Post-Interview

It was hard waiting until 3pm for Jesse's job interview on Monday!  He initially scheduled it for the afternoon because he was thinking that Melinda had school in the morning... but it is Spring Break this week, so he totally could have gone in the morning.

Oh well.  He did need to pick up his suit Monday morning, anyway (it had to be altered at the store).  He did some more thinking preparation and printing off of references (and tried calling a couple to forewarn them), etc.  Then we just had to wait for a little while.

He finally ended up leaving the same time I did, at 2pm.  Yes, it was early.  The kids and I were walking over to a friend's house to play while it was sunny and oh-so-warm (too warm, at times...).  Jesse drove off in the van.  It was a 20-minute drive, and then he sat in the van until it was time to go in.

By the way, doesn't he look very handsome in his new suit?  It's a dark gray, and it's got a stripe to it, if you can't tell in the picture.  The stripes alternate a blue and yellow color, actually.

Jesse finally called me, on his way home, at almost 5pm.  He was in that interview for almost 2 hours!!  He was sort of expecting a somewhat casual phone-interview type of meeting (in person, since he's local).  What he got was a 2-hour interview with the whole engineering team (at once!), and with a company only 13 people big, that included a VP, CTO, etc. 

He says it went pretty well.  Not "knock their socks off!" sort of great, but nothing to complain about.  He could tell that they might be a little concerned about his lack of design experience, but he's confident he can do it anyway.  He's done design (including CAD) in college, and had played around with various CAD programs since then.  The program they would use is what he considers the easiest and most intuitive.  And Jesse just has a way with being able to imagine things in 3 dimensions, anyway.  Half the time I don't think I'd be able to wrap my head around sewing projects without his help figuring out how the shapes need to fit together, and he just always does a really great job at taking that same ability to figure out how mechanical parts need to fit together.  That was the only thing he personally felt concerned about in the interview, but he's sure that if they call his references (and we already sent off thank-you letter - which gave me a headache trying to help him compose! - which encouraged them to do exactly that), because his references are about 100 times better at talking up all of Jesse's great points than Jesse is himself.  In fact, Jesse tells me that his most recent boss, Frank, seems to think that Jesse is capable of anything. Doesn't that say a lot, coming from a boss you directly reported to?

Anyway.  It was long and exhausting for him, but went well enough.  Unfortunately, this company just got some brand new funding and are having to decide their moving-forward path.  They plan to double the size of the company this year, but they really have to nail down exactly what they want and need, so it's going to be a whole 3 weeks before we hear from them.  Urgh.  Not a fun wait.  The good news is that they're looking to replace their mechanical engineer first, as their current one is heading out to pursue robotics.  So if they do want Jesse, we'll know it sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, we keep plugging along!  Trying to get the most fun out of our Spring Break as possible.  Which is challenging.... because we had snow Friday night.  By Sunday it was melting pretty good.  Monday was sunny, as I said earlier, and a little too warm at times.  Today?  It's a blizzard out there!  We went swimming this morning, and it was fine and dry outside.  Partly sunny even.  At 3pm we started chore time, and it was starting to snow.  At 4pm I went to the grocery store, and it was sticking to the grass, but the roads and pavement were still just wet.  At 5pm when I got out of the grocery store, there was a good 2 inches of snow plus slush on the ground of the parking lot, and I had to sweep off the car before I could drive away.  Heavy, wet snow.  Windshield wipers didn't like a big pile of it too much!  And then we had the missionaries over for dinner, and when Jesse drove them home at 7pm, he said it looked like there was probably already 7 inches of snow!  Looks like we might get anywhere between 1-2 feet before it all stops tomorrow.  In the middle of our spring break.  But you know, it'll all melt within a few days, I bet.  It'll be back up to 50's/60's and sunny in just a few more days.  But you know... it's Spring Break for crying out loud!  Let us have some nice days to enjoy!

All whining aside, I really do get a kick out of this yo-yo sort of spring weather.  Never knowing quite what to expect... and it definitely makes me appreciate the warm, beautiful days more fully.  But I think if I live here for any big chunk of years, I can see myself getting sick of it and just wanting it to stop.  For now, I'm still happy to enjoy it, and laugh about it.

