Road Trip to Seattle (Day 1)

Ok, so this trip was so epic that I have to split the blog posts so I can talk about each day. First off I thank God for giving me this amazing opportunity to drive cross-country. The trip was all by myself and me being a total people person I thought it was going to be tough but it wasn't really. Gave me lots of time to pray (with my eyes open of course), worship with singing (I could sing as loud and as bad as I wanted to because no one was around), and a chance to experience the awesomeness and beauty of His creation.

The trip took a totally of 5 days of driving with about 10 hours of driving a day. I broke the trip up even more with two things...geocaching (one in each state) and a list from Sarah of something to do in each state along the way. Between those two things the trip went pretty quickly because it gave me something to look forward to that was only a couple hours away instead of 48 hours away.

So day one had 4 states in it, I started in North Carolina where found my first geocache

and found the first thing on the list, a place called Korner's Folly.

 The next State was Virginia, I drove through probably the skinniest part of the state found a geocache and then left, no list items in this state.

Next was West Virigina, I was kind of worried about crazy hicks but I didn't see any so I was safe, haha.

Next thing on the list was doing a cartwheel in Cato Park so I very 'skillfully' took a picture of myself doing a cartwheel for proof ;) I thought it was pretty good, hehe. I also found the geocache here, pretty easy one.

 

My last state of the day was Ohio.

I found the geocache after I checked into WPAFB Lodging which was really nice for a hotel room, here are some pictures. 

 

The next day I tried to find the Blair Hall Theater here in Ohio but it was pouring rain and I didn't want to get in my car soaking wet for the rest of the day so I had to skip it.

Moving to Seattle

As the title says...I am MOVING to Seattle! Not visiting, not flying through but actually living there and working there till October...at least. It's kind of crazy how it all happened and awesome to see God's hand in it. So, I'll try to keep the story short but there are no guarantees that it will be.

It all started after I got back from Seattle after my spring break. After I found out that the Air Force was delaying my EAD till at least October 1st, I had to start looking for jobs. Started looking in North Carolina where my parents live but then someone suggested that I look in Seattle. I didn't really take them seriously at first but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the sound of it. The big issue about the whole Seattle thing was finding a job and a place to live (Seattle is kind of expensive). If I worked in North Carolina I could live with my parents for free and work. I'd make more money in Seattle but have to spend more so was this just a pipe dream or something more. Ever since I started thinking about this idea I started praying to God that he would show me what He wanted me to do this summer. I didn't want to just do my own thing and not be in His will so I trusted in Him that He would show me where to go. I started applying for jobs in both Seattle and Fayetteville mostly bike shops, but Starbucks, Best Buy and others as well.

So this is where the crazy part starts. 6 hours after I fax my resume and application in to this bike shop in Seattle I get a call from them, my first phone interview. They really liked me and told me their service manager would be calling me within the next couple of days to interview me on my technical bike repair skills. I go a week without hearing from them and I start to worry. All this while I am not hearing anything from any other jobs in both places. I call my first interviewer for this bike shop up and ask if they are still interested in me and if the manager was going to call me. She says they are still really interested in me but the manager has just been really busy. This same week I started looking for place to rent in Seattle just in case I got a job there. Sarah pointed me to the message board on her church's website. I put a post there saying I am looking for a room to rent and hope that I get a response. I began praying that if it was God's will for me to move to Seattle that I could find a place around $300 a month because that is all I could afford. Near the end of the week I get another call from the bike shop...this one is the big one! Short little interview about my skills and then they tell me they want me to come out, build a bike for them (easy) and I have the job! Only 30 minutes later I decide to sign on to the message board where I posted about renting a room. I had just gotten a response saying the person had a room available...for...you guessed it...$300 a month!!! If that is not God opening a door for me and saying this is where you should go then I don't know what is. I find out that I have a job and a place to stay all within an hour of each other plus the exact amount for rent that I had been praying for...WOW!

