God to the rescue!

In a feeble attempt to keep the few and faithful readers abreast on our employment exploits, I shall now divulge God's latest and greatest evidence in our lives.

My last day as a long-term 4th grade sub was to be this most recent Friday. Without any other plans, I was going to become a simple day-by-day sub, where the pay was moderate and the job frequency unpredictable.

Half an hour before the end of that fateful Friday, the principal of the school called me out and asked if I might want to take over another long term sub position for a Kindergarten assistant. The pay was nearly half what I was making, so it wasn't an easy choice. Jon and I had to weigh job consistency over increased daily pay, but in the end, GOD struck again providing for us.

Jon is also working as a day-by-day sub, and we continue to pray for consistency there as well. We're not sure how God will carry us through, but he will, as long as we are faithful.

Please keep us in your prayers though. As the summer comes, Jon and I both face unemployment. I'm getting peeks at job openings in the fall, but that's not till August. Jon, graduating in May, has gotten a couple leads at churches, but again, nothing we are certain of yet.

As of now our summer could be spent in Disney World, my parents house, right here, or half-way across the world. We remember faithfully that God's direction is a lamp, not a searchlight, and we are learning to trust on him before all else. That is the ultimate goal, no?

Exploits of a married lady.

It's most regrettable that I haven't found time, or really made time, to update this blog. For me (I'm not sure about Jon) writing has always been therapeutic, something I needed to do to work out my problems, gain perspective, and calm myself. Since I've been married I've retired my personal journaling (eight notebooks over 7 years), but for my sanity, and often the sanity of this marriage, I'm pledging to articulate my (and hopefully our) thoughts here.

Tonight is a rare night when I am in the house alone. Faced with an empty schedule an a drive to do more with my life, I've taken this opportunity to pursue one of my many new hobbies, sewing. Currently, I'm sitting in a black skirt with pink and red pinstripes that I have sew myself. The waist band is a mess, I haven't done the hem yet, and there were more than a few hitches when sewing it, BUT I've sewn it! It looks relatively decent and is wearable.

SUCCESS!

This is one of a couple of hobbies I've picked up that make me feel more "wifey." Although it may be old fashioned, as a married woman of a year, I feel there are some things I need to do, both for myself and the marriage. Sewing my own clothes fulfills my need for a hobby, my crafty cravings, and my womanly urges to always have new clothes.

Couponing has been another such thing. After attending a workshop on how to do super-couponing, an watching my sister-in-law who rocks at it, Jon and I are giving it a shot. Generally I gather/work out all the deals, and since he retrieves them with his free time. We're not great at this yet, but we do generally save 60% off of the bill, getting things that are brand name, tasty, and not possibly expired (I love you Grocery Safari...but sometimes I question your expiration dates).

Sadly laundry has not been laid on my heart as a wifely task to improve on. May God change my heart in that regard....or give us enough income to pay for a maid.

I do have short bursts of cleaning obsession fits, and I'm entering one now. Best to put it to good use and clean up the sewing explosion that's taken over two rooms in the house (oh, but how nice ot have more than two rooms in our house!!!).

Different people

This blog was originally started to help keep our friends and family updated on how Jon and I were learning to live, love, and grow together. I know we've gotten away from that in recent posts, so I hope this blog re-establishes our original goal.

I don't know that growing is ever easy. If you consider the growing your body does, it is often painful. Teething is excruciating, puberty is a mess of discomfort, growth spurts bring unpleasant stretch marks. I have to believe that emotional growth is the same way. As Jon and I grow together as God intended us to be "one," we hit challenging, and sometimes painful obstacles.

Most recently, we've struggled with a startling simple concept. Though we have some remarkable similarities, we get along very well, and we have so much common ground, we are still different people. There are some ways in which we are not now (and may never be) alike.

For instance: Jon will eat nearly anything labeled as "food" that is put in front of him. I'm different. I only have about four vegetables I'll eat, and I'm generally skeptical of new foods.
Or: When Jon's stressed he likes to unwind with some video games, or chill in front of a good movie. I like to release all my energy by getting out and having some fun.
Or: Jon is very open minded at trying new things. He may not like it, but he's willing to give it a shot (in most cases, dancing excluded), even if it makes him uncomfortable. I am shy in new situations, particularly with new people.

Is it ok to be different? Is either person's approach better than the other? Well, we're each going to think our own idea is better, so we better get out the fencing swords now to decide a winner. (just kidding...we do NOT endorse sword play as an effect counseling technique).

Instead what I think we're coming to realize is to be aware of each other's differences. Try not to put each other in istuations that cause discomfort. Be understanding to the other persons restrictions. At the same time we can try to introduce new activities that introduce the other person into something that is uncomfortable just to see if they like it.

