Keep up

It feels like forever since I posted. My work is keeping me busy! I am doing 5 8hour days right now. I am ready to be done with that one. Next week I start 4 10hour days. I am excited to report that I am officially working in the nursing area. I have been floating all around the office learning the different things that go on. I am working with Tiffany, who is great! James is still applying and looking for new jobs. Keep him in our prayers.
As for what we have been up to, we went to Chuck-e-Cheeses on Monday night for a birthday. James was fixed on earning the kids as many tickets as possible. I am not sure who had more fun. You be the judge...

Faith and Plinko

James had an especially fun time at church today. One of the advantages of living with the head of production is we get the inside scoop. Carlos even selected James to be a game show player this morning. Here are a few clips from my seat of his fun times.



Yes, the Host called us "freeloaders." (smile, thanks to the whittakers)
He ended up winning 221 pennies and got a starbucks gift card.

I think that the best part of church was actually the sermon. Even though Vicky Beeching was amazing and Plinko really raised my spirits, we were taught on faith. This subject, as you can tell by my blog title, is an area of my life God is growing. Before we moved God gave me many verses to encourage my journey of Faith (aka coming to Atlanta). Abraham and the great faith chapter Hebrews 11 were one of the things I was really drawn to.

vs 8 "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going."

Where is God calling you? How are you doing at listening? Do you even know what God has promised you? (these are just a few things that have been on my heart. Don't worry I will share more when the time comes)

FAITH is more than having HOPE and wishing God might bless you. It is BELIEVING He will do all he has promised and DOING what He instructed.

Birth Control

Today was Sohaila's birthday party. There were about 15 6-year-olds running around. That does not do justice to the craziness and obscene amount of food that ended up on the floor. I am just not ready for this yet. Heather did a great job and the party was a great success, but WE are not there yet. I have been wondering lately what God is up to. When are we going to start a family. What are we going to be doing here. The Lord spoke to me today... "this too shall pass." We shall see what this week brings.

Looking forward to Vicki Beeching tomorrow. We had dinner with her tonight. I just love the British accent. We missed you Eddie. She would have loved to meet you. And Cheryl, Matt, the Third Day guitar player, was here this afternoon. If that is not a sign for you two to move here I am not sure what is.

You have got to be kidding me

James didn't get the job. After 2 weeks of interviews and driving and taking tests and working a 9 hour day they informed him that this is not the right time. I might have been a little angry and wanted to call that man and give him some of my thoughts on the disrespect he just showed my husband, but I did not. I might have even shot myself in the foot when I told God that we cannot go back into ministry. we shall see.. eeek...


As for me, I was the mad scientist today. This is Shana' (pronounced sha-nay). She is the pharmacy tech and I was her assistant. She has the sweetest laugh and a fun southern accent. We had a great time talking. The above picture is where I was mixing chemo under the hood and looking up chemical compositions and compatibilities (Jeff would be so proud). I actually did it all myself today. I mixed every chemo administered by the nurses. I am so proud. Tomorrow I get one more day of mad scientist then I am off for the afternoon to learn the insurance side of things, which I am sure is not as fun as today, but good experience. bla bla bla

Wow Wednesday

I can't believe it is already wednesday. I have worked 2 days now! Yesterday they started me off in the lab and let me tell you that poking adults is very different from kids! I am just doing the normal introductions and tours of each department. The next few days I am in the pharmacy mixing chemos..... oooh..... important ha??? This is a picture of the evil poking device. Good news though, I got every one.
James had an exciting day as well. We are in the south 1 month and James has a red neck, literally. He spent the day on a "ride-along." He went to one of the events that he may be selling (pending they offer him the job). We hope to find out by the end of this week if he gets the job. He is meeting the owner of the company tomorrow and taking a personality test.... he has had to jump through so many hoops for this. I will keep you posted.

Lazy Sunday

Today was not too exciting. James and I messed around, looked at townhomes, went to the movies, ate lunch and later took a walk to Bruesters. It is an ice cream chain we do not have in CA and I love ice cream, so I had to show and tell. Here you see me eating some yummy ice cream. Never fear- I got the frozen yogurt and we walked the 3 mile round trip to get there(still trying to loose weight :). I will just tell myself that the walk canceled out the ice cream.

