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.

Perfect Reminders

This post is a direct follow-up of this one, so go over and read it first if you haven't already.

So, as it turns out, what a difference a day makes. By the time Jesse woke up on Saturday morning, he was in much better spirits. Stiff and sore from spending time under the car on Friday afternoon, but obviously feeling more confident.

He headed out to the car first thing in the morning. Actually, Friday night seemed to help a lot: He had taken off to go pick up parts at the auto shop, and stopped to browse GameStop (for a potential birthday gift for Jacob), and also walked over to 7-11 and picked up a nice big Slurpee. Because, you know... those Slurpees can cure any foul mood. ;) No, but really... he spent a good chunk of time out of the house, and when he came back, he was much better. I know I often do well to just get out, too. Anyway, so he already had all the car parts on hand, and the van was ready for working on.

He decided to just cut out the bad section of pipe and replace it with a hose, an idea he found browsing forums online. Seems that he gets most of his car-repair ideas from the internet, these days. The pipe that was bad had been rusted out, and basically exploded into a series of holes. Not unlike the hot water pipes that caused multiple leaks in our old apartment. Back then, they simply clamped a hole, 4 or 5 different times, until finally they decided they had better replace the whole thing. Well, I'm sure this pipe will eventually need to be completely replaced, but for now, it's just patched. Hopefully, and this is a VERY BIG hopefully, we will be able to replace our van before another piece of the pipe rusts all the way through.

In all honesty, I think it was a full-on miracle that I was able to get from the interstate to Melinda's doctor appointment after the car overheated on Friday. After seeing how quickly the fluid was pouring out of that pipe.... it's a wonder I got anywhere at all without issue.

Back to the repairs... this is the piece of pipe that Jesse cut out. Lovely, isn't it? Completely rusted. Hilariously clamped. But, it got him home with the van, saving us a towing fee.

While he was working on taking care of that, he decided to knock out a few other repairs. First, he replaced the serpentine belt. It had been getting worse and worse, giving off a near-constant squeaky hum that annoyed me to death. Second, he replaced the MAP sensor. We think, knock on wood, that this is the solution to our year+ battle with the van randomly dying or jerking while driving. Apparently, what this sensor does is monitor the pressure in the fuel lines and adjust the amount of gas sent to be combusted. So if it senses wrongly, it will send the wrong amount of gas, and thus (according to information we read) cause mis-fires and poor gasoline economy. Since we've changed it (and it's a ridiculously simple-looking part for $60), we haven't had a single hiccup. We may be cured!!

Jesse finished with the car repairs right at lunchtime, and we enjoyed a good time out at Red Robin, where we hadn't eaten in ages. It was nice! We even treated ourselves to fruity lemonades instead of our typical water. After we finished eating, we went over to the T-mobile store and asked about Jesse's phone. Turns out that he should be able to get a $30 phone to replace his current phone, and be good to go.

So, all problems pretty much taken care of, things went back to normal. But the stress of the weekend stayed in my mind, so I was very grateful for various things that were said. Here on my blog in comments, or by email, or by messages in church today... I was reminded very thoroughly how God is in control of our lives, and that He truly does have a plan in store for our family. We may not know for sure what it is, and it may be stressful waiting around to discover it, and we may have a lot of trials along the way... but He will bless us.

In fact, one particular thing really struck me today. Our Gospel Doctrine teacher is the daughter of Elder Andersen, as I mentioned in a previous Facebook Friday. She was telling a story today taht happened when she was younger: A missionary was talking to Elder Andersen (I think when he was a Mission President, but Alex was distracting so I didn't catch that part for sure). It was just after the missionary had completely wrecked his bike, and he was feeling very down and discouraged. Elder Andersen (true to his personality!) said with enthusiasm and sincerity, "Elder, isn't that just great??" The missionary was confused by this response, and Elder Andersen explained his thought process a little bit more. I'm paraphrasing here, not quite quoting.... "Don't you see? If the adversary is working this hard to get you down, there must be some really incredible blessings coming to you soon!" Sister Ebert, his daughter, related how that conversation has really stuck with her over the years, and connected the story with the scripture in D&C 103:12: "For after much tribulation, as I have said unto you in a former commandment, cometh the blessing."

All the rest of the meeting, as I was listening to other quotes, hymns, thoughts, and testimonies, the Spirit bore witness in my heart of the truth of that idea. Sometimes, circumstances can cause you to forget and despair... but I truly know that the Lord hasn't forgotten our family and our needs. And I know that we experience these trials for a reason, and I truly know that we will be blessed at some point in time. And I have to say, Sister Ebert's story really gave me a glimmer of hope... what if, those blessings we receieve after trial (after trial, after trial...) are going to be incredible and magnificent? Something we can't even really imagine? And even if not magnificent, they will be very well received.

I'm so grateful for the loving words of reassurance of all of my family and friends. I'm touched by your prayers and support, and so thankful for your love. I know the bad times will pass... But all the same, I'm glad for the reminder of why we even have the bad times in the first place.

