A New Chapter

As you may or may not know, Scottie and I both work in the Software Industry, where he is a salesman for IT Software Applications and I am a marketer for an EMR Software IT Company here in Austin. We began this journey working at Dell selling computers to your everyday consumer, and moved our way up, got promoted, and left the company for better opportunities.

Well, two days before Thanksgiving and our annual trip to see my family in Louisiana, we got news that he was being laid off from his job. It was a scary feeling, but I remember being so calm in it all. Isn't it crazy how that works? I immediately met Scott for lunch and we talked about it. What was our plan? How can we make this work if he is 60% of our income, etc. How can we stay encouraged in this time? 

Getting laid off two days before the holiday season is the worst case scenario, but we didn't have a choice in the matter. We prayed, we sent out applications, and we waited impatiently. We are blessed to live in a city with so many opportunities in the IT world, so we had interviews lined up weekly. However, no one really hires during the holidays, so fast forward 2.5 months, and...

Today is Scott's first day at a new job.

He not only has been promoted to an Account Executive, but he is the lead on a new chapter in this company's history, in a hopefully very successful pilot! This company is a great little start-up located only about 15 minutes away from home and is a Software Application company for IT Professionals. 

I couldn't be more proud of him and envious of how he has carried himself the past two months. It has not been easy, cutting back on gifting during Christmas, cutting back on spending by not going out, eating in, cancelling gym memberships to save, etc. At times it's been disheartening when you don't hear back from a great lead you thought you had in the bag. It feels good to know that I have such a strong, courageous, and optimistic man in my life who didn't sit on the couch and sulk in his unemployment, he kept his faith, and he did projects during downtime. He helped me with little things throughout the weeks, he even made dinner (what!?). It's incredible how you can watch your spouse and be encouraged by how they deal with situations, how they react.

Trying times in your life like these are always the biggest lessons. How was I so calm and supportive? How did we manage to live on my income alone for two months? I got a Christmas bonus that carried us through the second month, we had enough savings and CC rewards to get us HEB/Walmart gift cards for groceries, we were seeing family over holidays who kept us feeling encouraged and loved through all of this. We know 100% that this was all in God's hands. Honestly! I have never felt so at ease in such a stressful situation. I felt like I could be his rock in this and I succeeded. We left it up to Him to decide Scott's next move in his career. We had complete faith in what His will would be.

He hated his previous job... it was the most difficult sales atmosphere where people were negative, there was favoritism, bullying, harassing, etc. He would come home feeling so defeated even though he had made a lot of money over a deal! We were already unhappy, so I completely believe that this was all God's doing. Scott deserved better. He deserved a career that he could thrive and grow and be encouraged, and doing honest work. We couldn't be more excited for this new chapter of our lives, and I couldn't be more proud to be his partner through all of this. As scary as it was for us, I am so glad that we experienced this situation and grew from it. I feel so confident in him and so blessed to know that we make such a great team and together, we really can get through anything life throws us. 

We truly appreciate all of the support and prayers we've received throughout this journey! 

Have a fabulous Monday, and wish us luck on his first day!!!! :-) 

Bittersweet Weekend

This past weekend for us has been bittersweet as Maddie's 3 week Summer Vacation came to an end (me driving 8 hours yesterday and being sad that last 4 by myself!), Huxley's 1st birthday (thank you for all the sweet birthday wishes!) and some official great news!

Our road-trip to Winnie, TX to meet halfway with my mom and her hubby. Boooooo!

We were having lunch at the ONLY restaurant in Winnie, TX and I got a text from my boo saying he officially received his offer letter for a HUGE promotion at Dell and he starts June 30th!!!!!!!!

We all Cheers'ed to my sweet man! So proud of him!

Last night as much as we miss Maddie, we were so happy to just be alone at home together, and the LION King was on!! This was my fav Disney movie growing up. On the way home, I had picked up a bottle of champagne so we could toast to this new amazing opportunity Scott has! The rest of the night we relaxed and were conked out by 11!

How was everyone's weekend????

Thankful

The past two weeks spending with my baby sis have been incredibly amazing! I only get to see her about every 4-6 months since she lives in Louisiana, and for being 10 years apart, it is ridiculous how much fun we have.

This girl has been through so much in her 14 years of life already living the first half with our struggling family: my dad losing a company/us going bankrupt at 2yrs old, my parents divorce at 5 yrs old, my dad's cancer and passing at 12, and moving constantly... [Now she is in a great school (3.9 GPA!!!!) and my mom is re married to a wonderful man and they have a gorgeous home in Louisiana]  She is so strong as a person and just has so much faith. I love that she loves Christian contemporary music like me, and she loves going to Church- she is just a shining child of God and it makes me want to be a better Christian just being around her. Even in just the past two weeks, I'd come home from work and be stressed and she thinks I am nuts for taking things too seriously and just tells me to have faith and let it go. Ahh so lucky to have her in my life!!

