Back to work, for now.

I have finished two weeks of work at Costco. I am a seasonal, part time worker and Heidi and I are happy to have the income. The first few days I spent unloading carts for the cashiers to ring up the items and then I would reload the carts after the customer paid. It is tiring work but I started to get into the groove after a day or so. I also spent time putting away merchandise that the customers either did not want when they got to the cashier or simply left on the nearest shelf. If it was a perishable item, I would return it immediately and try to get back to keep loading as quickly as possible. Since Costco is a warehouse store, not everything is always in the same spot every day. That makes putting items that I find back where they belong much more interesting. Often I try to put something back in the place I saw it the day before only to find that it is in another part of the store altogether. I am starting to get the hang of it, so that's good. Lately, though, I have joined the Marketing Team. That is a fancy way of saying that I hover around the cash registers and try to get people to upgrade their membership. It is going well and my manager already told me that he was pleased with my work. I am not a natural salesman but at least I know that most people who upgrade end up saving money so that makes it easier. It's better than collecting carts from the parking lot, which I did one day last week. In this difficult economic time, I am grateful for work.

A week ago I had a promising interview with Kids Against Hunger. A secular nonprofit based in New Hope, a suburb of Minneapolis. That job would be an excellent fit for me and I am praying hard that they will bring me back for a second interview. I expect to hear something later this week.

Jackson got his first ear infection a few days ago. He has responded well to the antibiotics but is still not back to his normal self yet. Normally such a good sleeper, he has not been sleeping well the last few nights and therefore, Heidi and I have not been either. Hopefully this passes soon and we can get back to normal. Otherwise, he is doing well. He has mastered crawling and can move at incredible speeds. His favorite thing is to crawl to the nearest bathroom and try to stick his hands into the toilet. Good times.

Some photo updates

We made the treck to WI to see Tim's sister a few weeks back, it has been awhile and it was great to see them.

Jackson is such a great kid. And I think as far as babies go, he's pretty easy too. For now anyway.... :P Here he is checking out the swings at the park.

Finally a picture of our little chicken on Halloween

Yip-Yip!!

Today is a good day. Tim started a seasonal job at Cosco this afternoon and right before he left, he got a call for an interview for Monday for a job he's really interested in. AND we just found out that we have a signed, 18-month lease for the upstairs of our duplex. Wow. Exclamation points can't even scratch the surface of how thrilled we are. This is like the best day of my life!

Even with a full duplex, the rent we are bringing in is still quite shy of our mortgage, but we rejoice that it's full nonetheless. The coolest thing about all this is that about a month ago God told me that when things started to happen for, the provision was going to get a jump-started. Praise the LORD for His faithfulness.

We sure have a lot to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Our life is not so exciting right now

Our life is not all that exciting right now. Heidi and I pretty much spend our days at home and try to see friends on the weekends. My job search has been pretty quiet until today when Costco gave me a second interview. It is a part time, seasonal stop gap job but we could use some income. Once the drug test and background check comes through, the job offer will come. I will still keep looking for full time work but it will be nice to have something to do. Heidi is also looking for some part time work. Our desire is for her to be able to stay home but she may have to work for a little while until we can get settled again. The duplex still has an empty unit and that is causing our bank account to drain at an alarming rate and cause us to seek extra income. Hopefully we will have tenants soon and that stress will be over. We'll keep our readers posted.

My Denver Broncos have taken a promising 6-0 start and flushed it down the toilet with three straight losses. This Sunday's game against San Diego could determine the season. I am not hopeful.

Jackson is a full fledged crawler now. He can travel the length of a room incredibly fast. The other day I left the laptop on an ottoman and went into the kitchen for a moment. Jackson raced across the room, pulled himself up to his feet, and started banging his hands on the keyboard as hard as possible. After I rescued the computer, I noticed that he has decided that he has a new favorite activity. Every time the computer is open, he goes for it. Why does he pick the most expensive thing we own besides our cars to play with? Despite that one thing, he is a sweet baby and we sure love him.

Halloween

Today is Jackson's first Halloween. We are not fans of Halloween but we are big fans of costumes and free candy. We'll post Jackson's costume picture when we get a chance. He's pretty cute. We intend to take him Trick or Treating but only because we would like to meet the neighbors on our block. It's too good an opportunity to meet people to pass up. Since we do not know how long we will be living with Heidi's parents we thought we should meet some neighbors. Later on we will head to Chipotle for free burritos. Mmmm. Chipotle. Mmmm.

This week I interviewed for a job that would have been an excellent fit for me but I was not selected for the second round of interviews. After feeling sad for a few days I am again feeling hopeful for the future. Job searching is not fun at all but I must continue. Thanks to everyone who prayed for me when I had the interview. I am confident that something will come along. God did not leave us stranded. He'll take care of us.

Jackson can sort of crawl now and is good at finding the remote control. He is 100% boy. I sure do love him and Heidi.

Here is a bonus picture of Jackson. He loves the Denver Broncos.

Job interview!

Tim has a job interview on Monday for a job he's actually interested in! If you could pray for him, that would be great!

October Fun

Last night Tim and I got to go on a date!!!! A date! We don't get those very often and it was much needed. We had a great time and it reminded me of the "olden times" when we got to go on fun dates all the time. I fear we took those days for granted.....We went to dinner at Chili's and got 3 courses for $20, pretty good deal. It was WAY too much food though. We wanted something ethnic, of course, but we live in the suburbs now, so Chili's was fine. haha We had fun just talking and catching up, running around, being silly, it was really fun. Love you, babe, glad I married you!


Last Sunday, we went to the MN Landscape Arboretum with some of my friends from college, it was a beautiful day for it.

Jackson has been getting a lot of use out of all the clothes that my mom kept that my little brother wore when he was a baby in the early 80s. Here's a sweet little track suit that I just love. He also gets a lot of wear out of the clothes that my grandma made for Dan, can't believe she sewed all that stuff....Thanks for keeping this stuff Mom!

A family photo at the Arboretum.

Dharma and Amanda :)

Keeping the faith

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I had a job interview with Volunteers of America. I found out yesterday that I did not get it. That is the second time in my life that I have interviewed for a job and not been offered the job. I guess I am fortunate that it has not happened more. So, I am keeping my head up and am applying for new jobs every day. My faith that God will provide is still strong and He often provides in ways that cause our faith to build in the process. At the same time that I am not getting paid, our duplex has an empty unit. We are living with Heidi’s parents and our expenses are low, so we will be okay for a while. Despite the fact that we have no money coming in and lots going out, neither Heidi nor I are stressed about it. As trite as it sounds, all I can do is trust God and work hard at finding a job. Why worry about anything else? This does not come easy to me. I have to return to Matthew 6 and the words of Jesus to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness. That’s what matters. Even if we had no earthly possessions, we have God and that is enough. We will be okay. That said, we covet the prayers of our friends and family for a job and renters for the duplex. Thanks.

On a far less important note, I sure am enjoying the Denver Broncos season so far. You can’t get better than perfect, with five wins and no losses so far. Monday night’s game with the Chargers is big. The Broncos win this one and the division is pretty much a lock. Go Broncos!

I sure do love Heidi and my sweet little guy. Jackson just gets cuter and cuter every day.