News from the job seeker

John's old company called him this morning. While our hearts tend to skip a beat whenever we see their name on the caller ID, it wasn't the phone call we were hoping for. It wasn't ALL bad, but it doesn't make us feel any closer to getting out of our current situation.

They got some feedback from the spreadsheet that he was called back to do about two weeks ago. It was very well received and the person from Intel who needed the spreadsheet specifically requested that John be the first person hired back once there was enough work. Because the company works with that person from Intel quite often, it sounds like they fully intend to fulfill his request (providing John is available). Good news on that end.

But as far as there being enough work....there's the bad news. They may end up firing more people (the guy John was talking to sounded quite concerned over the state of the company) and as of right now, they don't intend to hire anyone back "anytime soon". There's just no work right now and it's not just their company. We've done some job searching for the Portland area in John's field and it just doesn't look good.

John plans on attending a career fair on July 22nd and we will continue to send out resumes, but it's quite clear that we'll probably be in this boat for a while yet. There are job opportunities in other states, but since John is currently in school, moving would be a huge hindrance in getting him graduated soon. So we aren't going to worry about needing to move elsewhere until after he graduates, which will probably be between the end of this year and next spring.

So for now, I'll continue with my evaluation for the assistant manager position and we'll hope for the best. It's just one of those days where I feel like there's no end in sight.

Berry Picking

About two weeks ago, we got a hankering for some strawberries and an adventure. We normally just find a place to buy our strawberries, but we thought introducing the boys to berry picking would be a fun thing to do. I did some searching and found this great place off Farmington. We were only one of three families there, so we had most of the field to ourselves. They only charge $1 per pound and we ended up walking away with just over 8 pounds of strawberries.

I was a little nervous how they kept up with kids eating all the berries (and I knew my kids would stuff their faces), but when we arrived, the lady told us that they encourage the kids to eat all that they want, as they believe that it teaches the children to figure out which berries are ripe enough to pick. Good news for us!
As soon as Nathan figured out that you could pick them off the plant, his little mouth was constantly stuffed. We found some huge berries and were able to get two kinds - Hoods and Puget. Yum!

Don't you love Nathan's messy mouth?

Aiden thought they were quite yummy as well.

I'd never made jam before and was a little nervous, but we had fun with it and should be good on jam for a while. Even with making the jam, we still had multiple strawberry milkshakes, strawberry shortcakes, and were able to put some whole strawberries in the freezer for later desserts.

So that was our first berry patch adventure and we plan to go back to the same farm for blueberries here quite soon!

And the decision comes around again

If you remember about a month back, I was asked to train for the assistant manager position at work and I turned it down. I turned it down hoping that there was light at the end of the unemployment tunnel for John. Sadly, the tunnel still seems pretty darn dark and it looks like it's going to stay that way for a while.

About two weeks ago, my manager put in her two week notice and her last day was Saturday. We get our new manager tomorrow. She is coming from another store, but what makes the situation a little more complicated is that she is going to be splitting her time between two stores, as they don't have a manager either. This means that they need someone to take charge of our store on the days that she can't be there. Guess who they want?

After some more consideration about this, John and I have decided that it's in our best interest right now for me to take the position. Because our new manager doesn't know me, she will be evaluating me for a few weeks and then (if she agrees with my old manager's recommendation), I will begin training.

It's a little scary to go for this, as I've never attempted any sort of job promotion before, but I know the store inside and out and I learn quickly. It still hasn't really sunk in that I (Lord willing) will soon be an assistant manager. Please keep us in your prayers through this. I would still prefer for John to get something over me taking this job and it's hard to think about being away from the kids so much, but I also know that I need to do what's best for our family. It would mean a raise and medical benefits, which we are currently without. I'll keep you updated.

Oh, Cats

Our cat Jack is a bit of a hunter, but he is an indoor cat so he doesn't get too much true hunting time in (unless you count hunting his brother a few times a day). His hunting instinct kicked in earlier yesterday and we had a small scare.

There is a birds nest in the gutter right above our bedroom window and the eggs recently hatched. So there was much baby bird squawking going on yesterday morning and Jack had parked himself right below our window for a few hours. We were all out in the living room when suddenly we hear a bit of a bang come from the bedroom. Now, the cats cause quite a bit of crashing and normally I don't drop everything to check on it, but I felt the need to do so this time. I walk into our room and see that our other cat, Poe, is peering out of the window and the screen is slightly mangled. I began calling for Jack, but there was no response and I looked out of the window, but I couldn't see anything. We are on the 2nd floor and there is a tree right outside of our window, which does block the view to the ground a bit. I called for John and he went outside around to the tree area to see if he could find Jack while I continued to search inside.

After a few minutes of no luck, I saw John walking back and forth around the tree so I thought that he might have found Jack but was having trouble coercing him out. I grabbed the cat food and ran outside, but by the time I got down the stairs, John had been able to grab Jack and was bringing him in. Poor Jack was meowing so loud and was visibly distraught. Apparently, when John went out there, Jack wasn't moving or meowing, so he was a little concerned but once Jack saw John, he began to attempt to climb up the tree towards our bedroom window.

We got him inside and let him sort himself out before checking him for injuries, but he was just a little shaken. We fixed the screen as best as we could and shut the window. We keep all of the windows that are in reach of the kids just open slightly and locked, but if the window is in an area where the kids can't get to, we've been keeping them fully open for the air flow. But I guess since we have an adventurous cat, we shouldn't do that any more!