He seems to have left most of his costume behind.
Vigilant Kids
Last week our neighbor three doors down had a break-in. While we were all at Grandparents’ Day (and aforementioned neighbors were there too as they are at school with us) some folks kicked in their back door, and stole a bunch of electronics, worth a fair amount of money. The fact that this home has a picket fence around their back yard, making it very easy for any passers-by to see the thieves carrying items such as an enormous big screen tv out the back door and into their waiting vehicle didn’t seem to make any difference. Oh, the nerve.
Our children are aware of the crime, and rather than be cowed by this development, seem determined to fight back. This morning as they played in and out of the house and backyard, a couple of them began yelling and screaming for us at the top of their lungs. It appears their watchful eyes saw what appeared to them to be a suspicious man going in and out of the yards just adjacent to ours. We heard their cries through the open door and windows, and Jay ran out back immediately to investigate.
What he found at the back of our driveway was a rather frightened-looking man in uniform in possession of a handheld meter, with which he had been checking the electrical usage of all the nearby houses. He explained himself to us cautiously, all the while glancing furtively at my brood of loud and excited children. Jay, satisfied that no evil was being done, sent the man on his way. I think the poor guy was glad to go.
But I was proud of my children. If neighbors everywhere kept an eye out for each other with as much vigilance as my children seem wont to, surely there would be fewer incidences of these sorts!
Getting laid off is a lot of work
Or, how I’ve stayed busy thus far, in no particular order.
- Created a resume and sent it out (building a useful receiver list is actually quite time consuming)
- Created another resume that is intelligible to smart folks who happen to not have a background in telecom
- Sent that one out (much easier… just reused the previous receiver list)
- Answered most every email that came back in response
- Mailed rebate for new T-Mobile phone (easy)
- Mailed rebate for new laptop (hard… somehow lost the receipt and had to drive back to the store)
- Was conquered for the first time in my life by a piece of technology, my new T-Mobile Dash phone. I fought back, and I think I won, but it took quite a bit of time.
- Got my laptop set up the way a laptop should be set up.
- Filed for unemployment online
- Called unemployment office to discuss the set of questions that were impossible for me to answer honestly. Here’s how it went down. Question: did you receive wages this week? Answer: Yes. Question: How many hours did you work for these wages? Answer: Zero. Oops. Zero isn’t a valid answer. But my job related activities were to all cease the day I was laid off. And I’m still on payroll for the time being.
- Started jumping through hoops in support of unemployment insurance, whenever it does kick in. Pretty easy, really, as I was already doing all sorts of job searches and job applications and was keeping a journal of all of it.
- Did all sorts of job searches and job applications and kept a detailed journal. Wrote cover letters where possible.
- First went to the hospital at which all my children were born and then the county clerk’s office. Got a birth certificate for Josiah (already had one for the other kids).
- Used birth certificates and tax returns to prove my dependents are really my dependents so they stay covered on my insurance (for the short time I have it). I call this the new “No (love) child left behind” except, of course, they are trying to leave (love) children behind.
- Had the first killer migraine I’ve had in a couple years. Really bad. I’m at a loss as to what the trigger was, given that I generally get migraine’s from emotional stress.
- Canceled lots of services, including my broadband card with Verizon Wireless.
- Desperately tried to pay off my Verizon account, but no one would take my money since, you know, my account was canceled. Like this was a new situation they had never encountered. Eventually had to drive to an ATM, get lots of cash, then drive to a Verizon store and hand the cash to them.
- Sent in various signed pieces of information to various locations to secure my severance package.
- Went on bike ride with my dad, a round trip from Valley View Park to White Rock Lake. On the way, we were pushing into 70 mile an hour wind. I don’t remember coming back, as the 8 miles went by so quickly it was a blur, what with a typhoon blowing us home.
- Worked most nights very late into the night / early morning looking over job posts and responding to email.
- Pretended Friday was Saturday (you can do that when you don’t have a job). In the morning, enjoyed a wonderful grandparent’s day program at the Covenant School. Then spent some time weeding the yard and hanging out. Even flew kites with the kids at the nearby elementary school yard.
- Will probably end up pretending Saturday is Friday…
Sweet Providences and Blessings From the Past Few Days…
* two highly-encouraging parent-teacher conferences with our school-aged children’s instructors.
