So I really wish I could just snap my fingers and our apartment would be completely put together. I keep trying, but so far, actual work has been required. Boo. Things are coming along though. Slowly coming along. Yesterday we went to Wal-Mart and bought curtains and curtain rods for the living room and both bedrooms (the only places we have windows). I was super excited about everything we found and couldn't wait to put them up. And then I started trying to put them up. Turns out we have like crazy reinforced window frames or something. If you get too close to the window, nothing goes in the wall. If you move just a bit over, you can get the screws in deceivingly well until there's about 1/4 of an inch left, and then it's just stuck there. Good luck finding the rare spot in the wall that you can actually put a screw into, and it's basically a miracle if the same spot on the opposite side of the window will work. But, after much frustration, spackle, and a trip to Arlington by my wonderful, amazing husband to get a drill from his parents, I have successfully hung the curtains in the living room and our spare bedroom. Today's task is our room. Good luck to us.

Exciting: our bed arrived yesterday! It is currently still in boxes, because the curtain ordeal pretty much zapped any manual labor desires for the day. But, hopefully today we will get it assembled and actually be able to sleep in our room instead of the guest room! Hooray!

Exciting #2: as I sit here typing, the stuff for our second bathroom just arrived! We got this super cute bathroom set from Target that is blue and brown polka dots. I can't wait to put it up! Maybe someday soon our apartment will actually look like a liveable environment!

Before I go, I just have to brag a little bit about our dog. Emmy is pretty much the least intimidating dog I know. She is scared to death of strangers. But, the last few days she has started trying to protect her people. When the cable guy came the other day, she actually barked out loud when he came to the door. (I think my family still believes she doesn't know how to bark.) Then, yesterday and today when the UPS guy has come, she has started growling before he even knocked on the door. She just knew someone who didn't belong here was coming! I'm so proud of my Emmy. Maybe she'll grow up to be a vicious watch dog after all. Ha!

Well, Charles and I are now officially residents of North Richland Hills. We loaded up all our stuff on Friday and hit the road. Our original plan was to load everything on Friday and leave Saturday morning, but thanks to our amazing friends, we got the entire apartment loaded in like an hour and a half, so we decided to go ahead and get going. And, in case anyone was wondering, Charles is an incredible truck driver. He only cut off one person (that I witnessed) and managed to drive pretty close to the speed limit the entire way. Maybe if the teaching thing doesn't work out, he'll have a future in driving...

Speaking of teaching... CHARLES GOT A JOB!!! We are super excited. He will be teaching Algebra I at good old Martin High School in Arlington, our alma mater and workplace of both of his parents. I think last I posted he had been offered the job at Kennedale Jr. High, but had yet to accept or deny it. He ended up passing it up on Wednesday morning, and Thursday morning he was offered the job at Martin. Today he went and signed the papers to make it official. It is so exciting to finally be able to see what God has had planned all along. I knew He had something in store for us, but we were getting pretty antsy! I am so excited to see how this all pans out!

It's hard to believe that Charles and I only have 3 days left in Abilene. Saturday morning Charles, Emmy, me, and the moving van will be rolling out to North Richland Hills to start the next chapter of our lives. I am excited about the change, but a little sad at the same time. I have pretty much already worked my last day at Hendrick. Technically my last day is Friday, but I am just the on-call nurse, and considering we have been lucky to have more than 2 patients in the past few weeks, I'm not counting on being needed. (Isn't it sad that to a nurse it's a lucky thing when people are in the hospitial? What kind of sick, twisted creatures are we?) Anyway, I figure I have to at least go in for a few hours on Friday to say goodbye to everyone, but it's weird to think that I've worked my last shift there. Hendrick has been good to me, and I will miss all the crazy people I worked with on the pedi unit. Fun times.

Last week, Charles and I spent a week at Brookhaven Retreat as camp staff for New Beginnings Camp, which is a Christian camp for 1st-6th graders run by some people from my church in Arlington. I was asked to help out as one of the camp nurses, and Charles was put to work as a counselor and group leader. Having grown up going to camp and being a camp counselor, I was excited from the get-go. Charles was a little less enthusiastic about it all. Ok, really, he didn't want to go. He had been super stressed with looking for a job and studying for his high school math certification which he took the day before we left (P.S. - He passed!!!) But, wonderful wife that I am, I wouldn't listen to him and made him go anyway. He loved it. The kids loved him, and he promised all his little 2nd grade boys that he would be back next year. And I never even said "I told you so." Ok, that's a lie. But I just knew that he had to experience it himself to understand it. Camp is not something that can be explained, it must be lived in order to be appreciated.

