New Blog

Well, I've decided to break down and start a new blog in an effort to give my family/friends an easy way to stay informed regarding baby-related updates.  For those of you who enjoy seeing pics and hearing updates (including TMI about the birth story), head on over to http://adventures-with-amelia.blogspot.com/ as I attempt to keep this new blog up to date going forward.

My 3rd Two-Year-Haircut

Before:

After:

Thoughts of the Moment

So, a good portion of our Bible Study is ready to "multiply", and I'm not sure how I feel about it. On one hand, it is good to provide opportunities to easily pull more people in. On the other hand, I'm afraid that we may be missing the point of what is needed to form a successful cell group, and what the purpose of cell groups should be. Maybe it depends on the group - maybe there's not one answer. But right now, I'm feeling like we are all so focused on making new friends that we are losing sight of keeping the old.

Or maybe it's just a select handful of us that feel things so deeply that any recession in a friendship hurts more than others can imagine. I have spent a good many hours comtemplating why I regularly react this way. Over the summer, I have drifted slightly from my "old" friends simply due to a lack of time spent together. I don't think this means that my "love language" is quality time. In fact, I'm kind of frustrated with the whole "love language" model. I think that a need for a certain "love language" is born out of social/parental conditioning more than anything else, but that nature vs. nurture argument can be saved for another day...

Back to where I was heading - God wants us to be in relationships. Why? I think it's because relationships show a part of the character of God. He wants to be in a relationship with us, and he wants us to be in relationships with Him and each other. I also believe that cell groups tend to be formalizations of what we assume God intends for us to have in relationships. The formalization of it all is just starting to bug me. I want to have relationships with fellow believers where we can be responsive to where the Holy Spirit is guiding us and leading us to act in each others lives. I don't want to be restricted to this night or that night, or this region or that region, or "new" people or "old" people. (Or 2, 5, 10, or more people at a time...) I want my focus to be on following where the Holy Spirit leads to provide for anyone that I feel called to reach out to. And I want to be the kind of person that doesn't let her own priorities fall out of line with God's. I'm falling into the trap of formalization, and I don't like it.

Not to say that I don't respect what others think or feel about the subject. I'm know that I'm probably in the minority on this one, and I will probably upset someone with what I've written. Speaking out tends to upset at least one other person. But again, I do feel that we may be missing the point.

More than once, I have been a participant in letting go of friendships out of convenience - i.e. people stop coming to regular meetings, so I don't bother to reach out to them anymore. It's laziness on my part. I get wrapped up in my own little life and fail to see the bigger picture of how God could've used me had I been listening. I fear that without my comfort blanket of stable, regular meetings, history will repeat itself. I'm tired of losing contact. I'm tired of feeling deserted and then becoming the deserter. I want to hang on to the real friendships I have already. I have no problem meeting new people. In fact, I like meeting new people and getting to know them. This happens to be a key piece of the personality that God gave me. But I don't want to feel constantly at risk of losing ties that I have with fellow Christians simply because we want to clear the way for more people. It shouldn't be like that. With God to guide us, we shouldn't have to lose touch with friends. I just feel like we are all missing something big if that is what we continue to do.

I know I haven't really expressed this well, but it is a glimpse into how I am processing this right now. Hopefully most of you will not take offense to what I have said, rather think about it and take from it whatever bits and pieces stand out to you as being truthful. And please, no lectures on how we can't be close friends with everyone - I am not that naive. I'm just a deeply emotional person who does not like to lose contact with those I have already grown close to. Just a little something to keep in mind if you don't yet know me that well...

New Carpet

For those of you who don't know, the carpet in our house is not exactly my favorite. I do dislike the kitchen floor more, but I don't want to mess with anything in the kitchen unless we are redoing the whole thing. Carpet, on the other hand, can be replaced whenever.

So, in the near future (sometime in early April?), Matt and I will be recarpeting a significant portion of our house.

And here are my questions:
Does anyone want to give us a hand (assuming it works in the schedule)? If so, we will be in your debt... just something to think about.

Also, who knows where we can trash old carpet? Jennifer, you may know since you and Ben recarpeted during your last move... any help is appreciated!

New Job

It's been a while - sorry for slacking. I have been busy, though, as you can probably tell from the title of this post.

I started my new job on Wednesday. Things are going really well so far, and I am having fun while learning a lot. :-) My co-workers are friendly and helpful, and I'm excited to be there. It's also exciting to finally have a job that I can expect to keep for a longer period of time. It will be nice not to have to perform a third annual job search next February/March.

So, here's a thought. I like comments, but I rarely write posts that lend themselves to comments. Why don't I start providing a question at the end of some posts that will hopefully encourage some sharing? Here's the question for this post:

What has been your favorite job/career so far, and what was it about that job that made you like it so much?

Please write a comment! (Also, I may turn on comment moderation so I can be sure to see all comments, even to older posts.)

The Day Before Leap Day

Another February, more changes.

I am going through more emotional highs ad lows right now than I would expect. On Saturday, I woke up feeling on top of the world. It was sunny outside, and I had the whole day to do whatever I wanted. I ended up getting to spend some time with my wonderful friend Jen, and then I got to spend a good amount of time by myself shopping and watching TV. As the day got darker, I got really tired and down. Not sure what all is going into emotional fluctuations on days such as this, but this does seem to be typical for me in these later weeks of winter.

So tomorrow is my last day of work. I have had fun, I have stressed, I have worked hard, and I'm better off because of it all. I am also glad to be moving forward. I have always been excited by change. I seem to enjoy the thrill of the unknown... will I get an offer for the job I think is best? Will I be successful in my future role? Will I ever learn to slow down and stop making so many plans and time commitments? I probably won't ever slow down...

