Jobs

I spent all day excavating my desk (everything else I can keep very organized on an ongoing basis! but somehow not my desk) to prepare for the new school year; my mind is on preparations, so it's as good a time as any to talk about what's coming up and what's going on.

First, Christian AND Libby have been 200 miles away at college since August 17. That is a huge adjustment for me. I don't even know what to do with myself, having only four children here at home; there are just six chairs around a table built for 10 and when I'm calling everyone, like for dinner or something, the list is so short. Libby and I have been very close this summer—we spent all her free time together—and I miss her very much; thankfully we talk on the phone a couple of times per week, and email or text quite a bit. (All about Kpop. It is the language we speak right now.) I also miss Christian and his daily piano recitals, but he really seems to be doing so well. Most of his friends didn't return to school, because they went on missions. I'm not sure yet what effect that has on him, but his spirits are good and he seems very excited now that he's chosen to major in music.

Emma has been out on her mission for a year, which only leaves her six more months. Sometimes it is like a punch in the gut to think that I haven't seen my firstborn, my beloved, my sweet girl for a year; other times I think it is miraculous how quickly the time has flown and that another six months will go equally quickly. Anyway, she is doing really well. Her Spanish sounds incredible to me, and in between all her work she is putting in a lot of thought about her future, whether she wants to go back to the same university, whether she loves her major, etc. All very grown up stuff. I'm so proud of her.

Blaine has been in his new job for six months tomorrow. He's killing it. His bosses love him. He thought he was an assistant or at least a junior employee to the guy he shares an office with; turns out he was hired as an equal, but because of Blaine's facility with technology and willingness to progress and learn (and the other guy's lack of both) he is advancing ahead. I have no doubt this job will be his as long as he wants it; once he gets the new computer registration and module system* really fine tuned and can train someone else, I also have no doubt he'll be able to move even somewhere else inside the school if he wishes to.

My supervisor texted me about a month ago and said, "I have six students lined up for you to tutor. Is that okay?" Well, no. I still need a block of time every day to devote to homeschool. But what was okay about it is how much she trusts me and wants to give me students to take care of. So I will tutor three students. I'm a little overwhelmed, honestly. I'll probably have to be at the Academy every day at about noon. I've never left my kids for so long for so many days. (Even last year with two students I didn't tutor at all on Wednesdays.) I know many moms out there juggle kids and a job, and even homeschool; but it is all new to me and I'm a little nervous, mostly about how my sweeties will do at home alone without me. I want to give them the same full-time mom the older kids got. But I really do love tutoring, and what a straight-up blessing it is to me to slide into this job this way, rather than having to take time out and finish the one required on-campus class and then student teaching for my degree. I actually think I like this one-on-one work better than I'd like to have my own classroom. Seriously, this is a dream come true for me.

Orientation and check in is next Monday, Labor Day (as it is every year), our homeschool starts Tuesday, and I begin tutoring on Wednesday. I feel like I need to buckle up and keep my hands inside the ride.

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* Modules: this year the Academy isn't doing class periods, they're doing modular blocks. Some of the kids classes they can show up any time, there's nothing specific assigned; other classes do have assigned modules. Teachers have big blocks in the middle of the day where they can hold office of classroom hours, and kids who have those modules open can go and get help. It sounds really experimental, I can't wait to see how it turns out. My worry all along has been how this modular system will work with the academic coaches like me, who really do need to keep to a certain schedule.

My gorgeous anniversary weekend.

B and I have gone on very few overnighters during our married life, mostly because we were too poor and we had kids too small to leave. So it was a wonderful treat to get away alone together overnight for our 18th wedding anniversary Friday.

I chose to stay at the Holiday Inn Express based on (1) its continental breakfast cinnamon rolls (best I've ever had, and that includes Cinnabon and every other specialty cinnamon roll store) and (2) its proximity to a quilt store.

