Wake Up Nicole

I'm cross-eyed over here from looking at the computer screen too long... The past few days I've been trying to get my classroom cleaned out and looking online for jobs and a place to live in Durham.  There have just been dead ends all around, really.

Tomorrow we have someone coming to look at the house.  Please pray that it gets rented!  

I thought I'd leave you with this picture of a now-deceased friend I found in the bathroom closet.  It's not a cockroach.  It's a cricket. :)

Rent Our House

One of the hardest parts about leaving the US is leaving this house.  I would love to live in it for the rest of my life.  It's the perfect house for entertaining, raising kids, balancing life in the city, etc.  It has a mountain cabin feel with mature trees and a peaceful lake view, but it's 60 seconds from 285.  Our dream is to come back to it when we're done in England, but who knows what God has planned for us?  We hope to be able to rent it out fully furnished for $1200 a month while we're away.  Do you know anyone who would benefit from such an an arrangement? 

The "glass room," as we call it has a view of our expansive new deck as well as the lake behind the house.

This is the view from the other side of the room.

Dining room

Kitchen

More kitchen

Guest room

Guest bathroom

View from guest bathroom to guest bedroom

Master bedroom

Sitting area in master bedroom

Deck

View from deck (the light stuff in the background is water)

Our humble abode

It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and an optional third bedroom or office.  It's in a quiet neighborhood 15 minutes from downtown, 20 minutes from the airport, 5 minutes from Whitefield, 15 minutes from Christ Church, 10 minutes from Westside.  Basically, it's close to just about everything.  If you're interested or know someone who is, please leave a comment, call me, or e-mail me and I can give you more information.  Thanks.

Sniff, sniff...

Robin's Surprise Graduation

My cousin Robin is one of my favorite people in my life.  She used to dress up (clowns, bunnies, cartoon characters) for my birthday parties and babysit my sister and me all the time.  We grew up living on the same street.  We are so proud that she is now a college graduate!  Robin will be the best teacher in the world, especially after having home schooled her two awesome boys. 

Unfortunately, we weren't able to attend her graduation, so my parents and Nathan and I decided to surprise her by showing up at her family's church, putting together an impromptu graduation party, and taking her out to lunch.  Robin follows this blog consistently, and I didn't want her knowing we were going out to California, which is a reason I hadn't posted for a good long while.  Anyway, her husband and sons were in on it as well.  When the pastor asked if there were any visitors at church that morning, the four of us stood up a few rows behind her, and Robin screamed and started crying - right there in the middle of church!  It was so great to be able to surprise her and support her in her accomplishments.

Here is the proud graduate.

Derek, Robin, Dalton, and Dillon

After several attempts, we finally got a "serious smile" out of Nathan.

My mom and dad with Robin

The whole gang outside of the lunch restaurant

June's Time Out Chair

So, apparently June is old enough to be disciplined.  She doesn't mind getting spanked, and sometimes laughs at this form of punishment.  It seems the apple doesn't fall too far from the ol' tree.  What June HATES is being away from where the action is and the fun people are.  She cries this most mournful cry when she's taken away from the fun.  My sister found the cutest little chair at a garage sale, which now serves as June's time out chair.  So sad!

Here is my sister demonstrating June's pouty face.

Yosemite

Nathan, my dad, and I went to Yosemite for a few days, which was really beautiful.  Because of all the rainfall this last winter, the waterfalls were overflowing with so much water!  There were dozens of them all over the place.  We spent most of our time on the Yosemite Valley floor, just admiring the beauty of God's creation.

 

This is Nathan climbing El Capitan, a sheer rock face of over 3000 feet.  He calls this his "Cliffhanger" pose.  Never mind that he's only two feet off of the ground.

Family Time in California

Right after school got out, Nathan and I split the sultry South and headed out to God's country, California, where avocados are only 25 cents each. I was so shocked by this I had to take a picture of my sister with the blessed produce.

We spent a lot of time with my folks. We had dinner at my sister and brother-in-law's and had s'mores in their fire pit afterward.

Kristen, Nathan, and Nick had a contest to see how many marshmallows they could stuff into their mouths.

Look how big June Bug has gotten!

Here she is getting her bath in my parents' sink.

Nathan and I were also able to have a three hour lunch with Mrs. Grueber, the wife of my high school principal and a very dear friend, over salad and breadsticks at Olive Garden.

Amy, why didn't I get a picture of us with your awesome cast?  Because I'm a forgetful and horrible friend, that's why.

I'm 29!

For my 29th birthday on May 27, Nathan surprised me with a huge bouquet of gardenia trimmings from our neighbors' gargantuan bush.  They let us have as many blooms we want, and I had previously picked about 10 to float in a bowl on the dining room table.  Nathan put the vase overflowing with blooms next to my little bowl, and then he woke me up to see my birthday gift.  "Sorry I upstaged your arrangement," he smirked.  You can see both of our gardenia arrangements below.

That day was very tumultuous, as I learned after I said goodbye to my students for the summer that I wouldn't be able to return in the fall.  Understandably, the school wanted someone for my position for the whole year, not just one semester like I had hoped.  I was so bummed that I wasn't able to tell them the news myself or teach them again, but Nathan cheered me up by taking me to a restaurant I'd been wanting to go to for years - Watershed.  The food was picturesque.

