What a deligthful weekend

Helllllloooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a busy but delightful (I never use that word so I thought I would ...) weekend.

Friday I signed my life away (felt like it at least) with a delightful loan officer. She was so nice and helpful. She is hoping for a July 8th closing day for the new house! CRAZINESS!!!!!!!!!!

Friday night I scrapped with Steph, Beth and Missy until midnight. We were back at it on Saturday at 10 am. Missy and Beth stayed until midnight again, but Steph and I worked until 1:30 AM! CRAZINESS!!!!!!!! x's 2! Oh, and we had a delightful time.

Sunday I visited a church up in that area and then drove home for a quick nap. I needed my rest to catch up from the weekend and to gear up for delightful Fishers Freedom Festival Fireworks. WHOA! Now my sis says that our little town has a lot of rednecks ... but Fishers has their fair share too. We had a great time though. The boys were perfect or, delightful ... a bit sugared up ... but perfect. They had pizza, pop, funnel cakes, cotton candy, kettle corn and snow cones (yep, Aunt Jamie was behind most of it!) The night ended with my sister, Sandy and I singing (ok, belting out) our most delightful rendition of "I'm Proud to be an American" to our sister, Jamie. She isn't a big fan of that song due to 5th grade traveling choir. HAHAHA! She was mortified ... just as we had planned. We didn't get home until after midnight so they slept in; I could not. BLAH!

Anyway, attached are some delightful pics from the night. The one of Gavin is to commemorate his first 4th of July celebration! The one of Aiden holding the snow cone cracks me up. Can you say SUGAR!??!?!

Ready, set, MOVE!

Above is a picture of the new Hoffman home (ok, we haven't closed on it yet, but 99% sure it will be ours). We are very excited. It all feels so real now.

I have been reflecting on the way that God has been putting this move together. It is so obvious to me now what he has set in place for this transition. It started 4 years ago!

2004 - I started a job at Burkhart Advertising where I became good friends with Tracy. Tracy's husband works for SDI (stick with me here). Sometime in '05 she was trying to convince me to get Marcus to apply up at SDI so we could hang out more. I thought nothing of it ...

2005 - Marcus and I were put into a bible study with a couple, Bart and Jami, that were HU graduates.

2006 - May 21 Marcus drives up to SDI to apply for their new division. I talk to my boss to make sure I can transfer up to the FT. Wayne branch and he agrees. All is set if and when we need to move. We hear nothing for almost a year.

2007 - Feb. I accept a position with AU. I am thrilled! The same day HR from SDI called Marcus for an interview. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?! Marcus said it would take a few months for them to hire him.

2007 - 2 weeks later ... He's hired!

2008 - Feb. I am playing around on the internet and click on the HU website to see if they offer an MBA. I decide to click on their open positions just out of curiosity ... little did I know this would change our lives! I noticed that they were hiring a recruiter for their adult programs (exactly what I do for AU). I didn't think much of it until that evening when Marcus and I were talking. I told him about it and laughed because I thought it would be perfect for me ... a year or so from then. WRONG! Marcus thought I should look into it. I ignored him (surprise surprise) but later that night I decided I would call Bart and Jami (the HU grads) and see if they knew anything about it. Turned out that one of Jami's friends had worked in the same office building as this position. She called me to let me know some info about it. I thought it sounded great, but ignored it again. The next day the HR director from HU called me!!!!!!!!! What!?!?! I did an over the phone interview with her and decided to submit my resume and here we are!!!!

Had I never worked at Burkhart and met Tracy this probably would not have happened. Had I never met Bart and Jami to have an HU connection this probably wouldn't have happened. Had I not been wasting time on the internet that day searching for an MBA ... yep ... this probably wouldn't have happened.

We are very excited for this transition. I would be lying if I didn't tell you that we are a little nervous also, but mostly excited. I cannot wait to see what God has in store for us in our new little town. I wonder who we will meet that will set us up for something in our future. It's all in God's hands. Never has that been more obvious to me than this year.

Love,

Carrie

Patience

I pray that I understand that the testing of my faith produces patience and that I should let patience have its perfect work, that I may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. James 1:3-4.

Ahhhh ... new furniture!

We have a new love seat and couch! I am so very excited! Our other couch was very old and had ... well, an odor to it (I'll spare you the details). We got a great deal on these from a place that is going out of business. Too bad for them but HOORAY for us! Now we just need a new home to put them in ...

Speaking of which. Our open house is Sunday. Please keep us and any potential buyers in your prayers. We know that someday someone will come through it and fall in love with all the hard work Marcus put into it. The sooner ... the better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Beautiful Father's Day Pictures

We a had wonderful weekend. Saturday was Aiden's last t-ball game and then the end of the year swimming party. BIG FUN! Sunday was church and then NAPS and out to dinner with my family. It was a wonderful Father's Day for all. The pictures above are from our ride home from Logan's Steakhouse for our Father's Day dinner. We took Gavin to his paternal grandparent's house after that. You can tell he was tuckered out - LOVE THAT! Can't you just see God in all these pictures!?!?! Logan kept saying Jesus was in the sun. :0)

Love,

Carrie

Trying something new

Hello!

I am trying out a new way to display my blog. Let me know if you like it. I cannot commit (thus the four year engagement to my wonderful hubby) so I am sure I'll change it again next week ... if I last that long!

I'll post more later!
Love,
Carrie

Strange feelings

Right now someone is downstairs in an interview for my job. What a strange feeling. Of course I want them to find someone before I leave so that I can help in the training process, but I've never been in a job that the employer was actually on the ball with interviews in order to get someone new to 'replace' me! Of course, I've never given a job a 2 month notice either. Just strange. I wonder what he/she looks like, how well they interview, what they say and so on. The one thing I know is that they probably won't have the s style in shoes and jewelry! I take the cake on those items! WHEW!

I have lots of pics to share from the weekend but I left the camera at home. I'll share tomorrow.

Love,
Carrie

Shoes!!!

Ok, anyone that knows me knows that I love shoes. I have a LOT of them (although the collection has dwindled since my single days ... but I still have an impressive collection). ANYWAY ... I have decided why I like shoes so much. They always fit. YEP ... it's as simple as that. I wear a size 8 1/2 ... that's my size if I am on my period, if I am having a fat day, if I am having a skinny day (haha!), if it's a good day, a bad day, rainy day, sunny day ... always a size 8 1/2. I never even have to move to a wide on my fat days. NOPE ... a trusty size 8 1/2 will do. Above are the two newest members to my collection ... I am obviously going through a wedge/bow time in my life.

Ok ... so why am I blogging about this random subject? I don't really know. I do know that I have put on some weight lately and it's obviously time I do something about it. And I do know that with all the changes that are about to take place in our lives I am nervous all the time about selling the house and finally making the move. Maybe I just know that shoes always make me feel better ... no matter what.

Now ... what if I took all of the energy I just spent thinking about shoes and put it to use in my prayer life!?! DUH! God is always a perfect fit. Yep ... He's on my side if I am on my period, having a fat day, a skinny day, a good day, a bad day, rainy day, sunny day ... God is always there and I am perfectly made by Him. WOW!

A friend of mine from work gave me a prayer book this week. I have been using the 'worry' chapter over and over. Here is a prayer that I have said a lot this week:

"Most precious God, I pray Your very words over my worries. You have promised not to let my heart be troubled if I will cast my cares on You. Based on Your words, I pray that all worry will flee from me and that my joy will return to me. All of my prayers I pray in Jesus' name. Amen."