And just because they're all so cute, here are some pictures I took of the kids on the porch while Jesse was down working on the car.

Okay, so Jesse's not a kid. But he's our own personal conquering hero, and he sure deserves a picture in the blog!

Sharp Contrast

Today, I frequently hear myself thinking, "Oh, Father, he needs this so much."

Jesse hasn't been in the best of moods lately.  I'm sure you can understand why, with a job that is quickly (yet still maddeningly slowly) eroding away,  a car that is constantly breaking, trying to job hunt, and deal with things the way they constantly are with three young children in the house.  Sometimes I've worried that this entire giant set of circumstances might lead him to become depressed, especially since he pretty much never hangs out with any guy-friends.  It's just work, deal with problems at home, and worry about the future. 

Yesterday, Jesse found a great job to apply to in Butte, Montana.  Initially, Jesse had completely written off the entire state of Montana for job searching, but he came across this one job, and suddenly started getting excited.  It sounded right up his alley, he soudned perfectly qualified, he had a good background with his current job that would lend well to transitioning to this other job possibility.  We spent a while working hard on writing a solid cover letter, and sent it off.  But it was amazing to me, to watch his mood do a complete 180.  He was grinning, getting excited (while trying not to get TOO excited, because, you know... if you get your hopes up and then your resume just sits in a black hole, that can be a pretty big let-down), and just suddenly turning back into the happy-go-lucky guy I married all those 9 1/2 years ago.  The kids were up past their bedtime and playing crazy, like they always do when they're up late, but Jesse didn't start losing his temper or getting frustrated... he started picking up each child and "boinging" them across the room, like they were on giant spring shoes that could bounce them higher than an adult head.  And then they were all giggling and having the time of their lives, and then Jesse started flipping them in the middle of their bounces, or having them rebound off the wall.  And I couldn't help but grin and giggle and get silly, myself.... 

The whole evening was happy.
Happy!!  Just because of a little hope and excitement, from a job prospect in Montana, of all places. 

I went to bed with that thought in my head.  Comparing it to the typical mood around here lately.  I try to stay upbeat, among all the problems, but it's hard, of course.  And just seeing how happy things could be, I realized how very much Jesse really needs this: A new job, a new start, something to hope for and look forward to.  He needs to be back to himself again.

And such a sharp contrast... that moment in time didn't last.
Today, as I was taking Melinda to her school physical, the car overheated again.  Again!!   Just a few weeks after we replaced the radiator!!  I called Jesse just as I was heading into the doctor's office, to see if he could come over and look at it or at least give me more fluid to put in the car, so I could get home.  It was just about his lunch break.  So he had to skip lunch with the guys, get dropped off in the sweltering, humid air, walk across the street from Wal-Mart to the doctor's office (lucky they're so close to each other!), and figure out what the problem with the car was.  He was just devastated when I told him the problem over the phone.  His exact words were, I think, "Becky, I just can't take any more of this..."  And it wasn't an angry or frustrated voice.  It was a despairing voice. 

But, he came and looked at it.  Looks like it's some sort of pipe that goes to the rear heater of the car that has rusted through and was pretty much pouring the radiator fluid out.  While he was laying under the car looking at everything, all the guys from work came back and huddled around our car.  They shared their time to run and get some clamps and stuff so Jesse could quick-fix the van well enough to get it home.  In the meantime, Melinda and I got a ride home with a couple others of his coworkers.  And to top it all off, Jacob and Alex had to be driven home from our friend's house 20 minutes away, since I couldn't go back to pick them up.  I'm grateful for everyone who pitched in to get us through the afternoon... but we still have yet another car repair to do, and the fun didn't end there...

As Jesse was calling the auto parts store, the sound of his phone was "crackly".  Attempting to fix it, he turned it off, removed the battery and replaced it, and powered it back up.  Except, when he powered it back up, it wouldn't come on.  It only showed a screen that said, "Contact Service".  Of course, we're out of the warranty time for his phone, and it's doubtful that it will fix itself, you know?  So it looks like we're also going to have to pay for a new phone for him.  In the meantime, though, we were able to call up customer service and get his called forwarded to my phone.... so if any potential employers call, at least he'll get the calls, right?  After he got off the phone with customer service, he admitted that he really just wanted to "quit" the day, and go to sleep.  To escape, even just temporarily, all the troubles that were weighing and beating him down.

But my heart was really breaking to see him react to these events one right after the other, on the heels of such a happy night.  I just wish I had the power in me to physically remove his stress.  So he could be himself.  The carefree, animated, laughing, joking Jesse that can always handle anything that comes his way.  It's a sharp contrast... and not one I enjoy witnessing.

Yes, he needs this so much.  A change, new prospects, something to get excited about, something to ease his worries...  He needs it.  And I can't give it to him.