I'm just excited now to see what God has for me in Seattle. I move out there the third week of May...it should take me about 4-5 days for driving, just depends on how many hours I drive a day. If Sarah had her way I'd be taking 6-7 days to get out there (she is just looking out for me) but I just want to go ahead and get out there and get the drive over with. So yea, call me to keep me awake, it will be greatly appreciated :)

Last Mountain Biking Trip in Florida

I went to Alafia State Park today for my last mountain bike trip. It was amazing, my bike was feeling really good today with everything tuned perfect plus I was on top of my game hitting air and tweeking it like nobodies business. It was incredibly hot outside though, around 95 degrees with 85% humidity. Here is a picture of us before we headed out:

Here is me hitting a sweet jump...it is really blurry because Ryan the camera man is shaky

Here is us at Five Guys on our way home...I love this place :)

This was a sweet trip and I am going to miss these mountain bike trails. That is until I start mountain biking in Washington...that is going to be crazy!!

Last Day of College!!

Today was my last day of my undergraduate career! The end of it was amazing, no finals, no papers, just a little presentation were I spoke for less than 5 minutes. What a way to go out :)  I decided to get a group picture with my composites group in my senior design project with us holding a bunch of our composite work over the year so here it is:

I can't believe that it is over now. I really don't even think it has fully hit me yet. I went around after class today high fiving everyone I saw...people I knew and even people I didn't know just because I was so excited. People were really getting into it with someone running over just to give me a high five at one point. All I have left is comissioning in 11 days and graduation in 12. Wow, I can't believe I am going to finally be a graduate! This is awesome!

Soup Night

I got this recipe from the Cutter family when I was in Seattle because it was crazy delicious when Susan made it! I decided to try to make it myself tonight and wow, it was awesome! Didn't quite have the Cutter family touch to it though. Thanks for the recipe :)

So, I'm going to take you through my cooking experience with pictures and first, here is the preparation

Once I had everything ready I followed the recipe and this is what it looked like right before I let it simmer. It looked awesome and smelled even better :)

The coolest part of this meal is the ciabatta bread! You toast it in the oven with olive oil and garlic, then cut it into pieces to line the bottom of the bowl and put the soup on top of it. The bread soaks up the soup and tastes amazing! This last picture is the final product!

Last Dining Out in AFROTC

Well, tonight was my last Dining Out. Kind of sad but on the other hand pretty exciting. My next Dining Out I will be a 2nd LT in the USAF!! How crazy is that! I gathered all of my class together for a picture at the end of the night :)

Pink shirts and bicycles

So, Sarah and I are talking on Saturday and some how it comes up that I have a ton of blue shirts, probably about 80% of my shirts are blue...this is because it makes my eyes look really blue :)

Here is an example

Sarah decides that I should get a pink shirt to spice up my wardrobe collection and she thinks it would look good on me. I, on the other hand, did not agree but then did something I shouldn't of done...make a deal with her. I have been trying to get her to do this dance for the longest time...long story...anyways, positive that she won't do it for me, I told her that I'd get a pink shirt and wear it all day if she did the dance. I just forgot to specify one little thing...that I had to see her do the dance. You can figure out what happened...she did the dance, I didn't see it, and I had to get the pink shirt anyways.

So here it is

Believe it or not I think I pulled it off really well. I had multiple compliments at school today! Sarah's eye for fashion came through with a win :)

Later in the afternoon I decided to go on a road bike ride with some friends. These are the guys that I will ride with if I end up doing that 200 mile bike ride from Seattle to Portland in July.

Here I am getting ready to head out

I met my friends at school and we headed out from there.

It was a pretty sweet ride. The weather was really nice, as you can see...but it was really windy. The first half we had the wind on our backs and were averaging 25 mph but when we turned back into the wind...totally different story. The minute we turned to corner our speed dropped to about 16 mph and we averaged that the rest of the way back. Really enjoyed the ride and plan on doing it more often...like everyday, to prepare for the 200 mile ride. I can't wait!