Last Day!

Today is Mark's last day to work at Camp & Cruise! He starts at URS on Monday! The last 2 weeks at C&C have been rather interesting. His boss has been pressuring him to stay, at least longer than the 2 weeks notice he had given. She even made him a rather substanial counter-offer but it wasn't worth continuing to work there. We really felt that Mark couldn't turn down the chance at URS.
It is amazing how quickly Mark came back to being himself as soon as he saw an end in sight to working at C&C. It is good to hear him laugh again and have him back to clowning around with the kids again. He is still taking the antidepressant but is sleeping just fine without any meds.
It has added some complications around here though. Mark will have to dress much nicer then the jeans & tshirts he wore at C&C. We went shopping and had to get him some more dress slacks. Of course, this also adds to my schedule as I get to hem them to the right length for him. I'll also have to do more ironing again. (I think I remember how.)
The kids are all doing well in school. Rachel has even qualified for the Midwest Academic Talent Search. They achieve this by getting a score of 95% or higher on a standardized computer test in the areas of reading, language usage, science, or math. She qualified last year but we didn't do anything about it. We're going to look more into it this year and see what all our options are. She probably qualified in the math area as she is actually doing 8th grade math this year while in the 7th grade. The Talent Search is only for middle schoolers or else we would probably have 2 qualified. Through testing they have determined Stephen is able to read as high as a 10th grade level! Not too shabby for a 5th grader! Joshua is loving school! His teacher says that he is doing very well and is really easy-going and happy all the time.
I am doing lunch duties on Mondays. I am also headed to Klackles Orchard with Joshua on Tuesday. Then they were short moms to help with the popcorn fundraiser for the 5th grade trip to Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum so I'm probably going to help with that 1 Friday per month.
The schedule is rather crazy to keep up with especially with 1 car and we did make a mistake this week. I let Mark take the car on Thurs. because he had a 4:15 appt. I thought I told him to get the kids from school and then pick me up when he dropped them off. Somehow we goofed and he didn't leave C&C until 4 and the kids were still at school. I ended up taking him to his appt. then going to get the kids (over 1 hr late), dropped the kids at home then went back to pick him up!
I'm rather hoping that it won't take him long and maybe he can find someone at the new office to carpool with. Even if we have to give them some money every week it would be easier than all the driving. Keep praying that God will provide another vehicle soon.
Well, I have to get moving around here. Somehow, I haven't been able to blog while the kids are at school. Maybe I can soon.

HE GOT IT!!!!!!!!

Mark had his second interview this morning at URS Corp. They offered him the job on the spot and he accepted it! We had already talked through all the pros and cons most of the weekend so he didn't need to think more about it, he took it. The pay isn't a lot more then currently but the benefits are better and so is the chance for advancement. We are really thrilled!
By the way, Nate, is EG&G who you work for? That is a part of URS Corp and they have military work at Hill AFB.
Mark is also rather nervous about the next 2 weeks at Camp & Cruise though. He doesn't expect his boss to take the news very gently. We did up his letter of resignation before he went in this morning. He plans to start at URS on October 1 so he had to give notice today. Mark has seen his current boss try to hold people's last pay check and other things just to try to be bothersome when someone is leaving so we are expecting some struggles. The good thing is that we know that his time there is coming to a close. I think he will miss the people that he works with but not the frustrations that he has there.
Well, busy day ahead as I have lunch duty on Mondays and I have been doing shopping on Monday plus I have catalogs to get out. I just had to share our good news though!

Interviews

Good news! Mark had an interview on Friday with a huge company called URS Corp. They then contacted him later in the day for another interview on Monday morning. It is for a position called a project accountant. It wouldn't be a giant jump in pay but it would be some also the benefits are better then where he is now. It would also be a place where he might possibly be able to move up in the future. It would also be straight 8-5, no evenings or weekends.
He is told that it is a rather high pressure position but we feel that it would be a "better" type of pressure then where he is now. Some of his problems where he is now is that one boss basically has made him a "whipping boy". It doesn't matter whose mistake/problem it is, Mark is to blame.
This company is so big, that the employment application asked if we were willing to move internationally. Then it went on to list 8-12 different companies where they have offices. There are at least 6-8 different offices right here in the state of MI.
Things are basically improving here. We are sort of settling into a routine now that we have 2 weeks of school under our belt. Mark's deppression seems to be improving. Either the antidepressant is working or by using the sleeping med to get better sleep, he is better controlling the depression. His counsellor was even a great confidence booster for him prior to his interview. He has a lot of experience with human resources in companies and offered some great tips.
Last night we went out to the Berlin Raceway and got to see some more school bus races. Stephen & Joshua had free tickets for completing the library reading program this summer and then we were able to get 1/2 price tickets for the rest of us through their school. We absolutely FROZE but it was fun!
We are in that tough time of year where it is in the 80's one day and then in the 60's the next. It is hard to know what to where from one day to the next. Yesterday's high was 61 but that was at 7 a.m. and it dropped after that and the wind was bitter. I have to get more warm clothes out for the kids this weekend.
Rachel went rafting with the 7th graders on Thursday. It was quite an experience. Maybe I'll try to get her to write about it. Some parents were an example of a practical joke gone too far and crossing the line.
Well, I have to keep moving around here. Kids don't like doing chores when they think I'm just playing around on the computer. I'll let you know about the job as soon as we know more.

School's IN!!!!!!!!

