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The Nasal Aspirator is my Best Friend

So Aubri got her first cold yesterday. Low fever. Congestion. Runny Nose. All the things that make the poor baby feel yucky. But I do want to publicly extend thanks and gratitude to whoever came up with the blue squeezy bulb. Aubri doesn't mind it at all, and even though it can sometimes take some time to get all of the gunky stuff out of her, it works! Blessed relief! 

I had to stay home from practice today because the poor baby has a runny nose and Daddy's not interested in passing it on to his team. And I'm not interested in walking around practice with a sad baby strapped to my chest. 

Oh, I also want to publicly thank the creator of the front carrier. Admittedly, I feel like I'm pregnant again when I'm wearing it, but Aubri loves it, and it allows me to do my jobs. 

Just Hangin'

So things are getting ready to get busy. They really already are-- with Johnathan at his job(s) and volunteer work most of every day, I get to spend mine with Aubri. Yesterday, though, I really needed Johnathan's help with her to get my syllabus and everything ready for my class that begins on Tuesday. I look forward to the opportunity to teach my first college class-- basic Composition for at-risk students. However, I spoke with Mrs. Towles today, and she had some stories about her basic Composition classes which concerned me! Stories where the skinny white kid threatens her and is threatened in turn by all the black guys in the class.  Hmmm. . . what have I gotten myself into? 

I'm watching the Olympics while warding off my cat (he stalks me), and waiting for Johnathan to come home from playing volleyball until 10:30. Michael Phelps just beat out Michael Cavic in the hundred fly, and I am amazed that they can figure Michael Phelps won. They replay the replays in slow motion, and I still don't see it. But as the commenter says, "The touchpad never lies." Although if that's the case, I'm not sure why Serbia filed a protest. . . 

D-I-V-O-R-C-E

So today's sermon discussed several causes of divorce. The acrostic (yes, we're Baptists) was as follows:
D: dullness
I: immaturity
V: vexation
O: omission of God
R: lack of romance
C: breakdown in communication
E: entrapment in materialism

Replace "C's" "breakdown in communication" with CAT, and you've got my recipe for divorce. Yesterday we got home after 10 hours of being gone, only to find that Lux had been closed in my room the whole time and had left a beautiful present on my bed. It was one of those gifts that we'll be seeing a lot more of in a month, but well-wrapped in diapers. Lux thought the wrapping to be unnecessary.
I thought Johnathan was going to kill him. Or me.

Spring

There is one season I love-- warm but not humid. In California this is most of the year, but in Virginia that comes out to Spring and Fall. Spring is fantastic-- I love all the green and the beauty and how most of the bugs just haven't made it out of larvae stage yet. Unfortunately, it's also the time of the first invasion of the ants, not to mention the annual "spring cleaning".

With the arrival of the baby soon, and the amassing of stuff that we've been doing over the last two years, we realized how badly we needed more storage. We've pretty much exhausted the available space in the attic (you're not supposed to walk up there, so storage is limited to the immediate area surrounding the door), and our closets are chuck full of volleyballs, volleyball courts, and plyo boxes (the joys of off-season living), and our outdoor closet/shed has been occupied by bags of lime and seed and an old rug Johnathan wasn't certain he wanted to throw away. Solution on a tight budget? Sam's club and a small outdoor storage box. Now the lime and seed and ice chests have a home, and I can actually get to the tools at the back of the shed. Hurray for organization!

Now, it's time for some Southern sweet tea, front-porch sitting, to enjoy today's work!

Employee Turn Around

Our offices were called to a meeting on Friday with head management to tell us that since Chick-Fil-A has a low employee turnaround rate, Liberty should do more to keep it's employees than it has been doing. It's funny-- everyone who knows anything about business knows that it costs much more to lose an employee and train another one than to keep the ones you have happy so that you don't lose them. Unfortunately, our offices never seemed to care that many of the changes they instituted would end up costing employees. For example, earlier this year we were informed that our offices would be restructuring and about half of our team would be placed on an outbound dialer system all day. Many of my team were asked and agreed to be a part of this team because they would receive a steady schedule of 9-6, instead of having to work late nights every couple of days. So after all of the teams were decided, we were called into a meeting and told that in 3 weeks the new dialer team would work 12-9 (instead of 9-6 like they'd been told), and that the old team would have to work several Saturdays a month, and extra late nights in the week. I think after 6 months, only 2 people on the original dialer team of 20 or so still worked in this office.