Back Home, For Now

Well, our Colorado vacation has come and gone.  It was a really fantastic 10 days.  Well, most of the time.  With three young children, there are definitely some unhappy moments that you can't escape even while you're on vacation.  But we enjoyed ourselves so much that we didn't want to come home.  I'll have plenty of pictures and stories to tell, when I have more time.

In the meantime, it's been a difficult transition to come back home.  Between switching timezones and having issues with sleep for ALL THREE kids, Alex getting a bit of pinkeye, then me getting a bad head cold (oh, how my entire head ached for a whole entire stinking long day!!), and trying to restock the fridge/cupboards, and deal with maintenance issues in the apartment, well... we hardly went out at all last week.  And everyone was crabby and constantly fighting.  It was not a happy time.  But I think we're getting back into the swing of things.  Maybe.  At least, Alex went to sleep at his usual time for the first time since coming home last Monday late night, and it didn't take TOO long for Melinda and Jacob to fall asleep tonight.  We helped Jacob go potty every single time the whole 10 days we were in Colorado, and he's still not willing to go by himself back at home yet.  That's immensely frustrating.  He's had a few accidents, thanks to that stubborn streak.

And then, of course, Jesse went back to work.  And then came home early on Friday, with news.

He's going to work next week to train people who might potentially be interested in buying the company, but the major company that was looking to buy them have now gone away.  They gave a couple offers that Jesse's company's CEO refused.  Jesse's opinion is that he's looking to make a buck in the transaction, since he certainly won't be keeping a job if someone else buys them.  But because of this, they're running out of money badly enough that they've asked everyone not to come back to work for 2 weeks.  Since Jesse is one of the few who are participating in the training, it's only 1 week for him. But at this meeting, where apparently no solid information was given, someone asked if they'd be coming back after the 2 weeks.  The answer was, "Well.... you'll be getting a call." 

Joy.

And when Jesse was given a ride home from work, Henry (not a boss, but not quite a co-worker either) pointed out that nobdoy gave anyone paperwork, and that was kind of a problem.  Yeah.  Great.

So, we don't really know at this point if Jesse has a job in a couple weeks or not.  We're not terribly surprised, based on how the company has been going for oh... the past year or so??  But it's still frustrating. 

Game plan for right now:  Jesse steps up the job hunting another notch, we cut back on our food budget and cancel the cable TV (the only regular bill we really have any control over).... and we'd be surprised if we stuck around in Maryland for longer than through the end of summer.  The apartment costs too much to rent if we're unemployed, and our lease only goes through October, anyway.  We'd really rather not have to uproot Melinda once she starts school, just because we have to up and move again.  Then again, if he somehow manages to keep his job, we'd probably go ahead and stick around while he keeps job hunting.  But my preference is to definitely be elsewhere by the time Melinda starts school.  (and ohhhh, it's so much sooner than I want it to be!!!)

Some of you out there are already aware of this job situation, and I just want to thank you for your concern and prayers.  We have faith that everything will work out for the best, and that Heavenly Father will take care of our family.  Jesse is an incredibly smart, hardworking guy, and I know he'll be able to find something else good for himself and our family.  But your prayers mean so much to us!!

Metroid

(Did I say something earlier about being able to find time to catch up on my blogging?  Obviously, getting a yucky cold wasn't part of the plan, so I beg mercy.....)

Alex has picked up a totally cute ability for an almost-14-month old:  He's making sound effects.  You know, he watches the kids like a hawk, and tries to do everything they do.  Which, a lot of times, is not fun:  Like when he tries to climb the bunk bed ladder, or jump on the couch, or all sorts of too-big-for-him things.  But when it comes to imaginitive play, the whole copy-the-big-sibs thing is so adorable!!!

Lately, their new thing is playing Metroid.  I mentioned this briefly in one of the Facebook Friday updates (and yes, I realize I haven't posted the latest installment....).  The kids dug up a copy of Jesse's Game Boy Advance "Metroid Zero" game about a month ago.  Since then, they've asked him to play it, they've asked me to play it, and they've figured out how to play it themselves.  And of course, it wasn't long before they started pretending Metroid games in the home.  Complete with curling up into a ball to get into narrow spaces, doing the beam-me-up animation style "save", and of course, shooting enemies.

Jacob is such an action poser.  He mimics it with such precision.  He would grab his forearm, get into a forward-facing attack crouch, and make "Pshew, Pshew" sorts of laser gun sounds as he shot at imaginary monsters.  So then Jesse had the bright idea to give them props, which he made from used Vitamin Water bottles - just cut off the end, and painted them green, like Samus' weapon.  Observe:

 

You get the concept, right?  Green cylindrical shape that covers your forearm.  Easy enough, with a water bottle or two!!  Well, Jacob's was a hit, and Melinda soon got her own, and now even Alex has one.  Because he just couldn't be left out of the fun.  As soon as anyone starts playing any sort of shooting/chasing/fighting game, Alex is so in on it.  And the sound effects make watching it just absolutely a hoot!!

