Will You Help Me Find My Bed?

It is 5a.m. and I've been laying in bed, trying to sleep for the last hour. I give up. I was awoken at 4a.m. by a very distraught little girl with the most heart breaking cries. I welcomed her into my bed to soothe her and the first thing she said when she climbed in was "Mommy, I want to sleep in my own bed." I figured she didn't really know what she was talking about and if I could just get here to lay down she would calm down and fall asleep. But she resisted all efforts to coax her into laying down, repeating "I want to sleep in my own bed Mommy" in between sobs. Finally I said "Okay, go back to bed" and her response was clearly traumatic. As she related the following, her little voice got higher and higher until the last word she said was so high it broke and sobbing ensued "Will you help me find it? I-got-out-of-bed-and-I-coul-dn't-find-it." Papa came to the rescue on this and scooped her up promising to help her find her bed.

So here I am. I haven't written much lately. Nothing has changed as far as the Job situation is concerned and I guess I just feel like life is at a stand still. I am trying to get out of that frame of mind that just because we're not moving forward in that one area, doesn't mean we can't be productive or progressing in other areas. But it's been difficult. It really seems like there isn't much that we can do. We can't even really unpack completely.

Brent got on with a temp service that worked him to the bone the first few weeks and hasn't had any work since. He has been keeping busy studying for a few government positions that require exams and keeping up an intense job search. I am quickly realizing however, that we've got to have work and we've got to have it now. So we've been applying for several random positions to tide us over. I have my first interview today. I always hated the new job/interview jitters.

As far as the professional job hunt goes, every single position he has applied for has been a government position and unfortunately, at least in our limited experience, the government takes FOREVER to hire. So we are not completely discouraged by the literal silence on the other end, just frustrated that we have been on the edge of our seats for so long.

Positive things about my life right now:
-I LOVE spending so much time with hubby
-I am very happy to be here with and able to support family
-I am thrilled that Zoe is developing strong relationships with family
-Brent and I have been exercising a lot together
-I am getting a fantastic lesson in developing patience
-I learned how to make some really amazing whole wheat bread
-We've been able to see friends and extended family we wouldn't have been able to see given less time
-The weather has been outstanding, better than our wildest expectations. We have been taking the fullest advantage.
-It is the beginning of the Holiday Season
-We get to celebrate Halloween this year! Zoe has already been to one party, we carved pumpkins for family home evening yesterday and she has two more parties this week and then Halloween night!

Book Club

While I was in England I started reading a lot more than I have in a very long time. I really enjoyed myself too. I signed up to a cool little site called GoodReads and have had fun keeping track of and reviewing the books I have read as well as keeping up a list of the books I want to read.

I really want to continue reading, but I want to make sure that if I'm reading something, that it is going to be good. I don't want to waste my time on anything ill-written, depressing or trashy. If I am going to invest my time, I want to be laughing, enlightened, educated or in short, anything but disappointed that I just wasted a certain number of hours of my life reading a book, only to find out that I hated it.

I ended up started a group/book club on the GoodReads website called Let's Read Something Good. I started the group a few months ago, but that's all I did. I didn't really think about it again until the other day someone I don't even know asked if they could join my group. She's inspired me to get moving on this, so here I am writing this post. If any of you want to do this with me I would LOVE it! All you have to do is click on the link above to join my group. If you aren't already on GoodReads you have to sign up for the website, but it's pretty painless.

There will only be one book every other month or maybe even every three months, so there is no pressure. The book can be read at leisure and readers can join in the discussion whenever they are finished.

So yeah, come join my group and read with me.

2 Options

Well, it's been a little while again, but that is really because there just hasn't been much to write about. At the moment (and this, of course, is always subject to change) we are hanging on two main possibilities. The first, after a lot of thought and contemplation is actually my favorite, but only by a hair. Brent applied for a job with the state legislature. He actually has a really good chance of getting this job. He had an internship there a year or so ago and one of his fellow interns has is working there now in the same capacity as the job he has applied for. We don't know how much the pay would be, but we are pretty sure it would be enough. Barely enough, but enough and the benefits would be good. We would live downtown. It is stable and actually a job that if he stuck with, he could make a career out of. I don't think he would make this job his career, but we would plan on him staying there for quite some time and it is comforting to know that he could. One of the biggest gold stars for this job is the fact that Brent LOVED his internship there and we are pretty sure he would love this job just the same. He used to come home so happy and that, of course, made me happy.

Option 2 is still Taiwan. Brent would definitely get a job in November. There are still a lot of good things about going to Taiwan. I kind of see it as an extension of Brent's education. In fact I'm pretty sure that if we moved to Taiwan and he was able to learn Mandarin and gain experience in that culture, he would have more job opportunities available to him than he would if he got a PhD. However, this option is definitely more risky and unstable. When we were finished there we would go through what we are going through now all over again. A period of time spent applying for job after job after job, never knowing what's going to happen next. Possibly having to stay with one of our parents again for a time while we get things sorted. But it would also be an adventure and the chance of a lifetime.

We are considering quite a few other options and I don't even know how many jobs Brent has applied for. We are anxious for something to happen and are working hard to develop patience even though we fail time and time again. Despite all that, I should mention that I am EXTREMELY grateful to be here, particularly with my parents at this moment in time. They experienced an incredible hardship recently that is not my business to share on here, but ohhhh, I am so glad that I was here when it happened. I might have had a nervous breakdown just thinking about it if I was away and unable to be here. I am so grateful to be exactly where I am. I know that sometimes there are reasons for things, including our having to wait on the edge of our seats for so long. I just need to keep reminding myself of that.