the music room

many of you know that i left my job before the holidays. (if you didn't know, feel free to ask me about it.) i'm hoping to get involved with a volunteer opportunity that i learned about through our church. i'm still keeping an eye out for counseling positions, but they're relatively scarce. in the meantime, i'm finding things to keep me busy...

i've started a small project that combines two of my loves: poetry and art. here's some background: my junior year at georgia tech, i took a poetry class (yes, there's poetry at tech!). it was absolutely one of my favorite classes (chris liked the fact that half the football team was taking it with me). one of our assignments was to write an original poem based on a photograph. i chose this one i had taken of my grandparents' living room because it's a place where i feel inspired, and i have many wonderful memories of daddy buck listening to my mom play the piano there.that year my poem was published in gt's literary magazine, and i shared it with my family. so now i'm working on a collage that will hopefully bring it to life in a visual way (kind of like what an artist did for a favorite wcw poem of mine).
here's another picture from last christmas (2007) that illustrates what i had in mind when i wrote the poem. i plan to give the collage to my grandparents when i'm done. in case you were wondering, blogging about it doesn't ruin the surprise because daddy buck - who turns 85 today! - does not own a computer, much less has access to the internet.

christmas recap

after a great christmas break, we're getting back into the swing of things. chris had two weeks off, and we spent all of that time out of town! though it was fun to see all of our family, i'm not sure we'll stay gone that long again. we spent the first weekend with chris' grandparents in south georgia. this is at their church on sunday:
then we stayed with my parents in augusta during the next week. we had a chance to visit with some of our old high school friends. monday, we had lunch with my friends christy and lindsey, & her husband gerrit. tuesday, we had dinner and saw four christmases (i don't recommend) with chris' friends jessica and patrick, & his wife brooke. i always enjoy catching up with them...i just wish i had taken some pictures!

we celebrated christmas eve with chris' parents and brothers. we went to a silent Lord's supper service at their church and went to their house afterwards.we did christmas morning with my parents. christmas day, we traveled to see my grandparents in alabama.as you can see, rummikub is a riddle favorite! that's chris there with my cousin ashley's friend patrick, uncle larry, and daddy buck. on saturday night chris & i went to birmingham with ashley & patrick. we were getting tired of dressing and turkey/ham (seeing as how we had four christmases ourselves), so we had sushi and saw the curious case of benjamin button (very good movie!).

after we returned to augusta, we spent the rest of the week with chris' parents. we made a day trip on tuesday to greenwood, sc (between augusta & greenville) to see my good friend from high school, tori, and her boyfriend ron. tori's parents moved to greenville when we were in college. it turned out that chris & i weren't going to be in greenville when she was visiting them, so we met halfway for lunch & bowling. she gave me the cutest paint-by-number stationery.

we rang in the new year with chris' parents' good friends from church, the faircloths (we like to call them mr. chris & mrs. cathy's BFFs!). the men watched the gt bowl game, the outcome of which which made me so very glad we didn't buy tickets. mrs. cathy's friend, mrs. dale, is a consultant for scrapbooking supplies and has gotten mrs. cathy interested. so they worked on some of their albums while i painted the cards tori gave me. chris spent much of the rest of the week watching bowl games with his dad, and i took the opportunity to go shopping with my mom and visit the morris museum of art.

post-thanksgiving, pre-christmas

here are a couple pictures of us spending thanksgiving with our families (better late than never!):
can you tell which side is which? we spent the first part of the week in augusta with both our immediate families, then we went to south georgia and spent thanksgiving day and weekend with chris' maternal grandparents. they have a farm house in the country, and our visit (as usual) consisted of lots of eating, talking, & sleeping! we also fed some ducks at the pond, shot rifles (thanks to kyle!), and watched the uga-tech game with chris' cousins - one of whom went to uga and one of whom went to tech. talk about a divided house! the highlight of the game (for me) was receiving a text from my dear friend jessie (who went to uga), which stated: "what do georgia and georgia tech fans have in common? none of them went to uga!" (sorry to our uga friends who went there and are fans...this is obviously just a generalization!)

since we got back, i've been doing a lot of decorating, shopping, & baking. here are some pictures of our decorations this year:
this wreath was made with less than $10 of material from michael's! after we put it on our door, chris commented that we should start calling our apt "g-unit".we kept our same charlie brown christmas tree from last year, but as you can see - it just needs a little love!

october updates: church

a few weeks ago we joined the church we've been visiting. we also started going on wednesday nights and are in a class about discovering your identity in christ, which is a study of the book of ephesians. we've enjoyed getting to know the couples in our sunday school class and have gotten to do some fun things with them. we went out with the class for miniature golf & go-cart racing. we also carved pumpkins with brandon & lori, who made a tradition of doing that each year. it was my first pumpkin carving! lori is an interior designer, so i am thrilled to have found an art buddy in greenville! she & i went downtown to greenville's open studios last weekend, which is an annual event where you can interact with local artists at work in their studios. we decided we need to find an art class in greenville & take it together!

october updates: football games

sorry for the lack of posts this month! football season is in full swing, and we've been at games the past 5 saturdays. i, for one, am thankful for a break today! we've really enjoyed having friends & family come to the games with us. justin & linda joined us for the duke game. luke & julia (who announced they're expecting their first baby next spring!) came to the gardner-webb game. the clemson game was away this year, but it felt more like a home game to me since it's now closer to us than our atlanta games. a few friends from tech (derek, john, & jon) came to stay the night with us here in greenville, then we tailgated after the game with my friend audrey's clemson crew (she's the girl i met taking the class this summer).
the game vs. uva was homecoming, and jordan & emily (who just got engaged!) got to come with us.last weekend was the fsu game, and we went down friday night to see wes, blakely, & ashton again. we hung out at...guess what, another football game (of the high school where wes directs band). then on saturday, mr. chris & mrs. cathy (our parents/in-laws) joined us for the fsu game, and we enjoyed unlimited stir fry at chow baby afterwards.

published...

i can now add author to my list of accomplishments. my grad school paper is finally getting published! it's in the american society of mechanical engineers journal of manufacturing science and engineering. click here for the citation. the funniest thing is that they sell it for $25 per copy. if you actually want to read it, you'll have to subscribe to asme or pay up! :)

job update

on tuesday, i was feeling more frustrated than ever about not having a job, and i prayed for trust in God's timing. not even one hour after i finished praying, i got a phone call from a place i interviewed checking on one of my references (jamey!). it was just the encouragement i needed, and i felt like God was reminding me He was still working in that situation. then a few hours later i got a job offer and felt like it was a direct answer to my prayers!

i start next week as a treatment coordinator at a group home for boys where i'll be providing group & individual therapy, as well as some family sessions. i'm excited that my supervisors are open to letting me incorporate art into the group sessions. i'm definitely nervous about starting something new, but i truly feel like this is what God prepared for me.