Where do I live?

So much for moving to Baton Rouge - I feel as though I've only been in this city for a blink of an eye, and when I think about the upcoming two weeks, I cringe.

Yes, I am excited about 14-day road trip I am about to embark on...and thank goodness I didn't get a job yet because clearly I would have been fired already. Living in a secluded city and state far from friends and family and any sign of life form (well, not really, just for our personal lives) results in lots of travel!

The next two weeks will consist of driving to Pensacola, bachelorette party #1, rehearsal dinner, wedding, Memorial Day weekend hanging with Josh's family, two days of training someone new at my old job that I apparently still work at, drive to Jacksonville, bachelorette party #2, hang with my family, then make the 10-hour trip back to my "home" so I can actually make it that.

On another note, we had our first visitor in Baton Rouge. My sister Shiri came to visit for four days. Anyone reading this probably knows Shiri and I are polar opposites and haven't had the easiest relationship over time, but this trip proved to be the best time we've spent together. We shopped and spent lots of time reading by the pool, explored Baton Rouge, hung out in New Orleans, ate great food...and watched True Blood. :)

Anyway, I'm off to finish packing and hitting the road to see our dear friends, Chris & Taylor, get married this weekend! Josh is the best man and I'm in the wedding as well, and we are so excited to be a part of their special day!

"How Deep Is Your Faith?"

So, I have been wanting for a long time now to get back in the habit of reading my Bible in the mornings. When I eventually get a job, I will wake up early for this morning ritual, but for now, I figured with all this time, I have no excuses!

This may sound trivial, but every time I pick up my Bible, I have this conversation with myself over where to begin. Do I choose a book or person whose story is relevant to where I am in life? Do I start with Genesis and just plow through? Old Testament, New Testament? Wherever the book mark is from the last time I had this conversation with myself?

Well, this morning Reba helped me decide. "I Keep On Loving You" has been playing on the radio and my Pandora station constantly lately and I decided to let her country love song push me in the right direction today. These are the first lines of the song:

Love takes the patience of Job
That's what my Mama always said
Faith is the belief in something more than what you know
That's what the Good Book says

So, I grabbed my Bible, my coffee and my journal and headed out to the balcony with Baby Girl following me on this overcast morning.

It has always struck me as odd when Christians' faith is so easily knocked down when calamity or struggle hits them. I am by no means confessing to have always walked the straight and narrow, but I have never doubted God's hand in my life. However, today I saw God a little differently as I was reading. In Job 1:12, God gives permission to Satan to test Job, and Satan kills all of Job's offspring, then in 2:6, God again gives Satan permission to make Job ill.

I have to say I was a little personally offended when I first read this! Really, God, you're just going to let Satan hurt us? Aren't you supposed to be protecting us from Satan, not giving him permission to do as he pleases!?

Then it all hit me, like a ton of bricks. Satan can't do anything to us that God doesn't give him permission to do. Satan answers to God! Our Father watches out for us and even lets bad things happen to us so we grow in our faith and learn to rely on Him more.

This got me thinking about the natural disasters and the oil spill that makes it feel like the world is just falling down around us. If God has to give Satan permission to do hurtful things to us, doesn't it make sense that the earth needs to get permission from God before it begins to crumble? God opens the skies when there is flooding, the earth's core is obeying God when it ruptures and creates a volcano. Bottom line, folks: nothing happens without God knowing it is going to happen and without knowing what the outcome will be. All of the disastrous things that happen, personally or world-wide, happen because they are planned for a strategic time to effect specific people, all for the purpose of fulfilling God's plan in each of our lives.

There is a little table in my Bible that is titled "The Sources of Suffering". It explains four sources of sin (my sin, others sin, avoidable physical or natural disaster, and unavoidable physical or natural disaster). For the last, the responsible party is God and/or Satan (which, from my recent epiphany, when it is Satan, it is God) and the needed response is ongoing trust in God's faithfulness.

So people of Nashville, and people on the Gulf Coast, and all over, respond to what God is doing in your lives. This is not in vain. The suffering that is going on has a purpose. Not to ruin but to build up.

So, this begs the question, how deep is your faith?

