Working

If you have a job right now, you should cherish that job. I cherish my job working for Elkhart County Health Department in the Women, Infant, and Children division.  (WIC) I will cherish my second job working as a cashier, whenever I start training there. I looked for both of these jobs for a while. In this economy it is hard to find a job. My husband has been looking for just two months short of two years.

Jay finally got some work yesterday. I had been telling him about this place, Labor Ready, that has a rare sign in their window: Now Hiring. There aren't many places in Elkhart County that have a sign like that. Anyway, Wednesday he finally went over there. He took the tests, he filled out forms and an application. They told him that the best way for him to get a job was to show up there the next morning between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m. He got up and went over there, worked 8 hours and got paid. He can do it again today.

Jay isn't lazy. He has had a job here and there since he liquidated his cabinet shop. He has suffered a lot of rejections, which I didn't know until recently how that has affected him. He has been severely depressed after losing a couple of jobs that he had hoped would last. He has put up with a lot of my own frustration and disappointment.  He has been looking in a lot of the wrong places for work. Cabinet makers and woodworkers just aren't hiring right now. The industry is slow. I had told him a couple of weeks ago that he was going to have to spread out his nets a little bit more if he were going to catch fish.

I just want to thank all of our family and friends who have prayed for us, tried to encourage us, or otherwise helped us through this time. I hope that things will continue to get better. The job doesn't really pay much, but it's better than sitting at home drawing no income!

Babblings

I was thinking of how much I miss my son, Justin. He is in pilot training in the Air Force and I haven't seen him since June of last year. And I probably won't see him until December of this year...if I get to see him then. It was almost at this time last year that I learned that he was going to be going to pilot training and that he was going to be married. What made me realise just how much I miss him, and his wife, was that I was looking through the wedding pictures. Seeing their faces in the pictures, the love in their eyes, well...just got me thinking of them both.

But, of course, I miss all my kids almost all the time. Whenever they aren't with me, I miss them. This is natural for a mother. While I understand that they have to live their lives, just as I have had to live mine separated from my parents, and I have accepted this as a fact of life, it doesn't make me miss them less. I do look forward to the next time I see them, speak to them, receive e-mail from them. I am even happy just to read their posts on Facebook.

I also miss my friends, all of them, young and old, collectively and separately. Now, am I just weird, or is this a common human condition?

I was supposed to see my parents today. It worked out for the best that Dad called and said not to come down. I was kind of worn out from the trip we took yesterday to Holland, Michigan. Another trip today and I would have felt like I needed a day off tomorrow, which I don't have. Mom was not feeling well, had coughed all night and needed to catch up on her rest today. I understand. But I miss them, too.

When Mom had back surgery last year in August, I went to the store one day with my Dad to buy some groceries and things. My Dad, God bless him, was so worried about my Mom. And he has had to take on some of the chores that Mom alone used to do. But, walking in the store that day, I was observing my Dad. Just walking with him, and watching him walk, I realised all of a sudden that what my sister had been saying was true. Our parents were becoming "elderly".

See, I was watching Daddy walking, and I realised that he has the gait of a little old man. I had never seen him that way before. He had always been big and strong.... Tears came to my eyes, but I could not just break down crying right there in the aisle at Meijers, could I? So, I did what I always do; push down the tears, put on a smile, and cope.

I do that every day!

Family Reunions

I was just so excited to reconnect with two of my cousins this weekend. Judy and Theresa, along with their sister Karen, used to come visit often when we were all kids growing up. Aunt Rosie and Uncle Dave lived in Fort Wayne, and would come with the girls to visit for the weekend. We would double up bed space, which was always a commodity at our house. Sometimes we would go visit them in Fort Wayne. We were the "country" kids, and they were the "city" kids.
Now, we are all grown up. Judy and Theresa have grand children. Some of us have grand children too. (Rob and Larry.) It's good to see them, and to see their faces and learn about their lives. It's been a while.
But what is really fun is to think about back then. It is also fun to see pictures of us as we were back then. Life was different, if not better. We were young and full of life. We always had stories to tell each other. Uncle Dave was a great story/joke teller, and the girls learned some good ones from him. I even remember some of those jokes. We would always get into trouble at night, when the parents were playing cards and drinking beers, and we cousins would be giggling and talking instead of going to sleep.
It isn't quite the same as actually getting together and seeing each other again, reconnecting on Facebook that is. But, It is fun and I am thankful for the technology that may allow us for a follow up of a real family reunion.

Justin in the Air Force

A lot of my friends know that one of our sons, Justin, is in the Air Force. He started out in the Air National Guard. His goal was always to get his education, which Uncle Sam paid for while he was in the Guard, then to go full time Air Force and become a pilot. His dream is on the way to becoming reality. He has been full time Air Force since June of 2009, very shortly after he married his sweetheart, Amanda Wallis, in May.