We have been best friends her whole life but mainly since we shared a room when she was 3 years old, and as a music fiend I used to lock her in my room and JAM OUT to the Eastside Boys, Lil Jon, and I got her rapping to "to the windowwwwws" at 4 yrs old. Yep my mom was proud. It was the CLEAN version, okay!? Hello I was 13! :-)

10 years later, and we still crank the radio to the highest and try our best to rap to Nikki Minaj songs and gangsta music. She is determined to get me to learn all the words to Superbass haha, I just can't it's too fast!

Anyway, back to faith! I was saying yesterday how I had missed Church last Sunday, and I have been itching to be in the house of the Lord and just be thankful! We have so many blessings happening in our little family lately. Scott's dad is doing really well at work and he finally found a place in Austin to live where he is by himself (no crazy roomates) and happy...

Another blessing to be thankful for... Scott has been working his butt off like crazy at Dell for over 2 years, literally being in the top 5 out of 400 sales reps on the floor, and we have gotten the verbal (not written juuust yet-but I just know) confimation of a pretty significant promotion that he has been wanting for so long!! He would be working in Specialized Public Accounts still at Dell, and working 2 days a week from home, and let's just say our last buddy that went into that position said it changed his life: He was able to buy his first home, get engaged, have a wedding, etc.;-) No, we are completely happy and fine where we are at together, I believe God will let us know in our hearts when we are ready to take our next step in our relationship. This promotion in Scott's life right now is just such a huge blessing! We are so excited to see what God has planned in our lives. I'm so happy and proud for my boo. :)

All of this constantly reminds me of how much Faith is just so important. I'm not the best at writing about my faith or how to live by God, sometimes I just get lost in a certain song that describes perfectly what I'm feeling, or verses that stand out to me. I love these little sayings I have found on Pinterest lately...

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I am so in love with this verse.

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I want to love this way. :-) I love these where you can find the scriptures accordingly.

I'm most thankful that I realize how far we've come. 3 years ago, Scott and I had bad jobs, barely made enough money to live comfortably, didn't have sweet Huxley, we fought more than I'd like to admit, we were irresponsible and made bad decisions that hurt ourselves and each other, and today we are so blessed with not just jobs but great careers, a gorgeous apartment, a cute fur baby, being more involved and a part of the Church,  and being happy above all things.

This song by Kutless has been on my heart lately too as it is the best to listen to when you are in trying times, needing a little push of faith, or just grateful knowing that you AREN'T alone. My fav part of the song describse that with those same hands that were used in creating us and the world, we are lifted and carried by God everyday.

What are you thankful for lately?

linking up with The Vintage Apple

Trip to D-town

Happy Monday, friends! I am so glad to be back and no more traveling for at least a few weeks, phew! This past week if you caught up with my last Monday's randoms... I went on my first ever biz trip with my new job to the Hilton Anatole (formerly the Lowes Anatole) to meet up with dozens of groups of small business owners (in the IT field) and also all of the vendors that we work with.

This hotel is just absolutely beautiful... When it was the Lowes Anatole, they had a theme to the hotel of a Singapore so there were huge sculptures and in one of the main hallways there are life-size elephant statues. Pretty cool!

During the day were 8 hour long trainings in a very cold meeting room, but the speakers were incredible and it was very interactive so I got so much out of it!

 

By night time, we were partyin' on the Vendors dollar! Look at these entrees I completely overinduldged in.....

 

The first night we had a "Mad Men" themed poker party! Mustaches and all....

 

 

Second night we were served the Salmon you see above & the dessert, alongside some Calamari and these small flatbreads that were just soooo mouthwatering good!

Every night the Vendors and youngsters like me were up til about midnight (or 1 ish ha) drinking and networking... let's just say by the end of this trip everyone decided I fit riiiight in & loved me!- it was such a blast to meet and get along with all of these successful people!

I can't say enough how even just last month I was stressing and working my life away just being miserable... and this new job has been a life-changing experience so far, feeling so blessed and free now to be a 23 year old Austinite EVEN when working a full time job! So I'm linking up with Heather as this 1/2 Cup Full is definitely how I'm feeling lately! God is so good.

By Thursday though, I was soooo happy to be coming home to this little man...

Hope all of you Mothers and Fur-Mommy's like me had a wonderful Mother's day! Scottie surprised me with a bottle of my favorite Dolce Wine and our besties Ashley and Justin came over and I grilled some Fajitas for us... Annalee also decided to join us :) I can't get enough of this cute little gal...

By the way, look how adorbs Annalee looks in this headband I got from Mallorie a few weeks ago!

 

This girl is so talented you should always get your baby headbands from her!! You can see her whole shop [[here]]!

Anyway, I didn't get to spend Mother's day with my mom this year, but I definitely made sure my other siblings pampered her to the fullest! I miss mama tons, but I'll get to see her on June 9th as I make my way to Winnie, TX to pick up Maddie and we're having a girls night at a random hotel there. Should be fun!

 

What did you do for Mothers day?? Were you pampered? Did you get to do something fun with your momma!?

