Peace Corps update!

So I have some good news!

Over the past two weeks I have spent a lot of pretty pennies to finally finish all of my dental work so I can complete my dental file for the Peace Corps. That included getting new xrays, three crowns, and one filling.  I finally finished last Tuesday night and sent off my revised dental packet Weds, and was cleared for dental on Sat!  Woohoo!

I hadn't heard anything from the PC office in months, so it feels great to know that I am not forgotten!  Now the wait is on the Medical office to clear my medical file.  I want to do this so bad and I have been doing really well at the whole patience thing, but it gets scary not hearing a peep for months at a time. 

A few weeks ago 20/20 did an expose on women in the Peace Corps that have been raped and "forgotten" by the Peace Corps and also on a volunteer that was murdered in country.  I have gotten quite a few people coming up to me telling me they are extremely worried about me going to Africa with the Peace Corps.  My response to them is that it could happen here in our own backyards.  I am choosing to join the Peace Corps knowing the risk of possible danger.  Since I do not have TV (cable) I didn't get to watch the special, but I did read a lot of articles about it and understand why people are so scared, I kind of freaked out the weekend it showed and was questioning myself if it was worth it.

I came back to the realization that I am in God's hands!  I cant 100% prevent myself from being a victim.  I can be overly cautious, which I believe myself to already be, and I can make smart decisions keeping myself out of threatening or sketchy situations. 
I also feel that the more I integrate and build solid relationships with my community and host family the more I will become like a real family member and they will protect me as they would one of their own flesh and blood. 

One of the things that I most look forward to is building those relationships with my future village and helping to share my knowledge and education and learn from them as well. 

I feel like right now all I can do is hand it all over to God because everything is done according to His plan and in His timing.  All I can do is have faith and patience.  Which thankfully I do have.  :)

This road looks never ending!

So, I was so excited and relieved to have ALL of my paperwork sent to the Peace Corps and for them to review and tell me how perfect I am for the Peace Corps and for them to send me a letter telling me to start preparing, that I will leave on _____ for _____.  Well, the smooth process I was praying for hasn't quite gone the way I'd hoped. 

A few weeks ago I was at a night out/meeting with Favor of God's co founder Martin Onen when my phone wouldn't stop ringing.  My mom was calling me and that is weird for MY phone to ring so much (I am not a fan of talking on the phone).  After hitting ignore a few times, I quietly stepped outside because I figured it must be an emergency for my mom to call me repeatedly.  Well, come to find out I received a thick manila envelope from the Peace Corps and mom thought it was BIG news, like placement/departure date BIG.  I gave her permission to open it and explained to her that I won't be receiving that BIG letter until I have spoken with my placement officer, which I have yet to hear anything from.  What was in the envelope was my dental records sent back to me and a request for new xrays and a letter from my dentist verifying that I have had the three teeth needing crowns actually completed.  I thought, no big deal... WRONG!

I went to my dentists office the next day and they informed me that the dental work they are needing completed records on have not been done yet and the xrays cannot be completed until my insurance renews in January or else I have to pay out of pocket.  No bueno!  Well, after about an hour of talking and figuring out what needed to be done and the only logical route to take would be to wait until January and pray that my spot is still available when they finally receive and review my files.  I also left pretty broken hearted because I was informed that my crowns will be about $1200. 
Pretty much in tears when I arrived home my amazing roommate came to my rescue and helped me figure out how I can budget this month so taht I will have the money in my account by my dentist appt in early January.  She is so amazing!  We had a great roommate date and she ensured me that God will get me through this, she was just so comforting and encouraging. I do have the best roommate ever!!!
Thankfully I had finished my Christmas shopping by this time and as long as I remain responsible I can do it!

As for placement, I have been blog stalking and I have a feeling I am going to Ghana but from reading all these other peoples blogs they tend to be wrong. :)

All I know is that wherever I end up will be where God has planned for me to go.  I pray for flexibility, a clear and open mind, and for God to truly move me in this whole process.

On an upside, I have signed up to take a membership course with my church where I will deepen my knowledge and faith in Christ.  I am so excited!  Plus, I am taking it with my best friend Abby!  We tend to have a lot of fun in classes together and sometimes don't get in trouble.