Speaking of the job search, Charles got his first official job offer today from Kennedale Jr. High. He has not officially accepted or declined the job yet, because we're kind of waiting to see how the high school search pans out, since teaching high school is what he really wants to do. But things are definitely looking up. He has had several interviews, and sent out a ton of applications.

God is working in our lives in a big way. It has been so cool to me to watch Him work in Charles over the past week or so. Before we left for camp last week, Charles was getting pretty discouraged about the job hunt/certification test. He spent all of his time either studying or filling out applications, without a lot of obvious results. After taking his test on Friday, he didn't feel strongly about how he did, and his outlook was pretty grim. I had been trying to be the encouraging wife, but it gets harder and harder to say everything will work out when you can't see anything happening. Saturday morning we left for camp, and I prayed that it really would be the week of distraction and refocusing for him that I kept telling him it would be. And, as usual, God answered my prayer. I think being around all those kids and witnessing the amazing faith and belief that even a 6-year-old child can possess was what we both needed. When we came back on Wednesday, everything was different. Charles had gotten 2 calls for interviews while we were at camp, and set up another when we got back. He found out the night we got back that he passed his certification test. And his attitude and outlook on the whole situation is like a new person. God has really shown his power to both of us at a time when we really needed to know that He hadn't forgotten us.

Charles and I were talking today about our relationship and our marriage and everything. We decided that we pretty much sailed through our time of dating and engagement without much drama. Everything pretty much went our way and we just had fun. But since we've been married, life has been a bit more hectic. Trying to juggle a move and new jobs and just figuring out how to be married has been anything but an easy task. But I think we've done a pretty good job so far. We may not have always had the sunniest of times, but I think going through all of this together has done nothing but strengthen our relationship with each other and with God. I know there will plenty more obstacles placed in front of us during the course of our marriage, but it makes me happy to know that as long as we have God on our side, we can make it through whatever life throws at us. I am one blessed girl!

So it looks like life is going to be pretty busy in the coming weeks for the newest Nobles family. I am working the next 2 days, and on Friday Charles has his high school math certification test, which he has been studying for like a maniac for the past several weeks. Saturday morning we are headed out to east Texas for 5 days of working with the kids at New Beginnings Camp. I will be one of the camp nurses, and Charles is going to be a counselor. I am very excited. This will be Charles' first experience with church camp, and I think he's a little unsure of what to expect, but I think he will really enjoy it.

The day after we get back from camp, I have all my pre-employment appointments at Cooks, and Charles has a job fair. Then it's back to Abilene so I can work the following 3 days in a row. I hope I don't pass out. I have a feeling I will be pretty near exhausted at that point.

That week after camp is going to be my last week at Hendrick. I am excited and sad about that at the same time. I am sad to leave Hendrick. I got my start here, and I love the people here and all that I have experienced and learned during my 2 years here. However, I am also really excited about starting at Cooks. I know I am going to learn so much there. Besides, it has always been a goal of mine to work at Cooks, and it feels good to know that I am about to see that goal acccomplished.

I am getting pretty excited about moving back to the Metroplex as well. Last weeekend, Charles and I signed a lease at some apartments in North Richland Hills. We will be living in a complex called The Villas on the Green. They are very nice. We are going to have a bigger place, with 2 bedrooms and bathrooms instead of the 1 we have now, which will be nice. We also get a garage, which I am super excited about! We have been wanting to get bikes for a while now, but we currently have nowhere to store them, so a garage will offer a solution to that little problem. I am pretty sad about leaving all our friends here in Abilene, but at the same time, it feels like it's time to move on.

So, this means that at some point in the very near future, we need to start packing our apartment. I am not excited about this. At all. But, I suppose I don't really have much choice in the matter, so I'll just have to suck it up and do it. Done and done.