So I tried to grab a video of it tonight - it's not great... there's a lot of other noise going on in the video, and I had a hard time being in front of him so you could see his face while he was making sounds.  But of the "Pshew, Pshew" sounds, Alex is making about half of them, and Jesse's doing the rest, for the most part.  Also, if you see a large pink tutu flying around, Jesse was pretending it was a fireball shooting out of his fist.  I'm so glad he can still play with the kids like that.  It's awesome, and I love it.

So here's the video.  Enjoy the cuteness!!  I know I do.  :)

The Hunt for Manners

I wonder if I could attribute it to her age: Melinda often refuses to use manners. No "sorry", "please", or "thank you"... instead, we get a full-blown fit of refusal, usually followed by dramatic crying. As if using manners is going to literally kill her. And that alone would be frustrating... but when you add to it that she used to use her "magic words" constantly, even when she was so young that she still couldn't say half of what she needed because she lacked the vocabulary.... Well, it goes beyond frustrating, and enters the zone of outright maddening.

In fact, I've been having such an issue with her doing something rude (or dangerously harmful), and then refusing to even try to make it better. For instance, the other day she knocked Alex down a la the now-popular Jacob Belly Bump, and Alex was walking around with a sippy cup in both hands. She knocked him down from behind, and he fell face-forward without any hands free to catch himself. His face connected with the cup, and he got a lovely cut on his lip. She wouldn't say sorry, give him a hug, or otherwise acknowledge the wrongdoing in any way other than cowering on the floor and shaking her head in refusal. I finally sat her down for a long talk, and made her a "contract" of what she would do if she pushed again. She and I came up with two options for consequences: My contribution was to say sorry and/or give a hug to make the person feel better. Her contribution was to clean the room.

That's right. My daughter would rather clean an entire room than utter a single two-syllable word or extend a hug if she's done something wrong. And she did push again the next day, and she did opt to clean the room instead of saying sorry or giving a hug. Call me incredulous.

Fast forward to today: We rearranged the dinner table in such a way that Melinda lost her preferred spot - one that has only been available for a few weeks. She started having a meltdown over the seating arrangments, despite being given a million and a half choices. It continued for quite some time, and morphed into a meltdown about the dinner itself, and then into wanting someone to stir her soup for her.

Well, we parental units got stubborn by this point. If she was going to sit there and have a fit over every single little thing, we weren't going to stir her soup (something she's perfectly capable of, anyway) until she said please. And oh, boy, how she continued to refuse!

Jesse, bless his clever heart, really saved the day. He began trying to "find" Melinda's "lost manners". Jesse really has a knack for being silly. It's one of the things that made me fall in love with him, after all! But he really out-did himself tonight.

"Hm, mom, I think Melinda's lost her manners! I wonder where they could be?"
(Melinda continues to sob, but her eyes peek up in interest.)

Jesse started asking a long series of questions, trying to discover where those lost manners might be. On top of her head? Under the bag of chips? Inside the vase? Eventually, when Melinda continued to cry and stubbornly refuse to participate in the quest, he got up from his seat, and started wandering around the room. He picked up a couple tissue-paper-decorated vases from the kids' Art Play class last fall, and held them on his head like antlers. "Are these manners??" He tried getting her attention with no luck, and was soon dancing a silly little jig with those "antlers" on top of his head. I couldn't help myself, when I looked at what he was doing- I burst out laughing. Jacob followed suit, too, giggling his head off. Alex looked at him with obvious delight. Melinda still huddled in her chair, oblivious to the new tactic. I convinced her to look, finally, and she hid a bit of giggles in between her sobs. Jesse moved along, now picking up a thick book from my desk. "Hmm, I wonder if this might be manners? Where would it go? Inside my head? Can I fit this inside my head??" And he suddenly starts making a show of shoving the book into his head (by putting it behind his head). Jacob was now beside himself with giggling, and Melinda was even starting to let obvious laughter escape unhidden. But she quickly reverted back to crying.

After a few more tries, Jesse came back to the dinner table. We sort of hemmed and hawed about what to try next, when Jacob joined in: "I have an idea, Daddy!" And when we asked him to show us his idea, he ran off in search of manners, too. First he mimicked the vase-antlers. While giggling. Nope, that didn't work - not manners! Then he ran to the front room, and came back with a pillow on his head. "Is this manners?? NOoooo!" Giggled and ran off. He kept coming back, with lots of variations of things on his head. It was quite entertaining. Finally Jesse called him back to the table, declaring that he tried hard enough, but needed to finish eating now.

We started using exaggerated manners while Melinda continued to sulk.
Jacob: "Can I have more milk, Daddy?"
Jesse: "What do you say?"
Jacob: "Please!!" (with a grin, even!)
Jesse: "Yes, Jacob, here you go!"
Jacob: "Thank you!"
Jesse: "You're welcome!"

And so on.
Melinda still sulked. Jesse proclaimed that Melinda's manners must be lost for good.
"But what if they're lost somewhere inside her, dad?" I asked. (Yes, I'm one of the ones who always addresses her husband by "dad" when children are present. And sometimes when they're not.) "How are we going to find them if they're inside her??"

