Another Goal Accomplished

If you had told me in January that you were looking in a crystal ball and seeing my life in six months and told me my life would be so different, I would have totally laughed you off. And called you crazy!

I’ve definitely whittled down my many commitments.

I’m not singing in my a cappella group anymore. I’ve honored my true feelings about feeling exhausted from a weekly commitment that started to be a drain on my happiness. I started to value my own time more. I started thinking about my own musical growth and how I used my involvement this this group as an excuse to never try new things. I still adore the women I shared this group with. I still think the time I spent – 7 years! – was all worth it. I am a seasoned performer because of this group. I can get up and sing in front of thousands of strangers without any nerves because of this experience (as we did when we sang for the Braves, where I also sang the solo for “God Bless America”). Back to honoring my true feelings though, I was unhappy and needed to move on, and I think with my honesty and willingness to go through a sabbatical before finally quitting, I was able to really extricate myself and still be friends with those I loved most in that group.

You may recall I set a goal to find a new job.

Well, I start a new job on Monday.

I did it. I found a job that is year-round, full time, and will help me grow in my career. I will still be helping young people figure out if the institution where I work is the one for them. I’ll be moving from the independent school (a.k.a. private school) world to college admissions. I’m so thrilled to be making this change. It’s going to be so much to take on, but it’s going to be good for me and will open up so many great avenues for me down the road. It’s going to be tough to leave the school where I work now, just as it was difficult to leave my singing group, but it will be worthwhile to explore this new avenue at a new institution!

And you may have heard of the place I’m going. It’s called Georgia Tech!  🙂 Yeah, it will be great, and I am so excited about working with the people I’ve met through the interview process. And I even have sorority sisters working on campus in other capacities. I’m really happy about this change. I’m so grateful to God for helping me discern this decision. I’d asked time and time again for help in figuring out my career path, and once I made up my mind it was to work in admissions, everything fell into place!

The final change in my life was precipitated by making the decision to change careers. My new job won’t allow time for me to keep coaching the cheerleaders at school. I’m pretty bummed, but I’m so happy that the girls have a great coach who’s agreed to step in and this squad is already such a great, sweet, talented bunch. I can’t wait to come back in the fall to see them cheer at games. It was such a bittersweet experience to have to give up this part of my life, but I know that it’s all for the best.

In other news, here are those renovation pics I promised:

Bathroom looking back into bedroom. The shower and bathtub are to your right, so just pretend you can see them. And we did replace that burned out bulb above the sink.

 

We used window casing to frame out our plate glass mirror. Then we painted it white.

 

Looking around the other side of the bathroom into our closet.

 

Up close and personal with the shower.

 

Pretty tub. The fixtures on the tub match the fixtures at the sink.

 

The bright blue pendant was there already. I used some matching accesories to make that color tie in to the color palate of the bathroom.

 

Ooh la la, check out that flowy granite on our vanity.

 

Vanity and Mirror. Granite and blue paint. Yay!

 

The bedroom, peeking into the bathroom.

 

Looking back toward the hallway. Don't the floors look pretty? We continue our Square theme with the Ikea bookcase. I'm using it for clothing storage in the drawers across the bottom row.

 

Looking back to the bathroom and the hall. Josef and his parents gave me that mirror for my birthday last year. It's so pretty and fits in perfectly with its new surroundings.

Did you spot Josef in the picture? 😉

Another corner of the bedroom. Josef installed those lights above the bookcase. He's so talented!

That’s a wrap, for now, on the renovation! We still need to put books in the bookcase, get bedding and curtains, and figure out artwork for the blank walls, but we will get there. We want to only put things in there that we love.

I feel so happy in our new space. Yet another change 2011 has brought about.  It’s such a nice retreat and feels so fresh and clean. The color palate really relaxes me. I enjoy that our master suite reminds me of a fancy hotel suite. Josef and I share a huge sense of accomplishment over our project. He did an amazing job organizing the outside contractors and in managing the whole project. It all happened during my busy season at work, so I helped when I could.

I offered strong opinions and helped lift things and paint things, but Josef definitely did the lion’s share and I am proud to know him and to be married to him. Love him!

Thanks for reading!