Proverbs 31:22

Yesterday was a beautiful, spring-like day. The temperature was perfect and the sky was oh-so blue. Kimberly and Nathan came over for the afternoon and after Kimberly dyed Laikyn's hair, we loaded everything up in the Vitara and went to Tuscumbia's Spring Park. I am so eager for the day when we can bring Nathan here to feed the ducks and geese. For now, though, we had fun pushing him in a swing for the first time. He didn't laugh or giggle, but he did crack a smile. The kid is really serious most of the time. While, I can't post a picture of his face on here (per his parents' request), I *can* post this cute photo of his feet.

...into the swing of things. After a few months of adjusting to working outside the home (after a 2-decade hiatus from that lifestyle), I'm trying to add back some of my old routine. Just trying to take it slowly so I don't get overwhelmed. I was sick last weekend, but this weekend I felt well so I spent some time Saturday morning in the kitchen. I baked a loaf of freshly-milled whole wheat bread, some rolls, and a pizza crust. I made some biscuits to have for breakfast during the week. I made a batch of pancake batter to put in the fridge for use during the week. Pancakes hot off the griddle are so much better tasting than ones reheated in the microwave. I finally got up the nerve to ask for permission to swap out one 1/2-day Friday each month for a 1/2-day Monday so I can attend my quilt guild meetings. I knew that it would be something I *might* have to give up and I, of course, was willing to do that in order to keep my job. ;-) BUT I really was hoping it would be somethin...

This past week was my first FULL week of working outside the home. It is definitely the adjustment that I knew it would be. I come home pretty exhausted. I don't feel like doing anything much. Hopefully, my body will adjust soon and I will be able to add some fun stuff back to my schedule. I like the work environment -- except that we (the transcriptionists) aren't in our normal office space. About 6 weeks ago, the medical offices above our normal office space had a sprinkler malfunction which poured water on our offices. The carpet was changed on Monday this past week and that is all they did to fix the spaces. The area we are in temporarily is off a rather noisy hallway. There is a delivery entrance into the hallway and we are right there with no doors or walls separating us from the hallway. Not the most ideal spot for transcribing audios. Everyone in the office is really nice. I hope they decide to keep me. The terminology is getting more familiar every day. I have bought a...

This was my first week at the new job as a medical transcriptionist in a cardiovascular clinic. My brain and body are SO tired! I came home each evening just exhausted. Even so, I am surprised to say that I really like the job. Everyone in the office is nice. The lady training me has been there for more than a decade. She is retiring in October 2009. On my first day, she really surprised me by saying, "You're the first one they've tried that I've been hopeful about." I don't have any training in medical transcription. I did do one file for a doctor while working for Internet Transcribers. It was a conference call for parents of children with ADHD. After that one file, I said, "I don't want any more medical stuff!" Really, that one was a piece of cake because it was mostly meds that I had to Google to find spellings on. This job is definitely a lot more than meds. The most difficult part is actually being able to distinguish what the docs are sayi...

Lots going around here lately. I haven't had time to blog much. As I wrote before , I took a seasonal, part-time job at Sears because it was the only offer I had. I started a few weeks ago. I don't hate it, but I don't really like it either. Does that make sense? After 3 times of working with someone, they had me scheduled to work alone this week on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. First thing Tuesday morning, I started making mistakes and having to call for supervisors. When my immediate supervisor finally came around at lunch time, I told her that I really wasn't comfortable being on my own. She graciously understood and sent someone over to work with me the rest of the day. Jessica was awesome and she taught me a lot. On Tuesday, I had a call from one of the staffing agencies I applied with. They had a position for a medical transcriptionist open. I told her that I didn't have experience or training in medical transcription. She relayed that to the administrator...

As I said before , we went to Huntsville for my birthday yesterday. We fixed some of our favorite gourmet-style chicken salad, packed the picnic basket and ice chest, and started loading up the car. While we were running around loading things, Michael stopped me and said, "Do you want to bring this?" "Bring what?" I asked. He grabbed a blue shopping bag off the chair and put it down on the floor at my feet. It held my birthday present/anniversary present/Christmas present -- for the next two years! I was TOTALLY floored to find that the bag held a Nikon D60 Digital SLR camera!!! A few months ago -- before the recent cutbacks at work -- I had told him, "I want a Digital SLR camera for Christmas; make it happen." Of course, after recent events, I was no longer holding him to that request. I was a little suspicious during the week when he pulled the Best Buy circular out of the garbage can and looked through it, but with all the activity this past week, I hon...

