Hallelujah!!

Any blog that starts with a title like this must be good news. So...yes folks. Good news! Josh has got a job! Hallelujah!! Thank the good Lord! It's been a long month. I can't even imagine how those that have been unemployed for much longer stretches must feel. Sometimes it felt like there would never be a job in sight again. Oddly enough, Josh said that he ran into an old professor on Monday that asked him about where he is working. Josh told him that he's not working at all. He told him that he would see if anyone was hiring. Josh is a really great worker and I think that his professors can see that. Now, we of course have no idea if this job is related to it at all, but regardless, we couldn't be more thrilled. Whether the job lasts two days or two years, I am just happy that I can wake up in the morning and say, "Have a good day at work, honey!" It's ironic really. This week was the first week that we actually got our first pay from unemployment because of the work it took to fix all of the crazy problems we had with it. I'm not complaining though. Not even in the slightest. The kids may have a hard time adjusting to not having Josh at home again, but they'll manage. I think Alex and Abby have gotten used to seeing their dad every morning. They ask me every morning, "Is dad stillsleeping?" I will be more than eager to tell them, "Nope. Dad's at work today." They usually know though. Dad is only sleeping if the bedroom door is closed. I have a feeling that the first day of work, Josh will be very tired, so I'll be suggesting he goes to bed before 3:00 in the morning. :-) Have I mentioned I'm thrilled? This really is the best news. After our ceiling spontaneously fell in this past week, I was afraid that things may just get worse. But, this Thanksgiving we will have a lot to be thankful for.

Boredom

This bookshelf had three shelves of books. Note that the shelves are also missing.

With dreary weather comes the inevitable boredom for kids. If it is nasty outside and there is no way else to expel the infinite amounts of energy, kids will resort to any way necessary to alleviate the pain of boredom. My children just happen to utilize their destructo-skills. They find any and every way to cause massive chaos in the house. I believe that they are trying to send me a message. The message being: "I'm bored mom. And if you don't find something for me to do then you have only yourself to blame for the mass destruction I will cause." And destroy, they do. When they are in trouble, the timeout corner has apparently become a vent for their frustration. When I'm not looking, they peel the paint off of our lovely wood paneling walls and rip the trim off of the corners. When they are just mindlessly looking outside our large picture window in the living room, they feel compelled to shred tiny bits of the energy saver coating from the glass. And when they have utilized all other forms of destruction they settle for the 'daily mess'. This consists of taking every toy and book and dumping them on the ground for no other purpose but to cause a mess. I am teaching them to clean up but it is a slow learning process. But after all of this, I have come to the conclusion that when you sell or buy a house, there should be a section stating that toddlers were raised there. It would explain away about 3/4 of the things that need to be replaced.

Swingin'

I just thought I'd post a couple of pictures of the kiddos enjoying their swing-set. They do so love their swing-set. I actually removed their 'baby' swings this week. Alex still enjoys one of them, but unfortunately he is just too big for it. his feet drag the ground and we can barely get him in and out anymore. Abby was never a big fan of her slightly different baby swing. She just loves to swing on her tummy on the big-kid swings. I'm just waiting for them to knock heads together. Anyhow...enjoy!

Grandpa

My dad - AKA, Grandpa - is great with grandkids. He is sort of the grandpa that all little kids look at and say, "Wow! Grandpa is so cool!" And Alex and Abby adore him. He's a wild and wacky guy. (And I mean my dad by that.) He is always entertaining the kids with some crazy little trick or funny face. They just can't get enough of Grandpa. I even have proof that Grandpa is a favorite around here. I have been waiting for miss Abby to say those three wonderful words to me. You know the words I speak of. "I love you." I remember the first time Alex said it to me, my heart just melted. Actually, it still melts when he says it. Abby has been talking just wonderfully. Words are flowing from that little mouth and she learns something new everyday. But one evening, my mom and dad were leaving from our house. As my dad was getting into the truck, Abby waved through the window at him and said, "I love you grandpa!" Now keep in mind, that when she says 'grandpa' she really pronounces it like "tampah". Just adorable. I know the words weren't meant for me, but hearing her say "I love you" to my dad was just precious. Since then, she has said those wonderful words to me as well, but I will always tell her that her first 'I love you' was for grandpa.

