why did I want a job again??

Ok, no I am totally thankful for a job, but girls, 20.5 hours in two days with very physical work after not working for 2 1/2 months is...hard.

We "moved" to my in-laws yesterday morning.  The train house is all packed and monday we get a truck to go pack up and move everything into a storage unit in Kingston.  I worked a ten yesterday and a ten (well, I got stuck about 45 minutes past that due to insanity) today.  I am working at an ice cream store here in Kingston that I worked at 4 years ago (except, I worked on Bainbridge Island then).  Because I was pretty much there every day and my boss almost made me the manager, she is really excited I am back (much better to have me than random 17 year olds who just need summer jobs).  But, I am also kind of expected to just remember and do everything.  yeeeah.  So, tonight it was slow and we got totally slammed right after our extra girl went home.  I had to do a complete inventory, clean the store, and close out the register (which I haven't done since I've been back and no one bothered to really show it to me again) with a girl who has only worked there 2 1/2 weeks.  A garbage exploded on me, the till was off (which was not my fault, but I had to call the manager and work it out), and it seemed forever before I got out of there.  Everything takes a while too, because it is a locally made gourmet store that has to be spotless and has all of these specific procedures because the ice cream is so specifically made and kept.  I am SO thankful that tomorrow I don't have to work until 5 and I only have to work five and a half hours. 

Then Monday I get off to go move boxes.  Oh joy.  I am just waiting, waiting, waiting for Tuesday to go play on the beach (hoping for sun) and relax.

And I miss my little boy so badly.  I mostly miss putting him to bed.  I always got that special time for 45 minutes of reading, singing, and cuddling.  Jeremy isn't used to watching him all day, and SO many things have changed in the last couple of days.  Mom is gone all day, he's not at home, and his entire routine is different.  This morning when he woke up, I snuck in to his room and cuddled with him and he had the biggest grin on his face and could NOT stop giving me kisses.  That made me incredibly happy and also terribly sad.  I was so happy that he loved me and was showering me with affection, but pained that I wasn't with him all day.  I am thankful God has provided us with a job, and I know this is just for a season and it will be good for my husband to spend the time with Shea, but OH how I pray this will not be a long season.  There are so many possibilities.  I just applied for a slightly better job (shorter hours, better pay) on Friday, and it turns out that Jeremy's dad knows the people who own the company and has been trying to contact them to see if he can help me out.  And hopefully soon Jeremy will find work and we'll be able to move into our own place again.

The best 5 minutes of my day today was when I called Jeremy on my break and Shea talked to me on the phone.  He wouldn't give Jeremy the phone back and he was just going on and on and on, who knows about what!  He just seemed so happy to talk to me.  haha. 

Well, I'm going to go spend time with my husband now.

Finally found the pause button on my life.

I woke up at 11 today and its 2 pm and I'm still in my pajamas.  Finally some rest.
I have been meaning to update, and I think ok after this week I'll post...and I kept saying that because things kept happening!  So I'll back up, week of Aug 8-12:  my friend and I planned VBS at our church.  Overall it went really well, but it was a bit more stressful this year.  We had more kids...more problem kids...and we kind of thought it would all be easier because we had done it last year, but that was not the case.   I was so tired after that week.

Next week, Aug 15-19 a lot better, I started to get rid of stuff because we'd be moving on Aug. 31st, and we were apartment hunting without much luck.  Most places were gross (one smelled like cigarettes and cat pee) or they were really competitive and had 20 other people looking to rent it.  I did have a chance to get some sewing in for a baby shower.  I was inspired by Becca to start making gifts.  Its really fun, saves some money and gives me a deadline to finish.  Here is what I ended up making:

Then this week our plans were thrown up in the air when we got a call Monday morning that Justin has a job interview in Owen Sound (5 and a half hours northeast of us), Ontario.  His job interview is on Aug 29 and our move out date is Aug 31st!  So instead of apartment hunting that day we rented out a storage unit and started the moving process.  We realized we needed to be out by Aug 26th because we were going to be gone for a wedding this weekend and didn't want to return to Kingston to try and pack up our place in a day and a half.  So these last four days have been grueling.  I can't believe how much stuff we have!!  I have given at least 6 garbage bags to the thrift store and thrown out at least 7.  Last night we were finally all out of our place at 9 pm and then made the three hour drive to my in-laws.  We're going to be staying with them for the week, and then I'll go back to Kingston to stay with Justin's aunt while I start classes.  Craziness!