Jon could suggest new veggies or new recipies to try, just to see if I like more foods than I think I like (he'll never win the battle of peas though, I strictly refuse).
Or we can manage stress together. Maybe I'll sit and play video games with him for an hour, before we go out bowling.
Or we can try new things in small doses, so that Jon can enjoy his social situations, but I can have time to get used to the new people. Maybe we could go take swing lessons with some of his friends and hit the best of both worlds.

Whether you're just dating, or married for 50 years like Nikki's Gparents, I think husband and wife will always be "one flesh" but still different people. That's ok. Just respect your differences, and be willing to get out of your comfort zone.

Grandma has cancer

My grandma Shirley is my mom's mom. A couple years ago she moved in with them. I get to see her about once a month now, more so than I have ever seen a grandparent. A few months ago my grandma was having trouble using the bathroom. Surgery was able to alleviate the problem, but the scans showed "something." It took months of spaced out doctors appointments to finally draw the conclusion we all had feared.

Her cancer was aggressive, but treatable with a primitive form of Chemo. She was weak already, but after the first round I'd never seen her so lifeless. I kept remembering how when I was twelve we climbed halfway up Grandfather Mountain together. Now she takes a break from walking outside to her bed.

On Thursday I heard she decided to stop the chemo treatments. To be honest, I never thought she would start them. I think she'll be much less miserable without them. But it's hard to hear that I may not be able to give her a Christmas present. I pray she'll get to see her great grandchild, born sometime in November (by way of my sister, not me!)

She'll be the first person close to me that I'll have lost, and that's hard. But I can't help but think of all the good things God is doing with this. She'll be so much happier in heaven. She won't be brought down by the troubles of our time. For the first time since childhood, all her children will be around her this weekend. Some will speak to eachother for the first time in years.

Grandma, I love you. I want to cherish ever memory we've had together, and strive for every single one we can make. I pray your suffering is light, and your heavenly reward is great.

Jobs and Families and Classes! Oh My!

There is probably a bunch I could/should be a very huge blog post, but I promise, I will try to keep it short! Bullet points are probably the best way to do that......

• My Job.... Praise the Lord and hallelujah, I was blessed with a decent paying job at a small school that I've worked for in the past. Though I'm the lead teacher int he 2 year old class, and children these young aren't my forte, I'm so glad that God has provided for our needs. I'm having a tough time in the classroom, and I worry how this will affect my resume, but I'm going to work my hardest anyway.
  
• Jon's Classes....Classes for Jon have started up. This fall he's taking Greek 2 and Hebrew 3 (not easy to take at the same time). He'll also be wrapping up a Hebrews-Revalation class that he began online over the summer.
• Families.... My family has just been hit hard as Grandma's been diagnosed with cancer. She's been living with my parents for the last couple years, so she is surrounded by love ones. The cancer is not supposed to be very aggressive, but it's affected her energy in very noticable ways. Her first Chemo is this Wednesday and I know the whole family is taking it hard. We'd appreciate prayer.
  
• Our new place.....We love our new house! Having so much space feels luxurious! Sure we can't wash our hands without getting scalded, I bang my knee on the tub every time, and I still haven't figured out where the big family of cockroaches lives....but we really do feel like grown ups with real lives.
  
• Jon is still searching for a second part time job to help the bills out a bit. If you hear about anything, let us know.
  
• We have several friends who desperately need jobs. It's easy for me to understand their frustration and hurt in the job market, as I was there only three weeks ago. What is so infuriating is that these friends have bachelors and masters degrees, they are hard workers, and they're willing to do almost anything that pays the minimum. We can't understand why it's so difficult to get a job, much less an interview, much less a rejection letter! Pray for others in these situations.
  

That's all that I will include tonight. Soon we'll get back to posting about the in's and out's of married life, but we wanted to make sure everyone knew what was going on.

With Love!
Jon and Telly (not to be confused with Jelly)

We're in!

Just a quick update to let everyone know we are in our new place!

After several exhausting weeks of searching, I (being Telly) found a locally owned house that had been converted into two apartments (upstairs and down). The rent was in our sweet spot, the lease was unbeatable, and so many things are just what we were looking for (extra storage, good rooms, upkept well, washer/dryer hook-ups, dedicated dining space, study room, central air/heat, ceiling fans, I could go on forever).

