Not a statistic anymore

JEFF GOT A JOB! He interviewed with three different places this past week.

The first interview on Monday was at a home care company who only wanted someone to take call one night a week, so that wasn't really a great source for income.

The second interview was on Tuesday at the Pullman Hospital. It was a full time day position, working 3-12 hour shifts a week. We weren't too thrilled about commuting every day, but figured it would be better than not having a job at all.

The third interview was on Wednesday with a different home care company here in Spokane. This is the one that we thought wasn't going to hire a full time person until October. We know the one other therapist who works there, her husband was Jeff's Supervisor at Preferred. So we are not sure why, but they decided to call Jeff in for an interview. Jeff was there for close to 3 hours! At the end of the interview, the owner told Jeff that they were going to throw away the rest of the resumes and get back to him probably by the end of the week.

On Friday Jeff was offered the job and asked if he could start this coming Wednesday. (I probably don't need to say this, but Jeff did take the job.)

Tool Belt

For as long as we can remember Mason has LOVED tools and can name each one. This has actually come in real handy when doing a project and in need of a certain tool, Mason is just the man for getting the tool. We were at the hammer store (Lowe's) the other day and Mason REALLY wanted his own tool belt, so we let him spend a little bit of his birthday money on a tool belt. Here he is showing off his new tool belt.

Garage Shelf

Right now we have six houses being built on our block. After the framers are completely done Jeff goes over to their big garbage pile and finds perfectly good 2'x6's (if you don't mind if the wood is bowed and has a few nails in it). He has also found whole and partial pieces of ply wood. Jeff figured that if he "dumpster dived" after the framers were done with each house, he would soon have enough wood to build a shelf in our garage. Plus we had lots of left-over screws from other miscellaneous projects. So today he built this shelf (with help from the professionals, me, Mason and Cooper of course). The only things we had to buy were 8 joist hangers and 1 box of 4 1/2" screws, which cost us just under $15.00!!! Doesn't it look awesome! Jeff did a great job! Thanks Jeff.

Rub a dub dub...

5 boys in the tub. Last night all 5 boys need a bath, so we thought, why not squeeze them all in our Master Bath. They all fit and had lots of fun playing in the water together.

Cooper's 2nd Birthday Party

Sunday night we celebrated Cooper's 2nd Birthday with family and a few friends.For Cooper's cake I made two 9x13 cakes and printed off a big #2. I cut out the "2" and used both pieces as a stencil for the sprinkles.

The finished product of one cake. Check out Cooper's attire! Classic.

Finished product of both cakes. Not bad for pulling something together last minute. Yes, I do mean last minute. I didn't have a clue what I was going to do for Cooper's cake until about 11:00 Sunday morning.

I'm not sure what was going on here, but he must have been either upset about something, trying to explain something to someone, or possibly directing air traffic.

Michael

Dietrich and Lillyanne

The birthday boy while everyone sang Happy Birthday to him. Sorry no video of that, I forgot to tell my sister to get video, and she didn't read my mind. Gosh!

Opening presents!

Cooper's rich!

50th Anniversary

This Saturday was Jeff's Maternal Grandparents 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration. For lunch we went to the Timber Creek Buffet out in the Valley, which was a really good buffet. Then we went to Jeff's Grandparents house for cake and to visit with family.

Grandpa and Grandma Long. Happy Anniversary!
Aunt Antja with her granddaughter, Lucy. The 8 great grand children. Lucy, Bailey, Ashley, Megan, Connor, Hannah, Mason, Cooper.

Selena and Cooper

Yours truely!

Mason playing with Daddy

Part of the statistic now

Jeff was laid off on Friday. We have known it was a possibility for a little while now, but it is hard just the same. He was laid off because their branch doesn't get much business. As I said, we have known this was a possibility, so Jeff has been applying for any and all Respiratory positions he could find. Unfortunately, the hospitals have been on hiring freezes and most other places are not hiring either. So, needless to say, he never found another job BEFORE being laid off.

We went to the temple just two days before Jeff was laid off. We both got the feeling while there that Jeff didn't get any of the other positions he applied for because our Heavenly Father has another plan for us, and that he will show us, when the time is right, what that plan is. I'm grateful we went to the temple before all this happened, being in the temple has given me the comfort I need to endure this trial.

We are choosing to look at this "trail" as a blessing in disguise. Jeff really wasn't happy at Stat, but wasn't going to leave until he had another job lined up. It's like our Heavenly Father is saying, OK guys, here is the first step on my plan, figure out the rest now.

Jeff does have one lead on a RT position, but that might not happen until October, but he did take in his resume today anyway. Until then, or for how ever log he is needed, Jeff is going to work for a good friend of ours, Terry, who owns a construction company.

Heathens!

