an update after a long hiatus

First of all, apologies are in order:

It has been a long time since I have posted in my blog, other than through twitter. It has been 3 months, and I am very, very sorry. Life has definitely got in the way.

What has happened? It seems like everything.

Perhaps the most exciting thing for me as an individual that has happened recently is that I have continued to take my registration test. On Tuesday, June 30, I will take the last one of this first (and hopefully last) round. Out of 7 tests, I have passed 5, I am waiting on the results on one, and like I said, I’ll take the last one on Tuesday.

Isabelle continues to grow like a weed. She has a vocabulary of about 15-20 words, and is the picture of a normal toddler. I am very proud of her accomplishments, even when they cause me problems, such as her desire to climb on everything right now. However, being a normal toddler also means that we have entered the realm of temper tantrums. I hope that since it appears that she has entered the terrible twos early (she’s 18 months now!), perhaps we can expect an early exit? I can only pray, right?

I am also volunteering at my church. Data entry may not seem glamorous, but it must be done, and it fits my lifestyle—I can do my volunteering from the comfort of my own home! But it keeps me pretty busy. I am the team leader, so I am responsible for the work of five other people, too!

Finally, and the hardest thing of all is what has been going on with my mom. A few weeks ago, she had some concerns and they did a screening mammogram. They asked her to come back for an enhanced mammogram and a biopsy. On Monday, June 15, it was confirmed what we were fearing: my mom was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. It appears that they have caught it early enough, but it will be a long road for her, with both chemo and surgery. Please pray for entire family as we work through this, but especially for my mom, who is pretty discouraged right now.

I will try to be better in the future to keep up this blog.

new job for Zach

Zach has found a new job! We are so excited! He starts on Monday. I have known the guys that he will be working for a long time. What a huge answer to prayer! Thanks for everyone who has been praying for us!

Conversations with Pooh

This week has begun in quite the crazy manner. After raining over 2 inches yesterday, it proceeded to sleet and then snow starting around dinner time last night. So we woke up to a winter wonderland this morning. The good news: since Zach has not found a job yet, he is home with Isabelle (her last day at the daycare was Friday), so we didn’t have to worry about the delayed opening. The bad news: I had to drive in the snow by myself to work. But I managed to get to work all right, no mishaps. Anyway, I was working away when Zach called me up around mid-morning. “I have to tell on your daughter,” he tells me. “Uh-oh!” I say. Turns out it was cute, not bad. He heard that she was awake from her nap, so he went in to get her up. She was sitting up in her crib facing her stuffed Winnie-the-Pooh bear, just chattering away. When he went to pick her up, she grabbed Pooh, so he brought her and Pooh to the bonus room. She ate snack with Pooh sitting there facing her, like he was a guest to tea. I know this is normal, but it was the first time we had seen her do something like that. We thought it was pretty cute.

First Interview

After almost two weeks of calling and emailing engineering groups, Zach finally got to meet someone face-to-face with the prospect of a job. Virtually everyone here in town said, “Sorry, we aren’t hiring,” when Zach or I contacted them. The group that he met with today has let some people go, but it was mostly inexperienced people who were holding the company up. I have known the owners of this company for a long time—I worked with some of them when I first started following projects all the way through to completion, before they started this firm. I guess that is one of the advantages in a bad market of being in the same industry as your spouse—you both can network when one of you is looking for a job. I think that one of the reasons why they talked to Zach is because they know me. Anyway, it sounds like it went well—Zach was able to answer all of their questions, and he expressed his flexibility in salary and manner of work (permanent vs. contract work). Hopefully we’ll hear something soon. Unless we hear something in the next day or so, tomorrow is Isabelle’s last day of daycare. That is kind of bittersweet. I know that she’ll benefit from the direct attention with her daddy, but she has also grown so much, and I know that part of that is from interacting with other children in her class. I know Zach is a little overwhelmed from thinking about caring for her all day long, everyday. We’ll see how well that goes. In the meantime, I’ll just keep on trying to work hard and keep my job.