We've been steadily packing the whole summer, and thanks to some donated boxes and tubs we were completely packed by 9:00 am the morning of the move (which also happened to be during a power outage in our previous building....SO glad we're out of there). My parents were amazing and brought up stuff I've been storing at their place, as well helped us move the couch in. By God's grace it only took 90 minutes to:
-> completely empty our Roddey apartment
-> load some of Jon's furniture from his parent's house
-> stuff the U-Haul with all we had
-> fill our friend vans/cars/trucks with whatever wouldn't fit
->and unload EVERYTHING into the new place

ALL in under 90 minutes. We are so grateful to Greg, James, Coit, Chris F., Thom, Dan, Betsy, Kayleigh, and Chris O., who made our move SO easy and efficient.

Pray for Jon as he enters week 2/3 of his intensive Greek course. So far he's comprehending everything pretty well, but with a weekend with no time for studying, and moving into unfamiliar territory, things might be more difficult.
Also pray for me as I'm still searching for a job. It's very discouraging to be offered $9/hr when I've spent 4 years working my tail off at one of the toughest schools in the state.

Anyway, we're in, and hopefully we'll get the chance to invite you over for dinner sometime soon.

Love,
Jon and Chantelle

101 Affirming words

Even before Jon and I were married, I've known I have a problem with the phrase "Antagonism equals Love." Often times in my family, the more you're lightly picked on, the more it's shown that you are cared for. I've also grown up feeling that phrases like "You're wonderful at anticipating my needs." and "thank you for always holding the door open for me." are cliche and simply understood with outsay. It's a twisted world, but it's the Nutz family, and I'd never thought much about it....until I tried being in a loving relationship.

As a member of a marriage, one realizes how hard it is sometimes to know you're doing well at your job. It's brilliantly important to let your partner know that he's doing a great job at being my husband. So to surpise him, help him feel great, give him something amusing to read, and let the world know what an awesome husband looks like. I may not get to 101 in this post, but you get the idea.