Anyway, I am all prepared to be done at work. I have gone through all knowledge handoffs I could think of, I have checked in all equipment that could possibly be checked in early, I have closed any possible projects, and I have taken home most of my personal items. Today, my manager brought by a very nice letter of recommendation/reference which was totally unsolicited. I feel pretty good about where I am right now, and I'm looking forward to what's next.

It also seems fitting that I take this next big "leap" in my life on "leap day". There is a "leap day" celebration at work tomorrow, and then after work, I'm going out for a Happy Hour with coworkers in honor of three of us who are all leaving work. I always love a good celebration...

Another day, another dollar...

Today was interesting. Since I had an interview yesterday, I took last night and today off from touching anything remotely related to a job search. This is probably best, anyway, b/c I have spent the majority of my time at work this week getting "job search things" rolling.

So today I was able to get a good amount of information/knowledge transferred and cleaned out, so that was good. I also helped out with a mini-project that the director of our area needed, so I felt good about that...

And here's the interesting stuff...

I did find out that the interview went well from the interviewer's perspective also, and on top of it, some conversations at work led to the director of our area letting me know that if things don't work out with the job I interviewed for, it may be an option to extend my temp contract depending on the work that needs to be done.

What an emotional rollercoaster of a week. I know my co-workers are feeling this, too, b/c my availability affects their workload down the road. It's a bummer that the initial announcement was made, b/c now I'm in the mindset of leaving, and I know that leaving would also take me in a direction that I would love to go...

Anyway, I'm excited for the coming weeks and continuing the interview process. It should be an adventure!

Happiness

So lately I have been on a big, random-thought and random-activities kick. Playing piano, looking up random things related to hobbies and interests I used to pay more attention to... I think it's all in preparation for school this semester...

I started classes on Wednesday. I'm taking a class about managing interpersonal and organizational conflict. For part of the requirements, I have to keep a journal about conflict in my life. I told this to my co-worker, who then said something along the lines of me having internal conflicts, but her never having seen me willingly get involved in other conflicts (or something like that?)... still not sure what to think about that, but it is interesting to note...

So now I have a paper due in two weeks - a 6 page reflective paper - which isn't difficult, but I have two busy weekends coming up and no time to sit down and focus on writing. We'll see how long it takes me to start... probably the night before it's due. :-)

And now the good news... I've been sitting on the other side of "the wall" at work for the last week. This means I actually have peers sitting close by, and I am actually being treated as part of the training department, as opposed to being off by my lonesome. And I have a relevant project to focus on for a while. This is fun. Now if only things would settle down at work so I could get hired full time...

BSC Friends

I got a call tonight from one of my friends from BSC... Apparently she was just told today that she is being transferred to a different department. Lots of uncertainty, and no choice in the matter other than to quit. Obviously, that isn't going to happen anytime soon. With plans in the making for shaking things up this winter, who knows what will happen in the next year?

I wish my friend well. I'm praying that her new role will be an even better fit than her previous one!

The new job

Now that I have had 2 days on the job, I suppose I should give a bit of an update.

As I've probably mentioned already, I am working for Merrill Corporation in St. Paul as an Associate Training Specialist. I sit in a "pod", as I like to call it, with 4 workstations total. I share my pod with 2 other St. Paul trainers, and for the week, one London trainer. The whole place has a really laid back atmosphere, and I think I'm totally going to thrive in the environment. My schedule can be flexible if needed, but for now, I need to be there when the other trainers are there so I can absorb as much knowledge as possible.

While I'm learning a lot from the other trainers, my job is a bit unique. I'm the first trainer ever to be assigned to the Production department, meaning that the people I will eventually work with the most will have a slightly different set of tools than the rest of the organization, and I will be working to create materials that fit their needs. It is definitely going to be fun learning what they do and creating training to fit the job. It seems I will have a lot of autonomy and room for creativity while working with other people who also like to be creative while solving problems and helping other people to learn the software and processes. In my opinion, this is a perfect fit for me at this point in my career.

Anyway, that's probably enough for now. Not much else is going on other than running errands at night and watching a bunch of season finales. It will be nice not to have to worry about fitting in all of my regular TV watching while starting this job. I'm definitely going to have some fun this summer... and hopefully I will be able to get back into the regular habit of scrapbooking...

Vacation... finally!

So this is a good week. I finished my first graduate level class on Monday. My final presentation went well. We got 24/25, so that puts me at about a 96% in the class - not too shabby. Also, I'm starting my job on Monday, so that means I have the rest of this week to get some new clothes and close out some of my remaining personal tasks. Of course I'm still keeping busy, so it's not likely that I'll get that much done. I do hope to get my house cleaned, though. Once again, it's gotten way too out of control, especially with regards to cat hair. It is nice, though, to just have "home stuff" to do this week. The only thing better would be if I could stop time like Hiro Nakamura. Then I could really get some things done...

I did it!

I finally left the company! It feels freeing and scary all at the same time. Praise God for the push I needed to make the decision. Now I'm just praying that He'll make it clear where I need to go next. I suppose this means that I should get back to the job hunt now...

Feeling stressed

Change is good. I've finally realized that I will never be happy working as an electrical engineer. On this note, I've started a masters program specializing in human resource development, I've accepted a voluntary lay-off from my current electrical engineering job, and I've started the search for a new, more personally fulfilling line of work.

I'm not alone in this mindset, apparently. Many of my friends, past classmates, and random acquaintances have expressed similar feelings about their careers recently. I used to wonder how so many people ended up so far away from their initial career aspirations, and now I know why. People are just incapable of knowing what they really want until they suffer through something they don't want. Or so it seems.... I'm just grateful that I'm surrounded by people who let me know I'm not insane for making such drastic changes.