it!!

Swim Day

So today they let me swim a little! It was supposed to be in the kiddie pool- one interview/tour to see how I'd do and one of my trainers would watch and help out. Instead I tried the deep end! We had one scheduled interview and 3 walk-ins! So I did 4 interviews and 2 tours all in one day. Not only do they rarely have 4 interviews in one day, it all happened to be on my trial run. Even though I am drained from it, I am really glad it happened this way. I was able to just keep tweaking the questions I wanted to ask and the highlights I wanted to point out on my tour. They were all really nice and gracious with me as I sometimes stumbled through the program requirements. All in all, a very good day and a big step toward getting me ready to be on my own. I know that eventually I will probably be able to do all of the admissions stuff with my eyes closed, but for now it is still a learning curve. Boy am I glad that you are not always a newbie in need of training! It does eventually all come together. :-)

A walk in the park

New job!! PTL!!

After 11 weeks of living in Lancaster, I am now gainfully employed! On Wednesday I start as Admissions Representative for Consolidated School of Business. The past 2 1/2 months have been a growing and rewarding time for me. I have had the opportunity to really reflect on where the Lord has taken me job-wise and skill-wise so far and to cast some vision for the future years.

Although I am a little surprised that I landed back in admissions, I am happy about it. I'll be with a great school that many people in the community respect, and I get a chance to hone my sales/recruiting/closer skills. It has also been another chance for me to lean, lean, lean on the Lord and on friends as I have played the waiting game in this process. I realize I am really blessed to have only been out of work for 3 months in this economy.

This will be a week of transition for Greg and me as I step back into the workforce. We have both LOVED having me at home. I have been calm and happy (for the most part), the bed has gotten made each day, Buddy has been spoiled with extra walks, etc. etc. Part of us is sad to watch the calmness of this stage pass, but we feel confident that I am to be working, and thankful that the Lord has provided this position for me.

Will update how the first half week went when we make it to Friday!

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Yes, it is officially COLD here! It feels good on my skin to be out in the cold air, but it sure does get the goosebumps going :-) The high today is 59, but the low was around 46! Yipes!!

Buddy was cold, so we wrapped him up in a blanket:
We have also tried out our new electric blanket, a wonderful gift from Sue and George. I can't tell you how great it felt to curl up under that warm blanket and sleep tight throughout the night. Needless to say, that blanket might not leave our bed for another 5 months.

I have a question for ya: Do you own a humidifier, and if so, do you like it? Is it 1) effective at raising the humidity, 2) easy to clean and avoid mold growth, and 3) decently priced? I think I've found one I like, but I'd love to have advice from anyone who has used one before. We'll be needing to use one as long as we have the heater on in the house. Thanks!