New Jobs!

I'm a little late with this regarding Jeff's new job. He started 3 weeks ago! He is now the Warehouse Coordinator with Cameron and works about 55 hours a week and almost NO weekends. Yay! WE love this new job!
My new job starts Monday! It happened really fast, I just got the offer last Wednesday and my last day was yesterday, so 2 days notice did not make me the most popular person... but it was an offer I just couldn't refuse! I get to work for 1 week and then get 2 weeks of paid vacation for Christmas!
I'm going back to my old High School! I still can't really believe it. I will be working with Communities in Schools at King High School. I was sad to leave my old job, I really enjoyed the work I was doing, but I am super pumped about getting 9 weeks of paid vacation to spend with my little boy! That was really the motivating factor behind getting a new job. So, that's what's new with us. What is new with H? How about 6 teeth!? He is doubling his current teeth and is not thrilled about it.


Look what a happy guy he is!

my little jumping bean

H has learned how to cruise from one piece of furniture to another, taking a a couple steps in between....everyone keeps telling me he is going to be walking in no time - yikes! His new favorite thing to do however, is jump! He can't keep his balance yet, but with me supporting his weight he can jump and jump and jump, until my arms get tired! Below is a video of the action.


H has been sick for the last couple weeks. He is finally on the up and up - after 2 doctor's appointments and finally a prescription, he seems to be mostly back to normal. He will be starting a new day care tomorrow, so please pray for him and his transition! Jeff has been enjoying his job, just working lots of long hours and not getting too many days off.

I'm getting adjusted to working full time and really enjoying my job. It has been really amazing and humbling to have the opportunity to work with dozens of homeless individuals in the community. I have heard so many stories from grieving husbands, young mothers, children who ran away from home and never got back on their feet, people who were injured and lost their jobs and on and on. So many people who never thought they would find themselves in this place and feel so defeated and unable to get out of it. I'm helping move some clients into an apartment this week and I'm so excited about it! I really love my job and love the work I'm doing.

I will try to take some more recent pictures of H. I've totally started slacking on my mom picture taking duty.

Praise the Lord!

Sorry for the posting delay... things have been pretty crazy since I started working.

H started spending the days with his Grandmas - he is doing GREAT! His Grandmas are taking such great care of him!

I spent last week in all sorts of trainings: CPR, First aid, suicide & homicide detection/prevention, Intellectual/developmental delays, Prevention and management of aggressive behaviors, crisis intervention, documentation, deaf/hard of hearing services, a day and a half of computer classes... I can't remember what else.

I've started meeting with clients and visiting shelters and hospitals so it has been nice to get to interact with clients and see more of the community we are working with.

H got 3 teeth in the course of about 5 days - yikes! I think he is still teething and expect to see some more pop through any day now.

We went to San Antonio for a wedding last weekend and got to spend some time with Elyse & Stephen which was sooooo fun!

And I saved the BEST FOR LAST.... Jeff got offered a job today!!! Yay! I am so proud of him and we are both very grateful. He will be working for Cameron in their shop and starts in 2 weeks. Due to the current ban on drilling the hours are pretty out of control right now - like 80 hours a week! So, you can be praying for us as we make that big transition to Jeff being gone and working so much.

I have a ton of pictures and videos that need uploading... but, this is all I've got energy for now. I'll try again later this week!

Yay Jeff! Praise the Lord for his faithfulness and provision for us!

Painting and news...

I finished my weathered bird silhouette painting and I'm so excited! Rarely, do I picture something in my head, try to create it, and have it come out exactly like I pictured it. Initially, I was just going to leave it black and white, but then I came across this tutorial at Lil Blue Boo (major blog love for her) and decided to try out this weathering technique. I wanted the picture to look like it was painted on old wood. Here's the painting before the sanding and embellishments



And here it is after



I just cut out cardboard circles and fabric covered them and then found some old buttons I had and glued them on when I was done painting.



A close up of one of the branches. I don't know where I'm going to hang this yet, but it probably won't be too long before we get a house because... I GOT A JOB!

I just accepted an offer today for a job in Corpus with MHMR working with the homeless population here. I start Tuesday so I'm a little overwhelmed with getting ready to go back to work and trying to find a day care we feel comfortable with. Luckily, our moms have the summer off and can watch H until August, so we have a few weeks to find somewhere. It has been quite an adventure to get to this place, but Jeff & I feel good about where we are right now and are now praying for all of our transitions as we go back to work and H starts going to day care. Please pray with us that we would find a place that has room for him and is a good fit for our family. Thank you all for your support and encouragement during this difficult transition.

And we're back

After two trips to Austin and one to Waco we are back to Corpus just in time for Jeff to have 2 more job interviews! So, the job update is that we are most likely going to be staying in Corpus. Jeff has a pretty promising lead on a job and had a good interview yesterday so we'll see. I LOVE the job I interviewed for in Austin, it is basically my dream job - but, I think if Jeff gets this job in Corpus that saying here will be the best move for our family - in which case I will probably not go back to work right now.

