Answered Prayers

We have a lot to celebrate this week in the Huntley household!

As y'all know, I interviewed last week for the Elementary Director position at our church, Pulpit Rock Church. This past Tuesday, I found out that I got the job! I start on Monday, Oct. 29th! Thankfully, the ladies who will be leaving the team will be on staff for 2 weeks to train me, so I'll be learning under them until Sunday Nov. 11th. I am so excited to get started!

Our other reason to celebrate has been in the works for only the last week. Nate is transferring to CCU (Colorado Christian University) to continue his studies. He met with an admissions adviser on Monday and found out yesterday that he is accepted and gets to start classes on December 9th! I am so extremely proud of him. He is switching his major to Biblical Studies/Theology and will get to cut his time left in school by half. Then he plans on getting his teaching certification after graduating. Thankfully, CCU has a branch here in the springs so he won't have to commute up to Denver for classes. Also, they have a block schedule where he will take one class at a time, but still get 3 classes done in a semester.

We are beyond excited. This week we have enjoyed seeing how God showed off for us above and beyond our expectations. And now to top it off, we have snow predicted for the next couple days! 
How has God showed off for you lately?

Busy Week

Hi y'all!
I hope this week has been a good one for each and every one of you. It has been for me! I really am enjoying my time between jobs. I was afraid I was going to get bored, lazy and feel like I was a useless bump on a log, but thankfully that has not happened. I have been able to continue getting my daily walks (granted I miss one here and there), I have finally felt like I'm keeping my apartment clean consistently and I have energy when Nate gets home from work. I feel like a whole new me!

Yesterday I had an interview for the position I have been hoping to get since I quit at my dad's office. I got a little nervous, but thankfully was able to maintain my composure during the interview and answered the questions without too many "umms" and "uhs." (Thanks Mom for teaching me how to speak well and present myself well to others!) It did help that I interviewed with several people I know personally, but regardless it was a great interview. I'll find out next week whether or not I get the job.

Last weekend, I was a part of a garage sale with some friends. I was reminded of how much I love getting to sell my "junk" and make money for it! It was an added blessing that I also got to spend two days with some good friends. On Friday we got rained out for about 40 minutes, but we pulled stuff into the carport and suprisingly people still stopped by during the rain. Overall the garage sale was a success. I got rid of a bunch of my stuff and made some extra money. Yesterday I took the remaining stuff that I can't sell on Craigslist and dropped it at the Arc. Afterwards, I came home and posted some of the remaining bigger items on Craigslist.

Craigslist has become my new best friend. I have sold and found many things on there and I have gotten some GREAT deals! On Monday I bought some crafting supplies and storage items (easily over $200 worth of stuff) for $60. There were several things that I didn't want that were in one of the lots of craft items and I was able to sell those and make back $20! Anyways, I hope to make some more money on items I still have posted, but until then, I'm going to focus on getting this apartment back into order! Have a great Thursday!

A New Chapter

Yesterday marked the end of my 6 year long chapter at The Family Practice. I truly loved my time there as an employee, but, as y'all know, God made it very clear to me that He has something else planned. It was a slightly tearful morning at the office yesterday, but I've decided to focus on all the fun memories instead of the fact that I won't see my former coworkers every day. It was great to get to work with my father as his employee, but I have to admit that I'm glad I get to go back to just being his daughter.

I've gotten a lot of people asking me, "What's next?" Well, I applied for a job last week as the Elementary Director at our church. I'm really hopeful that I will get this position. It will only be for 20 hours a week, but I would get to work at the same place as Nate. Also, when I decided I needed to quit at The Family Practice, I knew I wanted to work with kids and serve. This position does that and is still part-time. I want to thank those of you who have been so supportive and encouraging to me during these last few months. My husband and family have been especially wonderful!

As I look ahead to this new chapter, there is still lots of uncertainty and change. I won't know about whether or not I'll get the job at Pulpit Rock Church until mid October. During the next couple weeks I'm planning on getting some rest, catching up with some friends, helping my mom out and getting into a better habit of working out. I am also hoping that I'll be more consistent about blogging (although once a month is much better than I did over the last six months!). I will keep y'all updated more as I find out answers as to where God will place me job-wise.

Peace in the Midst of Uncertainty

This last week has been a little hectic and stressful. I'm in the process of phasing out of both of my jobs and, while I know I'm following God's leading, I have had a few panic sessions. God made it very clear to me, earlier this Summer, that I was to leave my long-time job as a Medical Assistant at my father's family practice office. Right about the time I made the decision public knowledge, He provided a part-time job at our church in the finance department. (I'm filling in for a lady on materninty leave) With only 3 weeks left, my job at The Family Practice is winding down and my job at our church is coming to a close as well. I will "technically" be part time at both jobs through the end of the month, but the regular finance specialist at our church comes back Monday and I'm noticing I'm needed less and less at TFP. As my hours continue to decrease, my panic level increases. I have had dozens of conversations with my husband, Nate, and he always assures me that we will be OK financially. He also continues to ask me not to stress about the decrease in my income. The math shows that we will be OK financially as long as my income is at least half of what I was making before (which it still is and likely will continue to be). However my faith challenges me to accept that we will be OK financially no matter what!

