Still Here

And still pluggin' along.

Biggest Events Lately
The van is in the shop... and currently fixed. We found out about it when Jess got out of work at the Club, though, so no pick up of it as yet.

After having almost the whole week off from the Cafe BECAUSE the owner decided at the last minute to close for the week, Jess quit on Friday. The first thing he said when telling me about the whole thing was that the owner wanted to serve items unfit for service. Knowing Jess as I do, this is not only repugnant to him as a person, but irresponsible and unethical as a Chef. Added to this issue, the boss actually yelled at Jess (and the other employees) TWO times because things were not happening as fast as she wanted to see. This is ridiculous for a few reasons. #1 Boss had everyone off for almost a week and expected to be able to pick up and go with them coming in at their regular time and opening at regular time. This is preposterous because the guys go in at 10:30am and they're supposed to open at Noon. Why is this preposterous and ridiculous? Well, almost all the product in the place was no good and not only did the boss NOT have anyone in there to check on and get rid of such items, but there was also NO ON in the place to prepare foods for the day they would be open. #2 Boss didn't bother to see what the guys were doing when she first yelled at them about not accomplishing anything. They were, in fact, sitting outside (two of them smoking) and discussing how to tackle the project and frustrations at hand. The second time she yelled at them was only minutes after the first time and they were trying to resume their cool and calm after being unfairly treated the first time. Normally Jess would have weathered this stupid storm and been all right. But given all that he's been going through with everything WE have been dealing with AND the stop smoking trials... well, it was too much given the circumstances and the fact that the Boss has been adding more and more bits of ridiculousness for months now.

Jess and I are working as a team to find new work. I look for the stuff online (and otherwise) and have it all set up for him to go down the line, fill out applications, submit, and check off a list I have prepared. Thus far, he's completed ELEVEN applications! WAY TO GO JESSIE!!!!! ^_^

Through all the difficulties and frustrations, trials and troubles that have beset and felt rather overwhelming to us lately, Jess is still on the road to becoming a NON-SMOKER!!!! It has not been easy at all in the last two weeks, but he's really accomplishing something tremendous because he's not purchased OR lit up!!!

Even though I'm currently sick (the same crud I had during third trimester with Ria AND Kat), I've still walked 5 days this week! ^_^ YEAY for me!! Can you believe I'm around 28 weeks preggie now?? So far, so good.

Ria and Kat are doing pretty darn well. They know that things have been different, but they haven't been "off the hook" (relative to how I know they COULD be!!).

Kat has actually been telling us when she wants to sit on the potty AND she usually produces SOME thing every time. Sometimes it's a bunch of farts, but, HEY, those can feel like turtle heads, right!?? :) Also, she has PEED AND POOHED at least once a day for the last few days! ^_^ So nice to have fewer pooh pooh diapers to clean up after. :) I have hope that she might potty train herself by the time the babe arrives. We'll see. It's fine either way, of course. We'll deal with what we have to as it comes. As we always do, right.

Ria is still an amazing student. She asks to do school every day, which has led to Kat asking to do 'cool,' too. ^_^ Ria and I have been working on numbers for a few weeks now and she is writing them REALLY well!!! I've only recently (within the last week) really done anything with numbers more than 10 and she has seriously amazed me. We did a matching worksheet I found free online (probably from a page I have to the side). In the matching she has to read the number in number and work form and draw a line to connect the matches. She, without hints from Mama, read AND found MANY of the teen numbers' matches! ^_^ I was super pleased and happy about that! She's such a smartie!!!

I caught Ria reading to Kat again today. The interesting and fun part about the "catch" this time is that Ria and Kat were in their closet reading! ^_^ It was so cool!! I have pictures, but they are not uploaded as yet... and I'm actually supposed to be doing Primary stuff right now. So, I'll have to bid you adieu for now and play catch up on the photos later. (I know I still have some from a previous post to share, too!)

Oh, we went on a family walk for the first time (for Mama's walks). It was really nice. :) Funny enough, Jess took Kat to go peepee before we left and then suggested that I should go, too. This is funny because I think HE thinks I'm still peeing outside on my walks, or something. I've figured out that I have to stop drinking water about an hour before the walk and then only have something to drink when I'm over half way through my walk and I won't have to pee until we get home. But, of course, Jess didn't know that. He also almost asked me to prepare a snack... like I don't do this almost every day! ;) So funny and wonderful how we're so concerned that things should go smoothly, isn't it!? I mean, I know that's why he was making his suggestions. He has no idea what my routine looks like, REALLY. The only thing he sees is when I go for a walk and he keeps the girls. Ya know? We walked the raised walking path for Betty Stefflick Park. I'd never been on it. Very nice, I have to say. I really love this area!

