It's Picture Time...part one.

Learning to say Cheese!!

Getting ready to go outside...love the bibs :)

YaY! Grandma and Papa are back from Florida :)

Go Green.....Go white!!

My little Carpenter!

Breakfast with mommy!

If there is water, Josiah is in it! A puddle, a pool, a spoonful. To Josiah any amount of water is just plain fun.

My boy is just growing up so fast.

He loves to sit on his couch and watch cartoons.

Runnin through the mud

This video was taken yesterday. Josiah and I got outside to get some much needed fresh air. At first I didn't want him in the mud and then said what the heck, why not. If I was his age I would love to run through the puddles, so why should I rob him of that joy :) So away he went and he had so much fun and I had fun watching him!!!

Breakfast Dance Video

This movie is silent because my camera doesn't record sound! But enjoy :) This is from one of our many breakfasts that we have been able to enjoy with each other over the past few weeks. He is dancing to Jeremiah was a bullfrog. At the very end, he decides he is done dancing and tells me to get him more eggs.

Staring off in space video

Again this is silent, but no sound is needed to see that he is totally spaced out. This occurs during every meal we eat :)

Once again...a long over due post!

I have probably lost any and all the people that used to read my blog and look forward to the pictures and fun little anicdotes about Josiah. Back in the day when my life seemed somewhat normal and not so out of control. Shoot...I just looked at the number of pictures I have taken in the past month and if you know me, you will know that this is unbelievable. A total of 15 pictures...yep 15. I can hardly believe it myself. I am ready for things to slow down and for all of us to get into some sort of routine. And slowly but surely I am doing that.

I officially started my new full-time job at Orchid Cellmark, a DNA paternity testing laboratory. I am a lab technician working 2nd shift. Right now I am working 12:30 PM to 9:00 PM. Starting next monday however I will switch to my permanent schedule of 2:30 PM to 11:00 PM. This might change in the summer, but will be that way for a time. I like the schedule I am working now, but am not looking forward to the change. Not really sure if I can stay awake that late working and still having to get up every morning with Josiah. I am sure I will take many a nap once that schedule starts, but we'll see. Who knows, I might like being able to take naps...I do love a good nap :)

So far the job has its ups and downs. The part where I get to be efficient, I am good at and I like. The part where I have to careful of a 7 digit number in a filing system...I am still trying to get a grasp on. The bummer is that the person training me becomes extremely dissappointed in me and frustrated every time I make a mistake, making the work environment tense. It is as though she has never made a mistake (which I know is not true, because I have witnessed these mistakes myself). Everyone makes mistakes and I am learning from them. For some reason I am having a pretty tough time learning this job...not sure if it is my age, or that for the first time I am actually being challenged. A little of both I suppose. But on days like today where I made a mistake late in the day that caused this frustration, I leave the lab feeling defeated and lacking self confidence. But tomorrow I will come in again and try to put on a smile and not confront this person, so that I can simply keep on going, learning from my mistakes...doing my best not to make more...knowing that I will continue to make more mistakes and the cycle continues. A comfort for me, is that I am not the only one that gets treated like this...crappy that others feel this way too, but comforting to know I am not alone in these feelings.

I am doing my best to stay out of company gossip. It has burned me in the past and I am trying to learn from my past. I will do what I can and keep reminding myself to keep my mouth shut...a great policy for me in general. And so far it has done me well!

Overall, I am enjoying myself here at the lab. I like the people and they love Taco Bell. I like sleeping in until 8:30 AM and am very grateful that Josiah is a sleeper like his Mama.

Well it is almost time to go home...I will continue the next time I get a break!!

A quick post, more to follow later

Tomorrow I will accept the lab tech position. yep the 2nd shift position. I started out the afternoon crying about it and now I am coming to realize that for me this might not be so bad. I will have my mornings free and free to take Josiah to day care as I need. I will be able to go to Toddler time or bible studies in the morning or MOPS. So many things I could never do while working. I won't have to dress up in suits every day :) yay!!! But most importantly, this should be a great foundation for a career. Something I have been looking for for a very long time. So continue to keep us in your prayers. Dan will probably feel the largest strap down since he will be souly responsible for Josiah in the evenings, but he is a great dad and I know that God has us going down this track for a reason. Thank you for the prayers and I am excited to start this new journey in my life!

Interview on Monday

The news of late: if you haven't heard, I have been offered the job at the lab. I hate it that I wasn't jumping up and down with joy. A job, a real job with benefits, vacation, sick leave and all that good stuff. So why I am not more excited about this offer? Simply said: 2nd Shift. The hours are from 2:30pm to 11:00pm. You can all probably figure out the rest of the complaints. But some of the biggest concerns are time for Dan and me to spend together. Family time will be reduced to weekends only and I really love having dinner every night with the family, sitting down, saying prayers with Josiah saying "amen" 3 or 4times throughout each prayer. I think that is so important for a family. A family who eats together, stays together...or something like that. I don't want to have to give that up. Yes, I will see Josiah in the morning and Dan after work, since he stays up playing video games until midnight everynight anyway. But no more snuggling with Josiah before bedtime (my favorite time of the day with Josiah). I will just have to learn to love the snuggles in the morning.