TGIF

Today is the first Friday since I've been in Baton Rouge. I woke up this morning and began my daily ritual:

Start coffee
Turn on the Today Show
Check Facebook
Check email
Drink coffee

When I got to the Facebook part of my morning, I realized everyone's postings from the morning, and they went a little something like this:

TGIF
Hallelujah, its Friday!
Payday Friday!
Why, hello Friday, it's so nice to see you!

And so on...Normally I would join in on the excitement of my Facebook friends' as they celebrate the last day of the work week, however, this week I am unable to share their joy. For today, I am unemployed. My Friday will be much like every other day I have experienced this week, my first week of not having a job and "being a housewife" as my mother put it.

I am enjoying playing "housewife" (I will clarify for anyone with that sudden thought, "wait, did I miss something?". No, in fact, you haven't...I am not a wife, just playing one, in my own life, as myself).

My days of late have consisted of cleaning, organizing, working out, laying by the pool, reading, cooking and checking things off of my to-do list. It feels quite nice actually, being productive, getting in shape, getting a little color on my skin, cooking dinner for my honey and me.

If you're wondering, the reason I am not getting a job in Baton Rouge right away is because I have plans to be back in Destin for two weeks out of this month and it would be quite pointless to spend six days looking for a job and only being employed for five before I had to leave. So, I will spend the next 21 days working out to get in shape for Chris and Taylor's wedding at the end of the month, then it will be time to find a job.

We're....Home?

So, it took me longer than anticipated to blog about our trip but it went great and I'm finally here to tell you all about it!

The adventure started, for me, on Thursday, my last day of work. It was definitely a day full of mixed emotions. I was in a bit of denial, and still am probably. It hasn't sunk in yet that I am unemployed and no longer work at what was the best job for me at that time in my life. I will add that the fact that my replacement called me 5 times yesterday to ask me questions did make me feel important :) But, alas, I had to leave the past where it belongs...in the past.

That night we had an event at Funky Blues Shack called "Bringing Down The House - 70's Disco Night", so I grabbed Ashley, my future sister-in-law and night town sidekick, and headed out for a fun night and was able to say good bye in disco style to my former co-workers.

That night, Josh headed into town and we began packing up the condo into the U-haul trailer the next day. Baby sat anxiously in the car, waiting to see what was going on. We had everything in the truck in time for the rain to start falling. Josh and I showered up and headed to Pensacola for his best friend, Chris', Army Commissioning. It was a lovely evening with friends and we are so proud of Chris and his accomplishments! Chris and his fiance, my good friend Taylor, both graduated from UWF on Saturday and they are getting married on May 28! Josh and I are both in the wedding and are so excited for them!

On Saturday, we corralled everyone together and hit the road. Our caravan consisted of three cars, a trailer, two dogs, Josh and his brother and sister and myself. Here the pups waiting to hit the road.

The trip took about 5 1/2 hours because of having to stop for two dogs, driving 65 MPH with the trailer and it started raining pretty bad. All in all, it wasn't a bad trip. We made it to Baton Rouge around 5:30. I'm going to be honest and admit that when we pulled off the highway into Baton Rouge, I had a pang of anxiety when it hit me that I just moved to a town I've only been to once, have no job and know no one here. But when I first saw the apartment, I wanted to cry of relief. Relief that we would be living in such luxurious conditions, relief that we have so much space, relief that everything we've been through the last few months were worth it, and relief that my man picked such a perfect place for us here! Josh whipped out a Heineken for all of us to enjoy to celebrate our arrival in our new home :)

Then....there was a lot of walking up and down 3 flights of stairs, a lot of sweating, a lot of heavy furniture lifting, and a pretty hearty appetite built up. So Josh treated us to his new favorite sushi place in Baton Rouge. This is the most amazing sushi I have ever had; everything is Louisiana-inspired!



More pictures to come on house decorating and Baton Rouge explorations. For now, I'm enjoying being unemployed, soaking up the summer and trying to get a lot done!

Fresh Start Means Blogging Returns

So here I am, embarking on yet again another new adventure. How lucky am I?!

I started this journey excited, then nervous, then scared, then stressed, now totally giddy with excitement about this exciting journey I'm about to begin with my favorite person.