A few weeks ago I took a trip to the bank with my two boys and my sisters' three boys. As we were at the drive up window, Mason asked if they could all have a sticker. The bank was out of stickers, but had rub on tattoos. So as soon as we got home the boys all sat around the table and waited patiently for me to put on their tattoos. They LOVED them! Look at those grins!

Converstion

After leaving the Doctor's office this morning, this is a converstation Mason and I had while driving to our next destination.

Mason: Mom wouldn't it be great if there were two mommy Crystynes?

Me: Sure would Mason, but why do you want two mommies?

Mason: Because what if you died? I would still need a mommy.

Me: Oh Mason you don't need to worry about that, I'm not going to die any time soon.

Mason: Yes you are! In two years!


I hope he isn't right about this one....

Check-ups

Today was Mason and Cooper's six month check-ups at the Dentist and their yearly check-ups with the Doctor. I accidentally scheduled their Dentist and Doctor appointments on the same day. We had an early start to our day with the Dentist appointments first at 7:30am. Mason did great, he let the hygienist polish his teeth and put fluoride on them then he let the Dentist look at them. Cooper let the Dentist look at his teeth, but wouldn't let the hygienist do much. I think the hygienist gave up too easy though, she put the fluoride up to his mouth and when he didn't open right away, she stopped trying. Maybe I should have been the one to try to get Cooper to open up his mouth, and maybe I would have if the hygienist didn't give up after the first try. Oh well. Neither of the boys had any cavities!

Then it was off the the Doctors for Mason's 4 year check-up and Cooper's 2 year check-up. Mason was really excited to go to the Doctors, which he hasn't been for a little over a year, when our Doctor moved out of Spokane. Well our Doctor moved back to Spokane about two months ago. Mason saw him at church and was really excited when I told him that he moved back and would be our Doctor again. When the MA came out to get the boys, Mason wasn't too happy that it wasn't Dr. Osmun coming to get him. So Mason wouldn't talk to the MA and as soon as she left the exam room Mason said, "but I thought I was going to get to see Dr. Osmun!" Whoa! Hang on there little fella, you will, just wait. Once Dr. Osmun came in the room, Mason started talking, asking questions, telling Dr. Osmun funny stuff like, "wouldn't it be funny if there was two Dr. Osmuns?" I was starting to think Mason had a crush on Dr. Osmun and that I would never get him out of the office, until the MA came back in with four shots for Mason and one for Cooper. Mason cried ten times worse than Cooper and he pouted all the way home.

Mason's stats: 3'7" tall (43"), 41 lbs.

Cooper's stats: 2' 10 1/2 " tall (34.5"), 31 lbs.

A piece of useful (or useless) info for you:

They say that if you double a two year old height, that is how tall they will be as an adult.

If that is true, Cooper should grow to be 5' 9" tall.

At two years old Mason was 36.5" tall, so he should grow to be 6' 1" tall.

Happy Birthday Cooper!

Our baby is TWO today! It's absoultley crazy! We love our chubby little Coop very much and are grateful he is apart of our family (even when he whines 24/7). Just minutes old.One year oldTwo years old.

I WON! I WON!

Our friends, the Meaghers, taught us how to play this game and we have played it several times with them. We have also taught others how to play. If I had to give a guess of how many times we have played I would guess at least 20 times and NOT ONCE did I win. Until the other night! We taught Julia and Bill how to play. Julia won that first game, winners luck, right? (That's what I told my bruised ego anyway.) The next night we played again and I finally won!

Bulldog

My wonderful husband calls me a bulldog when ever it comes to negotiating deals with people. Like when we bought our 4Runner, Jeff, when talking about that experience says, "you should have seen her, she was such a bulldog dealing with the salesman, man she wasn't backing down"....blah, blah, blah.

Jeff wrote a letter to our two Senators concerning the Universal Health Care Bill. It was written well, but the one thought I had after reading it was: And you call me a bulldog?

You can read it for yourself on Jeff's blog. click HERE

Broken

Our little photographer (*cough* Mason) thought he would help me out (after I downloaded pictures from our camera onto our computer) by putting the memory card back in the camera. Well.... he put the memory card in sideways and bent one of the prongs inside the camera, so our camera doesn't work anymore. Sad. No more pictures...until we save up for another camera.

Our house has be bustling with lots of activity. First our friends from Utah were at our house (as I said a few posts ago) from July 15-21. Then they went to Colville July 21-27 and were back at our house from July 27-30. Then my sister (Julia), brother-in-law (Bill), and their three kids moved in on July 31st and will be staying with us for 4-6 weeks. So yeah....it'll be fun with a capital F. No actually, it's been going pretty well. It's only day 5, ask anyone of us on day 30, and we may have a different answer. I figure if we are sill taking to each other on day 30, then it's been a success!