Its funny, the week where things were slow was my hardest week.  I just felt overwhelmed by everything because we didn't know what was going on.  This week with all the chaos has been much better.  I feel great!  Maybe because things are finally happening?  I dunno...

Anyways I really should get out of my pjs.  Its about time.  Bye for now!

Life is looking good.

I was going to post two days ago and then my computer randomly shut down and didn't feel like turning back on right away, a bit scary but it came back with everything still intact, no documents lost. I was looking through my pictures to try and find some pics for the wall in the living room and ran across these pictures of all my kiddos. Not going to lie, they made me want to have kids, be excited for the day I have kids, and um, not want to go to work. Haha. Anyway here are my precious little ones from the last two years. I love nursing, and nursing is what I want to do with my life but this summer it has been hard to work inside in an un-airconditioned building that may or may not smell like pee at times instead of being outside at the park or the lake with laughing little ones.

I was blogging with a friend Kayla throughout this entire summer and I made a cheater picture of all the kids and their ages so she would know who everyone was. there is a total 6 different families here, I mainly watched Sonja and Annaliesse and the last four...of who I wrote Tim on two of the names...whoops. Haha.

And for some exciting news ......................................................................

I GOT A NEW JOB AT ST. JOSEPH MEDICAL CENTER IN TACOMA, WA.

I got offered the job on Wednesday and yesterday went in to fill out some paperwork to let them do a local and national background survey on me as well as a drug and nicotine screening. They will get all the results back next week and I should be starting the job on probably September 19th. They need your BLS (basic life support) to be from American Red Cross so I am driving to Everett (the closest soonest class...booo) tomorrow to take a class from 9:30 to 12:30. Then I get to see a friend from HS who is working on becoming a Dr. at UW right now. She did her undergrad at Yale and I am so so so so proud of her. Gabe, Lexie (the friend) and I were inseparable our senior year of high school. We have only seen each other once or twice a year since then because of the distance but it is one of those friendships that will never die. Who knows, maybe I can work for her someday. :)

Our lives these past few months.

This summer has probably been my hardest summer, but Paul has managed to make it an good one still. :) This is my first summer with an indoor job (I miss the pool and nannying). This is my second summer without being tan. My second summer missing boating and wearing swimsuits (I haven't even had one on this summer!).

Last summer I didn't have a job so every day that Paul was off we had time together, it was heavenly. We went crabbing, clamming, camping, driving, and on lots of mini dates. This summer is about having jobs and being grown up and making the most of the little time we have together. We went to flaming geyser state park, crabbing in westport and stayed the night on two different occasions. We went to Emerald downs and the the Muckleshoots. My husband is amazing at making the summer the best it can be in the conditions we have. I sure do love that man. :)

So I do this thing where I make a collage of every month, so even it it seems like we haven't done much I can look back at pictures and say, "look what we did!".

August has been full of working, going to the Oregon Coast, eating lunch and dinner on our new lawn chairs in the grass, bbq-ing on our new grill.

Life is good.

Hope all your girls are having an awesome week!

Oh my!

Girls, I have been SO productive the last few days! I re-set up my card file, but this time I'm doing it gradually, room by room as I get things done so it's not so overwhelming.

I have done all daily, weekly, and monthly tasks for three rooms: Master bath, downstairs bath, and kitchen. I know it's only three rooms but that includes washing the floors and cleaning the windows and stuff! And those rooms have lots of things to do!

It's funny; I realized the bathroom has a lot of weekly chores (toilet, sink, counters, shower, sweeping) but not a lot of monthly chores (wash the floor, scrub the shower tiles, wash rugs). The kitchen, on the other hand, has a lot of monthly chores (wipe down appliances, clear out fridge, clean microwave and toaster oven) but not a lot of weekly chores (wash floor). To be fair, the kitchen has an arsenal of "daily" tasks, while the bathroom has none.

