Home Sweet Home

So after a YEAR of nomad behavior I have been given my new home. Not only was I shocked but it's somewhere I secretly was afraid of getting the entire time. I made jokes about it, poked fun at the state but never honestly thought I would be assigned to it. Now lets brainstorm a bit together to help lead you to where I am moving. Think opposite of the South (weather wise), think outdoorsy, think not colorado, think lakes, think friendly people, think Vikings and think currently below 20 as the current high.

Thats right I am moving to Minneapolis, Minnesota! At first I thought my boss was joking but he took a very serious tone and responded "Yes I said Minneapolis, Minnesota". Nope he was not joking. So there you go, after a year of not knowing and living a nomadic lifestyle for months I have been given a home. So after receiving this information what is the first thing I do? I google Minneapolis, Minnesota of course. Found out that the average winter months last from Oct-April and the lows can reach BELOW 20.


Then I continued to read about the state and found an article on how friendly, clean, exciting, young the city is as well as it has stunning summers in the state! I never visited this part of the country but it will be an adventure to say the least! So it is official, I will be laying my roots in Minneapolis, Minnesota! So if you are ever in the area, just let me know! Id love visitors! ok ok... its also Beautiful!!!! (observe photo above)





AND I might be a Huge fan of all the out door activities in warmer months! Ok I might be super excited about this move!

Reunited and It feels so Good!

I have finished training and remain homeless. To add icing on the cake, not only am I homeless but I don't even know what my job will be! Long story short, I was training for a position but it might be changed to another. Which means I am going through crash course training this upcoming week. The bomb was dropped on me Friday.


Rather than getting upset, more nervous, more anxious, more lost feeling.... I drive to the grocery store. I walk up and down the aisles and find the ingredients. These are not just any silly ingredients but the perfect ingredients to deal with the bomb. As many of you know, I have been living in a hotel for over four months and have been without a kitchen. I am home again and reunited with the kitchen! I was able to bake wonderful treats for my brothers and sister. I loved being able to get lost in the recipe and forget everything else. I choose this cookie because of the freedom to change the recipe as I wanted. It's a regular cookie with all kinds of delicious additives. It is salty, chewy and sweet combination left me satisfied with my masterpiece. The salty/sweet taste was perfect! it felt so great being reunited to a kitchen again! I am so excited to get my very own kitchen and start sending my creation to all my friends! Let me know if you are interested in receiving baked goods via postal service! Here is the recipe if you are wanting to make this perfect combination and be able to escape the stress of life. Yes, cooking allows me to do that!


Compost Cookies
Adapted from Christina Tosi's recipe on Regis and Kelly

1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tbsp corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1-3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
1-1/2 cups baking ingredients (chocolate chips, coconut, toffee bits, etc.)
1-1/2 cups snack foods (chips, pretzels, etc.)
1 tbsp coffee grounds

- In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter, sugars, and corn syrup on medium-high until fluffy and pale yellow in color, about 2-3 minutes.
- On a lower speed, add eggs one at a time and vanilla until well incorporated
- Increase mixing speed to high and let it go for 10 minutes -- the mixture will become really pale and will almost double in size
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt
- When 10 minutes are up, add flour mixture slowly until just combined, about 45-60 seconds
- Chop up and mix together all of your baking and snack ingredients in a small bowl, and fold into batter with a spatula until just incorporated
- Using a medium-sized ice cream scoop, portion cookie dough on parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and wrap the entire thing tightly with plastic wrap
- Refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour and up to 1 week
- Heat oven to 400F and arrange cookies on cookie sheets at least 4" apart
- Bake 9-11 minutes, until they are golden in color and slightly brown along the edges
- Cool the cookies completely on the sheet pan (or just eat them immediately...)

Recipe yields 15 large cookies

Faithful Red Wagon!

As many of you had read, I have been traveling the states of Michigan and Ohio for two weeks. This trip consisted of turnpikes, corn as far as the eye can see, thin walled hotels, corn beef sandwiches and a tour of scary Detroit! I have never visited this portion of the United States and honestly, I truly enjoyed it! Everyone had funny accents and sometimes I felt I was on The Jersey Shore rather than in the suburbs of Detroit but it still ended up being a nice trip! I must send some love to my faithful red wagon. National rental car service gifted me with a vehicle that has blind sides that lasted miles. Not only was the navigation system out of date, causing me to get lost often, but my wagon sometimes shock when I reached speeds over 60. Maybe this was a good this because it made it impossible to get a speeding ticket which I am confident my manager would not be pleased if I returned from this trip with on. So thank you again Red Wagon for the memories!

