Unemployed Again

The past year or so has been really hard for me as far as work has gone. I really enjoyed the job I had at Nature's Way and felt like my career was really on track for where I wanted it to go. After I got laid off when they cut the marketing department in half, my "career" has really gone downhill. I was able to get a job in Utah before we moved out here, but it was a little tricky as I knew I would be leaving in a few months. It was a decent job, but didn't have the prestige or pay anywhere near what I was making at Nature's Way.

Since we moved here, I spent the first 4 LONG months looking for a job with increasing discouragement as time when on. I eventually realized I would need a job doing something, and that I just couldn't wait any longer. I ended up working for a CPA helping with taxes (meaning doing a bunch of grunt work like printing, stapling, answering phones and dealing with a lady who gets stressed WAY too easily and likes to take it out on other people). It was hard to not feel like this job (and the pay) was below my skill level.

In Florida the economy is even worse than it is here, especially for temporary positions. I ended up working two and a half days over the whole summer. I was pretty sick, so I didn't mind too much. Now we are back here, I'm feeling good and I have less than 5 months to make money before the baby comes. We are very lucky that Casey school is all paid for and thanks to his assistantship, he actually gets paid a little bit. We are also very lucky that we made some money on the sale of our townhouse in Utah and that has kept us going thus far.

I had an interview about a week and a half ago for a seasonal position that I thought would be perfect for me. I was really excited about it and thought maybe, finally, my job luck had turned...however, I found out on Monday that they decided to hire someone else. I'm working with the temp agency I worked with before to hopefully find something, so we'll see how long it takes. Hopefully it will be soon! Its kind of funny to me to think about what I thought my career path would be and how much I thought I would accomplish before we had kids. It just goes to show you never quite know what life will throw at you

I didn't mean for this to be such a long post. I didn't write it to get your pity either. I just thought that sharing whats going on in life means sharing the frustrating as well as the exciting. Also, I know there are probably others out there who are struggling with similar difficulties, so its nice to know you are not alone.

We have so many good things in life and we really are very lucky. Hopefully things will turn around soon and I'll have some good news to report!

Was the poll right??

61% of you voted that it would be a girl...and you were right!! We're having a girl! We went to the ultrasound today and the baby looks great. The tech said she looks great and very healthy. It was so fun to see her feet and hands and face. She is an active little girl.

We're very excited and now things seem a lot more real since we can pick out a name and start buying stuff. Now I can imagine what she will be like, well...at least that it will be a she and not a he.

I also want to mention that I'm feeling much better now. I'm eating like normal and am finally gaining weight. I'm just now starting to show a little bit. My pants are getting tight, but nobody else can really tell since I lost so much weight in the first trimester.

Thanks for all your votes!

VOTE!!! Boy or Girl?

Monday Suzy will have an ultrasound and hopefully we will find out the gender of our baby. So in anticipation of this announcement we have created a poll on the right side of your screen where you can guess if it will be a boy or a girl. Check back on Monday evening to find out the exciting news.

To get things started: Casey thinks it is a girl and Suzy thinks it is a boy.

Savannah, GA

After taking off from Florida we stayed in Savannah, Georgia one of my favorite cities, for three days. Most of the time we had a lot of rain coming through the city as bands from Tropical Storm Fay came through the city. Luckily, there were many breaks in the rain to walk around and enjoy the city parks. In the city of Savannah, there are 21 squares throughout the downtown area of the city. This picture is of Suzy in one of those squares.

This is one of the many beautiful churches in and around Savannah.

Just outside of Savannah is the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum, dedicated to preserving the memory of the men and women that served in the Eighth Air Force during WWII. At this really cool museum, they had a B-17 waist gunner simulation where you got to shoot down German FW-190's. Suzy did really good.

This is the both of us outside the Historic Mansion that we visited in Savannah.

Just outside of the city is Fort Pulaski, a Civil War battle site. It was a really cool fort complete with huge brick walls and a moat around the fort. Behind the fort was these series of underground storage.

The drawbridge over one of the moats into the fort.

Suzy in the powder room. This room was nearly blown up during the Civil War battle, when the Union artillery landed a shell just outside of the room, prompting the Rebels to quickly surrender.

This is the wall that suffered the most of the shelling during the battle. When the fort was rebuilt they left a lot of the shell marks in it, and some of the holes still have the Union cannon balls stuck in them.

We're back

We made it back to Massachusetts safe and sound. We'll post later about our trip to Savannah and Charleston. We got our stuff moved into our new place, but it is an absolute wreck right now with boxes everywhere. We found mold growing on half our stuff when we got to our storage unit so I spend a few hours yesterday with a bucket of bleach trying to kill it all. Who knew mold loved particle board so much. I don't even think there was any standing water, it was just all the heat and humidity they had here this summer. I think the cleaning was pretty successful, but if we die of mold poisoning, you'll know what happened.

We have had to deal with serious dog odor, getting locked out once already, trying to cook dinner for the Elders who helped us move our stuff (note to self, one day is not enough time to get things put enough away to cook real food), and of course the mold and just the ordinary moving hassles. We're glad to be back and can't wait to be all settled in our new place. We'll post picture when we get a chance.