Ria Is 4!

Can you believe I have a four year old? It's hard for me to believe it's been so long, yet not. She had a really wonderful birthday, thanks to lots of calls from family and many Happy Birthday wishes. She even heard a few folks sing the birthday song just for her! It was really sweet and she has A BIG smile on her face as she listened.

We are carrying over a tradition my Mom started with her own children. She gave us our choice of dinners for our birthday. Ria chose enchiladas. Now, these are not Mexican-style, they are cajun... and my own personal favorite, by the way. :) She has very good taste, my daughter. They entree takes quite a while to prepare and Jess had to purchase a few of the ingredients FOR the dinner AND cake/icing, plus he still had to work that evening, so yesterday morning was a bit busy to say the least. I was only able to prep a few things, so once he and Ria got home from grocery shopping (their special "date") we were very busy for a few hours. But we were able to enjoy a family lunch for Ria's birthday and it was really lovely! She was so very pleased with everything for her and still smiles SO big when Daddy comments on her new age. She is so very pleased to be 4!

I'm ever so slowly getting things rolling for my newest venture into online selling on ETSY. I'm very excited about it and very hopeful, still. Since being back online, I've been able to reconnect with a friend from Australia and found out that she is a seller on ETSY! What a small world, eh? So funny... and exciting! My seller name is going to be Torimade and I've actually joined under that, so it sort of exits, but I haven't posted anything for sale. Like I said, I'm going very slowly. Ria got me back into working on angels and my other clay creations because she really wanted to make an angel for her birthday. So, we did that for family home evening last night and talked while we worked. Then she wanted to get right back into it this morning first thing. So, as a result, I've got 3 angels made and a baby picture frame almost finished. The picture frame is pretty new for me. The first one I made I gave as a wedding gift to Evelyn Pieper just this last summer. I was pretty please with it, but I don't know if it's a kind of thing others will buy. We shall see, right?

Now, I don't know if I would like to live in a small town that was isolated from others by time and space, but I do have to say that I have learned some nice perks of living in a small town. For instance, our librarian knows us by name and knows our routine for visiting our little library in town. Last week was THE worst for our icky stuff illness and we totally missed both of out library trips (skipped the crochet teaching night and story time). Friday, the day after story time, Ruth called to check on us! Can you believe it? I was so touched. I finally called back today (library is closed Sunday and Monday) and thanked her for the call and let her know we HAD been sick and appologized for having items out late. She told me not to worry about it at all and let me know she had renewed everything because she'd figured something had come up to keep me away. Isn't that the coolest? Well, I thought it was pretty awesome, myself.

We are still fighting the lingering effects of the CRUD we've had. Our sleep schedule is totally out of whack, to boot! UGH. We girls ended up taking a THREE hour nap this afternoon, which is totally unusual under normal circumstances. As a result we woke up right before SEVEN PM! BLAH! *sigh* But, we are slowly improving. The snotties are slowly clearing and maybe diminishing. The girls still wake in the night coughing a bit, but I think it's less often now (maybe... hopefully!).

I'm afraid Jess might be catching the funky junk we've had. He was up coughing a lot last night. If you would, send a prayer that he stays strong and healthy. It's a hard thing being an hourly worker and the sole breadwinner!

We are not happy about a change approaching for Jessie's morning job (The Almond Blossom Cafe). The owner is planning to join her establishment to a gym in The European Village. There are MANY reasons we are unhappy about this change. For one, the new location is quite a distance from us. If Jess were to continue working there, he would have to drive an additional 24 miles each day, plus pay a toll every day to get to his night job, AND not be able to come home between jobs for lunch. Now those are our personal problems with it. There are many other reasons this move is, as we see it, a detriment to the business in general, which Jess cares about because he has a lot of time and effort invested into this thing. The move would mean fewer seats for potential diners and also, because of the venue, the likelihood of selling full-on meals would decrease, so too would revenue. The boss is saying that she's unhappy with the current state of things because she's only breaking even. SHE's ONLY BEEN OPEN EIGHT MONTHS!!!! Most retaurants LOSE money for the first YEAR (if they are lucky they'll break even during year two and then possibly make money year three). And she's unhappy. Ignorant, is really the truth of it. She's never known what to REALLY expect from this industry, which is one thing she said she wanted Jessie for - to inform her about the food industry. But he tries and she totally ignores him! Very annoying!!!! So, those are just a few of the issues. I could continue to rant, but I think I'll leave it alone for now.