movin' up in the world

I got the job I interviewed for last week! I am the newest communication specialist for the marketing department of a Fortune 500 financial services company! HR called me just before lunch to offer me the job. I told them I wanted to talk it over with my husband first, but there's no question I'm going to take it.

The pay is better than I expected and the benefits are excellent. Not to mention I will be able to return to 4th floor with the rest of the department - instead of being a lowly temp, shunned to 9th floor! We're still working out my official start date since they need time to hire someone and have me train them for my current position. Hopefully I will be able to start in a week or two.

It's such a relief to have a permanent job. Something you know is going to be there six months, a year down the road. And this means Ryan and I can get serious about buying a house!

Life is good! :-)

chubby rain drops

Either it's snowing outside or those are some seriously chubby rain drops. And to think I left my umbrella in my car - parked almost three blocks away. Isn't that a hoot! Yeah, pretty sure that's snow...

Driving home is going to be just swell too. Everything is under construction lending itself to more accidents than usual anyway... and if there's even a gray cloud in the sky people loose all ability to drive. Arg!

Hooray! A fellow co-worker just offered to give me a ride to my car so I won't get soaked. Those higher up the corporate ladder get to park in the ramps connected to the skywalks or the tunnel. Whereas I, a lowly temp, would have to fight for a spot in the only city ramp downtown if I didn't carpool with friends.

It's really snowing pretty hard now. I just realized I checked the Farmer's Almanac a few weeks ago to see if it was supposed to rain this weekend because we're going camping. I'm pretty sure it predicted a snow storm late April. What an amazing publication! I want to meet the super smart people (or persons) who can tell what the weather is going to do almost a year before. It perplexes me how they can be so accurate so far in advance when the tv meterologists don't know what's going on the very next day!

happy snow day

houses, jobs and easter

We were about five seconds from buying a house last week. It's an older house, built in 1900. It was repossessed from the bank and completely remodeled. The price was right, and we really liked the house. However, it doesn't have a basement - most houses don't because the town was essentially built on a drained wetland. It means no where to grow with no basement to finish off, and we might blow away if a tornado came through town. The clincher came when we realized my job is only temporary. Big risk to take with an unstable income. So we're going to hold off until I get a permanent job - hopefully in the next few weeks. Then we'll start seriously looking for a house.

I don't think I got the job I interviewed for last month. The woman who interviewed me recommended me for another position that came open. I'm guessing that means I didn't get the job, although I have yet to get a flush letter. Gotta love the way the corporate world works. But I have an interview this week for the job she recommended me for. So we'll see.

Ryan and I had a good Easter back home. Went to lunch with my Grandparents in Dubuque and then had supper at mom and dads with my other grandparents. We rented movies and hung out with Laura and Adam Saturday night. We went to church Sunday morning and mom made dinner. It wasn't like previous years with masses of aunts, uncles and cousins around, but it was nice.

plain truth

Back home it was pretty common to find a horse and buggy tethered to a light pole in the Fareway or K-mart parking lot. It was no surprise to see an orange "slow moving" triangle of an Amish buggy bouncing down the shoulder of the highway. There are several Amish communities back home.
When my dad took over the feed business from my grandpa for a number of years, he delivered a lot of feed to the Amish and got to know them pretty well. Sometimes I got to ride along. It was always fun for me. Like visiting a different world. My dad usually only delt with the men, the women generally kept to themselves and let the men handle business. The children, naturally curious, could be seen peeking around corners. We were just as foreign to them.
I just finished reading "Plain Truth" by Jody Picoult, about an 18-year-old Amish girl who gets pregnant and is accused of killing her newborn. Given the religious beliefs of the Amish, it is easier to admit guilt (even if innocent) and take the punishment so as not to draw unneccessary attention to yourself. So when a distantly related hot-shot lawyer from the city ends up defending this young woman in a court system the Amish don't believe in - it causes a few ripples. As part of the bail contingency, the lawyer is mandated to live with this Amish family to babysit this young woman.
With a little knowledge of the Amish, I was intrigued with the book. A lot of the things I knew about the Amish were included, like how they do not like to have their picture taken and how when the kids reach adolescence they get to experiment with the things not typically afforded to them. Some things I questioned and there were some things about the Amish I had not heard about. Granted, this story was set in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and certainly fiction - the author did live with an Amish family for a time to get a feel of their lifestyle.
It was hystarical reading about this citified woman in her fancy suits and high heels dealing with the Amish lifestyle. But determined to prove to everyone she wasn't going to give up, she made every effort to learn as fast as she could.
The book told a great story. The details of the trail seemed to drag on forever, but knowing there was a point to it all kept me reading. And it provides an interesting twist at the end.
It made me remember numerous trips to the Yoder's to get some leather work done or the Hershburger's for canvas. I'll never forget the time we were allowed to give the Amish kids a can of pop. Their little bare feet barely touched the ground they were dancing around so much. You'd have thought it was the first sip of soda they had ever had - and honestly, it may have been.

spring fever

I would love nothing more than to be in the middle of nowhere today - a pasture, the timber. A place where I can appreciate this awesome day. Instead I'm trapped behind a computer and cubical wall. The window behind me reveals nothing more than a skyline choked with buildings and way too much pavement.

I have a bad case of spring fever, fed by the past several days of recent storms and this one glorious day. The grass is gradually turning a bright shade of green, the trees are starting to bud out and I saw my first robin over the weekend.

I'm anxious to get dirty. I can't remember the last time I did a little manual labor. Growing up I was always helping my dad with something on the weekend. I'm just itching to build something, throw a few hay bales or muck stalls. I guess I'll just have to settle for re-potting our sole house plant that is in dire need of a bigger home. Not quite the same, but it's the closest thing I've got.

A quick aside - I spent 11 hours straight scrapbooking with my sister-in-law on Saturday. I did 16 pages and am nearly finished with our honeymoon album. It looks awesome. After this I move on to the wedding album... : )