A Conditional Offer

Today, pretty much started out as a lazy, uneventful day. I was spending the day packing, cleaning, sorting, etc. Then suddenly the phone rang, it wasn't any number I knew, so I let it go to voicemail. Yes, I admit, I'm one of those people. Most of the time, there is no voicemail left but this time it was different, there was a voicemail.....

 It started out as "Hi, Ms. This is Mister So-So from SCC. I came across the application that you sent in and would like to talk to you about it." I'll preface this and say, that since I lost my job shortly after Keree came home, I haven't had a good job. I've had jobs, here and there and even started doing Shows. Now I love doing shows, making children's clothing and accessories to sale but I'll admit that sometimes it's hard. It's hard because you never know how you will do, you don't know if the customers will be buying or just browsing and you also have to factor in the weather, economy, everything. So, back in December I was just surfing the net and came across this job post. It was a good job, I was qualified and thought, well heck it won't hurt to put in my application.

I quickly returned the phone call, apologized for not answering and we started talking. By the end of the conversation they conditionally offered me the job. All I have to do is pass my background and drug test. I was shocked!!! Actually, it was more like what just happened, did that really happen?? Now, I'm trying not to get my hopes up. Plus, this will be a little weird, I haven't been in a normal 9-5 job for almost 4 1/2 years. Also, the biggest thing with this job is we will be going on the road full time. This job will have me spend 3-6 months in a job location before moving onto another job location. Being that I'm a single Mom, I can't leave Keree behind and not see her for months and months at a time. So, if this all go through, we have a new plan, we are getting an RV and were going to be living in it full time. Three days into the New Year and our whole lives are about to change big time!

Second Day of 2013

Well today was the 2nd day of the new year and what did we do......well I spent the day packing. Not only packing away Christmas decorations but also packing to move. I'm excited about what this new adventure is going to bring us but I'm also really having bitter sweet memories of this house. I mean it's the place I brought Keree home too. But I'm also glad not to have to worry about all the problems this house has either.

 The most excitement of the day we had was this little guy. Being that we live in the country, every so often we have a visitor get into our house. Well this guy was brave, we caught him actually sitting in our chair. We grabbed our Christmas cookie tin and trapped him inside. Keree didn't want us to kill him but she sure didn't want him inside the house.

 So I took him outside to the road's edge. He wouldn't move, so finally I sort of tossed and dumped him out. He sat there for a minute and then ran across the road. Since they always say, if you see one, there are more, once I got back inside, I sat quite a few traps to catch any more of our unwanted visitors.

On to a New Year....

When 2012 started, we really thought that this would be the year when our luck had changed. That by the end of this year all our troubles and worries would have faded away. Honestly, every year we start with those hopes and dreams.....well the year turns out worse than the previous year. So this coming year, we have no expectations. We are just happy to be together and even though we know we have some major life changes happening in the next few months, we are ready for the adventure. Because as long as we are together, that's all that really matters!

Our day started off by saying good-bye to my Baby Brother. We were sad that he had to head back to Michigan but we had got to spend 11 days together over the holidays. We made amazing memories together as a family. And to tell you the truth, life is more about the memories and time spent together.

 As for the rest of our day, we had a few errands to run and had hoped to beat the incoming snowstorm. Well we got caught up in the Clearance aisles (have a great start on next year's Christmas presents), so we got caught in the snow. It started snowing around 10am and will continue into tomorrow. We probably would have more snow on the ground in these pictures, if we hadn't used most of it for our snowman the other day. Once we got home, we spent some time packing, talking to out of town family and just relaxing (which isn't something we have done in the past few weeks).

I had hoped that Keree would make it till midnight this year, but that isn't the case. It's 10:50p and she's been asleep for about a 1/2 hr. And I have to say, I'm not sure I'll make it to midnight tonight either. Happy New Year's Eve Everyone!

