First few days at work

I don't have internet access at my apt anymore and I can't do this at work, so my blogging will probably be few and far between for a while now. I'll do a mega post now to try to catch you up on my life and hopefully I can find some time to do this more often.

I started my new job Wednesday at the Oregon Employment Department. My official title is a Business and Employment Specialist. I really like it so far! I am just shadowing people and learning for the first week and then next Wed. a guy will come down from the central office in Salem and work with me all day training me in the software, confidentiality agreement, policies and procedures, etc. The people I work with are awesome and I think I'll really enjoy getting to know them.

This job is definitely a God-send. I would have never pictured myself in this position, but I love it and it's just a great fit for me. There are some really sad situations that I hear about every day, but it's great to be able to offer them some hope and be able to help them begin or continue their job search. Oregon currently has the 2nd highest unemployment rate in the U.S. at 12.4% (Michigan is 1st). Douglas County, where we live, has an unemployment rate of 18.3% as of May 2009. Our office has been pretty busy in just the few days I've been working there.

So I don't know if this is just an Oregon thing, or if it is all over, but I'm loving the Sonic free route 44 upgrade with a combo meal. Not that anyone ever needs that much coke, (and yes I still call it coke...not soda or pop) but it sure is delicious! Apparently Sonic is kind of a new thing up here and some people still don't even know about it. It's a tragedy really. There is one in Roseburg so I will be frequenting it quite a bit during lunch or after I get off work.

I have a TV set, but no converter or cable or anything so I can't watch TV at all. That really stinks when I get home from work in the evenings and have no TV or internet and am in my apt by myself. I am getting a lot of reading done, so that is good. I'm definitely going to check into getting a basic cable package once I get paid though. I at least need some background noise going or something...it's kind of eerie when the apartment is just silent.

We're getting into the swing of things with the youth group here and still really enjoying that. I don't have as much time to hang out with them since I'm working 40 hours a week, but I will still be doing as much as possible with them. Wed night was kind of rough because I got home from work about 5:30 and then went up to the church to help Kory get ready. We got home about 9:30 and I was exhausted and then had to get to bed. I'm not used to this working world! haha I've been living the lazy life for far too long! I'll get used to it soon I'm sure.

Speaking of me being lazy and not having a job, I've been thinking about something for a while now. I keep hearing LOTS of adults (baby boomer age) telling people my age that it's about time they have to face the real world or something to the effect of calling them lazy and demeaning them for not working since age 16. Didn't those parents work hard to give their kids a better life? Wasn't that their goal? Now they are angry/jealous/upset that these kids have a fun life and had the opportunity to focus on school and not work full-time. I know this is a generalization, but I have just been realizing lately that maybe parents are starting to see that my generation is this way because...this is how they raised us!

Ok I have been working on this post for hours now--this is ridiculous. I keep getting distracted. Here are some pictures from recent fun times!

Swimming at the trestle in Myrtle Creek

my work; drive-by picture so the quality isn't great

my cubicle pre-decorations and personalizing

Won by One: group from Pepperdine that sang for our church

New Bed

Blogger is being annoying and not letting me do things the way I want, so I have to put these pictures in a different post. I still need to buy bedding, but this will do for now. The creatures you see on my bed are my bed-buddies, Nemo and Guinness. I sleep with both of them at night, which is a habit I picked up in college. Don't judge me! :) I can start putting curtains up and actually working on my bedroom now that I'll actually get to sleep in here.

VBS, Mattresses, Weekend Plans

Kory and I both bought new mattresses last week and they finally came in today. I am excited to sleep in my own bed tonight! The couch was getting pretty old. We are in the middle of VBS this week, so we're at the church from 8:30-12:30 for that every day. Since the youth room is all decorated for VBS, we had to have youth group at the park tonight. It feels so good outside in the evenings though--I love it!

I am excited for this weekend's activities also! Friday we'll have our last day of VBS; Saturday we'll go white water rafting with a group from church; and Sunday night we have an all-girls sleepover for the high school girls at the church building. Should be lots of fun! I am SO grateful to get to do all these fun things before I have to start working every day.

Here are a few pictures from the past week:

Kory grilling our hot dogs when we cooked out in the park on

the 4th of July

this park is just a few blocks from our apartments

our picnic in the park; Kory also tried to teach me to throw a frisbee but i am AWFUL at it

these clouds looked really cool when we walked outside of Walmart--they don't look as good in this picture though. i hate that! it's always so disappointing!

Kory's cocoon he's been sleeping in while we waited for mattresses to arrive

Weekend Update

I had a fun, yet not too eventful weekend. Saturday Kory and I spent the morning playing video games and messing around on the computer. We had to run to the church to pick something up and on the way home, realized we hadn't eaten lunch yet. Since it was the 4th and all, we decided to stop by the store, pick up some food and go to the park and cook out! We had hot dogs and threw the frisbee while they were cooking. It was great! Kory had the sad realization that the reason the park was so empty was because everyone else was with family and friends at their homes...but we still had fun with just us two.