As for this morning, going to church is so different now. Its not about how I feel walking through the doors, or who is looking and judging and asking questions I don't want to answer, feeling uncomfortable, feeling unwelcome and disconnected from a family; even though I know none of that should matter. I am here to hear God speaking to me. Today we started a series about Faith. A topic I will undoubtedly expound upon in depth at some point. For the first time in a long time, it was just me listening to hear what GOD was telling ME, Alyssa. I am excited to be moved, again.

We got a new Truck...??? ...

But we cannot drive it until Monday. We were not very prepared...




Apparently when you go to buy a vehicle at a dealership you need a few things:

1) Verification of employment (which I didn't have because I don't start my job until Tuesday. I didn't even know the phone number... he he he)

2) A valid GA drivers license (we just moved here and since we didn't know we were going to do it Monday before we pick up the car, but wouldn't you know it.. DMV is closed on Mondays. So we will see how that goes)

AND 3) Proof of insurance (guess what our CA policy expires midnight Sunday so we arranged a new one, but being that we are dropping them they will not want to rewrite our policy for 48 hours. Even if they did they are not open on weekends to call and ask)


My New Truck from alyssa culin on Vimeo.

So we will try to pick up the truck on Monday. Hopefully we will not have to sit behind "the desk" very long again...

Next thing on our list.

I am overwhelmed at how wonderful all my readers are!! Thank for loving us, thanks for praying for us, and thanks for caring enough to follow my blog.

The next step seems to be difficult for us. We spent the whole day looking for a car. We want a small truck. We are not asking for a lot, but we can;t seem to find what we are looking for. Tomorrow is another day. And I am not very fond of car sales men right now.

Here is a video of James' randomness. he had fun with this...



I didn't want to leave you hanging about James' job perspectives. He had a third interview and they really like him, but they had already committed to interviewing two other applicants this week. Lets hope they are not right for this job. He will find out for sure at the end of next week.

I got a job

This was James last week rushing through his lunch between interviews.

Yes that's right, I Have a Job!!!! I was officially hired today. I start next Tuesday bright and early. I have crossed over to the adult world. I am a chemo infusion nurse in an outpatient cancer center. It is 10 hours a day, 4 days a week (the day off rotates). I am so excited for no more weekends or holidays or night shifts. I can be a normal person :P.

And I owe it all to my wonderful brother Jeff Koning! Thanks for lookin' out Family.

Another week

Another week begins and James and I have no jobs. Although last week was not a complete waste... we have high hope for this one.

James had an interview with a corporate events company and they liked him so much they had him come back later that afternoon for a second interview. It also went well, but no one here seems to be in a rush, so we are waiting for an interview with another company and a follow-up for this week.

As for me, I went to the interview at the out-patient chemo clinic for adults. I was about 2 hours long and they want me to come back this week sometime for a few hours to shadow a nurse and see if it is a good fit for me.

Church today was again amazing! It has been so refreshing to go and just WORSHIP Him. The God that has called us to encounter His mercy and peace met us there today.
Thanks for listening Cheryl to the crazy emotions today, miss you sis.

Goodbye Batmobile

Thanks Eddie for all the hard work of showing this car and taking the phone calls and collecting and depositing the cash for us! Last night we sold the Acura. It went for way way below blue book, but it was still in the price range of what we wanted. This is one small step towards making ATL home. We are starting to look for our own vehicle to buy out here now. Thinking of a truck to move all our stuff. I am sure there will be pictures later.

Problems in the fish bowl

So this is just a random picture of the Whittaker's Fish. I am sure that Carlos will be updating everyone soon, but I just love putting pictures up here. In case you couldn't tell... this fish is upside down (which is not a good thing). They are in some mild respiratory distress sue to a small misunderstanding on how to clean the fish tank. Glad to report they are getting better. And all are still alive.

