Employment

Well, I have a job! I'm working for a call center doing inbound customer service calls for a prescription drug company. I'll be working 10 hours a day, 4 days a week, and the company is closed on Sunday so I don't have to deal with being asked to work on the Sabbath! I also have Wednesdays and Fridays off.

The job isn't really what I want to do for the next year and a half, so I'm still looking, but it's nice to have something for now. I start December 1st. Unfortunately, I have a mandatory 4 week training, so we won't be able to go to Utah to visit this Christmas. (Sorry everyone.) I didn't think to ask about vacation days, so I'll have to find out about that once training starts. The job does provide medical, dental and vision benefits as well as a 401k plan, so that's nice.

I kind of got a taste of what working life is going to be like the last few days. I've had a lot of job stuff to do, so I didn't get to spend much time with the children. Boy am I going to miss them! Kaiana's going to be 2 when Daniel graduates. I hope the time passes quickly. :-) I plan to encourage her to only reach new milestones on my days off so that I don't miss them. Think that will work? :-)

I keep forgetting to blog about Caleb and Oklahoma, but this time I remembered! Ever since Caleb's buddy Paul moved to Oklahoma, he's been obsessed with it. He's always talking about how wonderful it is and that he's going to go visit. Well, then recently he told me, "Mommy, Jesus lives in Oklahoma with Paul." I've decided to interpret it as him believing that Oklahoma is a wonderfully righteous place. The other possibility is that we've had discussions about death and how when you die you go to live with Jesus. I've tried to be clear that Paul just moved away, so hopefully he understands that! If not, I guess Paul's just going to have to come visit! ;-)

We figured out how to block Kaiana from climbing the stairs. We overturned the piano bench and tied it to the bottom step. It works really well, and I can use the bench for our kitchen table when I want to play piano. So far, Kaiana just thinks the piano bench is a lot of fun.

Kaiana got to try grapefruit yesterday and she loved it! Daniel shared his with her, so it had salt on it (I'm a sugar on grapefruit sort of person myself) and she pulled awful faces with each bite, but gobbled it all up! Today, I was gone for about 4 hours doing competency tests and interviewing, so Daniel gave her a bottle of formula. At first she wouldn't have anything to do with it, but eventually she got hungry enough to take a few sips. When she finished, she tried pushing it into Daniel's mouth as if to say, "Here! You try this nasty stuff!"

For Daniel's birthday, Caleb gave him a picture frame with a picture of Caleb and a picture of Daniel when he was about the same age. It turned out really cute. Here are the pictures I used:

Can you see the resemblance? I can! I'm also starting to notice just how similar Caleb and Kaiana look. Daniel made some movies with video clips of Caleb when he was just a little older than Kaiana is now. I can't believe how much alike they look! I'm looking forward to when Daniel makes some for Kaiana, too. :-)

Life continues

Things have been really busy lately, so I apologize that this blog post will probably be a little lengthy. :-)

While we were at my mom's house on the 12th of October, my brother snapped a picture of Daniel and I. Looking through my old photos I realized, this is the first picture of us as a couple since January of 2006. The only other pictures we've been in together were when we took some family pictures with my in-laws at the park. We didn't think to have pictures taken of just our family while we were at it, though.

From 2008_10_12

In case you can't read Daniel's t-shirt, here's a picture of it. It's his new favorite shirt. :-)

Kaiana has learned to climb the stairs. She started doing it on the 27th of October. She's so proud of herself for learning how! I don't really like her new skill, but it is cute to watch her. Our railing doesn't really work for a baby gate, so we've been blocking off the stairs with an overturned chair. It works so far! She climbs up really well, but hasn't been interested in learning how to climb down. It will be a huge relief once she learns that!

Caleb has decided that naps just aren't for him anymore. I miss naptime. He usually does just fine without them, so I guess he really is getting old enough not to need them anymore. Every once in a while, though, something like this happens:

From 2008_10_23

The poor kid just couldn't keep his eyes open!

Daniel decided to shave on October 29th. I was pretty excited. He's handsome with the beard, but I still prefer him clean-shaven. Kaiana was a little unsure of him at first, but decided that Beardless Daddy was still good. She kept reaching out to touch his face as if she couldn't believe it was really gone. As soon as Caleb saw Daniel, he said, "Where is your beard?" I said, "It's in the trash." Caleb replied, "You need to go get a new one!" He continues to insist that Daddy needs a beard and moustache, and it's just not right that he doesn't have them anymore.

From 2008_10_29

Kaiana thinks that Daniel's shoes belong to her. If he isn't wearing them, she always races over to play with them. Caleb was fascinated by them, too. He would wear my shoes sometimes, but they weren't nearly as exciting as Daddy's boots!

From 2008_10_30

Halloween really snuck up on us this year. Luckily, I'd found costumes at the thrift store, so the children were prepared. Kaiana was a pink leopard and Caleb was a pirate. I'd been planning to make a SuperWHY! costume for Caleb, but didn't end up getting around to it early enough, so we just bought a costume. Caleb was really happy with it.

From 2008_10_31

From 2008_10_31

I've been keeping busy job hunting the last few weeks. Daniel and I talked it over and decided that he needs to focus more on school until he graduates, so I'm finding work so that he can quit his job. I've applied lots of places and sent in tons of resumes and cover letters. I'm hoping to get some interviews soon. I feel really confident that I will be a good employee. The hard part is getting employers to look past the fact that I've been unemployed for the last 4 years. :-) If anyone local knows about any job opportunities, I'd love some recommendations.

One of Daniel's instructors invited him to take a special independent study class next semester. It's only offered to students who have proven themselves to be exceptional at computer programming. He got to choose a project to work on, and will be developing a calendar program. He said that students have been working on this program for 7 years (I think... unless it was 9) and it is pretty in-depth. Hopefully he will finish it off. He's pretty excited about it. He chose this particular project because it will teach him new things, but he doesn't think it will be such a stretch that he'll have trouble accomplishing it.

Kaiana is loving real food now. For a while there she'd eat barely any of it, but now she's really coming into her own. She eats pretty much anything I'm willing to give her, including shredded meat and broccoli. She's developing her pincer grasp pretty well, too. I love it when my children learn to feed themselves. :-) Here she is eating one of her favorite foods: Otter Pop!

From blog stuff

She loves getting cleaned up, because she thinks washcloths are some of the greatest inventions ever made.

From blog stuff

Well, thanks for reading my novel of a blogpost!

She likes to move it, move it!

Caleb requested that I play this song on the computer (It's from the movie Madagascar 2, and Caleb loves the commercials because of this song!) and Kaiana really got into it!