The Hunt is On

Sadly, I have become part of a statistic. I am 1 of the 14.9 million U.S. unemployed workers. That’s 14,899,999 people that I am with in the same boat. Dang, that’s a large boat. I hope no one gets seasick. Can you imagine the clean up?

I was laid off last Friday, right before the Labor Day holiday. I promised myself one week of vacation, a week in where I would not consider a job search, resume editing, or freak-out crying hysterics. I start all that today. I may try to avoid the latter – it’s exhausting and doesn’t accomplish much. So, I have a busy day ahead of me.

Let’s rewind for a minute. The weekend I received the news about the lay-off, my husband and I went to a church on the northwest side of Chicagoland called Willow Creek. While we were there, we felt very refreshed and heard a great word from one of the teaching staff, Darren Whitehead. Today I really wanted to start off this new journey in my life with God’s direction and took some time in prayer. I also checked out Willow’s site, curious to see what past messages they had available for viewing. I came across a video from August 2008 where Darren spoke about decision making. You can see the video here. It was exactly what I needed in response to my desire to pursue what God has for me, His will, and how everything will work out.

Anybody remember Amy Grant’s Thy Word? I grew up with this song (and Amy, but that’s another post) and knowing this scripture from the many Missionettes meetings. (I am proud to say I’m an Honor STAR, but dang it all, it can’t quite hold its own on a resume. Shocking, right? And I will not suffer you to follow a link to the site. The program has changed a lot).

AND back to the reason for this. Psalm 119:105 (ESV) “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Every time I heard it, I heard Amy. But today it had new perspective. I’m a hardcore Type A and I love plans, schedules, and knowing what’s going to happen. I hate being caught unprepared. But Darren spoke that God’s word is a light to our immediate path, our footsteps, not a floodlight to our entire journey. We have to trust God to take us down this path, for reasons we may not understand. I like to try and determine those reasons (there’s an answer to everything, yes?). I wonder if he is shielding me from my purpose, for if I were to see it now, would I panic and retrace my steps or jump to a new path? Maybe there isn’t anything down the path to frighten me, but He simply is asking me to learn to trust Him.

So my day will be spent editing resumes and hopefully sending out a few. God does ask that we help out with this journey. We must take the steps, He will guide the way. What’s around the corner is still to be determined.

The Great Outdoors – in the City

This weekend was BEAUTIFUL! Dallas and I headed into the city on Saturday to hang out and meet up with some of my girlfriends from college later that day. Dallas loves heading into the city – he’d live there in a heartbeat if it wasn’t so darn expensive. Me, I am very content with living in the suburbs. I love the city – it’s culture, food, energy, what have you. But I get mildly claustrophobic in crowds. And it’s a hair too rushed for me. Which ironically, if you were to ask the girls that I was going to meet that night, I was exactly the opposite in college. I was wound tighter than a clock spring. (I’ve never seen a clock spring, but I don’t have any clever current analogies).

ANYWAY (I’m really good with tangents), the weather was lovely and the perfect opportunity to explore a bit. We headed into Lincoln Park for lunch at Potbelly’s (the Wreck is our fav, along with their broccoli cheese soup) then over through Oz Park.

We saw the Tin Man. He’s obviously all heart.

We saw the scarecrow too. He’s full of it. Hay, that is.

There is a gorgeous flower garden, Emerald Garden. What kind of flowers is really beyond me. You’ll have to ask my uncle – he’s a botanist.

There was even wildlife. No, not the homeless park people. Real wildlife. Bugs. I was good as long as they stayed a good 12 inches from me. Especially the bees.

And as I mentioned, I met up with a bunch of girls from college and Dallas was sweet enough to hang out with us. Seriously, we got home at 1am. I don’t remember when I stayed out that late last. And in the midst of all the fun, I have no photos. I’m a photo amnesiac when I get around old friends. And I’m okay with that.

Summer Fun

It’s been quite a busy summer. Fortunately, I have a wonderful new camera from a wonderful husband to document all the fun goings-on.