FINALLY, Melinda starts playing the game. It's been long enough for me to finish two bowls of soup by this point, even with all the discussion in between bites. "Mommy, I want you to look for my manners," she says timidly. "Oh!! Where should I look?" I pry open her mouth and and exclaim, "Oh, look! There's something hanging down at the back of your throat! Is that your manners?" She yanks her head away from me, now giggling, but nope, that wasn't it. I check her pinky toe, maybe it's hiding them. Nope, not there either. A few more tries, and I'm out of ideas, and go back to feeding Alex a few beans from the soup.

Melinda then gives her spoon to Jesse, without a word. He says thank you for the spoon, and sets it down. Then she gives him her bowl, again without a word. He says thank you again, and sets it down near his own bowl, and goes back to eating. After a few moments, she peeps out a quick "Stir!" followed by something that might have been "please". But it was hard to tell, so we wondered if she might mean that she wanted daddy to stir the cheese. So he picked up the spoon and "stirred" the block of cheese. Oh, the giggles! She's coming out of the ridiculous fit, now! But no, she didn't want the cheese stirred, she wanted her soup (now cold) stirred. So she peeps out another "Stir!" followed by a chirped "please!!"

"Melinda found her manners!!!!" we exclaim with joy. A large round of applause! Oh, Alex likes this game! He joins in with his own exuberant clapping, grinning like there's nothing better in the world than dinner time with clapping involved. And you know what? Melinda's smiling, too! Jesse picks up the spoon and stirs the soup, and hands it back to Melinda happily. She looks so proud of herself!

And then she wants some water - with ice. "Can I have more water, please?" "Yes, you can!! Here you go." "Thank you!" "You're welcome!" And every time she used a manners word from then until we were down from the table, we erupted with "Hoorays!!!" and another round of clapping. What fun! Even Melinda was enjoying the magic words by this point.

It makes everyone happy to use manners, doesn't it??

And, For a First...

Jesse just showed me a video they took from work!  I've never seen him do his job before this.  Although I have described it in as much detail as I was aware of more times than I can remember.  And now, I can both see it for myself and show it to you, all at the same time!

This is a video of a record-breaking bond they made.  It was about 12 feet long and went off successfully.  Jesse's trying to correct my phrasing, here.  As far as they are aware, it was "the first single-piece generation 10 LCD display sputtering target to be bonded".  (Mouthful!!)  Usually, he says, things of this size are bonded in two separate pieces, instead of all at once.

So, without further adieu, here's the video.  Jesse's the balding guy in the forefront of the majority of the video (including the start), lol.

On the Job Front

Well, it's been an interesting morning.  Jesse came home with news that about half of his company was laid off this morning.  In a sort of sneak-attack, too: It seems like only the VP's knew, and not even the managers knew anything until this morning.  No "which underling can you live without" queries, just "these people are gone, just so you know."  They had a big meeting to tell everyone about it at the same time.  According to Jesse, all of the technicians are gone (including quite a few people who have been around as long as Jesse, or longer), so who knows what's going to happen work-wise?  Sounds like either there won't be much work, or there will be too much for the people left to do on their own. 

But the bottom line is that Jesse has (finally!) decided to job-hunt pretty much full time during his free time at home.

We're certainly grateful that he is able to keep his job, at least for now.  They said there wouldn't be a second round of layoffs.  But I know that line.  Same thing was said after my law firm laid off people back in 2001.  Guess whose job was lost in the supposedly not-going-to-happen second round?   Yeah, mine.  So I don't put much stock in someone telling you there won't be a second round.  Especially not when they did this bunch of lay-offs so stealthily. 

Like I told Jesse, I'm glad he's got some motivation on his own, now, even if it is a pretty crappy kind of motivation.  I just wasn't doing so well at encouraging him.  I just hope and pray that in this economy, job hunting won't be impossible.

We both feel pretty terrible for everyone laid off. It's not a pleasant thing to go through, especially this time of year.  We know that first-hand.  I'm just glad we don't have to feel it with kids in the house to take care of, too.

The Results of Jesse's Car Work

Jesse had previously agreed to work on our van this past Saturday.  The weather would be nice, the van really needed it, and who wouldn't prefer to work on a car with beautiful sunny weather instead of chilly autumn rain?  Still, it took Jesse a long time to get up the motivation on Saturday.  I can't say I blame him.  I wouldn't choose to spend my free time working on a car, either.

But eventually, he did go out and get started.  He made a quick trip out to Sears to get a few things he needed, then came back home and fixed the thermostat in the van.  It was definitely the cause of our loss of heat - it was very obviously broken.  I love it when Jesse shows me the bad parts he removes from our vehicles!  I was also happy to hear that it was such a cheap part - only about $3.00!!  And easy to access, right at the top under the hood.  In fact, the thing that took him the most time was just trying to remove the thermostat - it was stuck pretty tight to another piece, and we couldn't find our sandpaper.  He eventually went at it with a knife.  It worked.  And then putting in the new thermostat took just a couple minutes.

