Quick Update

I have a second interview tomorrow with Telerx, the company that had given me an assessment interview yesterday (it went great...I can type 67 wpm with just one mistake) and she called about four hours later to let me know about this second interview. Please pray that it goes well and that I get the job. If I do, I will start working on the 18th of May, Monday through Friday, 7 1/2 hours a day, $8 an hour.

Another update involves my weight. If I remember, I had shared with y'all my goal at getting to my desired weight (150) by my goal age (30). I was able to meet my goal for age 25...actually, I surpassed my goal by one pound. I had originally wanted to weight 270LBs by March 27th...when I weighed myself I was down to 269LBs.

I do have to be honest though and let you know that I gained about 8 LBs during the first two weeks I was here in El Paso but I am now back on track and weighing 268LBs. Yay!!!

I am going to attempt one of those ticker things. That should be fun.

That's all!!! Keep praying for me, for both my job situation and my health

You're a Funny Dude.

So I've been spending a lot of my time over at Stephen and Krysia's. Mostly because I get to play with my favorite baby and also because I get invited for dinner and Krysia is an amazing cook (I am still college-student enough to appreciate a free meal). Anyway, I thought I would share a Jaden and Mommy moment that I absolutely loved.

Watching them play is one of my favorite things. It makes me think of that whole mother-child bond that's in place from the moment the child is born. Isn't that kid adorable? Here's another video of Jaden playing...he gets silly when he starts getting tired and sleepy.

I tell you, he's a funny kid. As you may be able to see in this video, he's sporting his first skinned knee. Krys said he took a head first tumble into the sand.

Well, other than that, the only new thing with me is that I have a job interview tomorrow at 10AM for an assessment concerning a call center job I had applied for on-line. I am praying that I get the job since I'm already behind on my phone payment and my car insurance payment is due on the fifth and I have to send in my credit card payment before the 11th.

Gag, I hate being an adult sometimes. The good news is, though, that I get to babysit Jaden most of Saturday while Krysia helps with the Join Hands event at church. Yay!!!

One more video, though. This would be Jaden's favorite activity...knocking down the tower of blocks that I build just for that purpose.

Sorry, Krysia, I know you usually do the video thing but I couldn't help it. If you think your parents would enjoy watching these, then invite them to log onto my blog so they can see them.

This kid is becoming the highlight of my stay in El Paso. I absolutely love him!

Bang! Bang!

Here I am, updating my blog and listening to Jaden slam the counter doors since they have baby-proof something or other that won't allow Jaden (and myself the first time I tried to open one of the cabinets to get to the trash can) to open them and get into the things underneath.

Oh, Amanda, if you have a missed call for sometime around 6:05PM MST, it wasn't me. Jaden was playing with my phone and called you as well as dialed my voice mail. He enjoys playing with my phone, especially pressing the internet connection button in the middle...good thing I have that disconnected, that way I won't be charged for any internet surfing or whatever.

Right now, he's a little fussy, but I think it's because he's hungry. I'd be fussy too if I couldn't find a way to make my own food when I had a grumbling tummy.

Well, the job fair this past Saturday went alright. I turned in three different applications and gave one of the companies my resume (they weren't handing out applications). I had a job interview yesterday which I believe went well but I have to wait up to two weeks before they are done interviewing all applicants and start the testing process and second interview. What position did I apply for? Secretary, of course.

I am applying on line for a call center company that works with pharmaceutical companies. Not something that I enjoy doing but it would be a job and that's something I really need.

So what's new in my life? As in, why am I updating? Well, nothing much new except I made two French Strawberry Pies for Sunday's after Choir Concert get together hoopla at church and I had Krysia and Steve (and Jaden of course) come over for dinner yesterday evening. I made a salad with carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers and purple onions along with the lettuce of course and then we had enfrijoladas, which is the equivalent of enchiladas except with black beans and not red chili sauce. My mom made the rice and I made strawberry yogurt pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Stephen told me he would hire me (don't know why since Krysia is an amazing cook) and my stepdad simply said I was ready to get married. I suppose that was meant to be a compliment.

I am almost done reading The Host by Stephanie Meyer (just have a couple more pages to go) for, like, possibly the sixth time.

Oh yeah! Here are some pictures of my new best friend that I thought would be fun to share.

This was taken at Steve's parents' backyard on Easter Sunday. Krysia "hid" a couple of plastic eggs for Jaden to look for and put in the basket. He was doing a pretty good job of it but once he realized that turning the basket upside down made the eggs all fall out, I think he had even more fun putting them in the basket.
And in this one, Stephen was trying to help Jaden get the eggs and put them in the basket by pointing them out. I don't know why, but I absolutely love this picture.

It makes me think of our Heavenly Father hovering over us as we go about our lives, doing what we want to do and what we should do and what we shouldn't do.

