I'm Pumped!

So I just returned from the much worried about interview! It was fantastic! Basically they need someone to work 1-on-1 with an elderly gentleman who has Alzheimer's, along with working on the every other weekend rotation. Allison House (the place I interviewed) is owned by a husband and wife and they have two other "homes" in Schofield/Rothschild, so there won't be (I assume) all the dealing with the big corporate "home office" that you have at Harmony. Also they pay much much much better... which obviously is great, it's not everything, but bills are bills and they must be paid. :-P Anyway, I'm so pumped that I'm going to clean my house to celebrate, because it's driving me nuts and Brock is sleeping...

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled "Cute" Program For this Announcement...

... I have a job interview on Monday at an assisted living home in Marathon. I'm still trying to decide if I'm sane or not.

Here's the thing, I love the residents at my current job. Make that I love the residents at my current job. (Seriously, the thought of leaving them causes nasty emotional things to happen, so I'm not going to go there right now... I hear keyboards stop working if they're immersed:-P) I also love a great percentage of the staff there (The girls I usually work with on PMs are downright awesome, everything runs smoothly and we get things done in record time... it's great!)However, it is half an hour away, meaning an hour I have to spend on the road every day I work (which I realize isn't bad for people who live further out in the boondocks)... and it honestly doesn't pay super well. Let me be the first to say I would totally volunteer for the rest of my life if it weren't for the fact that bills exist and people have this strange tendency to eat things.

Pros of (potential) new job:
- Closer = more time at home, less miles on the car, less gas, decreased chance of automobile "crash" (in theory anyway)...
- Potentially higher paying = maybe we can pay off our mortgage a little sooner?:-)

Cons of (potential) new job:
- New Staff
- New Residents
- New emotional things
- "Learning curve" brought on by new people, environment, etc.

Of course being devious I have thought that maybe I could play the "Hey, I have this way better job offer, you had better come up with something to keep me here" card at my current job and see how things work out.

I guess I would just really like prayer regarding this whole situation, that if God wants me to get the job He would open doors, and if not He would close doors, and that He would give me direction through the whole process when/if it comes down to leaving/majorly cutting back my hours at my current job. It's all just really confusing right now and every now and again I stop and want to scream "Why! Why did I ever fill out that application!?"

Laughter, again.

Car Ride Inspirations

I've been working the past few nights and as usual this means a good chunk of time spent in the car with time to think inspiring thoughts.

Night #1) Upon this night I happen to glance in my rear view mirror on my way out of town and notice that the usual column of smoke/steam/whatever rising from the place that it rises from had taken on a rather strange shape and looked very much like a cross. Then through the rumbling noises of my rather noisy car came the strains of "Who Am I?" by Casting Crowns and I was struck by how small and insignificant we as humans are, and how big God is, and how He sends little "moments" like that to remind us of His tender love and mercy, as if the sacrifice of HIS Son wasn't enough.

Night #2) Snow + Slippery Roads = Not getting places very fast. As I mentioned on Night #1 my car is loud, (very loud) the exhaust pipe is broken right before the muffler, and the radio is all but drowned out if you're going much over 45 mph. Tonight was different, the slower speeds suddenly made the radio audible over the roar of the car. I didn't give it a second (let alone a first) thought until I was nearly home... but it suddenly reminded me of how God tries to get our attention through all the "noise" in our lives, and it can be "easy" to ignore him because there's so much going on, and it's when we shut out the distractions and we're finally quiet before Him that we can hear him through the "noise."

I returned home to the sounds of Ben and Brock snoring, and it made me smile... God is so Amazing! :-)

Shrews Perhaps?

For those who have followed the seemingly never ending saga of the mice in our house... I have an update! For those who haven't, just know that mice have been a continuing problem here and every trap that we have set for them has failed... and they seem to think mouse poison is to be hoarded for the hard economic times to come (see, even the mice are scared).

Well, today in an effort to eradicate the millions of beetles infiltrating my house I dubbed the shop vac my temporary best friend and went on a mission to end the lives of the helpless "innocent" beetles. As the long hose nosed it's way between two cabinets out came one of the many sticky traps I had set sometime last summer... one I had forgotten about. Upon investigating it's contents I found these little creatures. Judging by their size, I'd tend to think they are shrews, perhaps not full grown... but still, disturbing. This could explain why all the traps are un-sprung,
the little things are so light they probably don't even register on most scales.



The card is simply for "size comparison" as I couldn't locate a ruler or tape measure.

Of course, this doesn't fix anything. Firstly, I have seen (and nearly made eye contact with) a few too many larger rodents in my pantry in the past year and secondly because if there are two dead shrew-like things... there's more, somewhere, and they aren't in my traps, which is of deep concern. I'm hoping they all decide to move outside for the summer where the dog(?) will catch them? Or maybe I'll convince Ben that a cat would really increase my sanity (even if I to am not loyal to their kind). Although it causes him no end of amusement when I jump up on things and scream when mice skitter across the floor. :-)

Also, since this post is thus far lacking in the "Cuteness" quotient I present you with this closing photo, upping the cuteness quotient to something around 109.999%.

Toothless Grins and Laughter

After a rather "trying" morning of trying to make Brock settle down and sleep (his teeth were bothering him and if you put anything in his mouth he would just cry...) it was music to my ears when he started laughing (rather uproariously) this afternoon. He has taken to laughing in the past, but it was usually short-lived and not quite as hilarious. I'm still not sure what was sooo funny to him... Ben was depositing a few pieces of paper in a garbage can and I was paying little to no attention to Brock, when all the sudden he throws his head back and bursts into laughter!

This is how we find Brock every morning (and sometimes after naps during the day. Stuffed into the corner of his crib, sucking his thumb and with all the blankets kicked off. (Don't worry we do put a sleeper or something on him at night, this was after an afternoon nap)



I'm so thankful to God for those little moments during the day that make the stress and tension just melt away, and for the laughter of little children, it's one of the sweetest sounds on earth! :-)

Aha!

I finally figured out how to post video! If you never see a video with me in it, or with me talking... it's because I can't stand how my voice sounds on video... it's grating. :-P



This is the "creek" in our backyard, in the summer it's only 2-4 feet wide... but in the spring, it's been known to come all the way up the hill behind our house... almost right up to the basement door...




I tend to think this video explains itself... except for the part where we can't let Brock figure out there's a camera in the area otherwise he'll stop looking at Ben and smiling...


I just returned from taking Brock on a "walk" outside to see the "Critters," the mud, and to see if the flowers I planted last fall are coming up. They are! (now to see if they die randomly... I did not inherit my grandmothers green thumb.)

I let Mika (the dog) out for a bit too, she's usually pretty wild and doesn't settle down for anything (with the possible exception of food), but I actually got her to "pose" with Brock... and when we put her back in her kennel she was whining pitifully. I sometimes feel sorry for the poor beast, but she's just not "good" enough to be out unattended... she chases cars and likes disappearing for extended periods of time and it's just not a good situation.

In the Beginning...

Since the advent of Internet in our home I have found myself hanging out on Facebook more than I really want to admit. (Seriously, it's a time trapping device that sucks you in and won't let you go, if you aren't careful) Facebook is great and all, but sometimes I just want a place to ramble like I used to here. Although I suppose resurrecting the poor xanga site could be in order, I have found that I like the layout of blogger much much better... so here I am. It'll also help keep all my family and friends that are scattered pretty much all over (excepting of course, space... one of you should become an astronaut) informed on the "latest" happenings around here. I fear much of what I write will probably be centered around Brock and his most recent accomplishments, but there are worse things. :-P