One Step Closer to Sunny Days!

I just talked to THE man over all church schools who asked for my resume before he took his Christmas break.  He had just come back in the office today.  I asked him if he had received my resume and he asked me to sit down for a few questions.   He wanted to be sure I understood how my life would change with a move to Hawaii.  We went over financial differences, cultural differences, and small town issues.  In the end I told him that I had been doing a little bit of research and I had made a friend over there that could help me find housing and make social connections.  He said that the cost of living is 30-40% more but I would only receive about a 15% pay increase which didn’t frighten me too much.  I mean how can you put a price on paradise?

 

Then he asked me what I could bring to BYUH.  That was a question I wasn’t ready for.  I told him that I was reliable but in looking back he probably would have wanted me to say something about my finance experience or my attention to detail.  Oh well.  He told me that there was definitely a need for someone with my skills.  I was a little surprised to hear that but that was certainly good news. 

He asked me if I had any questions for him.  I just wanted to know about time frames but he certainly didn’t have that kind of information yet.  Now I just have to figure out how to sell everything I own, relocate my roommate, rent out my place and store the things I can’t sell.  No big deal.  Okay, the reality is that I am completely freaked out with a good amount of excitement in the mix. Coming from MN, this would be fulfilling a lifelong dream. 

Can a Person be a Sellaholic?

I have a new addiction.  The good thing about my addictions is at least they are healthy.  Well I guess I should say that I like to keep them in a healthy range, because any addiction can get out of control even eating squash.  I am sure a good number of people question my level of squash eating as healthy, but they are the crazy ones!  ;) Spoken like a true addict, right?  Anyway, I have gotten into selling on ebay and I have noticed that there is a bit of an exhilaration that comes when you get an email telling you that your item sold.  It doesn’t matter if it was only sold for $1.99.  The point is that someone wanted your stuff.  Someone found value in something that you had no use for and could just be ready to toss. 

I have been feeling for a while that I have way more stuff than I have use of and it is all just cluttering up my life. It makes me feel bogged down like I never want to move anywhere because it would just be too much work. I am sure that this hording (and I am not a crazy horder like the ones on TV by the way) I have done just comes from not having much when I was younger. It made me want to collect more and more things in case I ever needed them for any situation.  

Just in the last two weeks I have sold 10 items and made over $240. I have bids on three more things that will sell within the next week.   I have also posted some larger items on KSL and sold two things there.  This is even going to change how I buy things now. I am going to have to ask myself, “Is this a good investment? Will I be able to sell this later for a good price?” Hopefully the sales will continue to happen and I will feel more and more free from all of my stuff. 

Christmas 2013

Last year’s Christmas was probably the worst Christmas ever, and I have had some bad ones.  My brother’s family had the stomach flu so dinner was canceled and then my gifts were stolen off my front porch the day before Christmas.  My roommate was out of town and I was feeling very alone. This year I guess I had low expectations and that is a good thing because Christmas dinner was canceled again.  Let’s just say that a break-up in the family got in the way.  For some reason it didn’t bother me as much this year.

There was a gal who spoke at church last Sunday and she talked about how when she was in Jr. High her parents decided that they were not going to celebrate Christmas anymore.  No presents, no tree no nothing.  She never knew why but the season just left her with bad feelings for a long time until she realized that Christmas wasn’t about her.  It was about Christ and becoming the kind of person that emulated Christ’s life.  She said in the end she probably should have thanked her parents because they helped her learn more about the true meaning of Christmas.  Perhaps her talk prepared me to not think of myself and my problems this year.   I did have a good time at Temple Square with Marianne on Christmas Eve and I got some pictures for next year’s Christmas card.   Here are some of the highlights…

Gypsy Itch

Uh Oh... I am starting to get that feeling again that something in my life needs to change.  I have had this feeling before and it usually entails me moving across the country.  It doesn’t help that I have just come back to dreary, dry, cold, smoggy Utah

from gorgeous, lush, warm Hawaii. 

I have made a list of all the reasons that Hawaii is calling my name. 