Off to Tennessee

Well today, we are off to Tennessee for our big show. We are so thankful that my Uncle R has so graciously agreed to let us stay with him saving us some major bucks by not having to stay in a hotel. We started off our morning having to pack a large handful of things at the house. Then we headed to the storage unit for all the stuff that goes on top of the van. Now this particular pack was harder than usual! We have gotten some new display racks and as awesome as they are, they don't pack well. Here is Keree & KittyKitty hanging out while we packed at home.

We got a late start on the road. I wanted to be out by 10am, but we didn't finish packing till almost 1pm. So, we stopped for some lunch and that is where I snapped this picture. See Keree's hand sticking up over everything. We are really at the point were we need to a major upgrade in transportation. Actually, we been at that point for almost 2 years now. I'm leaning towards an RV and trailer, Mom just wants a truck and trailer and Keree thinks an RV would be pretty cool....as long as she can get a cat.

 As you can see, Keree was pretty snug as a bug but she was happy. She had a bag of books, games and her music to keep her entertained. For some reason, this drive was a hard one on me. I was exhausted by the time we hit Kentucky. And then it started raining on us, no, it was more than rain, it was blinding rain where I couldn't see the car in front of me. I thought about pulling over but then thought, nope I really need to keep going. I didn't want this trip to last any longer than it had to!

We called my Uncle when we hit the Tennessee border. We were just going to stop and pick up a bite to eat for dinner since it was after 7:30pm. But being the amazing person he is, he offered to make us dinner. We finally rolled into this driveway around 8:30p. We unloaded the few things we needed and then relaxed. I will tell you, he makes a crazy delicious meatloaf. Keree ate a huge plate of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn. He wanted us to stay up and watch a movie, but we were all beat. Plus we still had tomorrow to visit before the show.

On the 2nd Day of December....

we spent our day working. In just a matter of days, we have a huge Show in Tennessee. My Mom and I have been making stuff non-stop. I've been making tons of larger hair bows and accessories and Mom has been making lots more couture dresses. Keree, like always, is so good and just does her own thing. She'll read, do her workbooks and then read some more. Since we forgot yesterday, Keree also got to eat both December 1st and 2nd in her advent calendar. I really had wanted a non-food advent calendar like the past few years but weren't able to find one. So Keree got to pick out this German made, chocolate one instead.

Movies & a Christmas Party gone wrong

Our morning started out with the Cans film festival. We donated enough cans so we could see two movies at the Theatre. Which as you know for us is a real treat, since Keree has only seen 2 movies so far on the big screen, Tangled and Brave (at the drive-in). We were so excited that we got to see Wreck-It Ralph and we got to see Brave again. I just love getting to see and hear her reactions to movies on the big screen.  I also gotta say that I loved Wreck-It Ralph and can't wait for it to come out on dvd so I can see it again!

 

 After our 4+ hours at the movie theatres, we went home and got ready for our annual Homestudy Adoption group Christmas party. Well, we purposelessly got there late. I was to the point of us not attending these group gatherings anymore but felt that since this maybe our last year and after some intense pressuring by my Mom...we compromised by showing up late and leaving early. Now the Christmas party was in full force, the little kids were watching dvds, while the few older kiddos (Keree and a few others) were coloring and talking about Santa. Now, Santa has always made an appearance and it is always a big deal because he brings the children one special present. Well this year, he didn't make it. What was worse was they gave a very awful excuse why he wasn't there. I'm so thankful that Keree was move involved in what she was doing than listening! I cringed at the thought because if she had heard what they said, it would have been our last year of secrets.

 Now as I said, the kids each get a special gift from Santa. Usually we get this amazing reaction from Keree over her gift but I think because it wasn't Santa that handed it to her....it just wasn't the same. Plus since she knows how to read, she was trying to figure out why Santa had went to Toys R Us for her gift, instead of just making them at the North Pole. We ended the evening with a group shot, this was the lowest attendance I have ever seen for a Christmas party, there was only 8 families there.

Break from the heat

Nothing really special about today. We did school, we worked on crafty stuff and we cooked. But in other news, it was cool today! No record breaking heat, it was actually in the 80's and just lovely.