Dan Jocoy, Tri City's preacher, is out of town for 2 weeks so Kory preached today. We spent all afternoon Saturday working on church stuff. Kory was preparing his sermon and I was working on class material. Since Kory had to preach and do VBS this week and prepare youth group and lots of other things, I taught the high school class for him this morning. Saturday evening we had supper and watched a movie before heading out to the fireworks in Riddle, a small town about 10 minutes away. The fireworks were really good, especially for such a small town. I was very impressed. This year is Oregon's 150th Birthday so there are events going on all year to celebrate that occasion.

I had prepared well to teach class today and had all my notes ready. I got to Kory's office at the church building this morning to print off my notes and his office computer wouldn't recognize my USB drive. I wrote down some notes from what I could remember and then just had to wing the rest. We had 4 kids in class this morning--1 of them is Autistic and 2 of them are currently in Rehab. They are all great kids, but it definitely made for an interesting dynamic in the class! Kory did a great job preaching today. His sermon was titled "Christianity Isn't Boring!" and it was very well received. One of the amazing things about this church is that his lesson wasn't needed to guilt or convict people; he was merely affirming what so many of these people are already involved in. TCCC is a family of movers and doers and passionate Christians! It's so awesome to be involved with all the good that is going on here.

VBS is this next week, so Kory and I both will spend our mornings at the church building helping with that. I am the assistant to the craft lady and Kory is a crew leader, which means he is in charge of a group of 3-5 kids and will stay with them all morning ushering them between stations and such.

We found Sonic in Roseburg (20 min north of us and the town I'll work in) and have been there twice in 3 days now! I didn't realize how much I missed it until I had a Vanilla DP there Friday. Oh it was heaven! We went to Roseburg this afternoon for a Sonic and Wal-mart run. I have a feeling I will be making a lot of those while here. We also went to Home Depot and Kory was smiling ear to ear when we left. When I asked him why, he told me that "being in that store just makes you feel like a REAL MAN!" He then proceeded to grunt like Tim Allen! haha I also found out they have Hobby Lobby in Roseburg, so I am pumped to visit there soon!

Summer Fun

I took several girls from the youth group swimming at South Umpqua Falls today and it was SO fun! It is only about an hour drive from Myrtle Creek and it is beautiful up there! The really cool thing is that you can sit down and slide off the waterfall into a pool. There are also a lot of rocks to jump off of and lots of fun to be had. Kory came to join us later in the afternoon and we all had a blast!

I just love summer time so much! I'm sure we'll all be sunburned and exhausted tomorrow, but it was great fun today anyway. I hope we will get to do lots more fun outdoor things this summer. Oh how I love living in Oregon! :)

This picture makes the waterfall look tiny, but it is much bigger in real life!

JOB JOB JOB JOB!!

I got a job!! God continues to bless me in amazing ways! Yesterday was my first day of actual job searching. I went into the employment office in Roseburg (about 25 min. north of Myrtle Creek) to register with them and begin my job search. When I walked in, the lady I talked to at the front desk pulled me aside right after finding out I have a college degree. They were about to have a staff meeting so I filled out my registration on the computer to wait for them. The manager came and got me and took me back to his office for an informal interview on the spot. In about 5 minutes, he offered me the job and had me start filling out paperwork!

My position is in the Welcome and Assessment Center (WAC). When people walk into the OED (Oregon Employment Department) I will talk to them and basically help them get a job. I will help them get registered and take the computer skills test or refer them for jobs or whatever they need. I am excited because I will get to interact with a lot of people and I won't be sitting in a cubicle bored all day. I am a little nervous though because they all kept warning me that I need to learn to not take it personally when someone is rude to me. They are probably really stressed and having a hard time because they don't have a job and need to feed their family and are really in a tough spot. I am NOT good at this sort of thing. I'm too sensitive and I take everything personally...SO I will either come home crying every night or I'll learn to toughen up and let things go.

The job is a 6 month temp job for now. The manager, Shawn, told me he thinks that is the best way to begin a job (of course he was trying to convince me to take it...) because it's job security for half a year but if you don't like it, it's an easy out at the end of 6 months. I like that because I am a very non-confrontational person and it would be really hard for me to quit a job just because I didn't like it. Anyways, another benefit of starting as a temp is that the hiring process (because it's with the govt) is really rigorous and it's really hard to get hired because they have to make sure it is fair to people with disabilities or minorities, etc. BUT if you get hired as a temp, then you can make the transition into full-time pretty easily. Several people told me there would be some full-time jobs opening up in the next few months, so I could stay with them if I like what I'm doing.