Peanut Fail

If it was appropriate to utilize four letter words (the bad kind) on a blog, I would be using them right about now. But I am doing my very best to refrain from writing or saying them for the moment. As you are aware, if you read this blog regularly, then about a month ago I decided to try and turn our house into a peanut friendly zone. Three years of avoiding them with a child who has never tested positive to peanuts on his allergy tests was long enough. So I finally became brave enough and began the great peanut challenge. It went fine. I actually got the guts to rub a little on both Alex and Abby's lips and they didn't react. Day two I gave them a teeny, tiny amount to eat. It went fine again. So since that day about three or so weeks ago, I've been randomly giving them about a pea sized amount to eat every so often with out even the slightest hint of danger.

Until today.

I was braver today and decided to give him a bit more; about the size of two peas. He put it in his mouth, told me it was bad and that he didn't like it. Then about 2 minutes later he was complaining about his throat. He asked for a drink and after the drink I looked in his mouth, only to find red, swollen spots around his tonsil area. There were a couple of, what looked like, puss-filled pockets. Keep in mind that it is really hard to look into a reluctant three-year old's mouth. But I did my best. I find myself at a loss of words for this moment. Okay...that's a lie. I'm not totally at a loss for words, but the words I want to use are not appropriate for a PG rated blog. I suppose I just don't understand the black cloud that is hovering constantly over our house lately. I have adjusted to the milk allergy and the asthma, the dog allergy, the mold allergy...blah blah blah. The list goes on. But after having so many family and friends reassure me that 'he'll be fine with the peanut test', I suppose I just expected that things would turn out fine. He'll have to go in to be officially tested, but I don't know when I am going to be willing to subject him to getting his blood drawn again. Until then, I guess it's back to soybutter for the time being. Abby, on the other hand, was fine with the peanut challenge. I suppose this is just another thing to add to my list of things to fret about. (As if having no income wasn't enough.) I'd say that things are going to look up soon, but the house might spontaneously explode. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go knock on wood...

I am Woman

I'm not a feminist. Not even in the slightest. I couldn't care less about being 'empowered' or whatever you want to call it. I am, however, born of a long line of very independent women. So I can take care of things pretty good when push comes to shove. So today I told Josh to let me do the talking to the unemployment people and guess what? Josh gave them permission to talk to me instead of him and lo and behold! Problems solved! Yup, that's right folks. We are officially going to receive unemployment benefits for Josh's down time. Woo-hoo! We won't have to live in a cardboard box after all. Okay, so it really wasn't an option to live in a box, but I did start to worry. The lovely lady I spoke to on the phone was more than helpful and we joked about how if you want something done, ask a man. If you want something done right, ask a woman. :-) Hey now...I'm only kidding people. I just got a kick out of talking to this lady. She was very nice and I'm now thankful that things are going to get back on track...sort of. I am woman. Hear me roar...at my children who are throwing things across the front room again.

Urban Legend

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It is my theory that people who get checks from some organization called 'The department of labor', do not, in fact, exist. They are an urban legend. There is no such thing as unemployment. It is merely an artificial organization created by some twisted individual to keep people with out jobs 'busy' in-between jobs. They tell you to call and file your claims through some crappy automated response system that is horribly constructed only then to put you on hold and tell you that the call volume is too high. Then they proceed to hang up on you and tell you to call again later. And it is even virtually impossible to actually talk to the one lone employee that answers the phone for customer service. There is no money. No check. No help. It...is...a...myth. This can be the only explanation. We have spent nearly three weeks attempting to file Josh's claims. We have been sent papers to sign to explain accusations that were false in the first place. We've been told our claims are not valid. We've been repetitively told that the claims were fixed and filed and we should expect payment shortly only to find out the next day that our claims were totally suspended pending investigation. What the heck?!? What are you supposed to do when it comes to this, folks? They leave me no other option but to believe that the entire organization is false. If we actually get a check from them, it will be a miracle because you can't get a check from something that doesn't exist.

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