It's been a couple weeks since I blogged last... wait, I think we've been here before. Every once in awhile life takes over and I let something slip... said blog. However, I want to capture the memories and moments so here's the bullet point update since my last post:
 |
| CeCe was scared. Zoey explored! |
My friend Chelsea over at The Perfect Catch informed me that she had nominated me for the Leibster Award - an award given to up and coming bloggers with less than 200 followers. Well I sure don't think I am "up and coming", but I know I have less than 200 followers and it seemed like a fun thing to answer the questions so here I go... :-)
Our four year anniversary started out yesterday with me updating my status on FB. True to my nerdy self I decided the night before what I was going to say and emailed it to myself so I could quickly copy and paste it that morning. Yep, I'm that bad. :-)
Here's what I said - "Jason Stingerie, 8 years ago when you asked me out on our first date I didn't grasp what an incredible blessing God had brought into my life. These past 4 years as husband and wife have taught us a lot and we've grown closer as a result. I love you so much and I can't imagine embarking on life's adventures with anyone else. I'm so excited for what's in store for us next as we move to Europe! Happy Anniversary!!!"
I truly do feel so blessed to have Jason in my life. He is such a hard-working, honest, godly, and patient man. He makes me feel so loved and I respect him so much. Okay enough of the sappy stuff.
After work we headed to our anniversary dinner at Frank's Chop House as part of HRW.
The food was SO delicious!!
And they gave us a complimentary bottle of wine for our anniversary! How nice!!
We splurged and bought ourselves an AMAZING bundt cake at the fabulous Nothing Bundt Cake.
Cinnamon swirl deliciousness!
(We tried a small slice before dinner which was a good thing because we were too full to eat any afterwards!)
And Jason surprised me with beautiful flowers!! 
It was an amazing anniversary with my amazing hubby! :-D
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Jason has been super helpful in getting ready to move (read here). This weekend he took a "break" from the house stuff and worked out in the garage on his car. He's signed up for an event in October where you get to take your car on the race track and have a professional driver ride with you giving you tips.
There are some necessary (so I'm told... hehe) modifications that he needed to make in order to get the car ready- new shocks, new springs, and new brakes.
.JPG) | .JPG) |
 |  |
Most of our evenings and weekends have been consumed with getting ready for Norway. You wouldn't think that we would need to do much since we're still three months out, but looking at the calendar and everything that we have to squeeze in (including studying for an 8-hour professional certification exam) November is going to be here before we know it!
What exactly have we been doing to prepare? Organizing. One of my favorite things! Except it's a little more complicated when you are trying to decide what to sell/get rid of, put in storage, take with you, and leave with your parents.
Basically anything we don't take gets put in storage. We have a limited amount of storage and once it's in there, then we don't have access to it until we return (Jason's job is a three year assignment). So as I'm going through all of our house I have to ask:
-Do we need this in Norway?
-Do we have space for this in Norway?
-Do we like this enough (and think we will like it in three years) to store it?
-Do we think we would need it in three years, but not in Norway?
Complicated right? So far it's been pretty easy and once we know whether we have furnished/unfurnished and exactly how much space in our Norway apartment that will help.
And knowing we have to get rid of a lot of stuff helps too. I probably don't need greeting cards going back to the early 90's, my original application to Mines, or four years of magazines...but at least I'm an organized pack rat!
HRW stands for Houston Restaurant Week. But it's actually a month- all of August celebrates this yearly charity. (Houston works hard to earn its place as one of the fattest cities in the US!)
Over 140 restaurants out out special 2-course (lunch) and 3-course (dinner) menus for $20 or $35 a person, respectively. A portion of that money is donated to the Houston Food Bank.
On and off for over two years Jason and I have been taking ballroom dance lessons. And we love them!!
We first started in the group beginners class at our church where one of the members taught. After beginners 1 and 2 we took intermediate 1, 2, and 3. John, the instructor, does an amazing job at balancing a class but still giving individual attention.
We reached the point where there were not any more group lessons (the class size is too small when you get that high) and decided to take a package set of private lessons that John offered us.
