Catching Up

It's a bit hard to believe how crazy the last two weeks have been. Josh was in the midst of his fourth month of unemployment. It seemed as though we were only moments away from dusting off our tools so we could commence in the scraping of the bottom of our proverbial barrel. The unemployment was approaching it's cap and our sanity was nearly reaching a maximum level of cope-ability. I'd gotten my resume back out and fixed it back up in hopes of finding some job that didn't leave me smelling of fried food upon coming home. (Not that there's anything wrong with that. I've just been there...done that...a lot...don't want to do it again.) I called in a favor for a letter of recommendation and was all set to begin the long tedious process of job hunting. That was the Saturday before I felt like I'd hit my maximum 'handle-zone'. As is said, God won't give you more than you can handle and that weekend was the weekend that I lost my Daisy. Combined with current events, I was fairly certain my hair would either A.) fall out, B.) go gray or C.) go gray and then fall out. And I'd just ran out of Tums. Not good.

The day after Daisy passed, my threshold was tested when my mom called to tell me that the typical process used to take care of livestock bodies no longer accepted animals over the age of 30 months. Apparently there's a new law about this which I would come to find out later has caused many issues with farmers and people everywhere. I planned to leave my folks' house and not have to worry about what "happened" after that day only to find myself spending the next two days finding someone who would dig a hole in the back of my parents' pasture to bury a cow. I didn't think I'd be spending my Monday and Tuesday preparing funeral arrangements for my lost friend. Turns out that this was a blessing in disguise. Trust me when I say that you don't want to know what they do with the bodies of dead livestock. The idea of it was devastating and quite haunting. I was blessed by finding a very nice young man who's business was backhoe work. He told me he understood what I was going through and that he'd just buried someone's horse just days before this and had done this job quite often as of late. I was shocked, but ever grateful. My mom and dad were wonderful through all of this and made it so that I didn't have to be there when she was buried. (Dead animals and hot sun do not make a pleasant combination and I didn't want that image stamped on my already fragile mind.) The young man was very gentle and very nice and I made sure to send a thank you card to him with cookies for his work and fair price. Oddly enough, this was a much better situation. Though I dreaded the phone calls where I barely kept my voice from squeaking, she is now buried peacefully. She deserved the respect of a burial and I'd never thought it a possibility before. I couldn't have asked for a better end to the whole mucky situation.

Well, this was the point where I feel as though God looked down on me and said, "Yep. And that's about all you can handle right now." Because the next day, I came home to Josh saying, "I have a job." I was so happy I almost peed myself. (Sorry. But it's the truth.) We aren't entirely certain if the job is long term or short term, but it's actually a really good place to work from what we can tell. The owner hates working out of town, prefers to work only 40 hour weeks, owns his own business for (for seventeen years now), is keeping plenty of things for Josh to do, and does everything including HVAC which is what Josh needs experience in so badly. We are hoping for long term employment, but for now we are just grateful for what he has. Getting a paycheck again is like getting a breath of fresh air after being trapped under sewage water for the last four months.

In other news, I have a potty trained almost-three-year-old. Other than diapers at bedtime, Abby has proudly joined the ranks of civilized kid society. It was almost like a light switch for her. One day she was hesitant but then realized how great it was to be itchy-diaper free. She never looked back. I'm so proud of her. In response to this, I promptly went out and purchased my first 'adult' purse. You know the type. Short handles and not the size of a suitcase. I'm still attempting to get used to it. I feel a bit naked as I leave the house without the five pounds of gear draped over my shoulders.

So though tonight I feel no motivation to plug in my camera and transfer photos, I will post tomorrow the conclusion to Project Grizzly Adams. Turns out that Josh actually didn't look half bad with a big bushy beard. But alas, after picking food out of it for the last time, he decided to bid adieu to the beard and end the long stretch of our unemployment time killer. I was mildly disappointed that he didn't decide to keep it. I was hoping to braid it to make him look like Gimli the dwarf. It made me chuckle to think about it. What can I say? Even in the midst of life struggles I can't help but to be a geek.