New Job, New Car, Mom's Wedding, & Retreat

Just by reading the title of this, you can already imagine the insanity of the past 2 weeks of my life!

I made a huge choice to put in my two weeks at Dell after so many months of stress, feeling like I wasn't good at what I was doing even though I was one of over 50 people who felt the same way. Everytime I would hear a snide remark or see another day go by that I wasn't hitting my sales quota goals, I'd motivate myself to research for another opportunity. I prayed over and over about the decisions coming up in my life and how I would handle them, what I would do, etc.

Well after going to one and ONLY one interview, it was a done deal. I met with the CEO of my new company for coffee and for what was only going to take a few minutes I thought - lasted two and a half hours! We talked forever! I truly enjoyed hearing about how passionate he was about this company and the success of it. It's a small company under 50 people, and I'll be the only one in my position, so will definitely be making a HUGE difference. No more quotas, no more just being a number. I will be doing Sales and Marketing for a local Medical IT Company in Austin. What's even better?! I work on SoCo! For those that don't know, South Congress is one of the best roads in Austin with the best shops, restaurants, and if you haven't been you are missing out!! My commute isn't all that bad, but when I feel like it is, I can work from home! If you can't tell, I already am in love with my job. No more cubicles, I have a beautiful office with two huge windows that overlook SoCo!

Anyway, I had to share what a blessing this has been to me. I am so looking forward to this new journey and can't wait to see what the future holds! Here are some pictures of my office!

New Jeep on the bottom right? Oh yes, that's me!!

Another blessing is buying a new car...well, JEEP... or SUV? Hehe! I couldn't be more happy with it! I sold my 1998 Mazda Protege and upgraded to a new Jeep Compass!

Also got a new pair of Cowgirl boots.. my very first pair! Scottie is too good to me!

Put on these babies and headed to Dripping Springs for a Nutty Browns Concert to see Brantley Gilbert!

It was so fun until we were leaving and it slipped my mind to take my hand OUT of our friend's truck door before Scott slammed it shut! :( Ouch!

No worries, nothing broken or bleeding, but they did have to CUT OFF my ring! I was really sad because this is my dad's first promise ring he gave to my mom almost 30 years ago and when they divorced he gave it to me... I am already having it repaired...

I had to wear a splint at the wedding! I was devestated, but with running around on my mom's wedding day I knew the moment I'd take it off feeling rebellious I'd really smash it doing something not even thinking about it! Haha

Anyway, her wedding was beautiful! I will have a whole post dedicated to her wedding, but unfortuantely I didn't catch all of the pictures that I had wanted to since I was IN the wedding. The photographer did though, so stay tuned :-)

Isn't she stunning!? She is so happy :-)

Myself, best friend Suzy, & Maddie (my mini me!)

Three days after we got back to Austin from the wedding, we took another 4 hour drive right northeast of Conroe, TX to the Retreat at Artesian Lakes for a relaxing weekend with Scott's sister and her hubby. Unfortunately I forgot to do a group photo and they never took pictures, so I only caught a few and here they are!

It was beauiful, relaxing, we went fishing several times, drank by the fire, swam in the lake, fed Mr. Edwin the Elgin Sausage eating Alligator, and Scott took me canoeing for hours just exploring the lakes... pretty cool each dead end to a part of these lakes always had a hidden tunnel you could take where it opened up on the other side!! I wanna go back... like now :)

Hope you enjoyed my picture-FULL post & new changes! More in detail post to come!

PS - This new job also allows me to blog again - wahoo!! My recipes will be back and deeeericious!

XO

LINKING UP WITH:

No Work, All Play :)

Yesterday, we had a Rep Appreciation day for our little Business Sales floor and went to Main Event in Austin. We worked maybe 3-4 hours or so, and then went off to enjoy the rest of the day thanks to Trend-Micro for providing us all of the food and reservations.

I'm Embracing my job today as I am so blessed to have such a fun and stable job, and one that I will not take for granted.

Anyway, here is just a recap of our fun time yesterday! These are my favorite work days! ;-)




Bottom Right Pic: Totally bowled a 114! Woohoo winna winna!

 

It was a ton of fun! Overload of yummy food, and I ran into an old manager I knew from Dave and Busters (previous employer for 4+years) and also just a little tidbit about me, Main Event was my very first job (ever) and I ran into my old manager -- I worked there over 6.5 years ago! Crazy.. 

After everyone left, I left with my girl friend Candice and we headed towards one of our favorite places for Happy Hour! Kona Grill! :-) Funny enough, I ran into yet another old manager but this time it was my old sales team from my recent job I got promoted from! I was so happy to see my old team and my girls Katrina and Ashly! Love love love them!

I am so blessed to have a job and work for a company that loves their employees and appreciates them. We get offsites, free lunch, free products, great benefits, and good pay, and it is stable. Now - we work really hard and it can be really stressful in sales, but still I can't rave on it enough how happy I am to be a part of this company and everything it stands for.

I'm linking up today with Emily from The Anderson Crew for Embracing the Camera. Feel free to click the link or the picture and see what others are Embracing today!