Hello blogging world, it's been a while!

So it definitely has been a while, a couple years really.  I thought I'd try and get into the habit of blogging since I think that might be my only way of communicating to the most of my family and friends here at home for a few years. 

Why, you may ask... well, to make a long story short, my life will hopefully be changing a LOT for the next three or so years. 

I started blogging in, I believe, 2008 because my sisters had the cutest blogs and I loved reading about their lives (even though I see them all the time).  I liked seeing the comments from our extended family and that they were able to get a glimpse into all of our lives here in Southern California. 

Well here is a quick glimpse into the past two years of my life. 

2008-
June- Graduated from college
June- Moved back home

August- Went to Honduras with Sandals Church

October- Got a seasonal job at Kohl's as a POS and rocked the position
December- Got another job at Odyssey Health Care as the receptionist and rock that position even more!

2009-
Nothing really new
Still working at Odyssey as the receptionist
Applied for a few positions within the company but the time wasn't right

August- Moved out of my parents house into a cute little apt with a friend from church

-Applied to go to Uganda with church and got invited to join the team!  Woohoo

2010-
March- Went to Gulu, Uganda with Sandals Church to visit Favor of God Ministries
June- Decided I want to join the Peace Corps
July- Submitted my application
August- Volunteered as a camp counselor for Pipeline (elementary Sunday school) for a week

September- Interviewed by phone and nominated to serve in the Peace Corps in Sub-Saharan Africa doing Business Advising departing late May/early June of 2011!

November- I turned 25!
-Completed and sent in my medical and dental evaluations
-just received a request for new dental x-rays to be completed and am waiting patiently while the rest of my paperwork is being reviewed.

Surprise!

I'm joining the Peace Corps!

I will hopefully be moving to Africa and this will be where you can hear about my adventures!

Please pray for me in the coming months that everything goes smoothly, that I have patience in waiting and in my current job, that God prepares my heart for the incredible adventure of life I am about to embark on! 

Love you all!

Job.... Yup, I finally got one!

So this is a picture from Christmas break with my CSUSB housing friends and old roommates at our Christmas extravaganza. I got Mama Mia and was so excited!

This is how excited I am right now about having a real JOB!

Well friends, here is how it all started.

After 6 months of the post graduation job search I finally found a few. It all started out with dad nagging me to stop into Khol's in early October and apply just as a seasonal employee. I went in one afternoon and the lady at customer service told me that I am a lucky girl because she was going to add me to the interviews for the next day. I went to the interview and they hired me, they were pretty puzzled as to why a college grad wants to work at Kohl's. Hey, it's a paycheck and better than nothing that a lot of others in the U.S. have right now with this economy. I was hired as a cashier and did pretty well for myself throughout the holidays. So well, I was the top employee for the week before Christmas for getting people to sign up for Kohl's charge cards... that's a pretty big deal in the Kohl's world! I was also told they wanted to keep me on year round. It was at the beginning of December that Alvord School District contacted me to be a substitute teacher. I went through the hiring process and then the holidays hit and it was put on hold. Well it so happened that during the holidays I was contacted by my friend Ed who I went to Honduras with and he told me about a job with his company Odyssey Health care that would be full time with benefits!


Wooo Whooo!


I went in for my interview Monday the 22nd they loved me and offered me the job right on the spot. I didn't accept right away because I didn't want to leave the subbing job high and dry especially when I forked over quite a bit of money to run the background checks, certs... etc.


After talking to my life coach, aka my brother Miles, we decided that it was a great opportunity and I accepted the job!

I am now a working woman!

I work Monday thru Friday 8-5pm as a receptionist for an amazing health care/hospice program.

YAY!

Ps. As for right now I am still at Kohl's... you can catch me at the register most weekends.

I talked to the cream of the crop!

Okay so since I am home so often I receive 98% of the phone calls on the house phone asking for Mr or Mrs Nicks. Most of which are telemarketers either trying to get us to do a survey or to buys something. I really don't like to talk to them so I have come up with the greatest technique on tricking them so I don't have to talk to them myself. When they ask how old I am I just tell them I am not 18 yet, that I am not an adult or am still in high school

Tonight I did just that and I had the funniest response ever.