* pretty, spring-like weather, and working in the yard together as a family
* supper and fellowship with our church home group – and love and support and prayers from them
* beautiful flowers from a thoughtful friend
* a bequeathing of a little playhouse from a next-door neighbor for our children to enjoy in the backyard.
* Josiah telling me “I luz you” for the first time when I hadn’t told him so first.
* sweet find on Craigslist for my Honey – a manly, yet attractive Weirs leather recliner (we bought this BEFORE the layoff!)
* our daughter’s newfound love of baking, and the yummy results which we are all enjoying immensely.
* overwhelming expressions of care and support from all over, after our shocking news on Thursday.
Laid off
I was laid off Thursday by Alcatel-Lucent. At one level, I’ve known this was a very real possibility for some time now. It still came as a shock, and the initial information given me regarding the package was quite ugly. By Friday, however, I had a complete picture and was glad to discover the package was actually very equitable. So I’ve got some time to find another job.
Thursday was spent dealing with the initial emotions and panic. I was walked within an hour of being notified, sans my laptop and phone (both owned by my employer). I still have three boxes to unpack. Friday gave me a chance to work through the details of the package, talk a good bit to HR, and begin the slash and burn of our ongoing expenses.
By Friday evening I had also figured out that I did not want to put my job search at risk by performing it from the kitchen (where our home computer resides). I immediately began looking for a good deal on a phone and laptop, both of which I purchased on Saturday, after having a long discussion with my daughter about the concept of “it takes money to make money” to give her the chance to understand why I was spending money on a computer while cutting all sorts of other costs.
I’m now sitting at a table in our local library using their free wifi with my new laptop writing this post, listening to Royal Hunt and other obscure euro-metal bands on Pandora Radio. I’ve got a rough cut resume done, and an ever-growing checklist of stuff to do (sign the termination package, send in laptop rebate, etc.). My goal is to enjoy a day of rest and worship tomorrow, and then spend Monday morning putting together a job search strategy, as well as starting to tackle that checklist.
I leave you with the Psalm that came to mind for myself and Tricia (independently, I might add) on Thursday, and then showed up in an email to me from one of the deacons at our church the next day.
Bigger and Bigger
It’s not been a bad week, but it’s been a hard one. Things don’t feel at all right with Sid gone, and the Mommy has had herself at least one good cry each and every day – sometimes more. In the midst of this sadness, we’ve experienced more illness – Jay felt left out since everyone else in the family had a round with the flu, so he succumbed too. On Monday, when Josiah spiked a 104+ fever we figured he’d caught it for the second time, but a trip to the pediatrician’s nixed that theory. We’ve had great help, and everyone is on the mend now, but I feel tired and somewhat melancholy.
In the past several weeks, amidst the various ailments, Josiah has shown very obvious signs of wanting to potty train. I have purposely ignored them, hoping he’d just hold off, and wait till things got calmer. As I said to my sister earlier today, “I am in no mood to potty train right now!” But when your child gets out of bed each night because he’s wet his diaper, and is immensely bothered by every “soak-ey” as they are called around here, then I guess it’s time to go along with his wish to be a big boy.
So this afternoon, out came the Diego Pullups I’d stashed in his closet last time they were on a super sale. Josiah was so pleased with his “Dalago Unnerwear” and strutted around all afternoon proudly. My potty-training ritual, which has worked pretty well for three children, just consists of putting the child in a pullup and setting the kitchen timer to beep at short intervals at first to help him learn the drill. Those little bladders are tiny so I start out by taking them every 10 minutes at first, then 15 minutes, then 20 minutes, you get the idea. Rewards are given for having dry pants when it’s time to visit the potty. The idea being that we don’t just give a treat for every drop of tinkle the child can squeeze out over ten minute intervals, and that ultimately I want the trainee to learn to keep those pants dry!!
Josiah really liked the potty thing today, and got the knack of it reasonably well. After two accidents, he stayed dry the rest of the afternoon and evening. At one point, a few hours into it, while I was busy with supper prep, he heard the kitchen timer beep and on his own dutifully derobed, leaving his dry “Dalago unnerwear” on the kitchen floor, scaled the too-tall-for-him-potty, and performed perfectly. So cute.
I have never doubted he is ready to train, I just wanted to wait for warmer weather, and maybe a sense of more normalcy. But really in a household like ours, what is normal, exactly?? Here is a picture from back in September – as you can see, he’s been enjoying trying out the potty thing for quite some time now!!
Abigail sings
The video that Tricia mentioned was forthcoming is finally here.