He came inside, cleaned up, and looked like he was finished.  I asked him, "Did you already do the spark plugs, too?"  (Translation:  Hey hon, I'm so glad you fixed the heat in my car on this beautiful 70-degree day, but wasn't it the car dying repeatedly that was our main cause for concern, here?  Why does it look like you're not going to work on that today?)  He didn't, he admitted.  I reminded him that the spark plugs were the whole point of working on the car, and he hemmed and hawed about it.  Technically, according to lease terms, he's not supposed to do car work in the parking lot (ridiculous rules, oh how I hate them!).  So he was feeling like he didn't know what to do - he could take the van over to his work parking lot and work on it there, and also have access to extra tools at work, but then, he said, he'd have to wait for the engine to cool down first.  I told him he ought to just work in our parking lot, since I very much doubted that anyone would actually tell Jesse to stop working on the car that day.  But finally, he groaned and went to it, deciding to just go over to work.

And when he got there, he gave me a call.  Once he arrived at work and was about to grab some tools, he noticed a broken window in his boss's office.  He ended up having to call the police, wait for them to arrive, give a report, and then wait for one of the head honchos at work to arrive and help him board up the broken window.  (Apparently, Jesse's boss left his laptop on his desk in clear view of the window, and then didn't even close the blinds before he left - so someone walking by could see an easy target.  Yikes.)  So, despite Jesse's intentions, the spark plugs still weren't taken care of this weekend.

But the heat works, and very nicely, I might add!  It warmed up my feet quite well on our way to church on Sunday. 

Jesse says he'll try and work on those spark plugs ASAP.  We have a great forecast ahead of us, with nothing but gorgeous weather for October.  Sorry to make some of you jealous... but, just have a look!!! 

This is for this week!!  Mid-October!!!  Yup, definitely prime time to work on a car.  Only, I do have to gripe just a little bit.  Without a frost, autumn colors disappoint just a little bit.  There are a few trees here and there with really vibrant, gorgeous colors, but the majority of trees are still green and just starting to loose leaves a little bit at a time, going just a dull brown before they fall.  I would really like to see a good frost so all the trees can change at once, and autumn can be really spectacular.  Warm weather just doesn't make for really awesome autumn scenery.  Still... it is awfully nice to put off the warm jackets and constant bundling up for a little while longer.

Jesse's birthday

I probably could have written a book about Jesse's birthday, if I had had the energy to do it on his birthday. Now that it's passed, it doesn't seem as important to write out.

Summary: It was an insanely frustrating day for me. The culmination of which was Melinda throwing one of her worst fits in months, and me giving a consequence I wish I hadn't. I took away the privilege of sharing Daddy's birthday pie and ice cream after dinner. I think I meant it more of a threat, a final chance (after many) to get her to snap back to reason and do the very small task I had given her to do (and stop throwing the monstrous fit) before we had to run out of the house. But it didn't work, and we had to leave the house. I immediately regretted it, I didn't want her to miss out on the best part of Daddy's birthday, and I didn't want to feel like a mean Mommy. I called up Jesse and explained the situation to him. He agreed that as unfortunate as it was, I needed to stick to the decided punishment so that I wouldn't become a liar. I called another friend, and she also agreed, and had done almost the exact same thing before and felt horrible about it. But she reminded me that what I'm aiming for here is a child learning that choices have a consequence, and I had made good and sure that she understood exactly what the consequence would be before I finalized it. Anyway, this is getting to be a long summary. In the end, it wasn't a big deal. We had pie and ice cream late enough in the evening that Melinda barely noticed it aside from Daddy blowing out his candles. Melinda understood and didn't fuss about the fact that she'd be missing out, she was promised to have some the next day. She took it well. And I learned a lesson, too. Don't give threats of punishments that you don't want to follow through with.

It was a very busy day. I had to make the special birthday dinner, and Jesse requested a birthday pie - apple pie. So I had to both take the kids to pick a few things for presents, and stop at the grocery store to get the ingredients I needed. It's been ages since I've tried making an apple pie. I ended up using a recipe from the Food Network for a pear and apple pie. With the multiple trips in and out of the house that day, and trying to take care of Alex who still has his newborn needs to be met, and all the other daily life things, by the time I had time for apple pie, I was feeling frenzied and exhausted, and certainly not like I wanted to peel, core and slice a million apples and pears. But I stuck with it, and the apple pie was in the oven before Jesse got home from work. I cheated and bought a refrigerated crust to minimize the work involved. But it turned out yummy! And apple pie with ice cream was a nice change.