I wasn't sure I could do it today. It was so hot, and one of my tasks was to clean the oven, so while the oven was burning away its food crumbs I was sweating and washing kitchen chairs. I still have two things I can't do till the oven's cooled off (deep clean the stovetop and wipe down the oven door).

I am pretty proud of myself. The only things I'm going to do tonight are laundry and change the sheets on the bed. Or maybe I'll change the sheets on Monday when I vacuum. Yes. Joe and I will watch a movie tonight, and relax with cold things. He said not to do much for dinner because he ate late...so basically I have no idea what to make. What's something healthy that is small but qualifies as a meal, not a snack?

Ooo I should be all fancy and make him a fancy salad.

Lettuce. Semi-frozen blueberries. White balsamic vinaigrette.

Maybe he wouldn't like it though; he likes pretty simple salads.

Okay, this post has reached the point where I'm simply thinking boring thoughts out loud. Focus, Amber.

Piano tuner is here, woohoo...

Really I just can't get over how much I've gotten done and how clean those three rooms are. My next day is Monday and I hope to basically do the rest of the rooms in the house then, since they are mostly tidying and vacuuming, plus one bathroom.

Oh, weird thing: I had no idea that vinaigrette was spelled that way! I truly thought it was "vinegarette" like the female form of vinegar (you know, bachelor, bachelorette). So weird; you think you know how to spell, and then stuff like this comes up. It was only a few years ago I learned to spell "cupboard." I kept typing it into Microsoft Word "cuboard" and couldn't understand why it gave me the red squiggly.

Bye now!

Busy busy days

Yesterday at work was one the the busiest days I have had since I started there and knew nothing (therefore everything took forever and every day was exhausting). Yesterday there was an agency charge nurse in the morning which means she didn't know to do much more than chart on a few residents. So she saved the admit for me, which wouldn't have been a big deal except two more came within a 3 hour period. Now I was moving at full speed writing orders, doing assessments and wow, by the time I finished those three admits and helped Gabe pass all her meds (since she assisted me with the admits) it was 9:30 at night. I did not stop moving for 9 straight hours and I was dead tired. I sat down to do my charting and noticed the agency had charted on everybody, I have never been so grateful for something that an agency nurse did! I had time to do charting, but was so sick of writing meds and assessments that I was so glad not to have to write more.

Then Paul texted me and said the neighbor lady wanted to tear out our shrubs on thursday if that worked for us, us meaning me since Paul was working. Yes that would work, so I woke up at 10am today (so early I know) and then the doorbell rang. I struggled to get pants and glasses on to go answer the door and there she was, lovely neighbor.

Now here is what our house looked like when we moved in. Ugly bush growing up the wall and under the siding, super full island (it looks way better in this picture than it did in real life) and bushes that were 10 times the size they were meant to be.

So today we did this, the neighbors helped me tear out 12 shrubs netting 720 lbs in weight and take them to the compost place. All in all it took 5 hours, I got stung by a bee and I don't feel like doing a dang productive thing today.

I got my new printer in the mail today! My current printer only prints black and white cause the color cartridges no longer work and the scanner broke as well. So for my birthday Paul got me a new printer! And the kitties love the box. :)

The other picture is of a magazine that a residents husband gave to me telling me that my "golden dust" twin and I should pick out sweatshirts from this page. We have the body and the hips for them and they would look great on us. No matter the fact the sweaters look like they are meant for a 75 year old woman Gabe and I just laughed this off. The people I meet at heartwood, I am telling you. :)

Oh speaking of heartwood this lovely little German resident has taken to calling me her "worm" cause I am so agile and skinny. Oh my. A worm. The only problem is one of the med nurses calls this resident her "birdy" because they whistle back and forth to each other. Does this mean she is going to eat me?

Love to all!