I had job offers from two places yesterday: Sears and K Mart. Since I didn't have any other offers on the table, I took the job at Sears, even though it is only seasonal. Of course, there is the possibility of it turning into a permanent job after the holidays. I'm still looking, though, since retail isn't my first choice. I'd much prefer something in an office, but for now, I'm taking it! It's only part-time, but it offered the possibility of more hours than the job at K Mart. I should start next week. When I first got the offer from K Mart (in the morning), I called one other place that I had applied at because I knew they were conducting interviews this week and I wanted to know the status of things before I accepted K Mart. This was for a part-time office assistant job at a saddle company. I was totally floored when the guy told me that they had received well over 100 applications (!!) and they were only choosing 5-10 to call for interviews. Yikes! How is a ...

I was on the phone earlier with our Realtor and had a call come in. I didn't answer it, because Deidre and I were discussing things about the house sale/search. When I hung up, I checked my missed calls and it was from Waste Management. The interviewer left a voice mail saying that they had filled the positions. Even though I really knew that was the case, I'm still so disappointed. :-( I don't even have the heart to call back and ask her to critique me. Yesterday while in town shopping, I dropped off about a half dozen applications at different places that I had picked up from before. This is so discouraging. ALL this stuff -- house sale/search; job cutbacks for hubby; financial pressures -- is weighing on me heavily today.

I have still not heard anything on the job I applied for on Friday. I even called yesterday to find out something, but I just got the interviewer's voice mail. I left a message, but she hasn't returned the call yet. Maybe she's out of the office for a few days??? I'm trying to be patient, but most of the time, I have to admit that I am anxious for word. One way or the other, I really want to know if I have this job. Of course, I would prefer that the answer would be "yes." But the not knowing is a little nerve-wracking. Especially when Michael came home earlier this week and said that he was told absolutely NO overtime. This is devastating news for us. We are strapped financially already. We hope something happens soon. Selling the house will help us pay off about four bills, which help tremendously. My bringing in a good second income will also help us not to go under. We also could use the benefits that the job at Waste Management offers. The insurance that...

Today, we had Kim, Dewayne, and Nathan over for the day. We also invited a young man that Laikyn works with over. He has expressed interest in spending time with her and we have already gone to a football game together. It's a little awkward to explain to someone our views on dating. We don't allow unsupervised contact for our daughters and young men. It's also different for us because Kimberly and Dewayne's courtship happened entirely over the telephone, long distance from Colorado. But, Michael did explain somewhat what our views are and why, and Michael (that's his name, too) seemed okay with it. He said he understood and seemed willing to do this however we deem necessary. Nathan is just so precious. He's smiling and cooing now and it's just so sweet. He's nine weeks old and weighs 16+ pounds and is now 25" long. He's gained nearly 8 pounds and grew 4" since his birth. He's a little bruiser!!

On Thursday, I applied online for a data entry clerk position with Waste Management. The corporate office for this market area called me about an hour later and said they were going to be conducting interviews next week and they would call me. Well, I got a call on Friday morning from the local office asking if I could come in later that morning to interview. I have not worked outside of the home for the last 22 years! I feel that I did really horribly in the interview. They seemed concerned that perhaps I am not ready to make the transition from working part-time from home to working full-time outside the home. After I left, I wondered about that. Like the rest of the time (when I'm not working from home), I'm just sitting around watching soap operas and eating bon-bons. Is that what they think? And why didn't I think to point out the fact that I often work more than eight hours a day even if I'm not getting paid for it?? I tried to be as honest as I could when they ...

Here's what's been happening at our house the last week: At the suggestion of our Realtor , we are replacing the ceramic tiles (1/3 of which were cracked) in our kitchen to make our house more marketable. We listed our house with Deidre on Friday, and on Saturday, we had an offer! All before the first person looked at it! We counter offered and then they counter offered just slightly under our counter offer. However, they have since lost the person who was going to lease their home in South (or is it North?) Carolina. They are still interested in buying our house, but they won't reinstate the offer until they have someone firm to take theirs. Since we are replacing the floor and our house now looks like a bomb exploded in it, we are holding off showings until next week. We listed now, though, because the cut-off date to be in our local Showcase of Homes publications was the 14th. We wanted to be sure to get in the book for November! Our own home search will resume tomorrow.