The trip is over and now I am entering into the most stressful week of this job. I have a presentation tomorrow then oral exams Wednesday and Thursday. I must pass everything to insure I will continue having a job. Can we please say "Pressure is On"? It is honestly ok because after this week, it will mean I am VERY close to finding the location of my new home. So I am being to see the light at the end of the tunnel, the sun is setting on this chapter of my life, the clock is winding down, the race is nearly over and any other saying that delivers the message that I am nearly done. Well to be honest, I am excited and VERY ready! So here we go, hopefully in 2ish.... weeks I will know my final destination. I know the Lord will place me in a perfect plan and I can't believe it is already time to shed some light on this unknown factor I have been living with for over a year (since I look the job). The Lord is so good and faithful! I never thought I'd survive but looks like he gives me more strength than I ever imagined!!

Until next time

Trusting in the Plan

So as many of you know... I have no home. I have no roots. I don't know what to write down when an application asks for my address. Basically, I am trusting my entire life in others hands. Now let me state that it was fun at first. The mystery made things exciting! Who knew where I'd be come Thanksgiving. Who knew and at one point I said Who cares! Well people I have reached my edge. I have a limit to my carefree spirit... and it is now. I can't even tell you how many time I have been asked where I am moving and when I don't have an answer people usually look at me like I am crazy. Usual respond is "So you took a job without knowing where you were going?" Yes I did!!! This job couldn't of meet put together any better to meet my ideal job requirements. I never knew this job was even real. I thought it was an idea I had dreamt about! So when I found out this job was an actual job you could apply, interview and be selected for, of course I am going to take it without knowing where I will be living. Back to the point, I have reached my limit of living a no answer life. A few days ago, I was driving down the Ohio Turnpike (if you get a chance drive it and notice all the White Barns... Its is very odd and no FOY did not have an answer. Thanks for trying through random boy who works at the FOY desk!). Thinking while driving this strange Turnpike in the middle of no where. When you drive as much as I do, you have lots of time to think. I thought about the future, the past, what I was going to have for dinner. Basically no thought was untouched. Then my thoughts moved to where I will be living. Will I be in Washington, far away from my family and friends? Will I be in Savannah or NYC or West Texas or East of Chicago or Charlotte? (which are all ACTUAL opinions!) Where will my root begin to be planted? These are all heavy loaded questions... and I have no answers or guidance. Then I rounded a bend and I saw this.....




How can I not trust in the Lords plan?! If he is capable of making a sight like that... I am sure he will place my roots where they need to be. Of course its a daily or hourly struggle to trust in this plan but how beautiful it will be when I am finally able to. To find satisfaction in the MOMENT the Lord has given me, not the coming year or month or week or even day. He has made a plan for me that is perfect and I want to follow it perfectly. I hope this imagine gives you passion to follow and trust in the Lord's plan for your own life. He loves us more than the Sky.... think how much more beautiful our lives will be compared to this sight once we devote our plan to him. It fires me up just thinking about it!

Here comes another day of being a nomad but when its time for my roots to form the Lord will make sure its in a perfect place!

Now, for your enjoyment! Hard hat, protective eye wear, steel toes boots and fire resistant suit of course. I LOVE MY JOB!! Not only do I get to roll around in Lubes (yes I said Lubes... I am a Lubes sales rep!) but I get to be super fashionable in all I wear. Trust me, I am more of a looker in person! I hope everyone has a blessed day and find delight in the Lords perfect and breath taking plan!

A Traveling Nomad!

So here is the deal... I have no home. I am living from Hotel to Hotel. Let me just show you s what I have been living with for the past 4 months. Now this is not be complaining just showing you into the life of a Nomadic young adult.

Hotel number 1:
Holiday Inn Express somewhere in Michigan.



No bad right. Well after about 20 different hotels in the course of 4 months everything starts to look the same. My point next with Hampton Inn somewhere else in Michigan.



As you can see there is a common trend in hotels. They are all the same! I have a price budget so I honestly don't see a change from room to room except the occasional color scheme switch up. Which is always fun and refreshing.
Just when things seem to get old and traveling beings to take a toll on me... I have a moment. This moment occurred once again somewhere in Michigan. I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings then something catches my eye. I begin to see the reds, oranges, yellows, even purples! I begin to look around the trees lining the highway and the only way I can explain this imagine is that the trees looked like they were on fire! That doesn't even do it justice but all the colors reminded me of a warm bonfire. I couldn't even believe how breath taking everything was! Yes Breath Taking!! I know I over use that phrase but it is completely approciate for the situation. The warm colors of the trees made the drive worth every moment. Even after a long day of work plus a 2+ hour drive I was disappointed to reach my hotel. I was enjoying the colors and Lord's beauty!! These pictures are taken by my phone but imagine something 100 times more stunning!!