Tonight was our first small group meeting and I loved it! Heather and I made dinner. She whipped up some amazing grind it up in the food processor, invent it as you go, use only fresh ingredients, enchiladas. And I made my white girl, white sauce, (shout out to Cheryl) casserole style enchiladas. We laughed, talked about moving across the country, and kids. I am so excited for what God has for us with this group of special people. There is even another couple (Heather and Jeff, Yea!) who moved to ATL from the riverside area recently. Thank you Lord for blessing me tonight! I feel like I have some friends.
"My cup runnith over"
(smile)

Allergy Attack

So James and I left the house at 1pm and by 6pm there was a huge cover of pollen everywhere!! James does have pretty bad allergies, but surprisingly they have not been very bad even with all the pollen. This id the front porch covered in tracks.

I have an interview with a nurse recruiter tomorrow, so we will see. James and I also went around looking at houses... the farther out of the city the less expensive it gets and for that we are excited. We will see what happens if and when we get jobs. I hope you are all planning on coming out and visiting when we get our own place. I will be asking for the dates! Can't wait to see our family and friends.

Below the street is covered in pollen as well, but don't worry, I have not sneezed once, yet.

Asian Food

Today was so much better than yesterday. I know that it is cliche, but it is amazing how much better I feel today (when I put my mind up to being in a better mood). Part of that reason might be that it is Saturday and no one will give me a job on Saturdays, so I took the opportunity to relax. But today was fun and exciting. We played with the kids and the guys played video games.



First we have the best roommates. Heather is an amazing cook, but she allows us to humble ourselves (he he he) every weekend and cook for them. So, I busted out my little white girl recipe book my Mom had made for me for Christmas years ago and selected this weekends dishes. Tonight we had Korean food. The Whittakers are like myself, having one person in your immediate family makes you Korean. James and I went to 5 different grocery stores today looking for the items that we needed to make my selected dishes. We still didn't find everything we needed, so we ended up going to our storage unit to locate a few other random items. But they all liked the Korean food we made (sorry friends you could not be here to help us enjoy it). Here is Losiah enjoying the zucchini pancakes- so you can feel like you are here with us. He is saying cheese in this photo. James was a bit distraught who states that he failed in his Asian-ness, so he heated up Mexican rice because we forgot the white rice. And the wrong rice is better than no rice at all.

I had another "what have we done" moment in one of the many grocery stores when we could not find this one random seasoning. One more thing to add to the list of things I am learning is that not every grocery carries the same stuff that the Good Ol' Stater Bros. does. That reminds me, Mom you might be getting a call to send me a few things from the store, love you.

I miss things being familiar..... like where things are at the store and how to drive to different stores. I did drive everywhere today without consulting any maps :P yea me.

Still Looking for Jobs

So James has had 2 interviews. One with a company that he wouldn't really want to work for and the other for a head hunter that is looking promising. Good for him.

As for me.... PEOPLE, is there a nursing shortage in this country or not? There has got to be a better way. So I cannot go to a hospital and talk to nurse managers and inquire about the different ward/unit that I wish to work on- I am stuck in Red tape land! Apparently how they do things out here (this is not how it was done in the CA) you have to fill out an application online, then submit your resume, then wait for a nursing recruiter to call you back (which can take weeks). Then they forward my information to the nurse manager who reads it when they get a chance. Then they may call me or may not. By the way one online application took me 2 hours to complete and I am not slow.

Needless to say... I am trying to enjoy my time off.

In other news, it rained a ton, flash flood style with thunder and lightning and everything and there was a tornado warning for the state of GA. That was exciting. We watched the crazy two lane hwy traffic and decided to stop and see a movie.

I promise I will be in a better mood tomorrow.

We have no Jobs

and what do you do when you don't have jobs... you look for a job so you can live life. Life is so empty without things to do and people to see. We are on limited funds and really don't know anyone out here. Which is why we are babysitting for Carlos and Heather tonight. We had a wonderful night of dinner and Enchanted, right before the meltdowns began. Tomorrow is another day of job hunting. These darn nurse recruiters are not calling me back. Honestly though I am enjoying my time with Heather living life as a stay at home mom.... maybe someday.