Josh was presented with an amazing opportunity to have his own store in Baton Rouge and has been there for a month, living in a hotel, getting the store on a path to success. I am so proud of him for his accomplishments thus far and can't wait to see what is in store for the future.

In the meantime, I've been preparing to join him there. We had to make some tough decisions but I really feel this is a wonderful move for our future, together and for his personal, professional success. There have been many bumps in the road, many still waiting to be smoothed out, but I know God is in control.

We're only a month in on this journey but I already feel we have grown closer as a couple, he has grown as a professional and I have grown as an individual. I have learned to trust God even more and I truly believe we have so much to look forward to.

I hate that I haven't been blogging lately because there have been so many things going on but I want to take this opportunity to pick up the habit of tracking my thoughts, logging our experiences and documenting our journey.

I hope our friends and family will follow us as we begin this new chapter of our lives, explore a new city and continue to grow. Please stay tuned to this blog and my Facebook as we post pictures and new and fun experiences.

Much Love,
Gili

Sick and antsy

So as I shared in my most recent blog, sitting at home and being un-productive is not one of my favorite things. When I woke up this morning to discover I had a sore throat and wasn't feeling well at all, I called into work...and haven't done much since then.

Whatever I have is not the worst thing in the world, I don't feel like I'm dying, but I feel like I have no energy. My head is throbbing, my throat and ears hurt, and I have a small fever, so I have done little besides lay in bed, nap, and read.

When I awoke from my nap I began to feel like I was breathing in dirty air, and all the sudden I had this urge to start cleaning. I've been going slow, its definitely not the most productive cleaning spree but I took the dirty sheets off the bed and threw them in the wash, fabreezed the bedroom, wiped down everything and dusted, and put pet deodorizer on the carpet but still have yet to vacuum.

Well, my cup of tea is empty now so I suppose I should venture back upstairs to vacuum and put some clean sheets on the bed....so I can fall into them.

His mercies are new every morning...

So it has been quite some time since I last blogged, my Europe trip to be exact. Life has been quite a whirlwind since then. I don't really think anyone reads this so it is not here to serve the purpose of updating readers on every detail of my life. (They're really not that exciting, I promise. Plus, that's what Facebook status updates are for :))

Today I am writing as a way to express my gratitude for how things seem to fall together. I am so thankful I serve a God who answers prayers, and who sees what is in my heart, both needs and desires, and fulfills them to His glory.

I recently have been praying a lot about my life working out for the purpose to pleasing God. I know I never thought I'd find myself in this place several years ago, but here I am. I ended up here with every decision I have made and I feel like I am finding my way every day, becoming more of me. There's really no telling how things turn out and how life surprises you along the way. I just keep hoping this is all happening this way for a reason...that I'm on the right path.

Yesterday I was having a really difficult time feeling unhappy and not fulfilled with my day-to-day life. I work and that's about it. I love my job, but I don't feel like I'm making enough to get by. And I'm still not used to coming home and not being a college student anymore. I still get antsy watching tv all night. I get frustrated not having things to do on the weekends. I don't have friends here so that makes a social life pretty non-existant...let's just be honest here.

So yesterday I was letting all this out on Josh, explaining to him how I feel like I'm missing out on something, like I need more of a life here. All the while I was feeling even more horrible than I already did feel because I was basically telling him he wasn't enough to make me happy. that is not what I meant at all but I knew that was how he was taking it. We both decided we would like extra ciricular activities in our lives but that funds were keeping us from that at this point.

So, today is a new day. And God clearly proved that his mercies are new every day. I got a phone call first thing this morning from a woman who found an ad for babysitting I posted on craiglist(and got no response from until now) and asked if I could dog sit for her for a week, and that she would be interested in me babysitting for her in the future. So that was a small promise of extra funds. Then I got an email from the local Hadassah chapter here with an invite to a luncheon that just happens to be on a weekend that Josh will be out of town. Another small promise of networking, friends and activities.

I know that my relationship with the Lord has to be my number one priority, and if I'm seeking him and what he wants for my life, He will start to show me where he wants me. So this morning was just a little reminder of that.