Thursday, July 30, 2009

The Deal

This post has two purposes:  to inform and to ask for help.

Information:

Two days before Ryan was laid off, if you’d asked us, we would have told you that his job was completely secure.  His division of the company was the only one making money and they had just started a new 18-month long project.  It completely caught us off guard…and was that much more upsetting.  They decided to shut down Ryan’s entire project, so he had no way of fighting for his job; it was simply non-existent. 

We are fine.  He got a little bit of severance, we have a good amount of savings and no debt, besides our house.  Our food storage is (mostly) up to date.  We have always practiced hard-core budgeting and are in the habit of living below our means.  I am grateful to believe in a Gospel that places value on relationships over things,  living prophets who have long advised us on provident living, a Heavenly Father who blesses us as we pay our tithes and fast offerings, and a husband who make REALLY frugal look good.

He is, of course, working hard at finding a job and is doing some consulting work with a friend…it seems he has less free time now than before!

The Help:

With 3 layoffs in 7 years, 7 companies in 12 years, 3 job relocations…I’m kind of giving up on settling.  (I moved a lot growing up, and it was good for me.  Moving is fun; if you minus the packing and the friend-leaving.)  Which means…we’ll move wherever we can find a job and we feel like we’re “supposed to be”. 

This is where you come in:  Can you help?  Ryan is an electrical engineer.  He works in microchip design.  So what I need you to do is:

a) tell us if you know of any high tech, computer type companies that are hiring. And tell your friends who work at those places that you have a great guy to refer to them.

b) leave a comment with names of high-tech companies in your area.  Ryan can search those companies to see if they are hiring.

(If I read this post, I would think: “What?  I don’t know that kind of stuff.”  And if I really liked you and wanted to help, I would think:  “I think I’ll go ask my husband because he knows where people work way more than I do.”)

c) tell me why your area is a great place to live.

TO MY LIBERTY LAKE FRIENDS:  we do not want to leave.  We love it here, more than any place ever!  We don’t want to sell our house.  We don’t want to leave the best neighborhood on the planet.  There are just not that many options in Spokane for what Ryan does.  (There is one possibility that is promising, though, so say prayer for us). 

So that’s the deal.  Is this too much information?  Is Ryan going to be embarrassed when we sees it? 

Whatever.  Just help us get a job.  In case you haven’t heard, the economy’s not too hot right now, and jobs are scarce.  We need all the help we can get.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Favorite things about our trip to Bear Lake

Waaay back on July 1, we took a quick trip to Bear Lake, in Utah, with Ryan’s sisters Heather and Betsy and family.

The best things were:

  • the cabin, with it gorgeous view, perfect amount of room and close location to ALL the Bear Lake action

Bear Lake

  • cousins playing together so perfectly

 Cousins Picture 052

Picture 030

  • late night talks with the adults

 

  • Faith in the baby swing at the lovely park

Picture 015

  • Aaron’s 4th of July firecracker show

 Picture 062

  • Matching Uncle and Nephew

Picture 044

  • only having to make 3 meals, while eating Heather and Betsy’s yummy food the other days

 

  • Ryan’s famous Bear Lake shake

BearLakeShake

  • the bike ride that turned into a MAJOR workout

BearLakeBike

 

  • the beach (and the HOT guy that hung out there)

Picture 056

  • the (self-designated) Funnest Aunt Ever commemorating the 4th of July by breaking out into Patriotic Song and Dance, every 15 minutes.  (maybe this wasn’t so favorite for everyone else?)

BearLakeSing Picture 085  Picture 083

It was a perfect vacation.  Obviously.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

A Slice of Birthday Whine

BirthdayCone

(this fun little birthday cone at McDonalds in Dillon, MT and YOUR FABULOUS DE-LURKING AND WELL-WISHING COMMENTS, were the only good things about the day…)

Have you ever decided to drive 10 hours on your birthday so that your husband could get to his “Man-cation” with his mission buddies on time?

I have.

Have you ever found out that the birthday dinner your mom planned with your relative, when you arrived, had to be cancelled because your husband’s boss was flying into town, unexpectedly, and so you had to leave way later than planned?

I have.

Have you ever fought with your husband the night before your birthday, so you sleep on the couch, because you can’t sleep by him when you’re irritated, and end up with a huge headache when you wake up?

I have.

Have you ever gotten an email while you were doing the last minute trip packing, on your birthday, that said this:  “Just got laid-off.  Sorry.  Be home in 30 minutes?”

I have.