It was an older lady, I am guessing from the south and she had an attitude, not the bad kind but she just had that fun edge when she spoke.
Well tonight our conversation went like this:
Lady: Hi may I please speak with Mrs. Nicks?
Me: Sorry but she is not available right now
Lady: Oh, well what about Harold?
Me: He's not either
Lady: Well then, who are you?
Me: Their daughter
Lady: Oh well then I will talk to you, You sound like an adult
Me: Sorry mam but I am not, I'm only 17 (I try not to giggle)
Lady: What? You sound so old, You sound like a grown woman
Me: Nope, sorry! (I am beginning to giggle because its so funny!)
Lady: Okay then, well let me tell you Honey, don't you ever leave your mommy and daddy, stay as long as you can, stay forever! And DON'T have kids!
Me: (I continued to laugh)
Lady: You have a great night sweetie!
Me: Thanks you too!

Hahahaha... I probably do sound my age but I think it is so fun to pretend, especially when you don't wanna answer questions on a survey or you don't want to buy something. This lady was a lot of fun and didn't bug me like the other boring ones do. It just made me smile, then giggle, and then laugh so loud my brother came in and wanted to know what was up. I filled him in and told him he can borrow my trick any day... though he isn't an adult, so maybe not this one just yet.

Music, Munchies, and Melissa!

This past week I made a deal with my parents that I would make dinner every night if they went grocery shopping. When I say grocery shopping I mean not frozen or processed foods.


They did the shopping from the list that I made them and started my amazing cooking yesterday!


Thanks to Kraft kitchens website it makes it a lot easier coming up with ideas.
http://kraftkitchen.com




Yesterday started with a Borrito/Taco Salad bar. I was watching Hannaha and Noah for the night so I got an extra helper in the kitchen. Hannah is a great helper! She and I got the food ready and we all enjoyed it buffet style!





Tonight was more of a treat for my parents and little brother. While I was in Honduras I had the privilege of helping the kitchen staff at our team house make Chicken Empanadas. I talked to one of the girls in the kitchen and after translating as best I could back into English I brought home the recipe. I DID IT! I made Chicken Empanadas tonight and they ALL loved it!

This picture is the leftovers. Although it took me about 3 hours to make them, it was worth it!

Ian told me I should have my own cooking show but cook to music... So we were practicing while singing Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson. It was pretty funny especially since Ian is 15 1/2 and I am 22 1/2 and we were pretending! By the way, how do you like my title for the show? Music, Muchies, and Melissa!

Tomorrow night I have small group and we all have plans until late so when I told dad I didn't know if I would cook he got all sad, it was pretty funny. I told him there will be food ready for them. I think I might make a cheesy chicken and broccoli bake thanks to Kraftkitchen.com!

I'm Back.... I think.

So yes it has been a while since I have really posted but it has also been a while since I have visited other peoples blogs as well. How am I supposed to live up to my title of Melissa Jean the Blogging Queen if I dont blog every now and then?

This is mostly due to the fact that I am desperately searching for a job. I have my bachelors degree in Business, Marketing and have applied to about 30 (maybe more) jobs this past 4 months! I have come to the realization that because the economy is so bad and is getting worse every now and then that those amazing companies out there cannot hire an amazing catch like myself!

(I'm an optimist, can you tell?)

I have come across a few prospective jobs and am constantly praying that one of them will be the one for me.

As for right now my schedule consists of picking up Ian from school, cooking dinner, and visiting Nanny J once a week.

Nanny J deserves a post all to herself, but just to quickly fill you in, she is 95, falls asleep every 10 minutes or so, and she is my Great Grandmother on my moms side!

With that said, I will try to not neglect my blog anymore, though it is hard to sometimes come up with ideas when I am actually at my computer.

Now I would like to give a little shout-out to my 6 readers

"HOLLA!"

This goes to Aunt Florence, Grandpa, Dad, Michelle, Heidi, and sometimes Liz.

(I was told that Aunt Florence and Grandpa check my sisters and my blogs)

Yea for 6 readers! :)

If there are anymore of you out there, tell me! I like to see who's spying on me :)