    So you could say retention of employees is a problem. It would have worked much better to hire an entirely new set of people to work the 12-9 shift, while those with seniority were allowed to maintain the schedules that they had had since beginning. (A sort of phase-out type thing) Many of those people had families, and were allowed no flexibility. Many of us, like me, were required to back out of community and church commitments we'd made because we could no longer make the meetings in the evenings. Our offices did nothing to work with these employees, and most left to find jobs outside of Liberty.
So after all of this employee care, head management has one talk with Chick-Fil-A, is astounded that they (a food service company!!!!) have a lower retention rate than we do (a university), and decide they should do something about that.

    Their conclusion? A career plan for everyone. Because we all want a career on the phones! Hip hip hooray! They also offered us raises, which will definitely help with retention since no one will be able to leave our team for another position at our company. The only way out will be to leave our employer altogether! Three cheers for employee retention!!!!

Lazy Day

    Today was a lazy day. I stayed up way too late last night at the urging of Husband and paid for it in nausea this morning. I stopped throwing up around 12, and have been reading Emma ever since. My back and hips have been getting progressively sorer as my stomach rounds out a little. Sitting is the worst! I pad my chairs with pillows and when I get up it takes me a second before I can walk again. So add that to the rest of my pleasant pregnancy "symptoms" and you have someone who will need to be convinced very seriously that there are no adoption options available before she gets pregnant again.

    As I am nearly 16 weeks with a higher level of nausea than when it began, I think I'm going to be sick the rest of my pregnancy. This really makes eating healthy tough. I get sick with veggies and meat which are expensive enough without me wasting them by throwing them up. Fruit makes me hungrier, and so my staples are Cheerios with milk in the morning, a bagel with peanut butter for lunch, and usually white rice with soy sauce for dinner. Snacks in between are clementines, bananas, occasionally yogurt (when it doesn't make me sick), popsicles, water, and propel because there are a lot of vitamins in it.  I've also kept a bag of pretzels by my desk at work because if I'm not throwing up I really AM hungry but  have to settle for snacking. . . I haven't had any cravings at all (except for watermelon, which was a normal thing pre-pregnancy, so I don't know if it counts), and with my nausea seriously doubt if I will. I don't do well with sugar and I've all but given up on Starbucks (except for on rare good days!)

     Johnathan is starting at Living Word already with helping with the evening services. Our first official Sunday there will be in three weeks, and we are both pretty excited. I am really nervous though, about starting over, especially because of all the services I am missing now due to illness. I am also nervous because it will be a lot more work for a little less money, and his flexibility will be much more limited than it is now-- when he can pretty much do anything he wants anytime he wants to. I am thinking (of course) ahead to the baby, and whether he can watch the baby when I'm working, etc.

    All this daily misery has me thinking ahead an awful lot to when our baby is born. I think we've finally realized that unless Husband gets a hefty raise at either of his jobs, that I will have to work, at least part time. We've also pretty much concluded that I will be leaving my current job, because it would be simply ridiculous for me to try to do it and be a mom. I suck in general at doing things when I am tired, and my job drains me daily. I can't imagine trying to deal with the stress of my current schedule (it's the worst when you work 12-9 pm and then have to be back at work before 9 am the next day) and the stress of talking to idiots 8 hours a day, and then coming home to try keep our baby on some sort of feeding and sleeping and playing schedule.  So with that settled between Johnathan and I, I am praying (and ask you to pray) for wisdom for me. I first want to approach my boss's boss to see if they would be willing to move me to a different department where I can work part-time or even 8-5 (or even earlier, if possible) and actually do something somewhat enjoyable for a change!  I know it seems early to make this request, but I feel like the sooner I get out of my current job the better I'll feel everyday. And if they are not willing to work with me at all, I'll need to get started making arrangements elsewhere. In truth, I am so excited about the possibility of my pregnancy actually being a way out of my job that I am afraid I'll jump the gun by asking too early.