God's love truly is unconditional, not at all based on our abilities and talents, or on our behavior and manners. He loves us because that's who He is...a God of love. He can do nothing else but love us and that's what Easter is about...the amazing love God has for undeserving people like us nailed up on a cross to be desplayed to all but even better...an empty tomb to show that death is not the end. He has eternity waiting for us.

And this one is at the top of one of my favorite pictures of my buddy J. He was laughing at Miguel who was making funny noises while they were picking up all the electrical stuff they had used for the Choir Concert that was hosted at San Pablo Lutheran Church and organized by the Missionary Institute that is housed at the Ysleta Lutheran Mission.

This kid is the easiest kid to entertain. As long as you feed him when he's hungry, he hardly ever cries...unless of course he falls and bumps his head but that only lasts for half a minute before he's back to his usual happy let's play mood. You should hear him laugh...I love hearing him laugh.

Well, done with picture time (I mean, I do have more pictures but I don't want to take away from Krysia's joy of uploading pictures of Jaden onto her blog). I am going to go into the kitchen and join Jaden and Krysia for dinner. Krysia made jambalaya and I always like joining J for a meal...he's fun to watch.

Well, keep praying for me. I will keep looking for employment and not let desperation get ahold of me. Hope you enjoyed the update!!!

Bloody...

Another nosebleed.

So, as some of you know, it seems like I have a faucet for a nose. My nosebleed for the week just ended about five minutes ago. Unfortunately, I got blood on my t-shirt. Ugh. What is up with that?

Becca once suggested they could be stress-induced nosebleeds...and yes, I am stressed. I have no job as of yet and two bills that are three digit long and no way to pay them.

I'm going to have to call concerning my student loans and see if I could get them deferred for a couple of months or so. As for my phone bill...well, we shall see if I can afford to pay that.

So what is new with me? Well, I am more than likely starting to get depressed. I recognize the signs and I understand why my mom is so worried about me. I really need to get myself a job and I really want to be able to get out of the house and earn money of my own so I can pay my bills and hopefully move out to live on my own.

Other than that, I am reading a lot, sleeping a little and eating every so often. I hardly go out of the house unless I have to or am made to.

Today, I sat in for my mom at her intensive Reformation class taught at the Missionary Institute at the YLM, which was interesting mostly because I got to hear it all in Spanish. I did, after all, take Reformation for a semester at Concordia.

I am feeling so yucky right now. Kind of like I'm neither here nor there. I have no one place to set my feet on and I don't want to stand where I'm at. That's pretty much it. I don't really have anything else to talk about or anything new to update on.

Prayers are much appreciated!!!

Kabbalah -Stay Positive

As you can imagine, I am yet to the two week mark and am already going nuts living with my parents. I mean, it has nothing to do with the fact that my parents are crazy. Not literally, I suppose, but kind of in that way where you go "You gotta be kidding."

So let me update you on what's happened in my life since the last update. Let me see...on Friday, April 3rd, my mother shows up at the house with a cute female Pomeranian. Now, we already have two inside dogs (and an outside dog as well) so my first thought was, "Oh crap." Now, it turns out that this little dog was lost so my mom picked it up before it got thrashed by a neighbor's big dog. Anyway, I called animal control and gave them her Rabies tag number, which resulted in us finding out that her name was Holly (Isn't that interestingly ironic, Beccs?) and they called and left a message with the owner.

Anyway, I made plans to go out with Stephen, Krysia and Jaden for dinner to celebrate my 25th birthday a week late and by that time, the owner hadn't called yet. My parents let me know that if the owner didn't call back we weren't going to call animal control and we would just keep the dog, which would in all reality be my dog because I didn't have an allergic reaction to her like I do to our other two dogs (both short haired dogs). So I left my house, thinking, "My parents are nuts!"

I had dinner at Shangri-Lan, a Chinese restaurant that's alongside the I-10 highway. It was really good food and they had live music. Beccs, have you ever wondered what a combination of Chinese and Mexican atmospheres result in? A Mexicanese atmosphere! I just came up with that one.

So now you all want to know whether I have a dog of my own that in all reality I can't afford, uh? After dinner, Steve, Krysh and JT dropped me off and I was able to hang out with Holly for a bit before I realized I had a voicemail in my phone. The owner called so I called her back and she came by to pick up the dog. Turns out that the dog was her grandson's who is currently stationed in Afghanistan.

Well, that was Friday. One of those "How did I end up with these parents?" moments.

Anyway, church on Sunday was good, especially since I decided to start taking notes during the sermon. This Sunday, the lay minister gave the sermon and although he touched on the basic law and gospel concepts concerning Palm Sunday, he rambled on too much for me to make sense of the rest.