Here are some pics of late:


H had so much fun with his favorite Sissy. As soon as he saw her he reached out of my arms for her! Thanks for playing with H Sissy, H loves you and I love this picture of you.


It was so fun to see Megan and meet baby Clara. I think H must be very empathetic because he cries anytime other babies are crying. I know it has only been 7 months, but I could hardly remember what it was like to have a baby that little sleeping on you.


H got behind the wheel with me on our road trip and LOVED it!


Here was our Father's Day celebration. The DAD banner was my first sewing project!



Here is a close up of the bunting. It is made out of 3 deconstructed ties from Goodwill. I found this project over at my new favorite blog - Dollar Store Crafts.

That's what we've been up to lately!

Prayer Update

I call this a prayer update because that is where we are right now, just praying and believing God for his provision. I really believed that by the time we should have gotten our next paycheck that Jeff would have a job and we wouldn't "go without" so to speak, but it hasn't turned out that way. God has certainly been faithful, and we have seen his provision in very real ways as we are entering 7 months of unemployment ... but honestly, I had very different expectations of what God was going to provide.

So, here we are now at a cross roads of sorts. We just returned from a trip to Austin where Jeff & I both had job interviews and we will be returning on Sunday for Jeff's second round of interviews with this company. It is an all day interview - it makes me tired just thinking about that. When we first decided to remain stateside, we wanted to be in Waco and when that didn't work out we started looking at jobs in Corpus, and now that hasn't really panned out we began to look in Austin. I think I just expected to have some strong sense of what was next, and instead I feel like the more time that passes the more questions I have.

The job I interviewed for is basically my dream job. It is at a pregnancy center in Austin doing what I love. The big decision for me is whether I should go back to work full or part time. This job is a part time position with the hopes that it will be full time by January, but I could go full time immediately if I job shared the receptionist position. I feel so torn as I know for our family right now I really need to go back to work and am excited about beginning a career that I know I will love, but at the same time I am going to miss being with H SOOOOOOO much! It would be great to start out part time and work my way up to full time, but if Jeff doesn't end up liking this job (he's pretty unsure about it right now) or needs more time to find something else, moving to Austin on a part time salary seems kind of crazy! On top of all this I found out on our way back yesterday that I'm one of the top 3 candidates for a full time job I interviewed for in Corpus last week. I had basically dismissed it because I didn't think I got it and now I know that I'm still in the running and really, I just don't know what to do. I haven't been offered either job yet, but If I do - I don't know what I'm going to say.

Please pray for us over the next week as we go back to Austin for Jeff's interview and I hear back about my interviews and we make important decisions about our future.

7 months

H will be 7 months old in just a couple days! Time sure flies! He is sitting up really well and beginning to army crawl. Gone are the days of leaving him in a room on the floor so I can go do something quickly and coming back to find him in the same place. This week I've found him under the coffee table twice, under his swing and against the entertainment center. He can sure move! Here are some recent pictures of him.


He's sitting up and sucking his thumb. I think he might be a lefty, he has been showing some left hand dominance lately.


Thanks Aunt Elyse for the cute outfit!


His new favorite place to sit - somewhere on Daddy's head or shoulders


Cuddling with Mommy after nap time.

In other news, I found out yesterday that I didn't get that job I interviewed for. I was pretty sure that I got it, so I was/am really disappointed. I just feel kind of confused now about where I should be looking, if now is the right time to go back to work, etc. Keep praying for Jeff & I in our job hunts - I know God has something for us, it is just hard to be patient right now.

job update

The interview seemed to go really well. It is always kind of hard to tell, I mean most of the time people seem like they like you? It was an interview with 3 people and they all asked me different questions which I fortunately was able to answer while only saying a couple stupid things. The stupidest thing I said was in reference to a question about how I handle stress. I was talking about prayer and how Jesus helps me deal with difficult things. Then I made a comment about 'not losing my mind' ... I'm interviewing with a mental health organization. Woops... I didn't know how to recover from that, so I just quit talking.
The HR department has called me twice to follow up on paperwork and such that needs to be submitted and both times has said that they want to 'get things rolling on me' and 'should be calling me soon'. So, to me all of these things sound positive, but I guess we'll see.
It has been kind of bittersweet these last few days with H. I didn't think I would be going back to work so soon and while I'm excited about that possibility, it makes me sad to think about not getting our play times together and not seeing his big smile when I go pick him up after his naps.
In other news, I decided to learn to sew. I tried once in college and forgot everything I 'learned'. So, I got my machine out of storage and spent an hour this morning figuring out how to thread it and such. Then I tried a few practice stitches and my fabric got sucked down into the bottom...there weren't instructions for that. So, I turned it off and decided to wait until my mom gets home to fix it. My first project is Jeff's father's day present. I'm super excited about it, so hopefully I will get my act together and not break my machine before June 20th gets here.
Well, I'm going to enjoy the rest of H's morning nap...by taking one of my own. Soaking up all that remains of stay at home momness. I'll keep you posted about the job.