Ah. A place of rest

 WELL, I guess I'll post again.  Someone's gotta keep this blog going! :P

I'm out in Indianola right now (a lovely little hippi beach town where Jeremy's parents and some siblings live).  We're staying with Jeremy's parents for a few days, and helping out with their VBS.  Shea is taking a nap right now (none of us slept too well last night), so I am sitting downstairs using the computer while Jeremy is helping with the kids.  I forget how much I absolutely love it here.  Its where Jeremy and I lived while we were engaged and went to bible school.  We used to go down to the beach nearly every day (a near 2 minute walk), either to swim, or just walk along the sand.  It is so much fun for Shea - everyone is so friendly and so many places for him to explore and play safely.  I love it.  And he loves being with all the kids at VBS!  Scared to death of the puppets, though.  Poor kid.  He wants to go and sing and dance so bad, but he's not sure when the puppets will come, so he doesn't really enjoy it today.  We've never really been in a church with lots of kids, and he is so social, its a brand new experience for him that he LOVES.

Anyway, I'm glad he's getting some rest.  I'm thinking of going and taking a nap too.

Indianola dock - isn't it beautiful out here?


Last night, we spent the evening with Jeremy's brother's family.  I love all of my sisters-in-law, but Tawny has always been especially sweet toward me.  We went down to the beach with her and all the kids (she has three), and they played and played in the sand and the water while we talked.  I left my flip-flops near the tide though, and forgot it was coming in...about an hour and some minutes later when we got ready to leave, I realized that my sandals had floated off to sea!  Actually, I don't even know if they floated.  I couldn't find them anywhere.  haha.  I felt so silly walking home barefoot.  Well, I didn't mind that much, and the sandals only cost a few dollars, but they were one of my favorite pairs.

At least I brought with some sneakers.

Not sure when we're coming home, we're enjoying it too much here, and its not like there is much going on in Kent.  No jobs still, and we can always apply for more from here.

Hope you are all having a nice week!!

a comment

ok, so the library has stupid security settings and I can post on blogger, but not comment?  weird.  So anyway, this is really a "comment" in reply to amber's "lowe's update" request. :)


Lowes  is maybe not looking sooo good.  Jeremy went in today for his second interview, and he for sure can have a job, but for some reason they thought he wanted a part-time job, but that is only 10-20 hours a week (lucky if you actually get 20), and so he wouldn't make nearly enough for us to warrant staying another month.  The guy who interviewed him said he would "see what he can do", so maybe he'll figure something out...in the meantime, I applied for about 7 more jobs just now, and have a couple more positions to mail ym resume to. We'll see!  If we don't have jobs lined up by the end of next week though, it looks like we'll be packing up and moving in with the in-laws...we're going over to help with his parents VBS for a few days (assuming neither of us are working), so we'll probably be making space for us to move our stuff and get rooms ready.  We haven't heard back from the Pastor in Tacoma again yet, either, but we understand that he is pretty busy, and it probably isn't something that would happen immediately anyway.


Well, I'm out of internet time!  In other news, Shea has offically figured out how to climb out of his crib at night!  It was so funny the other night...he was complaning because he threw ALL of his pillows and bink out of the crib, so I let him deal with the consequences of throwing it out.  Eventually he got quiet, and I figured he decided to go to sleep.  Then I hear this knocking noise and say, "noo he couldn't have gotten out of his crib!".  I ran into the bedroom and there he is, standing at the door with a huge grin on his face and goes "HI!!!".  haha.  I just about lost it laughing.  So we turned it into a toddler bed the other day, and after one naptime of me sitting outside his door reminding him to stay in bed for 40 minutes until he fell asleep, he is now a big boy "pro".  His bedtime routine has always involved some combination of books or singing, but I've started making bedtime extra special for him, and it seems to be working - he just loves the reading and cuddling and singing time with mommy, and now its so nice to just lay on his bed next to him and talk.  I LOVE it.  And its good, because now when his bink falls out at night, he can just get up and get it.  And in the morning he doesn't yell to get out of his crib - he just knocks on his door quietly.

that was a long comment. ;P  I'm going home now, and then off to Emery's (Shea's cousin) 2nd birthday party.  Tomorrow my friend Mia and her son Devin are meeting up with us and we're going to the church we've been attending on and off for a community BBQ, so I'm thankful for some fun things this weekend to keep our minds off of jobs until we hear something next week!