1.       The temperature is moderately warm every day of the year.

2.       The humidity and salt water do amazing things for my skin.

3.       The fresh oxygen packed air is great for my overall health.

4.       I love the rocking of the waves.

5.       I am ready for a new adventure.

6.       I could go running every day and not be cold.

7.       I could learn to surf and be really tan.

8.       My skin would get plenty of vitamin D and I would never have seasonal affective disorder.

9.       I could ride a bike or a scooter to work.

10.   They grow avocados there.

I do have a good list of reasons not to move too but it just doesn’t seem as compelling right now.

1.       I would have to sell my place.

2.       I would be further away from family and friends.

3.       I would be giving up my stable job that I have been at over 7 years along with some pension benefits.

4.       I have a lot of stuff.

5.       The cost of living is high.

6.       Not sure what my social life would be like in the LDS community over there.

Well even if it does ever happen, I have a hard time believing that it will happen any time soon.  I have been feeling that I needed to get rid of stuff for a while, so this will just give me added motivation to keep doing it. 

Bog Živi

We had a devotional at work today and the topic was about bearing testimony.  It reminded me of when I was a new missionary in Croatia that could barely communicate anything to anyone.  We were on a light rail car that was packed with people and I wanted to talk to them and teach them about the gospel but I didn’t know what to do.  The windows were all fogged up so I reached over and wrote “Bog živi” (God lives) on the window.  My companion just laughed at me.  I thought I was being quite clever.  The car looked like this...

 

It is interesting to see how God works in people’s lives.  I am currently reading a book called, “Kisses from Katie” about a Christian gal from Tennessee who wanted to do a service mission at an orphanage in Uganda.  This was on her Christmas break, her senior year of high school.  She was invited back to teach kindergarten after high school and she did it.  In the end she adopted 13 kids by the age of 22.  It has been interesting to see how God has worked in her life to bring her to that point.  It leaves me wishing that I could see a clear purpose to my life right now but I am sure he has something up his sleeve.  I just need to wait and pray for his purposes to be revealed to me. 

The only thing I can see that God has for me in my life right now is that I think he wants me to go to Hawaii.  That is nothing like adopting 13 kids in Uganda.  Kinda makes me feel like a selfish jerk after reading about Katie but I just happened to come into some extra money and then this great opportunity to go to Hawaii just fell into my lap, so I think it is God.  I don’t know, am I crazy?  I just know that God loves me and he wants me to be happy, just like he loves all of us and wants us all to be.  Sometimes we aren’t happy and we have hard lessons to learn but the other times I am pretty sure he wants us to be happy. 

Cash Money

I received my unclaimed funds from the state today and I am happy to say that after expecting less than $10.00 but hoping for $40ish, I am happy to report that the check was for $71.18!  My roommate reminded me that with this and the insurance money, I have been blessed lately.  Hopefully it keeps coming.

Also Fernando cracked me up again last week.  My co-worker Kelli was talking about a guy with big muscles and Fernando said, "He must have taken asteroids or something."  Laughing is good.  I need to do a little more of it. 

Healthy Halloween Hit

As a child I was CrAzY about candy.  I can say that I was CrAzY about it because I used to have nightmares that I got grounded on Halloween by my stepmother and didn’t get my annual stash.  I was as distraught as I would have been if a family member died (I see now this is a completely pathetic admission of a true addict).  Then I would wake up and be SO relieved it was all just a bad dream and see that there was still hope.  All that sugar must have taken its toll on me in my youth because since then my body can’t handle it anymore.  I have given it up completely and I always feel torn on Halloween with the thought of passing out what I know they are already getting WAY too much of.  I understand that kids don’t usually want to be given toothbrushes and pencils and I didn’t want to be known as the annoying house giving out lame treats but I saw this blog post and I decided that juice boxes were a better alternative candy. 

Well I think I might just stick with that idea from here on out because the last group of kids that came to my door were pretty happy.  The first kid (probably about Jr. High age) said, “Juice boxes! Are you kidding me!?!  Do you know how thirsty I am right now?"  They were grabbing them as fast as I could get them out of the packaging.  They may cost a little more than the candy but there were only about 20 kids at my door.  It certainly didn’t break the bank and I felt a whole lot better about it.