Flowers

The day Leigh went and took his drug test, he brought me home some flowers!! They were so pretty and fun!!

Update

Well, we had a good week this week. Leigh started his job on Wednesday. He went in and took a drug test on Monday, and they said it would take 2-3 days to get the results and then they would call and he could start work. We didn't think he would get called until Wednesday, so we were expecting him to start on Thursday, but they called on Tuesday, and he was able to start on Wednesday, so he didn't quite get finished all that he had hoped to before starting work, but he was able to finally finish most of it this weekend. After about a week of him being home after all our company left right after we moved down here, I didn't think I was going to survive with him being home every day. It was driving me crazy, because I was trying to unpack boxes and keep the kids busy, without interrupting his computer time where he was trying to find a job. I find it's easier for me to stay patient and just take care of things when it's just me, versus him being in another room to just ask to do a "quick" something. It was better when school started, because the kids and I were more occupied and weren't in and out as much, and we kind of got into a routine. Well, we must have been doing pretty good because I got right used to him being home. (Neither one of us has ever thought that we would do well with him working from home. We would have to have a detached shed or something for his office if he did.) After they called and said he could come to work on Wednesday, I was sad that he would be leaving! I was lonely on Wednesday, but it didn't take us long to get back into a new routine. I packed the kids up Friday pretty soon after he left for work, and we went to the library book sale!! Yay for book sales!! I was able to find several kids books, and a sewing book and a craft book for myself and it all cost under $4.00!! The kids books were .25 and .10 which were good prices I thought for a book sale! On Thursday and Friday, he came home for lunch, which was a fun highlight in our day and helped us not miss him so much.
Leigh's new schedule is later than it was in Pensacola, so that will take some getting used to, especially on Wednesdays with trying to get him supper and get to church on time. It's a good thing we don't live far from either, otherwise we would probably just have to meet him at church!! On Saturday, we went and did the Lowe's project, which was a monster truck with a green blinking light on top. The kids seem to enjoy it and it's a fun, free activity! That was about all that happened this week! Very exciting.....!  :)

Etcetera

The biggest thing on our mind lately has been Leigh finding a job. It feels like he has been searching nonstop since we moved.  At times it has been very frustrating trying to find a balance of when it is okay and not okay to interrupt his time on the computer and such while he was job hunting. I think we adjusted well to having Daddy home all day, although it did become easier for me once we started school and my mornings were taken up with stuff instead of in and out and doing things all over the house. I think he did better too, because he knew I wouldn't be interrupting him whether on purpose or on accident (not that I would EVER purposefully interrupt, but maybe accidentally on purpose???? :)  :)  )  Anyways, we had to lay some boundaries down for ourselves and make it work and it has gotten much easier since we've gotten into a routine. I really have enjoyed having him home the past couple months. I really think it has helped me feel a little more settled and safe having him here. So that's good. We are so thankful that he has a job. It sounds like it'll be a good job and he will enjoy learning new stuff.
I feel very undeserving and amazed at God's provision for us. Our whole moving expedition has been a fascinating learning experience for me. I grew up and lived in the same house my whole life, my family is very close, I did live far away from grandparents, but I always wanted my kids to know their grandparents well, so moving in and of itself was a interesting concept to accept. I wasn't sure how to help my kids with a transition like this, because I had never had the feelings that I'm sure they have, but they seem to have adjusted beautifully. Yes, they miss our family and friends, but I don't think we've scarred them for life. Leigh and I have both had absolute peace about the decision to move. We sought Godly counsel and advice to make sure we weren't "missing" anything, and had absolutely no red flags from anyone or anything. We wondered if it was "smart" to leave a good job in the economy we were in, but we knew that we wouldn't go without anything we needed. We met with a realtor I think the beginning of February. At that time the average for a house to be on the market was around four to six months (if I'm remembering correctly). Our realtors put our house on the market the end of March and there was a signed contract on it the end of May. Wahoo! The closing date wasn't until Aug, and we were hoping to be able to stay in it until Leigh's contract ended on July 31st. (A shout out to Skip and Kristy-Thank you! :) "Technically" in our "economy" it shouldn't have sold that fast. Leigh's job ended July 31st, so he's been out of a job since August 1. He starts his new job next week, which is only 2 1/2 months of not working. After hearing him inform me of the statistics of finding a job and such, especially in a specialized area, he "technically" shouldn't have gotten a job this fast. It's neat to look back and see how God has worked specifically and generally in so many different ways, but it has also been neat to look forward and know that God WILL sell our house and God WILL give Leigh a job, we just don't know when.
Another interesting tidbit about his job, is that a few weeks ago, he went around town to different companies dropping off his resume and asking if they had job openings. This company was one of the ones where he dropped off his resume. ( I think they actually accepted one, most of them wouldn't take one) They told him to look online at their website and see if there were any openings. So, when he got home he did that, but the website didn't have any openings. It was about a week later when a recruiter contacted him about this job - they never did have it listed online.
Anyways, I guess I'm done rambling. I hope it makes sense. I'm trying to make a little sense out of some of my feelings, but I don't think I've done very well explaining any of it. Oh well! Hope you weren't too bored.

Job update!!

Thank you so much to everyone who was praying for Leigh to find a job. God gave Leigh a job this week!! The company called today to extend him a job offer (they were supposed to call yesterday, but HR didn't get around to it), so he went down this afternoon to fill out some paperwork and such. He goes in on Monday for a drug test and when they get the results back from that (two to three days), he gets to go to work!!!!  So hopefully he'll be able to start Wednesday or Thursday. He'll be the Oracle DBA for Nationwide Laboratory Services. He was looking for an Oracle DBA job, and when he wasn't finding many openings for those, he broadened his scope to some other programming things and such, so we are very thankful that God gave him a job specifically in the area in which he was looking. There are a couple new things that he will have to learn, but he seems excited about that.
He also will not have a long commute, which is one thing we were a little concerned about living in a larger city, so we are very thankful about that also!!! 

In Leigh's words:
"I have a job!  Praise be to God! 60% faster than average using the normal 3% application to interview ratio and in a market with 14 million people out of work.  It is with Nationwide Laboratory Services less than 15 minutes from our house.  I will be their Oracle DBA and get to learn RAC and Linux"

Job Update

Well, Leigh had his technical interview today at 11am. It lasted about 2 hours, I think. He thinks it went okay, but we don't know whether he has the job or not. Hopefully we'll find out one way or the other by the end of the week.  The CIO(chief info. officer???) came in partway through the interview, so there shouldn't be a third interview with just him, unless they had more questions or something. It wasn't sure whether he would be there or not. He did take Leigh on a tour of the facility and mentioned the his wife went to PCC, probably before Leigh's time. Thought that was interesting.... Anyways, that's all. :)

Job update

Well, Leigh had an interview on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. When he first heard about the job it sounded like something that he would be very interested in and would enjoy doing. He actually turned in a resume to the company about a week before, but according to their website, they didn't have any openings. He was contacted by a recruiter and so everything is done through the recruiter as far as setting up interviews, etc. Needless to say it has been a lot of phone calls back and forth trying to get times to work and stuff for the company. After he was finished with the interview he wasn't sure whether they were still interested or not, but come to find out they are, SO on this Tuesday at 11:00a.m., he goes in for another interview. Please pray that everything will go smoothly and that this will be the job God has for him if it's His will. There's a requirement for the job that Leigh doesn't have, but he would enjoy learning about it, if they would be willing to train him. One of the things that he enjoyed so much about his job at PCC was the diversity of things they had to learn and be able to do.