I'd heard of a store that would make up its beds piece by piece so a customer can see with their eyeballs how the bed will look with all the components. I have always wanted a lovely, put-together bed. I did have something sort of nice back when we had a queen, but since we upgraded to a king size bed (and that was 9 years ago!) I've just had a queen comforter draped on it, tugged to one side to pretend it fit and barely reaching the edge of the mattress top on the other side. I tossed an old twin quilt over top just to give it a little color and interest. Bleh.

B designed and built the bed frame for me from scratch. Our other bedroom furniture is pine and I love the whole thing. The new bedding is our anniversary gift to each other—but mostly B's gift to me, because he doesn't care about bedding at all. And I couldn't be happier. I think it turned out gorgeous.

Here's a little close up, to show the colors and quilting patterns. Holy cow. So pretty. At least I think it is!

Next task is to paint the bedroom! It's on my to-do list for the summer, absolutely.

So let's skip right to the positive stuff.

Briefly: Blaine got laid off from his job last Friday at end of day. No warning, no severance pay, no two-week notice.

So we had an interesting weekend, with emotions pretty much all over the map. That's to be expected, right? But here's how the landscape looks now, five days later.

For the last few months while B worked at the printing company, they had one client in particular, a Mexican restaurant chain plus corporation, who was sort of courting him to work full time for them. He already designs all their promotional materials, menus, etc. He never got an actual offer, but there was a lot of talk.

Now negotiations are less tentative. They can't offer the wage he was making, which—though a decent wage—was just barely adequate for our needs (family of nine and all that). And they don't really have enough graphics requirements for a full 8 hour-per-day job, but they'll find other things for him to do besides graphics to fill the workday hours.

But there's this other old client who also loves his guts, and who wants him to work for her, pretty much full time, freelance at home.

And another client of printing company's who considers B an essential part of his company.

So anyway, it looks like, after six years of blissfully regular paychecks, we may be plunging into freelance work again. He has three bread-and-butter clients to get started, all of whom have accepted his hourly rate and who have long-term, recurring projects for him. They love him. If these potentials become certain, they "job security" would be good: all three companies are growing, with increasing earnings and success, despite the recession.

So our prospects are good. I'll keep you updated. Here's to making our next house payment!

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Now playing: Radiohead - There, There

17 Years

Coldplay wrote a song about my walls, because they're all yellow. The painting is done! The only things that remain to do in the kitchen are hung up in process, so I suppose today is a house cleaning and kitchen-reclaiming day. We're almost done, yay!

Today is our anniversary. I got Blaine a pneumatic brad gun and other rad tools, and he got me a beautiful new kitchen. And some flowers.


And note the yellow wall! :) Here's a flashback to seventeen years ago:


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Now playing: Coldplay - Yellow
via FoxyTunes

My charmed electronic life

In addition to two dozen very lovely roses for Valentine's Day, Blaine, that wonderful man, gave me a new iPod. I was the first person in this family to get an iPod or MP3 player of any description. It was a little 4 GB iPod Mini. This is before the days of the Nano, believe it or not.

Now everyone down to Jackson has an iPod or MP3 player; Blaine has three! I've been fond of saying, if anyone complained, "Mine is the oldest iPod in the family." Now I can't say it anymore. Blaine gave me an 8GB fourth generation iPod Nano. Pink, of course. So much sleeker and thinner than my first iPod. Plays videos and everything!

My computer—an iBook G4—is way older than Blaine's MacBook Pro or Emma's newly purchased MacBook. But we needed a new computer for the homeschool kids and were going to have to buy something; Blaine said he'd rather upgrade me and pass mine along than upgrade them and have me continue to make do. (Funny, in human years my iBook should be a toddler but in computer years it's more or less a dinosaur.) It took a lot of investigation, but finally he talked me into it. I am now the proud owner of a 15" MacBook Pro. It is pre-owned, but still has about a year of the original Apple Care on it in which hopefully anything that can go wrong will.

So excited about iLife 2008 and all the other goodies that I didn't have on my iBook. And it looks so sleek and aluminum! Woot. Upgraded to the hilt, and ready to take on the world.

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Now playing: Elefant - Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want
via FoxyTunes