I've tried my hand at gardening. Or maybe they're in a pot on the patio. But they're not dead! Hooray!

Genova Basil

Plus I’m growing basil in my AeroGarden.  Not sure if cost-wise it balances out, but I do love having fresh basil.

Erin

Dallas

We went out for my birthday to Kona Grill, a Pan-American fusion restaurant and had steak and sushi. Yummy!

Birthday Dinner Erin

Birthday Dinner Dallas

Then we headed back down to Missouri for yet another family wedding. It was wonderful and beautiful. Many wishes for a lifetime of happiness to Angela & Easton. I have pictures of the flowers I took at their wedding, but the actual people pics are for Angela & Easton to share, so they will not be posted here.

Wedding Table Flowers

Wedding Table Flowers Night

I am learning how to take photos and my goal is to learn to establish my shots without having to do significant editing to them. I can’t wait for fall so I can use the burst of color to hone my skill. And learn Photoshop to fix it when I screw it up. : )

Not too bad this time around

Hey, you know what? Blog therapy is great. This time around, the wedding dress worked out really well! And of course, I spent the whole time taking photos, but none of me. Great right? When the bride and groom have a chance to look over the photos, then I’ll post one of the fam. But for now, all is well in dressland. Thank you internet. Please bill my people for your services.

The new bane of my existence

I know I had a huge shoe dilema a couple of months ago. But that’s over and done. Onto more pressing matters. Finding a dress for a summer wedding. For some unknown reason, it completely has me frazzled. I have never had good luck with dresses for summer weddings for a couple of reasons. One, I’m pasty as all get-out, so I have to be very careful with colors. Two, I hate being hot and equally hate “glistening” (seriously, it’s not cool – pun intended). Let’s review:

June Wedding 2004, Springfield, MO

I’m in the back row, 2nd from the right. You can’t see me well, but I wore a gorgeous wine-colored silk dress with delicate beading. And after the ceremony, I had to put a cardigan over my dress because I was “glistening” so badly from the heat and the silk was not my friend that night.

May Wedding, 2005, Springfield, MO

Front row, second from right, next to the groom. Great dress (me, not the groom). Loved it. I was 105 lbs (loved that too, but I had a stomach condition at the time that wasn’t good. And it wasn’t an eating disorder). I don’t think I can squeeze myself into that one again after two years of marriage. Maybe if I double-up layers of Spanx like Liz Lemmon on 30Rock. Know what’s really bad? For a second there, I actually just considered it for an upcoming wedding, but I can’t do Spanx with 80+ temps. Although, I could lose a few pounds of water weight…hmmm…

May Wedding, 2007, Springfield, MO

I’ll keep it short and sweet, but this is the one wedding that probably scarred me the most. I wore a sea-foam green and floral dress with great salmon-colored heels. To a Friday night wedding. There was a mix-up with details. I thought it was a Saturday afternoon. Hence the reason for no picture. Not one. And I made certain of it.

May Wedding, 2007, Lihue, HI

My wedding. The best. Ever. Perfect gown. Perfect man. (See our About section)

May 2008, Ozark, MO

Great dress here. Really, no complaints. I was dumb enough to wear spike heels to a backyard wedding. Those didn’t last more than 10 minutes. Lesson learned.

August 2008, Milwaukee, WI

This was my brother’s wedding. Gorgeous dress, gorgeous color. But that darn heat. No A/C in the church didn’t help either. We were sitting on these hard wooden pews and I kept sliding because of the material. I just about passed out from the constriction of that dress. (Not 30 minutes after this picture was taken, torrential downpours).

Wow, now that I’ve just bored you all to tears, I feel better. Thanks for the therapy.

Seriously though, these dresses aren’t bad. I don’t think I’ve been too over/under-dressed (with the exception of 1). I just get myself so worked up. Does anyone have a Prozac?

So I’m off this weekend to look for a dress to wear to yet another Springfield wedding. It’s outdoor, in a backyard. No spike heels, check. Breathable fabric, check. No silk or satin, check. No white, check, check.