But another major concern is that Dan's job requires him to be on-call one week a month and sometimes works late during the week. So I am not sure how we are going to work that out. Our day care is only open until 5:30. Granted, Dan is supposed to get out of work at 4:00 every day, but that rarely ever happens and the days when he can't make it by 5:30, what then?? Kim has kids of her own that are very busy with sports right now and I am not sure what we will do. I don't even know how many days a week Dan is late coming home or how often he will be called out on board ups in the evening. Maybe this won't even be a problem and I have worried for nothing. These are our main concerns right now.

I have not accepted the job offer because I have an interview at the place I started temping 2 weeks ago on Monday at 3:00pm. I went to them when I had been offered the lab job and asked if I was in the running for the "Enrollment Specialist"position. I have been basically training to do some of the work that this position is responsible for. So I do have some of the specific skills that they need along with all of the skills I have been honing for the past 10 years. I also really like all the people that work there. They have been so welcoming and supportive. The hours would be my dream hours 9-5 (1 hour paid lunch). Unbelievable benefits! The kind that you don't pay for much of anything ever. Basically, this job, seems to me to be my "dream" job. Work that I know I can do but still be challenged daily, awsome hours, unbelievable benefits (did I already say that) and great people to work with.

However, there were 200 applicants and out of 200 people, the two doing the interviewing selected 3 of the same people as candidates to interview, not including me. Does that mean anything really? I don't know! But it sure makes me feel like I need to kick butt in the interview. So I have been doing everything I can to prepare for this interview. In the end it will all come down to what comes out of my mouth on the day of the interview. :) God be with me!!!!!!! And all the extra prayers will be much welcomed.

So Monday at 3:00pm, PLEASE PRAY!!!!

The great part about going into this interview on Monday is knowing that I will have a job no matter what, it's just that I am not sure which job God has in mind for me! The road that seems to be paved with gold, the "easy" road, or what appears to be...or the hard road, or what appears to be the hard road. I don't know which is which anymore. So I just pray that God makes it very clear to me this time which road I am supposed to take, because I have not picked the right road for a very long time....or I have picked the exact road I was supposed to be on, "the hard road" and now I am going to get to enjoy "the not-quite-so hard road". It sounds nice anyway! Neither pay very well, so financially they will both be hard roads no matter how you look at it! So after that long rant of non-sensical bable! I just pray that I hear God's guidance for the interview and the decisions that follow!

Thanks for listening to a hole lot of non-nense :)

New job

Last week I interviewed for a temp job in the morning and the lab job in the afternoon. Within a couple of hours they called and offered me the temp position. I felt pretty honored that they didn't even need to interview very many more people. So on Monday I started at a law school in the admissions office downtown. Actually it is right across the street from my old job at AF, plus I will be able to have lunch with Mindy again :) Yah!! Plus the hours are 9:00-5:00...hours that I could get used to. I don't feel so tired in the morning :) And thank goodness Josiah sleeps until 8 or 8:30, so that works out well.

At any rate, the position is mostly doing busy work...but I am definitely good at busy work, so I have felt very productive and helpful all week. The people are all really great and easy to work with and for. There is a person leaving on Friday and they just recently posted her job. So I applied for it on Monday night. I asked my boss if it was ok if I applied, which turned out was good because they didn't want the person that took the temp job to assume that they would move right into that position. I do have an upper hand because I am there and doing what I can to prove myself. Now I just have to prove myself. So I am working hard. I am also having to dress in business professional which is a big change. I went from working in the woods to business casual and now I have to wear business suits. So last weekend I went to goodwill and bought 2 suits, 3 dress shirts and a blazer for $40. I think I am going to have to make one more trip to a different goodwill and I should be all set.

No word from the lab job, but it is for 2nd shift and I am not sure that I even want to be offered the job. At this point I would feel like I have to take the job, but 2:30 to 11:00pm would be hard for so many reasons. But then again, God said we need to take the road less traveled. So I am just going to sit tight, hope I get an interview at the Law School and wait to hear about the lab job!!

Thanks for all the prayers!!

Oh yah, as always God is good. Our rebate money from our Credit Union came through and it couldn't have come at a better time :)

Making the best out of our visit to the UP

CHRISTMAS AT THE HOTEL

I snuck out in the morning with the few presents we had brought along for him to open from us. Definintely a God thing, because I had no idea we wouldn't be home on Christmas. But he opened them and we got our family Christmas picture and had a great day!

THE SWIMMING POOL

Another God thing; I had the forethought to bring our swimsuits just in case we were to stay in the hotel for a night...little did I know we would be there for 8 nights. But we absolutely loved having the pool. We swam twice a day and by the end of our stay Josiah could walk along half of the pool only holding on by his hands on the side all by himself. So much fun and we were so very grateful for "simming".

CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF THE U.P.

This museum made the time in the confines of the hotel room much more tollerable.