These moments allow this traveling and nomadic way worth every moment. Of course it gets lonely but during these drives I get to see the Lord's beauty without a distraction!! I am able to find time to grow and become more confident in my faith. I believe everyone should take a moment and treasure these times! They help give you strength to finish the day or even week out. I know I am ready to take on the entire state of Michigan!
On the road again, time to return to my Nomadic traditions of having no home, no bed and no kitchen BUT I get see see the sites! Oh How blessed I truly am!

Surprise!!

So here is the surprise.... I am TRAVELING THIS WEEK!!! Ok so that is no surprise but I get to go to new places. I just got back from Charleston today and am going to NJ and somewhere new in VA Thursday- Friday! Before you get all jealous about all the places I am going, I would like to remind everyone this is for business. And when I am traveling for business, that usually means studying and studying and quizzing and more studying. I loved getting to go to Charleston because I was able to see a good friend of mine from high school but besides getting away for about 2 hours that is about as much sight seeing I was able to do.

I know I am making it out to all work and no play... but my work can be like play sometimes! So here comes my super nerdy side. I got to go to a pulp and paper plant!! I saw how to make cardboard boxes and lots of other cool things like that. Now I know it might not seem like a big deal but this plant is HUGE. It look up nearly 7 hours to tour the whole thing. We also skipped around often and didn't see everything the plant has to offer. Let me just show you how large of a scale we are talking here:



Here is the plant itself from the bridge. Now worries people, all the clouds/smoke you see isn't smoke! It is steam. Simply water being released back into the air. Nothing more than that. No worries I asked to double check because I was quite concern.



Here are some of my classmates by the kiln. This kiln is HUGE as well and longer than a football field. It is spinning and pretty scary. At one point, they opened up a portion of it and we got to see it. It was very intense and pretty overwhelming. Take my word for it, it was very cool!!


So I know these are nerdy new things in my life but I am loving it! It is bringing out such a challenge for me and pushing me to my limits. I am loving all the people I am interacting with and getting to work it. The different personalities are a challenge but it is such a blessing. I feel like I have grown up so much in the past 3 months that I did all through college. No worries, I still love to laugh, never take myself too serious and love to love on everyone I met. So I haven't changed too much but I am growing up! I hope the Lord continues to open doors for you because when he does, he will blow you away every day with the wonders he can give.

The Life as a Lube Professional

I had no idea it has been so long since I have updated! All my many readers, I am sorry I have kept you hanging for so long. There has been a lot of chances happening since I last posted. I am still in Dc training but have been traveling often. Been going to the south, north, midwest, and even a few new places in there. It has been beyond exciting and of course I am tried! I have been learned things that I didn't even have a clue about. Like: did you know the sugar made for cokes is a bi-product from coal MINES! Who would have ever guessed?! I sure didn't ha. I have made plenty of new friends and have loved getting to meet and interact with so many different people.

Here are come pictures from my first job training:



This is me looking at a gear box. Nerdy I know but this is my new job. I will be doing super cool nerdy things every day!


This is called a Drag Line. It is some of the equipment for the mining location. It is HUGE and scary when its moving.


Getting bullied of course since I am the new kid! ha

Now everyone has a small idea what it means to be a Lube Professional! I put on hard hats, steel toe boots, and roll around in oil and grease. At least it doesn't take me long to get ready in the mornings!

Here are some other pictures of my new friends and adventures because of course I am not all work and no play! I have to find some time to get in the important stuff such as friendship building!


Float trip with my training class.


I got to visit Abigail and Felis in the Big Apple!


Jimmy and Sunshine were reunited during my Auburn trip!!! I also got to see my sweet Brenton!

This experience has been such a blessing! I have grown and developing into a young woman that I am very proud of. I have not lose my Faith, family, friends or overall goal for myself. I know the Lord has big plans for me but I still have another month of training and growing. This season of my life is a perfect transition. I am not quite in the real world but am slowly stepping into it. Of course it is hard not knowing where I will be living for potentially the next two years but I know it will be wonderful. I am confident I will make new friends and of course always have my old. I continue to receive blessings and it helps me grow. Life is hard and always changing. These daily challenges are difficult but I will not allow them to let me miss out on my life. This past weekend was hard (LONG story) but I am growing and learning. I may never understand everything that has been put into my life but I know it is in the Lord's plan and it will help me!

This life I have been given gets better with each coming day. I honestly believed I would not love my job as much as I do now! This day I lived to the fullest and will only continue to live the next with the same attitude! Thank you Lord, Please help me continue down a path that is faithful only to you! Until next time, keep living a life that is worth something!