And that's where we're at!  We hope you'll keep thinking of Jesse's job search, and praying for him.  And we'll certainly keep you posted with any new information!

Interview Time

After 6 long months, we're happy to say that Jesse has his first interview scheduled for Monday afternoon!  It's with a company that works with LED lights... and if you've ever spent any time around Jesse, you might know that he is pretty much crazy about LED's. 

The company is located just a little NE of Boulder, which would make it a fantastic location to commute to from our home in Louisville. 

We went suit shopping today (though we really should have done it long ago, to keep an eye out for good deals!), and he'll have a nice new suit ready to go for Monday.  First one he's bought since we got married 10 years ago, yeesh!  

If you can keep him in your prayers for the couple days that his interview will go as well as possible, we'd sure love it!!  He's confident he can do this job.  And we're also very ready to not be unemployed anymore.

I've Been Crafting

Ready for a show-and-tell blog? I've been busy crafting!

Ergh. I uploaded these backwards. And I'm too lazy to change it. So! Most proud-of project (and most recent!) first! I decided to make Alex a toddler backpack for his 2nd birthday. I downloaded a pattern here: Made by Rae
I bought all the fabrics about halfway through last year when I stumbled across them on Etsy.com. I didn't know then what I would do with them, but I've had a lot of fun since then figuring it out! Of course it started with Jacob's tote that I made for Christmas. But THIS project featured all 5 coordinating fabrics, which I just think makes it super-fun!

It was a really challenging project for me, though. I'm intimidated by zippers, but I managed to make this one my first success! After a really badly done first try, at least. ;) Also, there are parts of the backpack that ended up being about 11 layers thick, which my sewing machine simply couldn't handle. I'm lucky I had my mother-in-law's machines available just 5 minutes away to use! I couldn't have finished it without that. Also, the zipper, bindings, and adjustable straps all came from her sewing supplies. :)

I just love it to death. I think Alex will love it, too! The reason I decided to make it for him is because he's always stealing Melinda's backpack, or grabbing some other bag or bucket, and pretending to go "bye-bye", complete with a smile and a wave and walking right up to the door. Plus, come on... what little boy can't use a super cute bag all for his own? I'm sure he'll come up with all sorts of things to put in it.


Alright, let's see. Next on this little out-of-order list is a little toy bassinet I made for Melinda. I found a tutorial online (because I couldn't think of how to do it myself!), and followed it. It ended up being small because I didn't take the time to measure it and see if it would actually fit her baby doll. But it does fit her Webkinz animals. She likes it, and wants me to make her a bigger one. Jacob wants his own for his Webkinz, too. I've been thinking about how I might modify the hood so it's less of a flap and more of a hood. Fabrics were painstakingly selected by Melinda out of Grandma Newson's stash.

Melinda was invited to a Kindergarten friend's birthday party, but it was on Sunday so we couldn't go. We decided to make her a gift, anyway. We *loved* the appliqued shirt that Aunt Sarah made Melinda for Christmas, so I decided to copy that idea. I had Melinda do some detective work and find out what her friend's favorite animal and color are. The answer? Giraffe and red. So I worked in a red flower and made a fun little giraffe applique. Very pleased with the results!! The appliques are all felt (well, aside from the fabric center of the flowers, and the ribbon stems)... we were so thrilled to find giraffe-print felt at Hobby Lobby! There's enough to make one for Melinda, too. Because, of course, giraffe also happens to be her favorite these days!

One of the first crafts I made... a pocket shirt for Jacob! He always prefers a shirt with a pocket, but he has so few of them. So I picked up a plain T-shirt and sewed on a pocket for him. With the same owl fabric that matches his church tote. He LOVES it. And Alex loves pockets, too, so I ended up making him one. Somehow I didn't get a picture of it? Anyway, his shirt is blue with a beaver on it (the same beaver can be seen on his backpack, front panel). I think Melinda wants a pocket shirt one of these days, too.

