Deep Breath

WOW!


My husband has been out of work since March 3rd.  He was starting to get into that slump - the feeling of "am I good enough?"  He wasn't hearing back from any of the resumes he had sent out or jobs he had applied for.


Last week, he had two phone interviews and an in-person interview.


This week, he has two in-person interviews to follow the phone interviews and he has another in-person interview at the place he already in-person interviewed.


I'm still praying that this will be the best thing that could have happened to him and he will move on to bigger and better things. Things that are a challenge, but rewarding. Things that will improve him, and our relationship.  Things that will improve his mood with himself and our children.


Thank you Lord for giving us this opportunity to focus on what is really important and making us have a Lent where we DID have to some struggling and major cutting back and deep soul-searching.  Where we realized that it isn't about us, it is how we live to glorify You and Your Son!

Hey, Blog! Remember Me?

I didn't think so, as I barely remembered that you existed.


How can I go 5 months without a comment? Easily - life happened.


And I haven't been too cheery lately.


My husband was let go from his job in March, right after he went back to work from a medical leave after FINALLY getting his carpal tunnel surgery done, that we have to pay for, since the VA wouldn't do it, even though he suffered with the pain for over 5 years.  He will probably never have the strength in that hand or total feeling, because the surgeon freely admits that there was probably irreparable damage to that hand.


So, besides fighting to get his short-term disability payments, because the insurance company was fighting us over us having VA disability, then we had to fight for unemployment.


The job search is wearing on him, but he has had several calls and has a live interview lined up in a couple of weeks.  And some that he really wishes would call him back.


I am down to my last four security check appointments. I'm hoping that they will issue the information gathering contracts soon, so I can keep money coming in. Crossing my fingers.


He is going on a field trip to the state capitol tomorrow with the oldest.  He's SOOOOO glad that I volunteered him for that, but I figured it might be his only chance to do so, and that's the one he needs to spend more time with.


Haircut and color for me today. I can't wait for a little pampering and I am WAY past the point that I should have had my hair done, but since it was the bleepity-bleep coldest winter ever, what point was there in it, when I was doing everything with a stocking cap on?


So, good morning, blog. I can't say that I won't forget you again, but I hope to see you again sooner than five months from now.

I'm supposed to be doing homework

My book is open, my workbook is open.  Pencil and calculator are at hand.  I even have a deadline and MUST have the homework done and the test taken by next week Monday.

However,

However, I am completely lost and frustrated with this chapter and that is the downside of online learning and having a vehicle in the shop - no effective way to communicate with the professor about the ups, downs, ins, and outs of Bond Accounting.  Yep, even the phrase sounds like Greek to me.

So not what I want to be doing with my Accounting classes.  I am looking forward to the last three that I have to take.  The last five chapters in this class, not so much.

Sigh, the only thing to do is do it. Oh, wait, I could go do dishes, or laundry, or clean the living room.

Yeah, Yeah, back to the chapter from hell.

Once Upon a Time...

Such was the subject of an email I received from my older, much older (!) sister this weekend.  It was such a cute email, that I'm going to put it out here as one of those memories that I don't want to forget.

There was born a second daughter.  The eldest being jealous of the new baby attempted to bake her in a cardboard oven.  She was thwarted by the king and queen.  Through the years the first and second born daughters of this family would make attempts on each others' lives.  They were not very good at this for they have both survived into adulthood.  Not sure how adult they act, but they lived and the eldest is very happy about that. Happy Birthday, Traci. Love you. Vikki Mom didn't remember it being an oven, just thought it was a hideout and this made Mom very glad that they had good gates on the stairs when I, the hapless younger child, was pushed around in a clothes basket car!

Fix-it's Birthday

In two weeks, my little girl will be 5!

When asked what she wants for a birthday present, I was told, "You know, that thing you've been hiding in the back of the truck!"

Little bugger!  Guess she knows that she is getting a remote control 4-wheeler for her birthday.  Unless, I play the mean Mom and give it to her for Christmas.  But what fun are RC toys in December?  Nah, guess I have to give it to her while she can still play with it outside on the driveway.

I also asked her what cake she wants for her birthday.  We still don't have an answer on that one.  I'm going to have to keep asking about that.

Pirates

As I was checking email this morning, this is the conversation that I heard coming from behind the couch where Fix-it and Bug were playing with the pirates and pirate ship:

Bug: "Aye, matey!  I'm Captain Swashbuckle, the meanest and best pirate, ever!"

Fixit: "Hi, Captain Swashbuckle.  I'm Captain Barnacle.  Wanna do mean pirate stuff together?"

Bug: "Why sure, Captain Barnacle.  What do mean pirates do?"

Fixit: "Well, we steal people's gold and it turns into pirate treasure.  We make treasure maps to find our treasure.  And the best thing we do...we make people WALK THE PLANK."  (followed by a giggle fit.)

Bug: (still cracking up about walking the plank): "Do you get people with your swords, too?"

Fixit: "Yep!  We chop their heads off if they don't walk the plank."


I'm glad they use their imaginations, but not so sure about the blood-thirstiness of it all! :)

Well, That is Just Spectacular!

It is 1:47 a.m.

Yep!  You read that right - 1:47 a.m.

"Why," you might ask, am I awake at such an early hour?

Well,

That would begin the story of the spectacularness that has been my early morning.

It began by being scared awake by my youngest, Fix-it, standing by me with the ever-popular middle-of-the-night proclamation, "I barfed."

It is quite spectacular how much mess can be made by throwing up next to the bed, when you occupy the top bunk and the floor is messy.

It was so spectacular that I woke up my husband to help clean that bit of loveliness up.  He was recruited to take Bug's blanket, that was hanging off her bed, downstairs while I kept cleaning up the floor and everything else.  Bug woke up long enough as I was uncovering her to tell me that she better not barf on the blanket she was using now.

Told Fix-it to go get a bowl from downstairs.  That is bowl number 1.

She came back upstairs to report that K was already downstairs on the couch with a bowl.  That is bowl number 2.  She had come downstairs about midnight after throwing up in the bathroom upstairs and cleaning up her own mess.

I come downstairs with Fix-it's blanket to add to the laundry (remember, the reason I was awake), to find my husband worshipping the porcelain goddess.

Spotting the trend, yet?

That, dear folks, is bowl number 3.

I told him to take one upstairs to put by Bug, in case, she too had reason to use it.  That is bowl number 4.

Now that I am sure I gave my family food poisoning from the really good turkey curry salad I made for supper, I am sitting in my chair trying to decide if my stomach doesn't feel good, or if it is the power of suggestion.

To be on the safe side, I think it will be bowl number 5 when I head back upstairs.

So, final score for the night:

Food Poisoning: 1      The Family:  0

Final tally, so far at 2:02 a.m.:

1 bad batch of turkey curry salad - which I will never be able to make again, even though it tasted really good
2 blankets hit by one kid
3 people sick, so far
4 things to throw away: the rest of the curry, the fresh lettuce from Mom's garden, the pine nuts that we've never had before, and the stock I have going in the slow cooker from the turkey carcass
5 bowls deployed

Yep, this is just spectacular!  (They really need to invent a sarcasm font!)