Our appetizer was some sort of toast with mushrooms and cheese on top.  Scrumptious!

We also had some butterbean hummus and veggies to make up for the unhealthy foods we were about to enjoy.

This was my meal.  A pork chop with collard greens and macaroni and cheese.  Wow!

Nathan had catfish, hush puppies, and coleslaw.  

Here we are finishing off our tasty meal with some chocolate cake. 

To finish the day, Nathan gave me my "birthaversary" gift, a binder full of this whole blog!  He formatted it, printed it, and presented it to me.  What a treasure it is... and he is.

Thanks, Love, for making my 29th birthday a memorable one.  I love you.

Diabetes Sisters Conference

Thanks to this fabulous diabetes blogger, I heard about the first ever conference specifically for women with diabetes.  It was subsidized by many companies, so the cost was only $100 for two full days of workshops, a night at the Marriott in Raleigh, NC, and three meals.  I e-mailed the only other type 1 diabetic woman I know, and she agreed to come with me.  We drove to Raleigh with her husband, also a Nathan, just before finals week at school and had such a great time.  

It was so cool during that first meal to hear all of the sounds that I'm only used to hearing coming from me - the lancets poking, the meters testing, the pumps pumping.  For the first few hours, every stray beep made me look down at my pump to see what was wrong.  After a while I was able to distinguish between different brands and models of equipment ("I think that was a Minimed/Omnipod/Animas/Ultralink meter/CGM/pump" etc.). The best part of the whole weekend for me was just sitting around talking to the women around me and hearing their stories.  I felt so blessed to be able to have been there for the landmark event.

Here is Jamie, me, and Tanya, who we met at the conference.

Okay, I have to admit that a highlight of the conference for me was getting to wear Nicole Johnson's Miss America crown.  She reigned in 1999 and also has type 1 diabetes.

You may be wondering what will happen with my diabetes care when we move to England.  Well, I hope to continue doing what I've been doing, but we'll have to wait and see.  I definitely won't get my choice as far as doctors are concerned, but I plan on self-advocating heavily to make sure I can keep my current routine (same supplies, pump, etc.)  Today I found and joined two internet groups for people with diabetes in the UK.  One is very official and the other is a little more irreverent.  Feel free to click on the links to check them out.

Spring Has Sprung

I know that "spring done sprung" in Atlanta, but I wanted to share this picture Nathan took of some baby birdies in a nest in our carport.  I think they've already flown away from home.  They weren't there when we got back from the family reunion yesterday.  Chirp!

Story Time with Kathy

Way, way back on May 17th, Kathy (the woman standing next to me), my spiritual godmother came for a visit to be with her son and his family while he recovered from heart surgery.  She was able to come to my house and share her testimony with some wonderful women from my church and school.  She was such a blessing!  I hope to visit her - and not-so-coincidentally my parents - in Indiana late this summer.  Thanks Kathy!

Big News

We're moving to England!  I changed the blog layout to mark the beginning of a new chapter in our lives.  Do you like it?  It's very... worldly (in a good way).

I apologize for the lack of posting this last month.  The month of May was particularly stressful, with many life decisions up in the air, but now our plans are firm (barring an act of God), and Nathan and I are excited about the future.  Okay, I'm very stressed, but I'm excited too.

To make a very long story short, Nathan and I are making the transition to Durham, England, on September 1.  Nathan will be pursuing his PhD at the University of Durham in Historical Theology, and we will be there for three years.

I'm sure you have questions.  I have a million floating around in my head, and I'm not sure where to begin.  There's just so much to tell you!  I'll just write a list of whatever comes to my head first.

- We were hoping to start in January, as Nathan didn't hear back from any of the schools to which he applied until late May, but God closed the doors at both of our jobs.  Therefore, we decided that we probably needed the push out of the nest to get started sooner.

- We're on a wait list for married student housing at the university, so we'll probably have to find a flat when we arrive.  No one will take a reservation without a deposit.  We can't make a deposit unless we have a British bank account.  We can't have a British bank account until we show up in person.

- I will be able to work there with no problem, as I will be an "international student dependent."  I first have to get a number (like an equivalent of a SSN) that will enable me to do so, which I can't get until I have an address and a bank account.  So... I'll have to wait to get a job there.

- We will be keeping both of our houses (our primary residence and a rental property) and renting them out as a means of generating some passive income while we're away.  The tenants at our rental house are AWESOME, and their lease is up in January.  Our house will be available in August or September fully furnished to help save on storage costs.  Plus, we love our house and would like to come back to it, Lord willing.  We're going to try renting them out for a year.  If it works, great.  If not, we'll sell one or both.

Okay, this is getting long.  I will stop here for now.  I have a lot of pictorial updates for you, as Nathan and I returned from a good visit with my family from May 30-June 10, and a Parker family reunion from June 12-16.  I think I'll do that in the near future.  I'm just really overwhelmed now with all of the details that need to be taken care of to prepare for an international move in a matter of 9 weeks.

If you have a burning question, please leave a comment and I'll try my best to answer it ASAP.  Please keep us in your prayers.  Like I said, I'm excited but I'm also extremely stressed!