Miscellaneous & Extraneous Thoughts

I think it's about time for another Update, don't you??

Job Situation (does anyone know how to write the code for underline?)
I remembered recently that I have not really told many people about the latest with my job situation. It just all happened so fast & I have trouble remembering who I've talked to & who I haven't. To recap, back in September I was offered a 20-hour work week as opposed to the ten I was working for the WIC program as a breastfeeding peer counselor. This was an answer to prayer, as the pay for that was exactly what we needed me to make to supplement Dan's lowly teacher salary (the salary's low, not the job, though some teachers might feel they're treated that way). However, the first week of October, which was my first week working 20 hours, I was in the office one day with Jeremy & Derek, making some phone calls & waiting for a client to show up for our appointment. To make a long story short (& believe me, it IS a long story), an administrator saw us, told me she didn't want me to bring my kids to work, my supervisor arguing the decision didn't help, & so...I can't work there anymore. It was a good job, I enjoyed it while I was there, but ... so long.

But then the question was, "What now?" I was already keeping one little girl Mondays & Wednesdays & my niece on Tuesday & Thursday afternoons. I needed to get a few more if that was how I wanted to make my money. My friend was needing someone to keep her baby after she went back to work, & I was relieved I would be able to do that for her; so it seemed timely that my other job did not work out. I am still not making as much money as I want, well need, I think, so I would appreciate prayers that will lead me to another child to keep. My only other option is to get a waitressing job one night a week (but who would want to hire me for just one night?? it'd probably end up being 2 or 3).

Jeremy points with middle finger
Yeah, that's right. I don't know why, but when Jeremy is pointing at something or telling me the number 1, he uses his middle finger. I mean, it's not like it's natural or even somewhat comfortable to use that finger. And, of course, there's a reason your first finger's called "the pointer finger." So yeah, we're working on that.

Snickers throws up again
My dog has been throwing up once daily. I don't know what the deal is. For a week or so, she was waking us up each night in the middle of the night (2,3,4-ish) & throwing up (she sleeps in our room & the huge gagging sounds were hard to sleep through). For the past 4 days I find throw-up near the back door when I walk into the den the first time each day. I'm now out of Spot Shot, so I guess the December grocery shopping trip I've been putting off is imminent. It's possible it's the new cheap food I got from Kroger the last time, but that was mid-November, & the throwing up didn't start right after that. So, I don't know what's wrong with her. If she has the stomach bug that's been going around, (A) she was the first to get it, (B) it's lasted a lot longer than it does for humans, (C) I hope she can't give it to other dogs, since we'll be dog-sitting for a friend this coming week. After she starts the cheap food I'll be getting from Wal-Mart, I'll let you know if the throwing up subsides. I'm sure you'll all be waiting on the edge of your seats for the news. :)

Pain in the neck!
For the past week now, I have had neck & shoulder pain which has ranged from mild pain in the neck (pardon the pun) to severe shoulder strain (pardon the silly alliteration). Last Wednesday morning when I woke up, I had milk neck stiffness, which was also in my left shoulder & was a little more painful than the stiff neck I've experienced before. By Thursday morning, when I woke up an hour before my alarm was going to propel me out of bed, I wanted to scream from the excruciating pain. It loosened up, however, & by that night, when I had a show to do it had lessened considerably (praise God! & I did). It still hung around for a while, almost a week, which I thought was unusual. But it wasn't keeping me from my activities, so I wasn't going to do anything about it. Yesterday morning (a week from the beginning), I woke up again to excruciating pain & I really wanted to cry. I called the doctor to make an appointment for Friday (my first chance). By the afternoon, though, it had lessened again & I second-guessed my need to go to the doctor. Then last night at church, I did the ultimate stupid thing. So I bring you Mommy's Bad Idea #88: Helping to set chairs up for Wednesday night supper. I couldn't help it. I saw that only half of our usual number of chairs were out. I feel kinda silly, like a (*gasp*) mother, when I ask others to help do something that I should be perfectly capable of doing myself. So I just went over, started getting the chairs out & putting them at the tables. You have to know what our setup is to know why this is bad. The chairs are up on racks. You have to lift your arms (okay when you're normal), raise the chairs above your head, bring them down to the floor, then unfold them & put them at tables. At one point, a chair slipped out of my hands. I don't know what happened except that I suppose I probably reacted quickly to try to catch the chair & pulled something in my neck worse than it already was. An observant friend of mine noticed I was favoring my neck, so she came over to help. She lifted the chairs off & handed them to me so I could put them at the tables. It wasn't until I sat down to eat my food that I realized how horribly my neck & shoulder now felt--possibly the worst yet. SOOO...I'm glad I still have that doctor's appointment. Sleeping last night was difficult, at best. :)

Christmas letters
Finally, a little survey:
If you send out Christmas letters, when do you send them out & how many do you send? How long is yours usually? A card or a newsletter? Pictures??

Stay tuned, I will be posting the Holiday Edition of Getting To Know Your Friends soon. I know you're all so very excited about another survey.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, Jeremy just informed me that Derek is “cleaning” the toilet. I gotta go.