Now, BACK on the unemployment line.

So, I have no clue what happened with my last blog entry. It went a little haywire. Even the pictures were pretty distorted. Anyway, I think I fixed the problem so it should be viewable. I was impressed on how well the night shots came out.

This week, Sadie achieved her green belt in karate. She is really making a lot of progress and really likes it. Although she tells me she wants to join dance and do archery when she gets bigger, we'll stick with karate for now. She earned the belt in her Tuesday class and then they had a little "graduation" ceremony for all the kids who were graduating up to their next color belt on Friday afternoon. I had to work on Friday, so daddy got to see the special event. I felt a little awkward asking for an afternoon off for a karate graduation after just coming back from a week long vacation (you may wonder why daddy was able to take her on a Friday afternoon after just starting a new job... but I'll get to that momentarily). So, I was sent a little snippet video via the good ol' iPhone, and of course I started tearing up after watching the first few seconds... crazy what being a mommy does to you.

My little green belt karate kid

As I mentioned, Ferny was home on Friday to take Sadie to her event, but here's the kicker... he was also home on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday too! He was supposed to start this new job on Tuesday morning. He agreed to meet the owner of the company at 6:30am. He arrived promptly at 6:30am and waited. And waited. Then waited a little more. Finally around 7am, the guy (we'll call him "Sam") shows up at the shop. He gets out of his vehicle and can barely look Ferny in the eye. "Sam" begins to tell Ferny that he sold the shop over the weekend and he couldn't hire him on any longer. No phone call, no email notification, nothing! "Sam" preceded to tell him that it was "out of the blue" and he hadn't expected this deal to go through so fast, and half mumbled an apology. When I received the phone call from my husband, it took every ounce of my being not to call this guy up myself and let him have it. He screwed him over so badly. Who in the world does that to someone?!? I am refraining from giving this guy's real name and business name because I don't really want to take that road. I'm electing to be the better person and not name-bash; but Ferny was so disappointed and I felt so awful for him. You know, it's just that feeling you get when someone does something awful to hurt a person you love, and you just want to intervene. He had his heart set on this position and "Sam" was stringing him along this entire time that he could have been employed elsewhere. So, back to the drawing board on the job search!

It was a waiting game all week long, because as soon as he was blasted with this crappy news, he got right on the phone and called up one of the other dealerships of which he was interviewed the week prior. He was pretty much offered the job on the spot at this place because they liked him so well. However, when he got the phone call that he was hired for this management position in Roseville, he called and left a voicemail for this dealership that he was offered the management position and that he wouldn't be moving forward with them (keep in mind, he also turned down the offer from the D.O.T.). He more or less went back to this dealership with his tail between his legs and explained what happened to him. The owner of this dealership liked him and his qualifications, but he told Ferny that there was one other candidate now in the running and he would have a decision by Thursday afternoon. Well, Thursday came and went and there was still no word. We held out hope because no news is good news, right? Wrong. He was informed on Friday they went with the other candidate because they were fearful if something better were to come along for him, he would jump at the chance to leave again. It's too bad that people have to be so skeptical, because he is one of the most loyal people you'll ever meet...

There was a reason that the first one didn't work out. It was meant to (not) be, I guess. I am thoroughly convinced that God has a better plan for Ferny at this time in his life, and that's why it didn't pan out. For now, I am going to be thankful that I have a fantastic job with an even more fantastic boss. I honestly could not work for a better company, and I couldn't be more grateful.

Until we meet again.

No More Walking the Unemployment Line!

I realized I haven't wrote a blog in quite some time, so I guess there is a lot to fill in since the end of July. This past week I have been on vacation from work. It has been a nice week (for the most part) but it feels like I have been gone for an eternity. We took a little trip up the North Shore and the weather was just picture perfect. No matter how many times I go up there, the scenery just gets me every time. It was nice taking Sadie along this time. The last time we were up there with her, we had just celebrated her first birthday. She really got enjoyment out of Gooseberry Falls. We were supposed to be road tripping in South Carolina all this week, but that didn't exactly go as planned...

Around the last week in July, my husband lost his job. It was kind of rough because it was really out of the blue and unexpected. We recently have been spending a lot of time searching for something...we didn't really know what would pan out, but we knew something had to turn up, eventually. It was time for something bigger and better. He had been going on interview after interview and it was all just a wait and see game. He was even on the verge of working part time as a delivery driver for Jimmy John's! Not that there is anything wrong with that, but he is not exactly "freaky fast" delivery material. Finally, he was hired on by the D.O.T. (Department of Transportation). It was an excellent opportunity which was a little outside of his field, but it paid very well. Once you get in with the D.O.T., they provide seasonal work, but you have the opportunity to make good money rather quickly working long days and sometimes 5-6 days per week. The only catch was right off the bat they had him out in Iowa for a six week stay on a project that was going on.

I wasn't really handling this idea too well. For a couple who hasn't been apart more than two nights in the whole 6 years they have been married, a weekend away is hard enough let alone SIX WEEKS! Yes, Sadie and I could have drove down on the weekends, but for what? Just to say goodbye again for another week. It would have just been too much. Long story short, 12 hours before he was supposed to be on the road to Iowa, he received a follow up phone call from one of the interviews he had been on earlier that week offering him the position! Needless to say, he pounced on it. The job offer was the one he was hoping for all along because it is more or less his "dream job" as he puts it. He will be managing an automotive service center in Roseville. I am so proud of him and he couldn't be happier!

It's funny what going through something like this does to a person; as well as a marriage. It's so easy to get upset, feel defeated, and place blame but it really doesn't do much good. You learn to look at the other side of things and say yes, this is a really crappy thing, but things could always be much, much worse. At the risk of sounding extremely sappy, I believe that it only makes a relationship/marriage stronger to go through things such as this. Couples divorce for much less than the things we have been though, so it kind of gives me a reassurance that we really were meant to be. OK, yes...that was sappy. I apologize. ;)

Along with this huge change, I feel as though we are going to really flip the remaining months of 2013 around with other positive changes. As I've stated several times, this year has been one of the worst, but I have a really positive feeling about how the rest of it will turn out. Now for a few photos of our little vaykay...

Until we meet again.