vacation update

I ended up having 3 phone interviews almost 2 weeks ago now. I enjoyed them and one of them turned out to be promising for a few days. It was a job working on the new space shuttle, Orion, in Minneapolis with ATK. I have since found out that I am not qualified enough for the position they want to hire. I am just happy to have heard now that Honeywell and ATK in Minneapolis have a few people working on Orion. I am just hoping to get a job with them sometime in the next six months. That would make me the happiest.

I had a lot of fun in Chicago with my family and Bryan's parents. We saw the museum with the dinosaurs, for Jaden, (don't remember its name--maybe nature museum) and we saw the planetarium. We went to Willow Creek Community (mega) Church, which was fun and eye-opening. We had Lou Malnati's pizza and went to the top of the Sears Tower and had some of the greatest cheese and carmel (separate) popcorn from Garrett's. It was a great trip but just wish that Bryan's mom, Vicki, wouldn't have been so sick on the trip, but she says she still enjoyed it. The boys did surprisingly well and slept pretty well in the hotel even though I had to get up a few times with them.

Then I was off to LA! I had so much fun there driving around the city by myself and I also had fun at the interview with Boeing astrodynamics. I am so glad I went. I think the job is really something I would be interested in the future. I didn't get any connections to Minneapolis from the interview but I met some great people. I really enjoyed talking about aerospace with people interested in the same things that I am. It was almost a little retreat for me there without my kids and husband. I have never traveled without them before. I read a lot and I drove around a lot. I went downtown and saw the setup for the Oscars that were on Sunday. I saw the Jet Propulsion Lab, Cal Tech, the stars on Hollywood Ave, the beach at night and a lot of Oscars billboards. I heard a lot of plastic surgery commercials on the radio and drove by a lot of health food stores. It was nice to experience the spring weather there in the 50's and 60's because it was -11 when I left Minneapolis, brrr.

Then this last weekend, Bryan and I, went to the Family Life Weekend to Remember conference in Rochester. We had our babysitter, Christen, and our friends, the Kingsleys, take care of our kids. We had a good time working on our marriage. We stayed in a local hotel on Saturday night but the sad thing is that I got food poisoning that night and suffered for awhile. We are glad we went and will continue to reap the benefits. It was also nice to volunteer there and help out wherever we could and get the reduced rate to do so.

Today I am off to the scrapbooking retreat till Wednesday and I am really looking forward to it. I have about $40 of pictures to scrapbook and am hoping to get a year of scrapbooking done in 3 days. I think that might only happen with some late nights and lots of caffeine so we will see. I know it is a lofty goal but I am going to try anyway.

It will be about a week that I have been away from the kids once I return and that is hard on them. I have seen them a little in between trips but it has not been enough for Jaden. Clay is doing incredibly well not seeing his mama but Jaden is cranky and whiny because of it. I am sure they will be fine once they get back into a routine.

We still need to get a few things done this week, like plan our trips to San Diego (Mayo paid family trip) and Paris (Mayo paid couple trip) in April. We also need to meet with our financial adviser that we have been delaying a month and meet with some realtors since we want to have our house on the market by 3/3 but that might get delayed if we don't decide on Friday.

Hope you enjoy the update of my fabulous vacation. I am enjoying it and not looking forward to Bryan going back to work and being at the hospital overnight every fourth night.

I will get pictures posted after the vacation...too much to do right now.

busy vacation

Just so you know, this update is mostly for my mom and may get boring to some of you reading.

Well, I don't really think it will be a busy vacation but we have a lot going on over the next two and half weeks. Bryan ended up getting two weeks of vacation back to back at the end of February because he is going to a medical conference during his originally scheduled week off at the end of April. (We get to go to Paris for the conference without kids...yippee!) Mayo was unusually nice to him and told him to take a different week off for vacation in February so that is how we ended up with two weeks together, which never happens in residency.

Before I get to vacation plans, I want to give a little job update. I have two phone interviews over the next two days for engineering jobs that I am probably not qualified for and for jobs that I probably don't want. Oh well, maybe it will get me a connection that I do want to a job that I would love. One phone interview is with Honeywell (not related to the help that I got from Laurie and her friend Gretchen) and the other is with Duke Aviation.

On Friday, 2/15, Bryan's parents are probably coming down to Rochester from Fargo and we are driving to Chicago for a little weekend family vacation. We plan on seeing the sites and returning to Rochester on Monday night. Bryan's parents will probably leave Tuesday.

I (yes, just me) leave for LA for my Boeing interview Wednesday morning, the 20th. I am really looking forward to this now. I will have my interview on the 21st. Please pray that I don't embarrass myself too much. Well, I might need a little embarrassment to be better prepared for a job that I really want in Minneapolis down the road. I will return to Rochester late Thursday night.

Bryan and I are going to a marriage retreat, Family Life Weekend to Remember, in Rochester from Friday to Sunday (22nd-24th). We are excited that they have new curriculum because we have been 7 times previously. We always get something new out of it and it will be good for us to focus on making our marriage better.

I (yes, just me again) am going to a scrapbooking retreat with a bunch of ladies from my Side By Side medical wives bible study. We are staying in a special craft house in Red Wing, MN (The Legacy House) from Monday (2/25) afternoon through Wednedsay (2/27) afternoon.

We will then be relaxing as a family in Thursday and Friday. Bryan will probably get some much needed time to himself once I return.

I will be away from the kids a lot and Bryan will be taking care of the kids a lot over his vacation. I am sure Jaden and Clay will not react well to all of this change but we will be hoping for the best. I am thinking this may be one of my best vacations yet. We'll see...

thank you thought

I got a beautifully written thank you card from my sister-in-law, Chrystine, and on the outside of the envelope was this quote.