I’ll keep you posted and hopefully be able to post some great pics when I get back.

I’m just not as techy as I hoped

Please pardon the absence of blogging. There are a few things about my existing site that I’m not completely thrilled with, one being the lack of commenting available and secondly, my lack of web knowledge. I thought that being married to a web geek would allow information to flow osmotically across from his head to mine, but apparently it doesn’t work that way. So, please be patient while we work out some technical plans.

Thanks all!

Erin

Back to Reality

So we’re back in Chicago after a trip to Springfield, Missouri. Dallas’ brother Easton just got engaged (Congratulations!!) to an incredibly sweet young woman, and we finally got to meet her. They are such a cute couple and totally in love. Best wishes to them for a lifetime of love and happiness.

Our “vacation” didn’t turn out as relaxing as we had hoped. Work always seems to follow us wherever we go. From my end, I do have a job to go back to. I think my position may be more fluid then I hoped depending on where I’m needed, but I’ll take it. Halfway through the week, Dallas’ bronchial infection returned so a trip to Urgent Care ate up a day. But it made him rest, which he obviously needed.

We met up with some great friends at a restaurant, Old Chicago. Don’t be fooled – it’s got nothing on Chicago. But our calzone was tasty.

Eliza, Angie, Patricia, Erin

I know it’s tricky, but I’m the pasty one on the right end.

Date night took us down to Branson Landing, which was surprisingly nice. It was kind of twilight-zonish. There were shops that I felt were more Chicago-based, but we were in Branson. Kind of weird. Anyway, we went to Cantina Laredo for dinner, a great Mexican restaurant right on the lake. It was very tasty and nice to get away, just the two of us.

The weather was scorching, to say the least. The temps were in the 90s with the heat index in the 100+ range. Considering that the week before we left Chicago was only in the 70’s and raining, it was a shocker. It made us appreciate Chicago the moment we got home. And sleeping in my own bed has never felt more like heaven. (No picture here.)

So we’ll be back in the saddle on Monday, but just enjoying our time together. Taste of Chicago is this week and next, so we’ll be meeting up with friends to hunt down some crab legs and cheesecake on a stick! I love Chicago!

Summer Plans

Wow, it’s been almost two weeks. My apologies. It’s been crazy busy and I can’t wait to get into bed tonight and sleepl I’ve been waiting for Saturday since Sunday evening.

My project here at work is just about wrapping up and I’ll be transitioning to a new hybrid position. I’m still waiting on signatures for a 100% final confirmation, but I’ve been assured that it will in no way affect my employment. Great news there.

Tomorrow we head up to Milwaukee for a graduation party and then a small birthday party for my brother. Then home for laundry and cleaning. Mom Thiele is coming in on Monday to stay with us for a few days. It’s been six months since we’ve last seen her and I love how she gushes over my cooking. Please, she cooked for 9 people her whole life – the woman has got miles on me! But I appreciate the encouragement. Dallas is also very encouraging too. : )

The week after next we’re heading down to Springfield for a getaway. Not that Springfield is really a vacation spot, but there are family and friends we have not seen in quite a while and we look forward to lots of hugs, Zio’s (a restaurant I worked at for a summer and LOVE the food), James River, and NO WORK!!

I’m sorry there is really nothing witty and clever today. I am so completely mentally exhausted. I will post more and be sure to add photos. Now if I could just find that camera…

2nd Anniversary

Last Wednesday was our second wedding anniversary. Two years! It’s gone by so fast, yet it feels like the most normal thing. We feel like we’ve been together forever, but not in the ball-and-chain kind of way. It just clicks.

We wanted to go to one of our favorite restaurants but, due to the economy and its less than ideal location, it went under. So, we went to a new steakhouse. The atmosphere was very relaxing, but dinner was so-so. The tiramisu was amazing, so that made up for it. And the company. Isn’t he handsome?? I think I’ll keep him.