    Now that you know all the intimate details of my intense desire to have our future all planned out (perhaps I would feel better each day if I knew I had something to look forward to!), we sincerely covet your prayers. I need hourly help to make it through each day at work and attempt/be/remain satisfied in Christ, and Johnathan could really use wisdom as we start over in a new church.

I'm Glad I Don't Have Kids, Yet

I have really been dealing with splitting priorities lately. Some days of the week (you never can tell which one it will be) I don't have to work until 12, so I have the most difficult time deciding what action to take. Do I . . .

• sleep more? (I never get enough.)
• make breakfast?
• spend hours in prayer?
• do my homework?
• watch TV?
• go to Starbucks and do homework?
• go to Starbucks and spend time writing prayer?
• call the people I never talk to (P.S. my phone's been dead for almost a week)?
• clean the house?
• read?
• blog?
• pay the bills?

I was explaining my dilemma to my friend, David-- father of two. He laughed and expressed his wish to have the same problem. I must have given him a strange look because he hurried to add. "My battling priorities are . . . play with kids at home or play with kids not at home? There are no other options."

David wins.

Okay, but seriously. I find this problem to be very puzzling. I could always get closer to Jesus. But I also have to have this life. I could always do my homework (it seems to be never ending) but I also have keep my house livable. I could always pray about where I should put my money -- another battle entirely [student loans, charity, friends who need money, credit card, savings, extra mortgage payments]. But I also have to pay my bills.

I can't seem to nail down God's priority for my life. We'll take the smaller money battle, for instance. If I have extra money, what constitutes being a good steward? Putting money in savings, using it to pay off outstanding debt (mortgage, student loans), helping friends who could also use it, sending it to missionaries? What wins? What does Jesus want?

From My Vacation . . .

The characters: Me, Janell, Tatiana/Becca, Missy, Brittany and Matt (at their wedding)

The characters: me, Johnathan, Virginia Beach

Graduation Day

Husband and I . . .

Family and I . . .

Mrs. Towles and I

Sims

    I've been sick the last couple of days and have been slightly bored. Only so bored that I've played about three weeks of the cell phone game Sims 2. I think there are other, real video games that exist which are related to this game-- you know, where you eat, sleep, pee, shower, love, etc.

   So I think I'm addicted, and because I'm addicted I'm going to philosophize. In this game, you meet and culture relationships with people, you get better jobs through each friend you meet, and with each new job, more money. As you earn more money, more "stuff" becomes available for you to buy-- like a bathtub, a stove, a living room, a party room, a juice bar, a  hot tub. In addition, there is always a list of "wants" a Sim has which range from "tell a dirty joke" to "get married" to "buy alarm clock."

    Once you get past the first three weeks or so, there's not a whole lot of additions you can add to your house, or stuff which will improve your quality of life-- sex is clearly the best way to pass the time, as you can do it for three hours in two seconds. (It takes thirty "minutes" to go to the bathroom, so you can imagine that three weeks without sex goes by incredibly slow.)

    I married "Ben" early in the game (by day two). I also found out that though I was married to him and we were having "sleep-overs" twice a day, I quickly fell in love with Penny, a friend of mine who got me a job as a head chef. And then one of the wants which popped up was "get divorced." I got divorced after two weeks of holding out just to see what would happen. I remarried Ben but asked Penny to move in. And despite the fact that I am now having sex-- excuse me, sleepovers-- with three other people, everybody still loves me 100 out of 100!

    So, clearly this is a very amoral game. Quite representative of American culture. Here's another reason. The absolute only reason I am still playing is to see what other things I can buy.

He who dies with the most toys wins!

It shames me to be this way.