Well, the children are all off to their first day of a new school year! This will be the first year that they are ALL in school ALL day! Now I just have to figure out where to start at. Note that I didn't say "What to do with myself". I have plenty to do. It is just what order to do it all in. I'm also trying to arrange my priorities so that on days I don't have to pick up kids, I don't need the car. That will save on gas as well as time. Getting this family around with 1 vehicle is a real trick sometimes.
Rachel has her first "real" babysitting job starting tonight. It will be every other Tuesday evening for a little 6 yr. old girl and 3 yr. old boy. They are niece & nephew of some good friends of ours. It is only a few blocks from home and the kids will actually be in bed almost half of the time she is there. She is really excited about it.
I made her start "weening" herself off the crutches starting on Sunday. Her ankle is much better but did start bothering her when we did some last minute school shopping yesterday afternoon. She was able to start school without them today, except she did wrap her ankle for a little support. I think she rather likes the extra attention she gets with it.
Well, today is only a half day so I better get busy and not waste this time. But I also had to take a minute and enjoy the peace and quiet.

We're here, honest

I know it has been forever since I have blogged any. Rest assured we are all home and doing ok. It has been a rather rough summer though and sometimes Mom says I focus too much on the negative when I blog. I guess I was looking for positive to write about.
Stephen & Rachel both spent a week at Gramma's in Alpena. Whether they show it much or not, they really enjoy it. Rachel experienced the Brown Trout Festival this year and she had quite a bike adventure with Aunt Bette. Stephen was there for the car show again as well as getting to watch Watkins Glen at Aunt Marlene's.
Rachel then had another good time with Gramma going on vacation with her to Ohio. They stayed at Pete & Deb's for a couple of days then went over to see Mark & Barb. Tony & Angie were home as well & it was at Seth's court hearing so it was all quite exciting. Every now and then she still has new stories to tell of things they did down there.
Now it is back to school for them on Tuesday. Rachel will be in 7th grade, except she is taking 8th grade math, Stephen is in 5th grade, and Joshua starts 1st grade. We have met all their teachers and are pretty much all set. Joshua was a little disappointed before he met his teacher because it is the "new" teacher at school. But now that he has met her, he seems fine with it.
One of the big struggles this summer has been Mark's health. He had bronchitis just after the 4th of July. After that, he had a sinus infection. Throughout those times and continuing since then he hasn't been able to sleep. This makes life miserable. He also has a feeling in his throat as though something is stuck. We've made numerous trips to several doctors. The hardest thing has been not knowing if the lack of sleep has been causing different symptoms or if the symptoms were causing the lack of sleep.
Finally last week, he was listening to a radio program and called me and said this is describing exactly what he has been feeling. If you go to www.familylifetoday.org, you can listen to or get transcripts of the programs on Monday and Tuesday that talk to Pastor Tommy Nelson and his wife about his battle with depression, including an explanation of the biological causes of depression. This week Wednesday we got Mark to a counsellor and he confirmed that Mark is in moderate depression. It has been brought on by lots of different stress factors around here but I think not knowing what was happening to his body was adding on even more stress. His PCP had mentioned needing to deal with his stress and had even prescribed an anti-depressant but hadn't actually called it depression. Mark didn't like the way the anti-depressant was making him feel so he stopped after 2 weeks. Now that he understands all of it more, he is trying a different anti-depressant and is going to be working with the counsellor too. He is also using a sleep med that his starting to help. He was very fearful of using it to begin with for fear of addiction but now knows that it is needed to get him started back to getting better.
A lot of the stress here was probably caused by money problems. They aren't all gone and we still face some hurdles but we are making it through and God is providing in some amazing ways. Totally out of the blue, a family from our church said they wanted to buy the kids' school supplies this year. Not only did they buy them, the lady took each of the kids out individually to spend a day shopping together. She did her best to fulfill all their wishes for supplies including some extras that they hadn't even considered. Another family just handed Mark some cash after a morning service. We have had checks (refunds) show up just when needed and even some reward programs give us just a bit of encouragement when we needed a ray of hope. Mark was able to get a raise which is his first in 3 years. It wasn't much but every bit helps. He also had a man offer some accounting work that he needed done on the side. Once Mark gets the system up and running like the guy wants it, I'll be able to do most of the inputting to keep it going. It will bring in a little bit more each week.
One major hurdle we have yet is that we are down to one vehicle. The van didn't completely die but the best way to describe it is that it is in critical condition and we are being advised to "pull the plug" and that advise if from our friend who does the work on it for us. The latest thing that we believe to be wrong is the water pump and/or (lost it now). Anyway it is something right in the engine which isn't too bad on most vehicles but in a van like ours you almost have to pull the whole engine to get to it. Otherwise, you have try to work both inside and outside the van at the same time with very little top clearance. The van is out at Mark's work right now and we need to figure the best way to dispose of it. We will probably get $100 from a company that will tow it away for recycling.
So that is where we are and what we have been up to. Mark is working today so we didn't go anywhere for the holiday. I may take the kids to a park for a while this morning. Oh, forgot to mention that Rachel is currently on crutches with a sprained ankle. Hopefully, we will start getting her off of them today. She slipped off a curve last Friday playing kickball in the rain. I waited till the dr. was in on Mon and since it was still swollen took her in. After the xrays confirmed it just a sprain, she said to do RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, & Elevate) so it has been an interesting week.