I also tackled making Jacob an owl tie. I mentioned it in passing, one day, throwing around ideas of what I could do with all those fabrics. He LOVED the idea, and begged me to make him one. I found another tutorial (gosh, the internet is great!), and grabbed some muslin and silky blue material to help finish it up. When I didn't have it already done that Sunday (I hadn't started yet - I had other project to finish first!), he threw an absolute fit. Apparently he was just dying to get that owl tie around his neck! I was happy with how relatively easy it was, once I figured out the process. The longest part was hand-sewing invisible stitches up the back. (And why didn't I make a little loop to stick the back end through? That was silly!) And yes, he does love it. But not enough to wear a tie every week. He doesn't really like the choking feeling of wearing a tie. And Jesse LOVES tying it. I bought some ties for Jacob a year-ish ago from Etsy, and they didn't have a supporting middle layer, which I guess makes it too flimsy and annoying to tie. But since I used muslin in the middle, this is a good, sturdy tie. :) Tutorial found here!

Also, I recently threw together another digital scrapbook page. I've been stocking up on templates when I can... now I just need to convince myself to take some time to use them! This page went together in less than an hour, and I'm so happy with how it looks.

Actually, I'm trying to remember if I've ever shared anything I've been doing with Photoshop lately. I'm trying to look through my archives, and I don't think I have!! What?? Goodness.
Well.
Here's the other pages I've done semi-recently, then! I took a couple classes at jessicasprague.com, and learned a lot of cool stuff. I also figured out where to print 12x12 pages. Yay me! Now to go through 6 years of accumulated (thousands of thousands) pictures! Uhhhh. Yeah. I'm never going to catch up.

Fish Saga

I was just about to waste some time by playing Bejeweled, and it occurred to me... You know?  It's been a looong time since I've posted on the blog, and there's so much I could tell you about.  Alex is napping (as is Jesse), banana bread is baking, and Melinda and Jacob are co-op'ing a game of Mario Galaxy.  What better time than to squeeze in a little life details for my family and friends?  One of these days I'll find a way to get back into the habit of doing it regularly.

For Christmas, Melinda's "big" gift was to get a pet fish.  She got a tank and all the supplies needed, and we went to pick out a fish the next day.  We picked a pretty fancy goldfish for $2, and took her home.  Well, at least we decided it was a she.  Who knows if it actually was or not.  Melinda named her Lucy.  After a girl at school, apparently, but I thought it was a perfect name for a little goldfish.

After about a week or so, and reading up on goldfish from library books as well as internet sites, I learned that goldfish aren't meant to be alone, so we decided to get Lucy a friend.  Jacob got the honors of picking his own fish.  While at the pet store, the employee in the fish section told us that minnows and goldfish are from the same family, and that they would be fine together.  Jacob was very excited about this, because the little silver minnows were "super fast", so he happily picked a little $0.13 minnow, and we landed on the name Harvey for him.  We brought Harvey home and happily provided Lucy a new friend.

We figured Harvey would be perfect, because he was nice and small, and wouldn't add too much of a toxin-producing load to our small fish tank.  Unfortunately, I discovered something a little too late.  Minnows are schooling fish, and if they are kept in groups of less than 6, they tend to be very aggressive.  I hadn't really noticed very well, but Harvey had been attacking Lucy.  Her fins were all torn up and shredded.  I also discovered too late that our rock decorations were too sharp for a delicate, long-finned fish like Lucy, and that ended up causing her to lose scales.  I believe that stress combined with the loss of scales caused Lucy to lose too many electrolytes to keep her alive.

Eventually, Lucy died.  For a couple weeks, her fins were all clamped tightly to her body, indicating stress at very least.  Her death was difficult to watch.  She was floating around half-tilted sideways and drifting with the current for the better part of a day.  I couldn't decide if it would be more humane to take her out of the water and suffocate her to death, or to let her stay until she died naturally, saving her from the stress of dying somewhere other than her home.  (Side note:  If I'm ever dying a slow death, I'd much prefer it to be in my home.  Not in a sterile, unfriendly, unfamiliar hospital.  Just so you know!)  In the end, I kept her in the tank.  And she was dead when we came back from a trip to the store.  Melinda was very upset and cried quite a bit, and I was shocked at how much I was affected, too.  I never ever EVER thought I'd even so much as blink at an inexpensive goldfish dying.  But I was sad, too.  She was a pretty fish, and I liked watching her.  We took her out and flushed her down the toilet, after saying some quick goodbyes.  Alex rather enjoyed that process, waving happily goodbye to Lucy, and then practically skipping off with a smile on his face after she was gone.

