Your weekly update:

I just want to send a shout out to all of my friends/fam out there.

Thanks for the support :) You're all awesome!

I have finally gotten a job offer, and of course, I took it on the spot!

It's definitely been a journey through this whole job searching process, definitely not what I expected, but I'm thankful for the growth through it all.

I'm just happy someone finally sees how awesome I am! 

#justkiddingbutseriously 

Anyhow, I am now employed by non other than:

drdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrdrrrr... (it's a drum roll, just go with it!)

...

Starbucks! 

I'm pretty excited for the new things I'll learn and the continual room for growth.

I don't really know much about coffee, but I'm great with people and this is a great starting point. So I am optimistic about the new things to come! Plus I get to be friends with everyone in town ;) 

Get ready [insert random small town name] 'cause Erin is going to be your new BFF!

This week I did a few fun lil things:

Went on a date night with the Hubby: Chinese food and a movie!

Chinese food = WIN

Movie (Into the Storm) = NOT A WIN

I've seen three movies in this town since I moved here... didn't.like.any of them.

I don't consider myself a hard critic (In SOME aspects, haha) I am easily entertained by movies, and I enjoy a wide variety of them.

• Transformers 4, or whatever number it is, was so lame! The best part of the movie was Marky-Mark. Even still, I don't think I'd willingly watch it again. It wasn't TERRIBLE, it just was not great. Least fave: The dumb boyfriend. Girls, don't look for a guy like that. There are better options!

• Next was Lucy... ooooh Lucy. Again, good cast: Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, seems legit. We were really hoping for something reminiscent of "Unlimited" with Bradley Cooper.

Unfortunately it was not. 

My least favorite favorite part was when Lucy put all the knowledge of the universe onto a USB drive. 

Before it even happened I leaned over whispering, "Put it all on a USB." 

Lo and behold, that is EXACTLY what happened. We died.
"Is this compatible with my MacBook Pro?"
"Do I need to upgrade from Snow Leopard?"
The jokes go on and on...

For me, there was nothing redeemable and I just don't even understand why that movie was made. I'll sum in up with the words of Vitruvius [Morgan Freeman's character from the Lego Movie]:

"The idea is just the worst."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=008pxdaMMOo 

Go ahead and watch the clip, it's great.

• Last and least is Into the Storm, which was our date night movie.

CHEESE! Pure cheese!

I laughed a lot. The husband fell asleep. At least one of us was entertained!

Oh well, you win some you lose some! 

Next time, I will read reviews before dropping $30. #lessonlearned

Enough with the critiques for now.

Another fun event of the week was Mini-Golf... I suck! I think my score was somewhere around 65 points? Sounds right. Regardless, it was fun to hang out, do some putting, and get eaten alive by mosquitos :)

Yesterday, we hung out at a beautiful little swimming hole.

I encountered less bugs than normal, so that's good news!

All I need is a floaty. I'll have to make a Walmart trip at some point to get one! Then I can just chill with a book and call it a day. 

I could get used to this ;)

Hoping to go watch the Perseids this week, if the smoke will clear up and the Super moon will decide to disappear, just for one night! Please!

I'll let you know how it goes!

I hate bugs!

I have began to make attempts at going out into the "woods" as I call it, and experience nature.

Well, nature likes to come at me in the form of bugs flying at me from every angle possible.

Drives. 

Me. 

CRAZY!

Just check out this little encounter I had with what I believe to be an evil bee.

SO, my conclusion is that I need one of these babies next time I go hiking. 

I'll paint it camouflage that way I blend in...

I'm sure that won't scare away all the critters, haha NOT.

Also,
I wanted to send a special Thank you/Shout out to a fellow oregonian blogger out there! She gave me a very special blurb in her personal blog and a much needed confidence boost! Validation is awesome, and it's great to hear other people enjoy my writing and humor as much as I do (#ilovemyself)

So please be sure to check out her blog too :)

sohewhistled.wordpress.com

Scouting Series: Part 1

Just a little snippet of my first "scouting" experience.
Clearly I was dressed for the occasion!
aka, I didn't know we were scouting until we got there! 

But I still was able to pull out some of my major tracking skills!

Check it:

Watch out Elks Elk!

I am "pizzaz"!

I have a bit of ground to cover:

Sorry for my delay, I'm a procrastinator!

My days as of late have consisted of unsuccessful job hunting, being sick in bed all day, and introspection... yeah I think I spelled that right.

First off, job hunting.

I've been seeking and handing out resumes/filling out applications galore! Now it hasn't been completely unsuccessful... on the other hand, I still find myself unemployed.

Day 1 of hunting was interesting, and you know what, better than typing it all I have thrown together a lil' video-documentary of that day.