I don't start until July 15, so that means I have two weeks to finish getting settled in here and hang out with the teens! I'm really excited about that! We have several swimming trips planned already. I also have a few things I need to do here like set up a bank account and get my license plate changed, etc. I hope to get all that done before I start work since I won't have any time in the day after that. This job is 8-5 Monday to Friday. One thing I really like is that the workers in the WAC all rotate jobs every couple hours so no one gets burnt out or bored doing the same thing all day long. I am SO excited to enjoy these next couple weeks and not feel guilty because I'm relaxing instead of looking for a job or apartment. Yay!

Here are a couple more pictures of my apartment as it slowly starts to look like home. I don't have much decoration stuff, but that will have to wait until I start getting a paycheck!

Upstairs bathroom

Dishes drying in the kitchen; i like that there are so many windows in this apt

I got this desk at the youth group garage sale last weekend

My little brother got this for me at Christmas one year and he thought it was the greatest gift ever! It hangs above my kitchen sink.

Dining room--The couple I stayed with right when I got here gave me this table

Living room--my mattress doesn't come in until next Wed. so I have been sleeping on the couch for the past week

Settling In

I have kind of disappeared for about a week or so because I don’t have internet at my home. Sometimes I can connect to a wireless network and steal from the neighbors, but it is very unreliable.

We found apartments last Monday and moved in Tuesday. It all worked out perfectly. God is so good! Kory and I have apartments in the same complex and he lives just a few doors down from me. (If I leave Kory’s apartment after dark to come home to mine, he can stand on his balcony/stairs and watch me to make sure I get in my apt safely. It’s not really a scary place to live, but I am on the end of the building and I have visions of someone running out of the forest to snatch me.) We have spent most of this past week moving in and unpacking all our stuff. We have been working on it in between lots of other activities, though, so it’s taken us a while. I am pretty much done as of toy. I still have a few things to put up on the walls, etc. but that is about all. I need to buy more decoration stuff, but that will have to wait until I actually have a job. Speaking of jobs, I have had two interviews here so far. Neither of them worked out, however, so I am still on the job search. I am just starting to really look hard this week now that I am all settled in and everything.

Kory and I have got a ton of hang out time lately and it has been so fun! He has a new TV and an awesome living room set-up. We’ve been playing a lot of Xbox lately and let me tell you, I need a LOT of practice. I am ok at FIFA (soccer) but I am terrible at Forza, which is this car racing game. It’s a racing simulator so one little turn of the wheel too far and you go out of control for like the next 30 seconds. I spend most of my time slamming into walls and going the wrong direction. However, the VERY BEST game we play is called: (get ready for it!) The NIV Game!! We both died laughing at the discovery of this game, but now we play it and love it! haha The best part is that the game includes an NIV Holy Bible that must be used for reference on many of the questions. It is basically a board game with Bible trivia questions. Some of the questions are even about the footnotes of the NIV Bible! It’s so funny!

The TCCC (Tri-City Church of Christ) youth group had a garage sale and car wash this past Saturday to raise money for summer camps. We spent a couple hours in the sun at the car wash and I got a sun burn! I never thought that would happen in Oregon. The past week and a half has been pretty warm and wonderful! I love it! Everyone here keeps apologizing for their incredibly hot weather (upper 80s) and I just smile. The two fundraisers raised a lot of money and were really successful! It was fun for us to hang out with a lot of the kids and get to know them better. We have some really great kids here and I am excited about hanging out with them more this summer!

We tried to go get new drivers licenses and license plates at the DMV the other day, but it’s quite a process to get it all changed. We have to wait for more paperwork in the mail and then we’ll fill out several forms and pay a couple hundred bucks and bring our cars in for VIN inspection and take a knowledge test and then hopefully, we can have Oregon plates. Hooray!

We each have two-bedroom apartments, so we have room for you all to come visit us! I mean, we don’t have beds in the guest rooms, but there is lots of floor space J haha I realize this is getting pretty long but I feel like I have so much to tell you all! Our apartments are totally different set-ups, but cost the same exact amount to rent each month. Kory’s is a two bedroom, one bath with a living room, kitchen and small dining room. It is all on one level, but you have to walk upstairs to get to his front door. My apartment has two floors. The top floor has my two guest bedrooms and a fairly large bathroom. Downstairs I have my living room, ½ bathroom, dining room and kitchen. If you want to see pictures of our homes, you can look in this Facebook album.

We have made several trips to Roseburg and one to Eugene this past week to buy stuff for our homes. Roseburg is only about 25 minutes away and Eugene is about an hour and a half. I am starting to get a feel for where things are located in the area. I love that the views are beautiful any direction you look! We learned about several really good swimming spots this week and I hope we can try them out soon!