RIP Larry Norman
Why Don’t You Look Into Jesus? was my introduction to Larry Norman.
Sipping whiskey from a paper cup, You drown your sorrows till you can’t stand up,
Take a look at what you’ve done to yourself, Why don’t you, you put the bottle back on the shelf,
Yellow fingered from your cigarettes, Your hands are shaking while your body sweats,
Why don’t you look into Jesus, He got the answer.Gonorrhea on Valentine’s Day (v.d.), And you’re still looking for the perfect lay,
You think rock and roll will set you free honey, You’ll be dead before you’re thirty three,
Shooting junk till you’re half insane, Broken needle in your purple vein,
Why don’t you look into Jesus, He got the answer.
He was not a normal man, let alone normal Christian, but some of his music moved me. I can remember painting in our first house while blasting Only Visiting This Planet (Tricia was out and about). Perhaps this is a good tribute: Razing the Bar (ht Looking Closer Journal).
In Memory of Sid…
Today we said goodbye to our beloved Sid who has been a part of our family for eleven years now. It has been a heart-breaking day filled with many tears, and I cannot muster courage enough right now to properly eulogize our faithful dog. Instead I put together a little photo album, which shows some of the happy times we were blessed to have with him from 2002 till now. All the pictures from his first five years are on non-digital film and will have to be scanned at a later date and added then.
Stuff Around Here..
It has been a very full week. Lots going on, and in the midst of it all, the Mommy has been dealing with a debilitating head cold and cough that she’s been fighting since mid-January. Off and on, but mostly on, including during the time she had the flu. The cold has become so commonplace that she is calling it “My Cold of 2008” even though it is probably comprised of at least three colds, maybe even a sinus infection thrown in just for a little fun.
But enough about ailments; back to our week. In addition to all our regular school and other activities, both older kids had semester projects due this week: Abigail was given the task of constructing a working volcano and reporting about it. Jonathan created a model of the Amazon River Dolphin (did you know they are pink?) and presented several facts as well as wrote an original tale about aforementioned dolphin. There was a glorious, school-wide field trip to a local church to hear their very talented and charismatic organist introduce us to the beauty and intricacy of the instrument and its variety of musical styles, and it was amazing. Let’s see, what else? Teacher birthday (yes Auntie Jamison, we do these up big at Covenant!), Sonatina Festival for the little budding pianist, touch of a tummy virus for two of the kids, and much, much more.
But….the most exciting event this week by far took place on Tuesday night. Our own little Abigail was given the honor of singing the National Anthem to kick off our Covenant Boys’ Varsity Basketball playoff game, and the whole family went to cheer her (and the Covenant Knights!) on, and enjoy the evening.
Please indulge my parental pride for a moment, and allow me to share with you the itsy-bitsy detail that as of the Friday afternoon before the game, my daughter did not even know the Star Spangled Banner, let alone have the ability to perform it solo for a crowd sans musical accompaniment. After we got the boys in bed last Friday evening I sat down with her and taught her the song, using only my voice and a printout of the lyrics as teaching aids. The girl is a quick study; within less than an hour’s time she was singing it from memory, and hitting all the right notes. We spent our free time over the next three days alternately practicing like mad, and listening to various renditions of the anthem (mostly on YouTube – everything from Jordin Sparks’ SuperBowl rendition to this little 3 year old kid who really is a hoot and you should watch him sing it, he is SO FUNNY – and really, really good despite the fact that he cannot pronounce most of the words in this very challenging song – listen for ” the rampers we wash and the gallery screaming”!).
Despite some serious nerves on Tuesday evening (hey – I’m talking about me here, and it was torturous!), oh and yes, Abigail was pretty nervous too – after all, EVERYONE was LOOKING at her!! (as she later told me when it was all over) – she sang beautifully. Really, really beautifully. I know I’m her mommy, so I’m necessarily biased, but I was so proud of my girl, and thought she did an amazing job. We were all thrilled she got such a wonderful opportunity to support her school by doing something she loves so much!
I would love to show you the video of her singing, but my Tech Guy is having quite a bit of trouble streaming the tape from the camera onto a medium we can actually watch. Argh. Something about old technology, new interfaces, blah, blah, blah. Clearly it’s time for a more modern camera, one which will actually allow us to watch the videos it takes! But I have faith in my Tech Guy, and as soon as he solves this little dilemma, we will post a clip of her song.