Each time I feel the panic approaching, I try to remind myself of why I'm doing this in the first place. God has been trying to get me to release control in this area for a long time and I finally heard Him--thankfully He opened my eyes and ears when a friend had the insight to sit me down and help me take a deep look at some things. I am so thankful for that friend and for her taking the time to sit, listen, ask the right questions and hug me while I cried.  [Reality is that I'm more of a control freak than I ever thought and security of a job/consistent income is more important to me than I realized.] I have had so much more peace since deciding to follow His prompts and take the giant leap of faith by quitting my job and looking for a part-time replacement.

As I pursue what "the next step" looks like for my job, I am praying that I don't miss anything. I tend to be the kind of individual who "hears" what God wants me to do and just full-on barrels on in that direction. Whether or not He tries to take me through a detour or a different path to get there, I think I know where He wants me and tune Him out from then on. Usually this ends with me running into a dead end pretty hard and only then realizing that I'm not where He wants me. Please pray with me that I'll take this one step at a time and be willing to change and flex along with God's plan for my life.

Celebrating the small victories

I decided to step on the scale this morning at work to check my progress. My last weigh in was frustrating. I've been hovering between the same 2lbs for over a month now. I'm trying to be patient with my body, but at that time I decided to step it up by logging my food intake and exercising for at least 2 weeks. I decided that if I see progress, I'll obviously keep it up, but if I didn't see progress I would let myself stop logging. I also have been increasing my activity level over the last couple weeks. This week I got sick again, but still plan to go work out tonight eventhough I gave myself the last two days off.
This morning when I stepped on the scale I had dropped the 2lbs!
I'm elated! Needless to say, I'm going to continue to log AND keep my workout schedule of at least 4 workouts/week at 45 min or more.
Thanks for all your encouragement!

Be Still and Know...

This past weekend, Nate and I got to enjoy a solid 48 hours work-free! I commented at the end of it that it felt like a mini vacation. Friday we got to sleep in, hang out at home, make good food, work out and then went to small group and fellowshipped with good friends. Saturday we slept in, sold some stuff we had listed on Craigslist, drive up to Woodland Park and walk around, and then we headed home and had a great evening in.
I know it may not sound like much--or it may sound like more than some of y'all have had in a while--but we were truly blessed. I feel like we have been "going" all summer without much of a breather. Not everything that has happened this summer was bad, but it still has been busy. Nate and I got to sit with each other, take a deep breath and hit the "reset" button.
I have to admit, it was a little hard to truly let myself relax because I have been struggling with the fact that in less than a month, I'll be without a job. I know God will remain faithful. I have complete faith that this step I am taking is where God wants me, subsequently, I know it's time to trust God to provide whether I get another job right away or not. This weekend was exactly what I think my soul needed. I needed to just enjoy the simple parts of everyday life with my wonderful husband and not over-analyze "what I need to be doing to make more money so we will be OK."
As I write this, I ask y'all to join me in prayer for God to provide the right job in the right timing for me. More importantly, I'm asking for him to increase my ability to be patient and trust Him.
How has God been stretching your faith recently?

Back in the saddle again

Hi all! (or those of you who do read these)
I'm back! I realized that it's been four or five months since I've blogged at all and I was shocked at how fast time flew!

It's been a good, yet crazy, several months! My sister, Amy, got married (the picture above is of Nate, myself and The Bakers!), we went struggled through a devastating fire (thankfully my parents were spare loss, but were out of their house for almost three weeks) and I have had some major changes in my personal life too.
I've transitioned to part-time at my dad's family practice office and will be done there by the end of September. Meanwhile to keep our income up until October, I'm filling in for someone on maternity leave in our church's financial department. I'm loving the finance job! I'm learning new things every day and just truly enjoying working in such a wonderful environment.
As far as what we are looking ahead to this Fall and Winter:
Nate starts classes again next week, he is taking one class this semester as we hope to pay for the rest of his schooling in cash. He will have to take things a little slower, but it'll be worth it in the long run. Also, next month we pay off our medical debt!!! We will be debt free except for our student loans! We have been so blessed through our journey thus far and look forward to continuing it, maybe a little less intensly, but pursuing a debt free life none-the-less!
Also, as I'm going down to part-time work starting in October, I will be focusing on our Herbalife business. As I look forward to getting that up and running, I know it'll be a lot of hard work. I'm excited to be able to use our Herbalife business to help others to pursue the healthy lifestyle that they desire.
I hope y'all are getting into the swing of the Fall routine. What are you looking forward to most?
~Signing off~