"Let us dare to read, think, speak and write." John Adams 1765

and it had this website poweroftheletter.com

I really like that quote and I think I am daring to do those things by blogging. I do think that dare is involved because there is intentionality behind blogging for me.

Blogging is not a safe thing. I am sharing my thoughts with the world or at least whoever is out there reading this. I know it probably isn't many people but who knows what thoughts come to your mind when you think of me now because you have read my blog. It might be a more accurate picture of me and it is probably not as beautifult of a picture as you once had of me. Now you know that I am a yeller, pessimist and I don't always think the best of other people. I have a lot of flaws but I think and hope that by talking about them, I can focus on improving them with God's help.

So, anyway, thanks Chrystine for the card with the big thought on the outside of the envelope. And thanks to the USPS for doing your letter campaign. I think that letters are truly invaluable and the words that people write, especially in letters, should be treasured.

made my day

I couldn't leave that last post up as the first thing you read for very long. It was depressing to me and I want to get out of my funk. My great and awesome friend, Laurie Daddino, just made my day!

The boys took a long nap and I got some adult conversation in with Laurie and she got me a job lead. Laurie's friend, Gretchen, who works for Honeywell with a space-related job, works with some people in Minneapolis on her project. Now Laurie and Getchen have my resume and I hope they can pass it on to some useful people who might want to interview or employ me.

I am a much happier mom after my boys nap and the job connection makes me even happier. Thanks Laurie!!!

stop yelling

I long to stop yelling at my kids. I know it is wrong and I know that I should be able to control myself.

I am really writing this pretending that no one is reading because it is truly embarassing that I yell at my kids.

I knew that today would be difficult for me and the kids. We didn't have anything planned to do today except hangout at home. I admit I have been a little depressed because I feel like I haven't had enough of a break from the kids, I am sad because my job search isn't going anywhere that I want it to, and my kids were already getting on my nerves the last few days. I am also low on adult conversation lately.

I really would have liked them to just play by themselves downstairs for awhile this morning but they wouldn't cooperate. Instead I ended up trying to get some things done upstairs with them constantly begging and whining for my attention. We did do some things together like throw the dirty laundry over the stairs, put a puzzle together, do lots of tracing, stickers and cutting but through it all they greatly annoyed me and whined and cried all the more.

I am happy they are down for a nap now but they still need to fall asleep. I really didn't want to blog about this because I feel like I have blogged about this too many times. Days like this remind me that I should be with my kids less and go back to work. I know that God is teaching me through these days I call difficult but I know he can still teach me if I am working. I also think I will have more patience for my kids then. I already see it now when I get enough time away from my kids and stimulation for my brain, I am more understanding of my kids.

This is even more saddening because throughout January I thought many times how much more I have been enjoying staying at home with my kids. I say that figuratively because we don't stay at home that much but I am with them almost continually. The last two weeks have been tough on me. I have been waiting to have a good day with the kids because I really wanted to blog about enjoying my time with them but I didn't do it while I still had those feelings. I know they will return but I haven't felt them for a little while. I know that it doesn't help that my kids have been sick for awhile and are finally starting to feel better. It also doesn't help that they still haven't been sleeping well since they were sick. It seems to take them a little while to get back into a good sleeping routine after they have been sick. Last night they were up 3 times between the 2 of them. The night before that they both slept through the night but that was a rare blessing right now.

I keep praying for God to shift my focus and give me patience and a quiet voice. I pray for a few easier days ahead.

job search

Trying to get a job is hard work. It is wearing me out. I spent another Tuesday with the kids at daycare while I applied for jobs. I focused a lot of my time today on Lockheed Martin; emailing, calling and applying. I am praying for God to work a miracle because things just aren't looking good. I know that I need to make some connections with people working at some of the companies I am applying with in the Minneapolis area. If anyone out there has any connections to Lockheed Martin, Honeywell aerospace, Raytheon, ATK, Boeing, Goodrich, Teledyne, BAE, Manpower, or the Astronomy Department at the University of Minnesota please help me out. I definitely feel like I am 'working like it depends on me and praying like it depends on God,' to paraphrase my previous Pastor Mark Batterson. I know that God wants me to go back to work but I also know that it will be in his timing, not mine and that is a hard lesson to learn.

On a happier note, I will be going out to LA by myself to interview with Boeing for some interview practice and hopefully to make some connections with Boeing in Minneapolis. We'll see what happens. Bryan hasn't officially signed his contract to work at Fairview Southdale hospital in Edina, MN but he is getting quite close to it. The negotiating is coming to a close and soon we will have the final contract in our hands. So for now, I am still saying that we are 'most likely' moving to Minneapolis because it is not finalized yet. But we are 99% sure we will be in the Twin Cities.

I pray that I will feel confident in God's plan and trust him to work out the best job scenario for me in his best timing.

thinking mode again

I have a taken a little break from blogging or at least I haven't been blogging as much as I think is healthy for me. I think blogging helps me process things and when I blog that means I am actually taking time to think about life and things that really matter. When I am not blogging that means that I either haven't taken time to think or there seems like there is nothing to make me think; both scenarios are scary.

I am back in thinking mode. There is a song that spurred me back into processing my life. That song is Better Hands Now by Natalie Grant. I am not a big country music fan but this is a favorite of mine because of the lyrics and the momentum of the song. I don't think that momentum is a musical term but that is how I would describe it.

Looking forward to watching the Super Bowl with my boys today. Jaden seems really excited to watch football so we'll see how long he lasts.