HI! long post and lots of pictures!

I'm at Amber's right now, but she isn't.  She went out and I am doing laundry and hanging out with my husband and son.  He (Shea, that is) just got up from his nap a little bit ago (which took him about an hour to actually go to sleep - he figured out how to escape the pack and play!) and is now watching Toy Story 2.  Anyway, I happen to have some of my pictures of the projects I sewed on my thumb-drive, so I can share them!

These are the prints I made for a friend as a wedding gift. I am inspired to make some fun prints for Shea's room now that these were so easy to make!  I even printed them for free at the library, haha.  Have to get resourceful when you don't have any income :)

 

and this is the apron I made for them out of material I had laying around (I secretly wanted to keep this for myself!)

For the three-momma baby shower we just had for my sister's-in-law, I made this stuff:

Set of coveralls for Amy with matching sunhat,

and a little soft rattle.

For Chaussee, I made this little play blanket (they're naming the next one with an "E" name),

and a little taggy-play blanket and rattle.

 For Hanna's baby boy, I made this cool snuggler I found a pattern for,

a set of burp cloths, a soft rattle,

and a crocheted blanket I added a pom-pom trim to (can't really see) that I made forever ago (really just started it to use up some yarn, and it turned into a big blanket...another thing I wanted to keep for Shea).

Sunday we went to our old church's 50th anniversary and Shea had a BLAST playing on all of the blow up bouncy toys they had.  Afterward, my mom and most of my siblings came over to hang out at the house and have dinner.  It was fun to fill the house with people!  My brother and his wife ended up coming down with their two kids too, so the cousins got to play.  My brother is so sweet...he wanted to go out and get some more wine, so I went with him, and he made me let him buy us groceries!  Its funny, because he is questioning a lot spiritually these days (doesn't believe in God and hates christianity), but he is so compassionate.  It has been so good to be back in the area, because him and I have really been able to reconnect on a deeper level, and his wife and I are getting more comfortable around each other too (she's awesome, we just have never had much to talk about in the past, and its getting better the more we get to know each other).  Amber already knows this, but Jeremy had a job interview today at Lowes.  He has to go back for one more, basically as a formality, and looks like he'll have a couple of options of positions to take.  He also is supposed to have an interview with the Pastor down in Tacoma, but that hasn't happened yet - the Pastor has been super busy lately.

God is taking care of us, that's for sure - and I think He just might be answering my prayer (and the prayers of some others, I know) that I won't have to work and can have more BABIES hahaha.  Ok, or just be home with my current child, that would be worth it too.

Yesterday we were at the hospital because Jeremy's oldest sister, Amy, had her fourth baby and first boy!  He is sooo precious and I'm so happy for them to finally have a little boy.  I got to sit in the waiting room and hold Hanna's little one month old too, while he slept, so I was happy.  Keeps me content for now. :)

Oh, and I've worked out for about 5 days in a row now!  I am super motivated and inspired now too.  Been reading some really good parenting books, and somehow, they've inspired me to work out.  Don't know how that works, but I'll take it!

I think this was a long post.  Well that's what happens when I don't write that often.  Good thing my laundry is ready to fold, or I might keep going!

Random and fun day full of me time!

Here is to a blog full of randomness...

The other day I transferred some 0f our food to our new garage freezer and labeled everything. I am in love with organization.

Eric thinks he is the king of the world, seriously. I think he was the one who peed on the guest bedroom comforter, duvet cover, sheet, fitted sheet, mattress pad. Yeah, I did three loads of unexpected laundry loads today. He loves to jump on this ledge and just watch people.