Jesse got a bunch of filler presents while we wait for his real present to get off of backorder and arrive a few weeks from now. I can't say more on the chance that he might actually read the blog and spoil the surprise. ;) But he got two new ties (he hasn't had a new tie in several years, and it's starting to show), a new dress shirt, and The Complete Book of Sauces- he's been talking a lot about wishing he knew how to make sauces to cook meat in, similar to something like Sesame Chicken that you'd find at a Chinese place, so I thought we'd give that book a try. It doesn't have much in the way of Chinese sauce recipes (I've noticed a Sweet and Sour recipe, and a Ginger recipe), but it has about everything else under the sun!! We tried a very tasty cheese sauce (Gouda) with mushrooms, but somehow, even though I followed the directions, I couldn't get the cheese to combine with the rest of the sauce, which left curdled cheese at the bottom of the pan and runny (but very flavorful) sauce at the top. I need to figure that out.

Jesse was happy to hear from several of his siblings on the phone, and his parents of course! I think it turned out to be a nice evening for him... he really enjoyed his dinner and dessert. I just wished that the day had gone more smoothly for me!

3a.m. Ramblings

It's almost 3am and I'm still wide awake. I have to blame it on a couple things:

1. I took Excedrin Tension Headache medicine tonight. I swear it's the only medicine that not only takes care of my headaches, but does it in a matter of 15 minutes or less. It also has caffeine in it, and usually when I get headaches that are bad enough to cause me to medicate, it's in the evening. So that affects my bedtime, obviously.
2. I ate a few handfuls of chocolate chips. Not only bad for losing weight, but it also added additional caffeine to my evening, which I didn't consider at the time when I collapsed under chocolate temptation.

So here I am, 3am. Sitting in a dark room at my computer because I had to give up on sleep. What better to do than blog out some of the random thoughts floating through my head?

My sister Jacy tagged me to share 6 facts about myself or my spouse. Since that seems awfully close to another recent meme I participated in, Six Quirky Things About Me, I'm going to go with a more husband-driven approach. It seems appropriate, since he just got back home from New York, and his birthday is coming up in a few weeks, as well as Father's Day.

So, here we go. Six facts about my husband, Jesse.

1. When he was 1 year old, Jesse lost half of his thumb. His older sister shut a heavy window-seat lid on his thumb, and it came off right at the top knuckle. I can't even imagine how traumatizing that might have been for a 1-year-old, as well as for his mom. But aside from making certain gaming controls a little bit harder, he loves his stubby little thumb. It's great for scaring kids with a more "real" thumb-disappearing trick, and I have to say, it's also great for a nice solid pressure-point massage. He can really get a lot of pressure behind that one remaining knuckle. And people never notice it's missing until he points it out.
2. When Jesse relates about his decision to become an engineer, he always tells about a time when he was about 6 years old. There was a broken glove box in one of his family's cars, and he asked his dad if he could try to fix it. He took the lock apart, found a spring inside that seemed broken, and realized he had seen a very similar spring before, in the type of pen with a button that you click at the top. He took apart a pen, grabbed the spring, and put it into the glove box lock. Put the glove box back together, and viola! Glove box is fixed. And he was only 6 years old! He's always loved to take things apart to see how they work, and then put them back together. Engineering is a natural evolution for him, really.
3. Jesse was a pole-vaulter in High School. He went to State with his Track and Field team, had his pole-vaulting picture in the paper, and everything! I know for sure that he placed in State, but I can't remember what. I want to say it was either First or Second. He also had longer, shoulder-length hair and a scruffy goatee when he was in High School. It's quite a trip to look at those pictures of him in the newspaper... just a totally different version of him than I'm used to! He did try to grow out a goatee for me one year around Thanksgiving (so I could see what it looked like), but only lasted about a week and a half before the itching was driving him crazy.
4. Jesse served an LDS mission in Brazil for two years. He was in the Salvador area, mostly in the very rural sections of his mission. He, like most missionaries you meet, loves to talk fondly about his many different experiences in the country. Still, I think the ones I hear most frequently involve the crazy things they did in their missionary apartments - like making trails of lighter fluid on the tile floors and lighting it on fire, or adopting a (wild!!) pet monkey, and the companion he had that could smell cockroaches if they were anywhere near him. And of course, the time he vomited his entire meal because of being overheated in the sun, after having gone a week without eating because of a stomach bug. It was so upsetting to him, he was so ready to stuff himself since he was feeling better, but his body just couldn't take it! Also, he and my brother-in-law, Steve (Jacy's husband), met each other on their missions. I remember calling my sister and telling her about Jesse soon after I had met him - while Steve was in the room - and I described his half-thumb, and suddenly Steve jumped into the conversation: "Does he have "clown hair," too?!?" I had to laugh, and said, "Yeah! He does!" (Jesse described it to me himself that way, when we started dating! If his hair starts getting long, the sides grow almost straight out and almost upwards near the crown of his head, giving it sort of a clownish shape.)
   