1. He eats veggies. I don't. So at least our kids will have a good role model.
2. He very willingly cuddles with me, likes it even.
3. He is passionate about his work, no matter what he does, he doesn't take it lightly.
4. When we were dating, he was the one who insisted on taking things slow, almost painstakingly slow....but he was so right.
5. He frevrently reminds me to put on sunscreen.
6. Every morning when I tell him about some strange dream where our neighbors became fish and we had to watch their daughter while she toured France in an Egyptian costume with real snake jewelry, he listens and laughs.
7. He thinks my hiccups are funny.
8. He's willing to cook when I ask him.
9. He's a man who can admit that he once liked Clay Aiken.
10. My friends are his friends, and vice versa. He never begrudgingly socializes.
11. He eats nearly anything I make. And he thinks it's great.
12. He opens the door for me, even when he's carrying more.
13. Speaking of carrying things....have you seen his biceps?
14. He is a very quick learner. It only took him a couple months of marriage to learn to stay away when I'm in a bad mood.
15. He keeps a drawer of secret chocolate, as a back up for bad moods.
16. He can get genuinely interested in a TV show or hobby that I enjoy, if only because he knows I'd like us to share it.
17. He talks to God.
18. He'll watch old movies with me.
19. He's very open to try new things, and very open to not making me do so.
20. You know that scene from The Santa Clause (w/ Tim Allen) where kids just instinctively know to tell him their Christmas wishes? Well people just seem to know that Jon is a man to trust and talk to. Sometimes people just sit down next to him not knowing that they'll be spilling their guts in 30 seconds or less.
21. He's computer savvy. (who needs tech support?)
22. He knows EVERYONE! Though this gets annoying when trying to walk out of church in under 20 minutes, it can be extremely helpful when you need something.
23. He laughs at his own jokes.
24. He's very sweet when I take naps.
25. He's learned not to take mean words personally when he wakes me up from naps.
26. He readily accepts my appolgy for saying mean words when he's trying to wake me up from naps.
27. He easily recognizes when I need a nap.
28. He encourages me to take naps, despite the mean words that may come when he tries to wake me up.
29. He answers the phone while I'm napping, so I don't have to get up.
30. Miracles happen when I take naps. Often when I wake up the dishes are done, the trash is taken out, or the laundry is done....(perhaps I should nap more often?)
31. He'll even take naps with me sometimes. That's my favorite.
32. He wants kids someday.
33. He's willing to challenge me intellectually, even if it means we might disagree on something.
34. We share the same semi-concerned drive to be healthier, but not to an obsessive degree in which it becomes an unhealthy desire to be healthy.
35. He enjoys sleeping in....almost more than I do.
36. He's not afraid to have his mind changed.
37. He asks questions when he doesn't understand something I'm talking about.
38. He's not afraid to get his hands dirty....or his shirt sweaty.
39. He's devoted to serving God, in whatever way he can.
40. He went to a dinky musical my 1st graders put on, and stayed awake. Ever since he's held onto the phrase "herumph went the little green frog" which is amazingly funny...to us anyway.
41. He's anxious to improve.
42. He doesn't complain about doing dishes.
43. He's a good kisser....'nuff said
44. He has stopped wearing socks with sandals, if only because he knows I don't like it.
45. He was totally on board when I wanted to gag-gift some of my friends for their wedding.
46. He doesn't mind if I sleep while he drives.
47. We read together....so simple, but so romantic.
48. He turns away when something provocative comes on TV. Where most guys might jokingly oogle or pretend not to care, he has a genuine interest in protecting himself.
49. It only took him a couple matches to become serious competition on Wii Tennis.
50. Though he loves to play the Wii, he hasn't ever suggested our lives would be better if we had one.
51. He is not an impulse buyer. He wants things to fit into the budget. That's a great thing...trust me.
52. He genuinely listens to me when I have a concern...whether it's about the possibility of me haveing lactose intolerance or how worried I am about our credit card usage, or how I'm worried that my right ring toe may have been broken in my childhood.
53. He loves my family enough to worry about them, even more so than I do sometimes.
54. He can raise a single eyebrow. Sometime I've always wanted to do.
55. He corrects my verbage. I'm sure he'd edit this post if he could.
56. He learned to dance, just for our wedding. He hated most of it, but he did it.
57. He RARELY complains....I wish I were more like him.
58. He knows just the right time to suggest going to Moes.
59. He pretends he hates my silly jokes, even though he laughs
60. He's willing to do whatever it takes to do what needs to be done. He's never stopped or gotten discouraged on his long road to being a pastor.
61. He eats leftovers.
62. He doesn't smell up the bathroom nearly as much as I do.
63. I can count on one hand the number of times he's left the toilet seat up.
64. He reads. (Which is not to be confused with having an adaquate number of books).
65. He's willing to watch chick-flicks.
66. He has tried very hard to understand my various moods. He's deffinately getting there.
67. He doesnt twitter.
68. You can see his love for the Lord....I mean visibly see it in his actions.
69. The man rocks to Kelly Clarkson with me.
70. No matter how many old jokes I've thrown at him, I don't think he's ever gotten seriously annoyed.
71. Ditto for bald jokes.
72. He likes to take walks.
73. He still looks at me like he did when we were dating. I can't describe it, but it just twinkles with "Hi, I like you, I seriously like being around you, and I take delight in you."
74. He didnt' leave me during the wedding planning process. Any sane man would have.
75. He is always appreciative of my body. Despite fluctating weight, bozo ears, frizzy hair, smelly feet, etc....he has never once faltered on loving my body.
76. He's willing to admit when he's wrong.
77. He can strike up a conversation with anyone. ANYONE!
78. He has a very gentile and loving heart. But he knows how to care for people while still being concerned and reserved.
79. He enjoys sports. (I say this as an affirmation now, but that might change during football season).
80. That being said, he doesn't mind if I nap through a football game. He's just grateful I wanted to be with him for it.
81. He gets along fabulously with my family. He fits in, laughs with them, gives combat croquette a good try, and grew into them.
82. He is extremely low maintenence. Especially with gifts....That's so fabulous when you're broke like us.
83. He has an interest in balancing quality with price, not going to one or the other without regard for the future.
83. He can laugh with me about anything.
84. His first name begins with J. Long story, but that's a good thing.
85. He didn't care that I had boyfriends before him. He was concerned, but not hurt.
86. Did I mention he was a good kisser?
87. He appreciates my HGTV-esque attempts at making our apartment look liveable.
88. He is the perfect height for me.
89. He reads me well, and can tell that by this point in the post, I'm running out of ideas.
90. If I said that I had 11 more affirming statements to come up with, he would correct me and say there were only 10, and he would laugh while I tried to figure out how he was right.
91. He pretends not to be terrified when I say I want 17 kids.
92. He tells me how cute I look.
93. He actively concerns himself with how we can put Christ in the center of our relationship.
94. He can tell when something's bothering me, even if I'm not willing to admit it.
95. He's a leader.
96. He's sleeping right now. That means he's not a crazy insomniac like I am.
97. He doesn't give up. Even when he should....like on his poor little car. He perseveres through it, and gives the car enough heart to keep on trucking.
98. He racks his brain to understand the new words I create periodically, and simply chuckles when a new one pops up..
99. He's not afraid to ask the quetions that count.
100. He is not a professional eater.
101. He's as grateful for the end of this post as I am!