Have you ever had your mom call, during your drive to Utah, on your birthday, and had her tell you that doctors found two kinds of cancer in your grandpa?

I have.

Have you ever had your tire blow out, on your birthday, at 10 o’clock at night, with 150 miles to go and NO repair shops open, so you pray really hard and drive 50 miles an hour, on the spare, all the way to your destination?

I have.

And now I have three words for you:

Crappiest. Birthday. Ever.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Reasons why you need to tell me you read my blog today

 

1.  I’ve never done this before.  Most bloggers I know have done a de-lurking/tell-me-you-love-my-blog post before, but I haven’t.  I would love to know who’s reading and how you found me.

2.  I’m driving 10 hours to Utah today.  Do you know how fun it would be for me to check my blog every time I have cell coverage and find a new comment from you?

3.  Mostly:  It’s my 35th birthday today.  Give me the gift of comments, would ya?

 

scan0001(me, on my 5th birthday…

obviously my love of chocolate cake hasn’t changed much in the last 30 years!)

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Sis. Alligator gets released

**Those who do not attend my church, might be confused by many of the references here.  I put links to explanatory webpages, should you be interested.

So if we have to travel on Sunday (like last week on our way home from our Bear Lake weekend), we find a Sacrament meeting and then drive the rest of the time.  Because we are missing Primary and Sunday School, we do our best to replicate those meetings in the car with the kids.  It passes the time, counts as Family Home Evening for the week and we don’t feel bad about ditching the last two hours of church. 

Here’s the Agenda from last Sunday’s Traveling Primary:

Conducting: Sister Mom

Welcome visitors/new members to Primary:  Faith

Recognize Birthdays:  Seth (real birthday is 8/28 but asks us EVERY DAY if his birthday is “tomorrow”…I even found a pencil to hand to him, as his Primary present)

Scripture:  Jane (“I will go and do the things…”)

Prayer:  Seth

Talk:  Emma (read story from The Friend and discussed)

Sharing Time:  Sister Man, who used the Sharing Time lesson in The Friend, and did a very good job.

Picture 093

Singing Time:  Sis Alligator …and this is where it all broke down.

  Picture 094

Sister Alligator did not do a very good job fostering reverence.  She wore her sun glasses, made inappropriate jokes, sang VERY rudely and ate baby’s legs.  Finally, Sister Mom had to step in and tell the Primary that Sister Alligator had been abruptly released from her calling and singing time would now be run by Sister Mom. 

After many efforts to wrangle giggly kids (and allow Seth to sing his sobbing solo of “I Lived in Heaven”), we finished singing time and proceeded to the..

Closing Prayer: Gabe

Don’t hurt yourself in your rush to get your records transferred to our “ward”…our van only seats 7.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Quick Quote #34

 

After being told she is a good little mom to Faith, Jane replied, "Yeah, but I don't know if I will be a vewy good haiw do-ew when I gwow up." 

Picture 125

(At least I’ve got that one down.)

Sunday, July 5, 2009

A Berry Good Post

(Emails, from the iphone, of course, sent to Ryan after he decided he couldn’t get off of work at 10:30 am last Friday when we went strawberry picking at our local mountain.)

Email #1

to: ryanromney@ourtotallyprivateemailaddress.com

from: jessicaromney@ourtotallyprivateemailaddress.com

Subject: It’s so peaceful up here.

  strawberry2

Email #2

to: ryanromney@ourtotallyprivateemailaddress.com

from: jessicaromney@ourtotallyprivateemailaddress.com

Subject: Almost like you were with us, huh?

strawberry1

Email #3

to: ryanromney@ourtotallyprivateemailaddress.com

from: jessicaromney@ourtotallyprivateemailaddress.com

Subject: Big fight over this particular seat

Janetrain

Email #4

to: ryanromney@ourtotallyprivateemailaddress.com

from: jessicaromney@ourtotallyprivateemailaddress.com

Subject: Faith prefers extra-ripe strawberry LEAVES

strawberry4

Email #5

to: ryanromney@ourtotallyprivateemailaddress.com

from: jessicaromney@ourtotallyprivateemailaddress.com

Subject: “Mom, can you help me find my box again?”

strawberry6

Email #6

to: ryanromney@ourtotallyprivateemailaddress.com

from: jessicaromney@ourtotallyprivateemailaddress.com

Subject: Seth’s lots of help.

strawberry5

(We have since made:  strawberry jam, strawberry syrup, chocolate dipped strawberries, strawberry banana whole wheat muffins, strawberry pie and strawberry rhubarb crisp.  That should hold us over till next year.  And keep us really regular.)