Look what a lucky girl I am
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Grandpa would be proud
A few months before Dad died Parker had a birthday. He turned 7. Dad wanted Parker to have piano lessons and offered to help with the lesson costs for his birthday gift. So we found a teacher and signed him up. He was not a big fan those first few months and there were a lot of tears. I'm not a very patient helper so his frustrations trying to know what to do turned into my frustrations and it was a bad combination.
So we took the summer off. Fast forward to this last month. KC has been taking a music class called Let's Play Music for the last year and is loving it. This year they are starting to learn to play on the keyboard so we are back at the piano practicing how to hold our hands and how to find a few of the keys. Well this spurred some interest from Parker and he started toying with the keys a little bit again.
We found a new teacher and signed him up. So we've been a month of lessons now, he was able to pick right up where he left off over a year ago and remembered everything. I haven't even had to remind him to practice, he jumps on the piano the second he walks in the door after school. I love it. The funnest thing for Parker isn't learning the songs in the book, it's making up his own. We are quickly compiling a stack of songs he has written. It's so fun to see the way he writes them down and how he is learning. I've never been creative that way with music, Parker felt very bad for me when he asked how many songs I've written and I said none lol. But Grandpa was a song writer and so I'm sure hes looking down at Parker proud as can be.
So we took the summer off. Fast forward to this last month. KC has been taking a music class called Let's Play Music for the last year and is loving it. This year they are starting to learn to play on the keyboard so we are back at the piano practicing how to hold our hands and how to find a few of the keys. Well this spurred some interest from Parker and he started toying with the keys a little bit again.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Happy Birthday to Me
I had a birthday. I turned 31. It was fun.My mom took me shopping and to lunch while a sitter took the kids and she surprised me with a few of my best friends, Danielle and Janelle, there. Danielle gave me a gorgeous necklace I coveted that she made herself.
Then Mom babysat so Aaron and I could go out that night.
Yikes!
One day in Early June Aaron came home from work early. It was a bit surprising to see him walk in the door so early in the day and he didn't look very happy. He was told that his job would be ending at the end of the month. Yikes!!!! This wasn't news we ever thought we'd hear, we were very very unprepared. There was so severance and not much time to find something new before major financial problems would start. Not to mention the loss of health insurance which for our family is almost our #1 concern.
So naturally panic ensued. Anger and fear followed. And then a little bit of depression. Thankfully Aaron had until the end of the month, but this also made it hard to be out job hunting when your at work all day. This was Aaron's first job out of college so the idea of searching for a job, well a non entry level job, was pretty foreign to him. And I think he was feeling pretty overwhelmed and didn't really even know where to start.
So we've known a lot of people that have been without jobs after layoffs and such. And even the best people seem to take months to find new jobs. And usually not better jobs than they had before, but enough to get by, so we were bracing ourselves for a long road ahead.
So June 6th was the day we found out. He spent many hrs sprucing up his resume, searching online, and talking to everyone we knew about what they might know of out there.
June 14 or 15th Aaron received an email from a girl he worked with in Chicago. His company handles benefits for other companies and works with a company in Chicago called BSwift. They own the program that is used for online enrollments, and only 2 companies in Utah have rights to use it. Firstwest where he was working and a placed called ISIHR. So Aaron had spoken/emailed this girl several times over the years as they handled accounts and she just might be one of my favorite people now.
So... she found out he was leaving Firstwest and told him that ISIHR just happened to have a position open, doing the same thing he was already doing. The people they had doing it had both left and they needed someone NOW. She said that if he would send her his resume then she would forward it on to them with a recommendation. It was farther away than we wanted but he hadn't had any interviews yet so we figured it couldn't hurt to at least see what would happen, if anything just for interview practice.
Monday June 17th and 11:15ish he emailed his resume.
11:45 ISIHR president calls to ask for an interview. It's set up for 3:00 that afternoon.
3:00 - interview +++ JOB OFFER!!!!
The details were worked out, and on June 25th he STARTED!! He even left his old job a week before planned and we had ZERO days without a paycheck.
So yes his office is now farther away. His commute has doubled and so has the gas. BUT... He found a job right away - HUGE BLESSING - and the pay was more so even with the extra gas and other things we still come out ahead in the end. And that means that I can do cakes if I want to help boost our cash flow but if I don't, and we watch what we spend, we can get by!! Yay!!!
There was huge potential for this to be a very very bad thing. But it has been one of the best things that has happened to us. He likes the new job, the people are great, and he gets to see his brother who also works nearby, on a regular basis now when they go to lunch once a week. One day we'd like to live closer, but the freeway construction is almost done ad the commuter train will be open soon and that will help. And in the meantime I can't imagine a better place to live. We have an incredible neighborhood full of wonderful friends and life is good.
So naturally panic ensued. Anger and fear followed. And then a little bit of depression. Thankfully Aaron had until the end of the month, but this also made it hard to be out job hunting when your at work all day. This was Aaron's first job out of college so the idea of searching for a job, well a non entry level job, was pretty foreign to him. And I think he was feeling pretty overwhelmed and didn't really even know where to start.
So we've known a lot of people that have been without jobs after layoffs and such. And even the best people seem to take months to find new jobs. And usually not better jobs than they had before, but enough to get by, so we were bracing ourselves for a long road ahead.
So June 6th was the day we found out. He spent many hrs sprucing up his resume, searching online, and talking to everyone we knew about what they might know of out there.
June 14 or 15th Aaron received an email from a girl he worked with in Chicago. His company handles benefits for other companies and works with a company in Chicago called BSwift. They own the program that is used for online enrollments, and only 2 companies in Utah have rights to use it. Firstwest where he was working and a placed called ISIHR. So Aaron had spoken/emailed this girl several times over the years as they handled accounts and she just might be one of my favorite people now.
So... she found out he was leaving Firstwest and told him that ISIHR just happened to have a position open, doing the same thing he was already doing. The people they had doing it had both left and they needed someone NOW. She said that if he would send her his resume then she would forward it on to them with a recommendation. It was farther away than we wanted but he hadn't had any interviews yet so we figured it couldn't hurt to at least see what would happen, if anything just for interview practice.
Monday June 17th and 11:15ish he emailed his resume.
11:45 ISIHR president calls to ask for an interview. It's set up for 3:00 that afternoon.
3:00 - interview +++ JOB OFFER!!!!
The details were worked out, and on June 25th he STARTED!! He even left his old job a week before planned and we had ZERO days without a paycheck.
So yes his office is now farther away. His commute has doubled and so has the gas. BUT... He found a job right away - HUGE BLESSING - and the pay was more so even with the extra gas and other things we still come out ahead in the end. And that means that I can do cakes if I want to help boost our cash flow but if I don't, and we watch what we spend, we can get by!! Yay!!!
There was huge potential for this to be a very very bad thing. But it has been one of the best things that has happened to us. He likes the new job, the people are great, and he gets to see his brother who also works nearby, on a regular basis now when they go to lunch once a week. One day we'd like to live closer, but the freeway construction is almost done ad the commuter train will be open soon and that will help. And in the meantime I can't imagine a better place to live. We have an incredible neighborhood full of wonderful friends and life is good.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
New -Old Carpet
I never liked the color and the quality was so no great. Then we got new neighbors. The house is much bigger than ours but the layout similar. The previous owners built the house, lived there 4 years, only had 1 small child when they left, and were practically never home. So the carpet was in really good condition.
The new neighbors wanted laminate flooring on the main floor so out went the carpet and up went a facebook post offering the carpet for free to whoever wanted to come get it.
After a few hrs he was done and we even had enough to cover the stairs. Now to save up to replace the rest upstairs
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