Thanksgiving 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, here we are a year ago:












And here we are now:












My friend, Chelsea, had this great idea, and I'm gonna steal it. :)

Things We're Thankful from A-Z:
A - Our little angel!
B - BGG! Feeding David's hobby (plus where else can you score "geek gold"?)
C - Conners! Wonderful role models & amazing grandparents.
D - Daily Dancing!
E - Eileen! Yes, I know I'm writing this, but David told me that he's very thankful for me. :)
F - Friends! Such a blessing - so talented, caring and fun.
G - Grandma! Such a blessing to have her in our lives (and home from the hospital too)
H - Hot Summers! Lots of fun playing in the water.
I - Insurance! Usually a pain, but in this instance it paid off.
J - Jobs! It's wonderful for both of us to have work that we look forward to each day.
K - Kaia! For bringing such joy, laughter and love to our lives.
L - Lisa! Couldn't ask for a better sister, aunt and friend.
M - Music! David loves all kinds, and it's rubbing off on us too!
N - Nights...especially game nights! (F5)
O - Oprah Mob Dance!
P - Playing at Parks! Great excuse to be outside, together as a family.
Q - Quality time together! David coming home for lunch, my PT job, ...
R - Reading! Can't get enough of Curious George, Dr. Seuss, Relevant Mag, ...
S - Shorts! For a family that stays close despite the distance.
T - Tucson Children's Museum! Lots of weekly fun for Kaia, cousins and friends.
U - Unkey Monkey! For fun-ness (& best bbq) that never seems to end.
V - Vacations! San Diego, Tennessee, Pinetop,
W - Wonderful-est Dad ever!
X - Xylophone! Kaia loves playing hers & her other music makers.
Y - Yahweh! For His unending love.
Z - ZZZZ's! Kaia slept until 9:45 today! (and I slept in much later - thanks David!)

Inreach

Our small group had our third inreach yesterday. For those of you not in our small group, the concept of an inreach unfolded when discussing various outreach possibilities earlier in the year. The idea was that while we were out in the community helping and loving strangers, why don't we also spend energy helping eachother in the same way. So instead of an outreach, we birthed the start of the INreach. So, I put together a schedule where once a month, everyone in the small group goes to one of the small group family's houses and does any random chores or odd jobs that the family needs doing.

So, yesterday's was at the Ross' home. It was a beautiful day with some rain sprinkling here and there. We helped move lots of stuff and get rid of things that the Ross' didn't need any longer. Their neighbor coincidentally had rented one of those giant trash bins and graciously allowed us to use it. So we filled it with all kinds of jazz. While some of us were doing that, others were pulling weeds and still others were painting inside the home.

I can't tell you how beautiful it is to see people give of their time to help their fellow brother. There we were doing work that we all dislike doing (especially pulling weeds) and yet we were there on a beautiful Sunday afternoon working our rear off, but smiling and laughing the entire time. It was unusually enjoyable.

It's strange how when you're doing something in love for a person that you love, even pulling weeds becomes fulfilling.

Answers to Prayers

Yesterday, two wonderful things happened. First of all, David started his new job. Such an answer to prayer. We had, of course, been praying for months for something closer to home that David would really love. A few weeks ago, while praying, I felt that God was agreeing that David should have a job closer to home...I know this may sound bizarre, but I just had a peace that God wanted the same thing as us. Two days later, David had two interviews lined up - not an easy task - he had been sending out resumes for months and positions just weren't opening up. Both interviews went really well, but he went with CAE, a company he had interviewed with earlier. I'll let you read the details on his post...

The second thing was Kaia's first visit with her new pediatrician, Dr. Cochran (due to our new health insurance at David's new job). She's grown 5 inches and gained 3 lbs. since her birth - nice long and lean! She had to get 5 shots at this 2 month checkup. She did great at the office and was adorable when we went to visit Lisa afterwards - she ate and smiled.

As the evening came, she became more fussy and more tired. She would crash on our shoulders, but cry anytime she was awake. She wouldn't eat at 6 nor at 9 - which was a first - refusal to eat. Around 10, Dave and I prayed for her - her comfort and appetite. Shortly after, she ate! She fell asleep on Dave until 2:30 am, then I fed her and she slept until 9 am! She seemed back to normal.

What an answer to prayer!

God's Clock Doesn't Have 12 Numbers

Well, I've learned yet another lesson about God's timing. His timing is strange, frustrating, and confusing... yet divine and oh so beautiful.

Let me back up a little, most of you know I have felt the need to move on in my career lately. All signs have been pointing to that fact since last December or maybe a little longer. Well, back in August of 07, just out of the blue, my friend Rosemary was kind enough to recommend me for a graphic design position. I worked with Rosemary at KBHA and when she left to start her own firm, formworks architecture, I designed her logo. She knew I had a passion for graphic design and a friend of hers had a job opening. So, I sent in my resume and jazz, and made it to a phone interview. The phone interview went great, so they asked me to come in for an in depth interview as one of the finalists for the position. The job was not too attractive on the surface; not a whole lot of great graphic design going on and it wasn't the high end atmosphere I was used to, but it paid really well, was really close to our house and I had nothing to lose.

At that time, I was not prepared to leave my position at KBHA, so my whole heart wasn't in the interview. I was basically interviewing them way more than they were interviewing me, because I had the liberty of not needing the job. Anyway, the interview went great and I was pretty sure I nailed it, but I was also pretty sure I didn't want the job.

Weeks went by and I never heard from the company. I called a couple of times inquiring about the status of the position, but heard nothing back. The more and more the weeks went by the more Eileen and I realized that that job would have been perfect for us and our family. I started to realize that it was time to move on from KBHA and that a well paid, low stress job with a short commute was exactly what I needed. Well, after a month or so, it started sinking in that I didn't get the job. I was bummed, especially because I thought I might have got the job had my heart been in it. Eileen and I talked about that graphics job from time to time, daydreaming about what would have been for months afterward.

Well, fast forward to about 3 weeks ago. Yet again, Rosemary IM'ed me with another recommendation. What a great friend! This was for an architecture position. At this time, I was really desiring and praying for a new job. I called the principal architect, who she recommended me to, and set up an interview for Friday (I believe it was for May 30th). He was so excited to hear from me and I was excited to get an interview.

Later that afternoon, I was so pumped about the prospect of getting a new job that flashes of that graphic design position popped into my head again. So, I jumped onto the company's website to see if any positions had opened up. There was one! I didn't bother with writing an email, I headed straight for the phone. I called my contact at CAE from the previous phone interview I had way back in August. No answer. I got the secretary and proceeded to ask for my other contact in the actual graphic design department. Sam answered and you wouldn't believe it, but they were SO excited to hear from me. They said that they were going to call me for the position! They apparently had been talking about me for months!! Months! My head was spinning. In a matter of 4 hours, I had two job possibilities, both on Friday.

Friday came, I took the day off to prepare for the interviews. The first interview was with the architecture firm. It went really well. I liked the firm and I liked the atmosphere. The work was industrial, which I didn't have much experience with, but I could get up to par quickly. I liked the personnel too. I felt good about it. Interview one done.

Deep down, I knew that I wanted the graphic design job more, so the architecture one would have had to be extremely impressive. I arrived at the CAE interview and waited a few moments before being escorted to a conference room. There was a couple of quick introductions (though I had met all of these people before), but mostly they went straight to the point.... one of them said within 10 minutes of me being there... "Well, let's cut to the chase, you have the job." HELLO!

So, that's that. I start at CAE on Monday of next week! It's still not real to me. God is crazy, and his timing is even crazier, but I'm blessed that his clock is more accurate than mine.