We decided to get Melinda a new fish, a small $0.13 goldfish this time.  Melinda named her Lucy Two.  She was the teeniest little goldfish I've ever seen, even smaller than Harvey the Minnow, and she was mostly white, sporting a couple gold spots.  We instantly fell in love with her.

Of course, it wasn't until after we had Lucy Two that I discovered the problem with keeping a single minnow in a tank with other fish.  After the first day or so, I really noticed Harvey chasing Lucy Two around, and not wanting Melinda to lose a second fish, I removed Harvey and stuck him in a tupperware on the counter until I could decide what to do.  After stewing over it, I decided I didn't have the means to get enough minnows to keep Harvey happy, and didn't want to spend the extra effort to try to find him a new home, so we released him into the neighboring lake.  I'm certain it killed him.  The lake was halfway frozen over, definitely ice cold, and everything I learned about keeping fish told me that even just a couple degrees of temperature change at once could shock the fish and do it harm.  We didn't stay at the lake long enough to find out for sure, though.  All I saw was that Harvey stayed right near the edge where I released him, just under a thin layer of ice, and didn't dart around as was typical for him.  We walked away, Jacob already talking about his next fish. 

And yes, we were on the way to get yet more fish.  After all, we still didn't want to sentence Melinda's fish to a life of solitude.  We ended up picking out two more little tiny goldfish (instead of minnows!!).  Jacob's fish was plain white, and named Harvey Two.  The second we picked out was plain gold, supposedly Alex's fish, and the kids named him Jack.  I didn't bother taking a picture of them this time around.

The three fish seemed to get along perfectly, ate up all the food we fed them nice and quickly, and the water stayed clean.

At least, so I thought. 

Two weeks later, when I looked in the tank first thing in the morning, I found Jack laying upside down against the filter intake.  I was shocked, but scooped him out and flushed him down the toilet.  I had one little water quality test strip left, and I quickly tested the water.  The Nitrate levels were off the chart.  I made a huge mistake in assuming that since the water looked clean, that it was clean.  That day and the day after, I did two different 50% water changes, hoping to bring the levels down quickly.  (Most of the time, it's recommended that you stick to 10-20% water changes.)  After those two days, I took a water sample to the pet store, and the nitrate levels were still dangerously high.  The employee showed me an additive that can bring down nitrate levels, and I bought it and used it ASAP.  The next day, with the help of a new stack of testing strips, I learned that we were back down to perfectly safe levels.  Phew.

Two days later, Lucy Two died.

I broke the news to Melinda after I picked her up from school.  She was not happy.  Didn't cry quite so much as when the first Lucy died, but was still upset.  We were both hoping to watch Lucy grow up to be a bigger fish, and see if her gold spots changed as she got bigger.  I thought she would be okay... but she was such a tiny fish that I think the initial super-toxic nitrate levels just poisoned her little body beyond repair.

Somehow, through all of this, Jacob's little plain-white Harvey Two has survived.  It's been two weeks since the last death, and he's still going strong, and nitrate levels are still looking good.  I think we'll go ahead and get one or two more small goldfish soon, to keep him company.  I think I've learned from my mistakes:  I'm not putting anything even remotely sharp into the fish tank.  I'm feeding only once a day, a small amount.  I'm only buying goldfish, no more mixing of species for me.  I'm using a better water additive to help keep the water clean.  I'm making a water change at least a couple times a week.

Still, it's been quite a surprising adventure.  I thought the biggest problem we'd have with pet fish would be getting algae all over the tank.  That hasn't even been a hint of a problem.  Instead, I've had to research all my problems to see where I've gone wrong.  And I've felt really bad about how many fish I've killed.  Lucy, Harvey, Jack, and Lucy Two.  Four fish in two months.  Eeek.  And through it all, Melinda keeps on telling me that she wishes we could move to a new house, so we could have space to buy and keep a bigger fish tank.  Uh-huh.  As if that would help my rate of fish-killing!

I guess it's a good thing I didn't start out with a dog or a cat.  And probably a good thing I never intend to go that route!