So Happy Together!

Well, how one's countenance can change in a few days!

I (Tami) am going to be a nanny. I am absolutely thrilled about it. There is a wonderful family who loves Jesus that goes to our church with a 7 mo old cutie named Brody. The mother has an amazing opportunity from Microsoft to work from mostly from home Tues-Thurs on an AMAZING project that helps equip organizations like the UN to utilize technology to respond more quickly and efficiently to natural disasters, as well as helping provide medications, clean water, food, etc to places in the world with limited access to such life staples. Their family's conviction is that they can only do this if they have a nanny who loves Jesus and loves their son to help out, and, alas, I have been praying about serving a family who loves Jesus as a nanny.

The entire situation is just so perfect and so the hand of God. I have been praying about being a nanny after having the realization awhile back that I have been particularly gifted in helping with children and that until I am a mother myself this would be the best way to serve God and a family desiring a nanny who loves Jesus. Plus, I'm getting renewed vigor to fight the health problems I have and be a better steward of the body Jesus has given me. The family is completely understanding and really works to eat healthily and wants to support me in this, and it will be so awesome to have a job where I'm chasing a kid around all day and not just sitting at a desk. Plus, I'll have Mondays and Friday's off to focus on being a better housewife and not coming home exhausted from a stressful job where all I want to do is escape into the world of TV. I'm simply overjoyed about the entire situation :)

One great thing is that the family completely understands the back situation- the wife, Teresa, actually had an undiagnosed ruptured disk for over a year that required back surgery-- scary! Mine is healing really well and I really expect to be almost fully recovered by the time I start (in a month). Plus, the baby will end up sleeping about 1/3 of the time I am there so they really respect that if I need to rest during that time, no problem. I'm just blessed that they are so great, and that they never judged me for a second and saw who I am and not what I look like. I'm just thrilled. And having a job that doesn't stress me out so much will make life without Jason on weeknights far less painful.

One last note... I was always careful not to get into details about my other job, but it just was not a good place. I recognize the lack of faith on my part here, but there were times where I basically had to lie to customers and basically steal from the manufacturer, etc. It was a finger pointing place where everyone is waiting to blame someone else for any problems and I am just not cutthroat and I hid in the bathroom stall crying more times than I can count. Jason and I started thinking about health problems I have had, and we realized that on days where I had my blood pressure taken after working my rating was VERY high- upwards of the high 140's / high 90's range. Yet when I hurt my back and was all hopped up on narcotics and in crazy amounts of pain my blood pressure was always perfectly healthy- 120/80. And I haven't had any migraines since working there.

[I know this is the same topic but the paragraph REALLY needs a break :) ]Plus, the last week or two of knowing that I would be going back to work there sent me in a downward spiral healthwise and now that I don't have to go back (except for one awkward session to get my personal effects; I'm going to call my boss to officially quit probably late this week after the details of my new job are worked out and I've signed the paperwork to officially accept the position, so Jason and I will go get my stuff a week from Monday) I feel like a literal weight has been lifted and I physically (and mentally, emotionally, and even spritiually) feel SO much better.

Whew! So life is just looking up. I could gush more, but for now I'll just let it rest. We love all of you friends (who have become our family) and hope to see more of you in person :)

Grown-Up Life Can Suck

So, hello. Things here are good, but we are anticipating some possibly tough times ahead. Jason is 95% certain he's going to get an IT degree, and he was hired yesterday for a second job (he still works full time cleaning pools during the day), package handling at UPS. The ups are that the benefits are amazing, both of us will get awesome health/dental/vision coverage for free, they'll pay for 2/3 of his schooling, on and on. The blessing is that even if I can't go back to work or they lay me off (I guess I never mentioned it on this blog, but I have a herniated disk in my back that is healing painfully slowly... double entendre intended) this job will allow us to pay our bills until I can get back to work. The big drawback is that he has to work basically 5-10:30 M-F.

This is a bummer on multiple levels. For one, we won't see each other much until weekends, and then when he's in school he'll have to study all day Saturday which means Sunday will end up being used for life stuffs (cleaning, finances, etc). But even tougher than this is the fact that he's basically being removed from Community- he won't be able to go to Community Group during the week, I'll have to go alone, and he won't be able to pursue leadership for awhile. It will be ok, and I know the Lord will bless us for being faithful and pursuing Him, but it's just... rough.

I think what makes this hardest is that we were here- Jason was working two full time jobs all last summer, and through most November after we were married (in September)- and we thought we had finished with this phase of life. I've become so spoiled with the time we get to spend together, so having to lose him again will be rough. We're praying that he'll be able to quickly switch to the dawn shift, circa 3-8 am, but there aren't really any guarantees. Just waiting. So that's our life update. Hopefully the next one is happier, no?

Soon and very soon...

The big day is barely over a week away.

Oy.

Between items getting shipped to the wrong place, me realizing that there are 90 million little details that have to be written to a T, and job hunting (plus Jason pulling in 90 hour work weeks to fund the wedding while I am between jobs)... things are CRAZY.

So, the twenty second update:

Tomorrow I am interviewing with a local nanny agency and to do contract (1 year long) work with the world's largest software company. In addition, I'm applying to teach high school social studies (a local job sort of fell onto my lap, which is the only way I said I would consider teaching). There are options, and who knows if God's best is for any one of them to work out.

We're both looking to get involved with the Youth Group at Church, and our first young marrieds event is this Sunday-- BaconFest 3. Jason just about passed out when he found out that we get to be judges, lol.

So that's that! I need to get back to work now, though, so I hope you all are well! Please say hi and let us know how you are doing!