Here ya go:

After that day, I had a small pity party and then I got sick, woohoo! So I spent the next day in bed... literally, ALL DAY in bed!

It actually helped and I was significantly better the day after.

The funny thing is I actually had a dream about job hunting and how no one wants to hire me. Let me just tell you that real quick so you can understand the full extent of my detailed dream.

We are at an office building, in enters Erin. She goes straight up to the office she is aiming for, because she knows where she's going. She opens the door to the office she is looking for and sees a women in a business suit, shaking a man's hand. "Hi, are you guys hiring?" Erin asks. The woman turns toward Erin and chuckles, "We were as of 5 minutes ago, but now we're not." Disappointed, Erin perseveres, "Okay, well I'd like to give you my resume." The woman scoffs, "Hah, I am pretty confident in my decision!" Erin explains herself, "I understand, but perhaps you'd like to have it for future reference."

"No." The woman interrupts.

Defeated, Erin walks towards the door, but not without getting her last word in! She turns to the woman, "You know what?! That is RIDICULOUS that you won't at least take my resume. All you have to do is take it! Why is it that difficult!?"

The woman just laughs at Erin, not feeling moved. Angrily, Erin bolts out the door, only realizing after that she has exited the wrong door and is in a back staircase. She is sure she will not be going back into that woman's office and decides that she can still take the staircase out, since it leads to a side exit door. 

When Erin finds herself at the bottom of the stairs, she locates the glass exit door and reaches to push it open. Before pushing the door, she sees an ID scanner next to the door frame. She knows that it needs to be scanned upon exiting, but she is not an employee there and has no ID card. Erin decides to take her chances and just open the door, she knows she's never going back there again anyways. Just as she suspected, an alarm goes off when she opens the door. Of course, Erin just decides to head straight for her car and just go. Before she can make it to her car, two security guards apprehend Erin, "We just need to check your bag before you leave." They say. Erin stands off to the side as the guards inspect her bag. As she is waiting, the power goes off in the building and all of the employees evacuate with their briefcases and personal items, it is clear that they are unhappy. Sheepishly, Erin asks the security guards, "Are they evacuating because of what I did?" The security guards are focused on their task, but they answer Erin, "Yes, this is protocol when our doors are breached. Everyone must evacuate and wait outside until the power is restored." Embarrassed, Erin responds, "Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't know that would happen." The security guards continue with their work, Erin just steps off to the side and starts telling her story to an employee waiting outside. Before she can finish her story, the security guards return Erin her bag. "Is it okay for me to go now, or do I have to wait for the power to turn back on?" Erin asks. The security guards are now working on restoring the building's power, "You are free to go now." They say. Erin turns toward the employee to finish her story, when another employee (who actually looked like William Fichtner.) This guy:

 leaning against the wall, speaks up, "You can leave now! You've done enough here today!" Erin is speechless and mortified, "I'm sorry, I didn't know!" She runs away toward her car, and we fade to black.

So, that's what I dreamt... It was clear to me that this whole getting a job thing was stressing me out WAY more than it needed to be.

I realized how much I've let my work define me, and that is why getting a good job has been so important to me. I was so focused on myself and all the great things that I had to offer, and I felt angry at the people who weren't appreciating my gusto and pizzaz, and the fact that I was going out and looking for a job. 

"Oh you CARE? We don't want to hire you!" 

It's funny, but that's how I felt. Maybe I still feel that way, but I just need to get off my high horse a little bit.

Work is important, YES.

Getting a job that makes you happy is important, YES.

But letting my work define ME, and who I am? No. Definitely not. As much as I love myself, I need to know that I'm not the best thing that's happened in this town since sliced bread. And that's ok.

A few days went by, I was able to be sick and recover, and the next day I finally got a call. It was for a typing test, to be sure I could type 30 words per minute. 

I took it and I passed. HAHA that test is a whole other story in itself. We'll leave it for a separate post though.

Things are beginning to look up for me, and I'm becoming more and more able to relax and enjoy this very new, very different Oregon living. But also, I'm letting myself become involved in things I never could before. I'm making myself able to reach out to people and share the love of Jesus, that is more powerful than anything. I decided to volunteer as a Younglife leader. I'm really excited about the new things opening up in myself, and I'm letting go and allowing God to work in my heart and make me more like Him. The coolest part is, that this whole mental list I had of "amazing things" I had to offer, fits this leadership position to a T.

The things about me that I want to share, I can share all with these kids, and share it for Jesus. It might not sound as exciting as it feels to me, but this was a huge revelation. All these things I wanted to share for my personal pleasure are going to go so much farther for God's Kingdom. A higher purpose, that's bigger than me.

I share this to let you all know to pray for me. To learn to love better, unconditionally, and share my time with those who need it. 

Happy Monday and have an AWESOME week!