5. Jesse loves to cuddle. I've always loved snuggling up with my husband, of course. But sometimes his love of hugs and cuddles makes things difficult, especially with young kids in the house. I often end up feeling "touched out" by the end of the day, between nursing, holding kids on my lap, and so on. And so I've got a history now of just not wanting to be touched at all once Jesse is home from work. Luckily, I haven't gotten to that point yet with child #3, which I hope will keep up. Because Jesse does love that physical closeness, and he's a wonderful man to be patient and understanding when I just can't bring myself to accommodate him. I remember even after we were first married and lived with Jesse's parents for a few months, he would often lay his head on his mom's lap or shoulder, which I found very endearing (I've always heard you can tell how a man will treat his wife based on how he interacts with his mother). And when we went couch-shopping for our first home, we tested each couch we liked, to make sure it was roomy enough to fit both of us for TV snuggle time.
   
6. Jesse has a crazy memory. I swear he can remember every factoid he's ever heard, even if it was only once and long, long, long ago. He'll bring up the most random things in conversations, and talk about them like he's just an expert. He can watch a history show, or the type of show that shows how different things work, or read a book that describes something in detail, and so on, and he'll just have that knowledge he gained ingrained into his memory forever. Myself, family members, and friends are always astounded by what he can remember. And I'm sure it all influences his skill at Engineering. The more you know, and the better you can remember details, the easier it is to solve problems, right? (And yet, when it comes to remembering significant conversations from recent time, or the way a specific event happened in our lives, he always forgets the most important details.... Men! What can you do?? Though, I do have to give him credit - he tends to remember how my childbirths went, and our children's' baby stages much better than I do. I often ask him to recall details for me that I've long forgotten.)

And there you go. Do you feel like you know Jesse a little bit better now? Even if not, it was fun to talk about him. I don't do it enough on this blog. And hey! It passed some wide-awake, middle-of-the-night time for me!

Technically, I'm supposed to tag 6 more people. Jacy already tagged my other blogging sister, and I've picked on Summer every time I've been tagged so far, and Allyson from Laughadaisy is quitting blogging (so sad!!), and I'm just not sure how the majority of the rest of my friends with blogs feel about tags. Memes are somewhat like email forwards: either you love 'em, or you hate 'em! Since I can't think of 6 people (by a long shot!) that I'd feel comfortable tagging, I'll just pass on being specific this time around. But if this is a meme that any of my readers would like to participate in, please do! I'd love to learn more about you or your spouse.

I should probably head back to bed now, and see if I can get some sleep before Alex wakes up to nurse, and then the sun rises, and my morning starts. As it is, tomorrow will be... interesting... on such little sleep. ;)

I love my husband

Thank goodness for a man with a strong stomach!

If you remember, last week, Tuesday morning to be exact, I had a dermatologist remove a growth on my finger related to the pregnancy. It was a big, ugly gaping hole, but it started scabbing over before long.

Unfortunately, by Thursday evening it was starting to feel extra tender. And by Friday morning, I was fairly sure it was infected. Painful, swollen, and warm to the touch. I had never dealt with any infected wound before (at least, not within my own memory), so I wasn't positive. But between showing it to Jesse and looking up symptoms online, I decided it was infected. At that point in time, the only way I knew to deal with infected wounds was to go to the doctor for antibiotics, but I just absolutely groaned at the idea. A 10-day course of antibiotics so close to the birth of a baby would absolutely increase my chances of dealing with thrush with a nursing baby, and I didn't want to have to deal with something like that at the same time as trying to establish a breastfeeding relationship. The first couple weeks of breastfeeding is hard enough, without complications like thrush. So I looked for other options, and found recommendations
for cleansing the wound several times a day with hydrogen peroxide, and using an antibiotic cream after that. So I decided to give it a shot. But late Friday night, I wasn't feeling so sure it would work, and was really feeling ready to call the doctor first thing in the morning and get an appointment.

Please be warned of some upcoming grossness if you have an easily upset stomach!
I still wasn't sure what I was going to do in the morning, but at the end of my nice long shower, I noticed a spot near the edge of the wound that looked like some liquid. I put a bit of pressure near it, and suddenly massive amounts of pus came pouring out from underneath the scab.
Once I was out of the shower and dressed, I showed it to Jesse and told him what happened. And we decided to remove the scab and some surrounding dead skin.

And this is where I just have to say how much I love my husband. He sat down with some freshly sterilized fingernail clippers, and went to work on the thing, removing the scab and the dead skin and exposing all the yuckiness underneath. It was truly disgusting. I could hardly watch half the time. Yes, I can totally handle the images of childbirth, and the associated pain, but an exposed crater in the tissue of my finger is enough to make feel a bit queasy. But Jesse handled it without a single complaint, and was extra gentle to make sure he didn't hurt me in the process.

And once it was all done, I went back to work with the hydrogen peroxide and antibiotic cream. Within a day it was feeling so much better. Today it looks and feels like it's healing normally, finally, and I've stopped using the hydrogen peroxide.

I'm so grateful we could avoid the antibiotics and take care of this at home...and for a wonderful husband who has a strong stomach for gross things. :)