We heard from the Realtor on Friday. We are pondering whether to negotiate more on the price on the house we made an offer on last week. We offered him his full price, but asked him to pay the closing costs. He didn't like that. We might meet him halfway; we're still thinking about/talking about it. I was fully prepared for Michael to say that we needed to just walk away. I even told the Realtor that on the phone. "I think we'll probably just have to walk away." But, Michael said, "We'll think and pray and talk about it and make him wait a few days." Today, we went to visit Kimberly, Dewayne, and Nathan and figured out that moving to Lakeside Highlands would cut our driving time to them in half . That's a BIG plus. We've only had one more call (today) on our house. Still no appointments to see it, though. We are running an ad in a local paper this coming week. We will see what happens with that and then make the decision on listing with a Re...

We made an offer on the house in our old neighborhood yesterday. We haven't had any word yet from the seller. We put up a for sale sign for our house on Sunday. We have had three calls, but no appointments set yet. We are deciding if we want to list with a Realtor. I know that if the seller refuses our offer, then it's God's will. But I'll still be a little disappointed. Even though the house is really nice, my disappointment will come from something else. We drove by the house on Sunday again. While in the neighborhood, we drove down to the community park and boat launch. I had forgotten (or didn't realize) how much I missed living near the river. When we lived on the other side of Lakeside Highlands, we were around the corner from Veteran's Park, which is on the Tennessee River. We often walked to the park and down the river when we lived there. Even when we were living through the difficult months of Michael trading online from home, we would walk down to the...

Laikyn has been doing so well lately with her asthma. She has hardly had to use her rescue inhaler. Yesterday, we were at the Y working out and she came to me on the treadmill and said, "I'm having trouble breathing. I just did my inhaler." I told her to go get some hot coffee. She did and then came back a few minutes later and said, "I drank the coffee, and it's not getting any better. I'm starting to get light-headed." I got off the treadmill and we rushed out and to the doctor's office, which was just around the corner. When we got to the counter and I told the receptionist Laikyn was having a severe asthma attack, she said, "I don't have a doctor. They're gone at 4:30." It was about 4:40. I said, "Is there a nurse that can give her a breathing treatment???" She said, "Let me check." We sat in the lobby and Laikyn said her hands were starting to tingle. The nurse came and got us and brought us to the back, sto...

Our house search has heated up this week! :-) Laikyn and I looked at a total of 6 houses Wednesday. The gas has been eating us up driving to look at only a few each day, so I decided to spend the day in town looking at numerous ones. (We did look at only one yesterday. We didn't look at any today. I'm worn out!) After the last tour was over, I called Michael and said, "I just looked at a house that I want you to see and I seriously want to make an offer on it." It's in the neighborhood we first lived in when we moved to Florence. We would like living there again. The neighborhood is 5 minutes from the main shopping area of our city. It's also right around the corner from Veteran's Park. Plus, there is a neighborhood boat launch and park that residents can use for an optional fee of $35 a year. Michael is already planning to take Nathan down there to fish. (And Dewayne, too!) The house is very nice, and the best part is that we wouldn't have to do much ...

Laikyn and I viewed 4 houses today--the two that I showed pics of the other day plus two others. The green cottage was SOOOO cute and I absolutely LOVED it, but the kitchen was tiny and the washer and dryer were in the tiny kitchen, too! The dining room was small also. I was trying to think of things we could do to remodel, but the price isn't really conducive to our remodeling it as well. Of course, we could make an offer for lower than what they're asking, but for now we're just going to keep looking. We aren't opposed to getting something that needs some updating *IF* the price is right, because it would allow us to make the home into what we want. The stone cottage also would need some adjusting of the layout. I didn't love it enough to even seriously consider it and it also was not at a price conducive to remodeling. On the way to one of the other houses we looked at today is a yellow ranch-style house that I commented on each time we passed by it. It was re...

Kimberly, Dewayne, and the baby moved out late last week. I'm happy for them because they now have MUCH more room than they did here in Kimberly's old bedroom, but we sure do miss having them here. They came for a visit today. Laikyn said it looked like Nathan had gotten fatter in just a few days! :-) He's got a double chin and rolls on the back of his neck. Too cute! I'm soooo in love!!! Since we now have two bedrooms more than we need here, we are contemplating moving into a smaller house (with a smaller note) back inside the city limits of Florence. I, for one, have really missed living in town, closer to shopping, etc. I've missed having the services in town, too, like curbside recycling and large trash pick-up (limbs, etc.). Laikyn and I spent yesterday morning and part of the afternoon driving by some properties for sale. Even after living here nearly five years, we still don't know all the different neighborhoods. We have appointments to see two propertie...