I hate to brag, really. But I am so proud of him. He had his solo flight Friday, February 19 in a T-6. The program that he is in, as far as I am told by a letter from Lieutenant Colonel Andrew R Brabson, the Commander for the 41st Flying Training Squadron at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi, is a 52 week Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training. He should graduate, as far as I am told, sometime in December. I hope to be there.

I so admire Justin because he decided what he wanted to do with his life, and he has set his focus on it and is going for it. I know there has been great stress for him through this process, and it isn't over yet. It is a high stress pursuit, for sure! And I am so glad that his beautiful wife is there to see him through this time. She is wonderful. (I hear she got up at 5:45 the morning of his solo flight to bake monster cookies. Doesn't she sound like a wonderful wife?) It is a load off my mind that she is there with him through this time.

Stay tuned for further updates. Love to Justin and Amanda. Also, hearty congratulations.

The Weekend Started Out Falafel

Falafel. Boy, I hope I spelled that right. The weekend started out falafel. I should say the weekend started out eating a falafel. Let me explain.

Friday night, after work, I wanted to do something special. So, I called up Jeff and Tricia to see if they had plans that they could fit us into. Jeff said they were going to First Friday in Goshen and were going to eat a lentil sandwich at a fund-raiser. You know my hearing is bad, but I thought he said "lentil sandwich". So I asked him to repeat it, and he said they were going to eat falafels at a fund-raiser. I knew I had heard him wrong the first time. Anyway, he graciously allowed Jay and I to join in the fun.

It was cold and windy and snowy when we headed to Goshen. We met Tricia and Jeff on the corner near their apartment and walked down to Main Street to find the Falafel venders. It was New World Theatre that we were supporting. Those two guys were standing under a portable awning, making and selling falafels right next to The Daily Brew. We ordered them up and went inside to eat them. First time I ever had one. They were good. I hope they do it again sometime soon since I don't know anywhere else in the area where you can get a falafel.

By the way, a falafel is a type of lentil sandwich. So the weekend started out Falafel, but it got better after that. : )

Andy in Europe

Our son, Andy, is in Europe. He had wanted to be there, in his original plans, for a year. He left in October 2009 and should be home sometime early in February. He bought a Euro-pass so that he could ride trains around for three or four months to different countries. I can't even tell you where all he has been. He started out in France, I believe in Paris. He has been to Morocco, Italy, Venice, Austria, Germany, Portugal, Spain, and Greece, to name some of the places where he has been. He is, as I am writing this, waiting to board a ferry in the first leg of his trip to Croatia. The ferry ride alone is 15 hours. The trip will last around 48 hours. I just Skyped with him briefly, and, let me just say, he doesn't look anything like these two pictures of him. He has not had a hair cut or maybe even a shave since he left Bloomington, Indiana, in October.

I have always been a practical person. I am very conservative in most issues of life. I must confess that the adventurous nature of the trip that my son embarked upon has served to make me very nervous for his safety. But, as the weeks have passed, and he has been safe, a fascination with what he has done and the places where he has been has captured me. I would never have done what he has done, which is basically been backpacking from place to place, staying in hostels with strange people, who have become friends. He has experienced sights, sounds, tastes of other cultures and beautiful places. I can hardly wait until he comes home and tells us of his travels. He has written things on Facebook that alarmed me, things about being drunk in Berlin and wondering around in the dark, for instance. He told of a couple of encounters with a young pick pocket. But, for the most part, he has had a great experience. I think it has been just what he was looking for.

I do not know how this whole trip will have affected him. I know he was already thinking that he would like to live in Europe, or even anywhere except in the US. Don't ask me about that. You will have to ask him. But, I think, on the whole, it has been a great adventure for him, and he has grown as a person. I admire him for going.

His trip has affected me. I never really wanted to leave the US. To me, I like it right here, thank you very much. I had no desire to go to Europe. But now, I can imagine going there and liking it. I would see all the things that I have only seen in pictures, and they would become more real to me. I'm going to go someday. And I have Andy to thank for that.

Skiing

We got to go ski for the first time this season on Martin Luther King Day. It was expensive, and I sort of felt guilty about spending the money. In fact, I sat down and had to think about it after we had driven up there to Swiss Valley Ski Area and found they were charging the holiday rate. We have been at zero cash flow, or nearly so, up until Friday. Jay got a check for a bid that he had worked on last year, or there would have been no way we could have even driven up there. At any rate, we decided to go. I needed some fun in my life, and we needed the exercise.

I love to ski. I want to be a very old lady and still able to ski down those slopes. It isn't like skiing on mountains here. There really aren't anything close to mountains around here within a few hours driving distance. So we ski on hills. It's okay. I still enjoy it. The thrill of abandoning caution and really speeding down the hill, it's almost like flying. I like getting out there and watching the other skiers, too. It is very therapeutic to be out on the snow and challenging myself to do better than the last time I went.

I would really like to ski on a real mountain someday. I promised myself that I would. So, one of these days when we are out of this financial slump, I am going somewhere with real mountains for the purpose of skiing on a REAL MOUNTAIN!