The kittens think changing the sheets is about the most exciting ever, Eric especially. Eric runs from whatever room he is in, jumps on the bed and slides across the sheet and attacks the rumples. I love how they are in the same room I am doing the same activity as me all the time. :)

Ok, lots of pictures of Eric I know, but he is so precious and he sits still for pictures, poses actually. He loves his tower. He even taught his sister how to stare at the tile near the fireplace with her paws tucked underneath her just like he used to, so that now he can sit on the tower, where she used to always be.

I put new picture frames on the wall and the kitten came and kept me company while I attached the wires to the frames to hang them. I am so excited to get pictures for them. I am going to use pictures I have taken for them, I just have to pick out the pictures first. I told Paul they were going to be big pictures of his face, Andy Warhol style, he didn't like the idea for some reason.

This week has been a good one. Work has been easy, tiring but easy and I have been finishing early and being able to read my Dog the Bounty Hunter book. Yes, I am obsessed with him. Today, even though I only had one day off I had a ton of energy to get a lot of things done.

1. vacuumed the house
2. mopped the floors with my new swiffer ( I have fallen in love with the wet mop thing!)
3. 3 loads of laundry thanks to the kittens
4. hanging picture frames
5. Going to Ross, Goodwill, and Target ( I got two new shirts, 4 pairs of socks, an ottoman for the closet- I need to take a picture, a new pitcher for ice tea and a new shower caddy)
6. Cleaned three bathrooms
7. Boiled and shredded 8 chicken breasts and froze them so when I make chicken enchiladas I don't have to cook the chicken too.

Tomorrow before work I need to weed eat and edge the lawn, wasn't in the mood today, dang and it really needs to be done.

And that's my day! Paul and I get to go the the Oregon Coast Monday thru Wednesday (still need to ask Amber to watch my cats... :) ) and I am so so so excited. My grandparents, mm, dad, aunt, uncle, another aunt, and bro will be there!!

Here's to an awesome weekend for all you girls!

a post!

hello girls!  I'm glad you are all writing - I have been reading the blog at the library, but haven't had time to really post anything (hard to use my internet time for that when I have so many other things to catch up on!).  I try to comment, but there is some security setting on these computers that makes it impossible for me to post.  LAME.  So anyway, I will just say that Candice - I think that is the cutest little dog coat EVER.  You can see why it probably wasn't that important for me to post that comment. haha.

Anyway!  Here is an update on my life right now.

Days totally blend into each other, but we have exciting news as of yesterday!  The worship pastor we know from Neighborhood Chapel church in Auburn called me last night, saying that the place the Senior Pastor's wife works is hiring.  I called her up and not only is she super sweet and incredibly helpful and making me feel like she wants me to get this job so badly (I've never even met her!), the job sounds perfect for me right now, everything we would need  and I am experienced to do, so just having someone advocating (and praying) for me on the inside is a great help.  I just finished the process of applying now (after three seperate trips to the library, going back and forth with information from her via email).  So I'm rewarding myself by taking some ME time and posting :) 

Also, about a week and a few days ago, Jeremy applied for a youth pastor job down in Tacoma, where they provide housing/utilties and a small stipand for 10 hours of ministry work a week (crazy!), he just heard back from the Pastor yesterday, saying that he would be calling to set up an appointment soon.

Combining that ministry job with this job opportunity I might have in SeaTac would be MORE than enough for us to live off of.  So, please pray for wisdom and for these things to work out, and if there is something else coming up that we just don't know about yet (we would always follow God's will if we had all the facts, no?), that we will be PATIENT.  God has been so good though!  I don't even understand how we have it so good.  Everything we need is provided for, and I have been so happy and full to the brim of rest this last month (even after nights like last night where the trains never seemed to stop =) ), and it has been so GOOD.

We are having a baby shower for my three sisters-in-law tomorrow, and with my free time (which I have quite a bit of during naptime and after Shea goes to bed), I have been sewing so so so so much for them!  I'm almost done and can't wait to share some pictures with you!  I made a lot of the stuff from my own designs, and am so happy with how they turned out.  I'm actually getting to the point of feeling burnt out on sewing though, haha.

OK well I have 1.5 minutes left before my computer logs out.  Thanks for listening to my ramblings and for keeping on posting when you can!