We use those dances as date nights! We go out to dinner either before or after using a restaurant.com certificate or another dining deal we've found (since eating out is so expensive).
We enjoy these date nights so much and are going to miss them when we head to Norway!
Our favorite dances are the waltz and foxtrot, but we also like the cha-cha, rumba, and tango.
There is even a Czech lodge which hosts dances twice a month that we can go to and practice what we've learned out on the dance floor. And of course we impress everyone at weddings with our mad dancing skills. Hehe :-)
WE ARE MOVING TO NORWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, nice subtle eye-catching beginning, right? Let me back up a few steps...
Jason and I love to travel. One of the reasons we chose the oil industry was the opportunities we knew it might provide for us to see the world. Last spring, Jason got a chance to visit Celle, Germany for two weeks and work at the Baker Hughes office there. When he left he casually mentioned to the manager to let him know if there was ever an opening for a job.
Well that manager called Jason awhile later and they discussed him going there for an assignment. Unfortunately it was project-based (meaning that the client company and Baker Hughes would both have to decide to fund it) and it would only be a short-term contract (<1 year). However, this did open up the doors for Jason to start talking to different people within Baker about other opportunities.
He was approached with the position in Norway and immediately liked the sounds of the job. It would be something different than he was currently doing and developmentally he has been ready for a change for some time. He applied for the position last February and we anxiously waited. And waited. And waited. And were told they were working on determining the number of Expats; that they did not want to do moves before promotions, etc. We finally gave up on the idea and Jason started looking elsewhere in Baker for opportunities.
Then a few weeks ago Jason got an email from Tore, the person who had been talking to in Norway. Tore was leaving the company and wanted to let Jason know he had passed along his information and had discussed things with Adne, the person taking over his job. This just reinforced the idea that we most likely were not moving to Norway. Jason had worked with Tore on other projects and didn't know who the new manager was or anything about him.
I encouraged Jason to email him anyway. The worst he can say is no, right? So Jason did and was pleasantly surprised to hear back from him right away. He told Jason he was aware of the discussions, apologized that it had been taking so long, and said that his boss was on vacation that week and he would get back to Jason the following week with more information. Just a couple days later Jason got another call from him. He asked Jason some additional feeler questions about his interest, etc. in the position and Jason told him that Norway would be his top choice for an opportunity. At the end of the conversation he told Jason that he had spoken with Global Mobility the day before and they were working on an offer for him!!!
We have spent the last two weeks praying for God's patience, trust for His timing, and wisdom for the plan we know He has for our lives. It hasn't been easy. I'd be lying if I said we hadn't started looking at apartments and thinking about what stuff we'd need to sell, etc. But after thinking back in February that it was going to happen, we both knew not to really get our hopes up until we saw the offer.
Which didn't come that week. Or the next. Then this past SUnday our pastor did a sermon on Psalm 23. That good ol' Psalm that so many of us memorized and recited in competitions when we were younger (1st place baby!!). Rev. Crimmins said "God knows when it's time to transfer you from one life situation to another". Um, hello?!? Can't ask God for more of a neon sign than that can you?
On the car ride home, I repeated that quote to Jason and we prayed again and just came to peace that we knew something was going to happen - whether it was Norway, a different job in Houston, etc. and that we were letting it go and we will just keep being patient.
I'm so glad that we had that little reminder on Sunday because I bet you'll never guess what happened Monday morning... we got the offer!!! :-)
Jason just "officially" accepted this morning after touching base with HR on the start date, etc. We don't know the timing yet because it can take 1-2 months to get visas and both Jason and I are taking the PE this October. Ideally, we are targeting sometime in November for the move.
By know you might be wondering, "Okay so she's talked about Jason's job, but what about hers?" Well, ConocoPhillips has an office in Stavanger. Less than a 5 min walk from Baker. I talked to my boss back in February when it was a possibility and they reached out then to our technical team that oversees (or overseas, haha, lame joke I know) moves. There is no guarantee that they are going to be able to get a job for me, but there is a good possibility considering the circumstances. We are just trusting the Lord that He will open or close any doors according to His will and accept whatever happens.
Much more to come when we have more information, but for now WE ARE MOVING TO NORWAY!!!
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