As for today, well, I finally mailed out my Oklahoma state taxes (I'm getting $41 back, although I think I may be cheating the state out of $3 but I am not sure) as well as my credit card and car insurance payment. I still have no job but for some strange reason, I'm not losing sleep over it like I was in Waco. I think it's because my having a roof over my head and food on the table does not depend upon my being employed. The only thing that depends on my being employed would be getting my bills payed and the next upcoming bill is my student loan payment for this month.

Anyway, I would like to explain the title of this blog update. It involves my stepdad, me, Jaden and Stephen's Genesis class (although I don't think Kabbalah was attached to the lesson for today so much as a comment he made to another student concerning the evil eye...I think).

You see, once I got back home from the church where I went to make copies of my federal tax returns to mail off with my state tax returns, I found the house empty so I made myself some chickend with brocolli, cauliflower, carrots and some mac-n-cheese. Eventually, as I was sitting down to eat, my parents arrived with some stuff, including this big piece of furniture that I knew had to be because of my mom.

Side note: for those who have been in my house (Becca, Stephen and Krysia) my parents are pack-rats...well, collectors. Okay, my stepdad collects and my mom's the pack-rat...forget that, they are both pack-rats...that's where I get it from. Dear Moses, if we were to have an open house on all items in the house, I might be able to get out of debt.

Anyway, back to the story about the big piece of furniture.

I helped my mom get it off the truck bed and told her not to bring it inside the house until she cleared some stuff out of her sewing room (this is the biggest room in the house and it used to be my bedroom before I left for college). Because she agreed to this, I went ahead and left it where we put it...in the driveway. Obviously, this ticked off my stepdad who then proceeded to push the thing out of the driveway and my mom tried to help him but since he was in one of his moods, I made my mom get out of the way before she could get hurt. Anyway, long story short, I called Krysia, grabbed my guitar, music and tuner along with my purse, phone and car keys and got out of Dodge.

I was feeling all down and blue and definitely crying but a trip to Wal-Mart and a walk around Wal-Mart with Jaden while Krysia did some grocery shopping lifted my spirits and turned my blue mood into some bright pink stuff with glitter that makes you realize all is good with the world because God has blessed you with life, love, family and friends.

According to Stephen (who I join on his on-line Genesis class if I'm at their place around 6:30PM) Kabbalah is a religion that finds ways to ward off negativity. They work at staying positive.

Which made me realize -Jaden helped me find my center again and regain my positive view towards this whole thing. Afterall, my parents are letting me live with them rent free and are feeding me and such. I am very grateful to them and would like to repay them by making sure that I don't react negatively infront of them -which then leads to me leaving the house when tempers start to explode.

Anyway, other than that, I have update my DCE application and emailed it to Jim (who is still in charge of my placement -YAY!) and have checked out some more on-line job stuff. I'll be calling Family Christian Bookstore tomorrow to see if they have processed my application and will look into finding the Texas Workforce Commission here in El Paso.

Becca, I totally agree with your thoughts concerning animals as a witness to the existence of God. The reason I usually go with flowers, though, is for the same reasons as you went with animals. Flowers, too, are unique and so minutely designed and they also have different environments where they survive. Example: bluebonnets. They are the Texas state flower and although El Paso is a city in Texas, you cannot find a bluebonnet anywhere. Why? Because bluebonnets were not designed to survive in a desert-like environment. If everything had happened by accident, then wouldn't everything be everywhere, willy-nilly like, instead of having it's specific seasons and ecosystems? Doesn't that alone tell you that Someone greater than a cosmic accident has assigned specific flaura and fauna to specific places around the world?

Well, hope you have another theological update on your blog.

Oh, I have one for you. Do you know if Judas participated in the Last Supper, in other words, did he feast upon the flesh and blood of Jesus, before he ran off to sell him to the High Priest for thirty pieces of silver? This popped into my head during church this Sunday. The Gospel reading was from Mark, the Passion of Christ, starting with Palm Sunday and ending with the burial. As I sat there, I wondered to myself, if Judas did participate in the Supper, then did he drink and eat judgement upon himself? He obviously was unable to comprehend the full extent of that moment otherwise he wouldn't have betrayed the one who gave his body and blood for his salvation.

Okay, I think this is a L-O-N-G blog update so I need to cut it short. Keep praying for me to find employment.

Aardvark

I didn't know what to name this blog and this was the first thing that popped into my head.

Anyway, God told Adam that He had to name all the animals. Adam said okay, I guess I could do that. So he started with the easy ones -tiger, elephant, panther, eagle...platypus. Then he got to that one... I'll name that one aardvark.

God looked at Adam and cocked an eyebrow...how do you spell that Adam?

Adam looks at God and gives him a shy little smile, with two a's?

Enough of that. My day today started late. Probably because I went to bed late last night. Oh well, stuff happens. I did get applications for Michael's, Babies R Us, World Market, Bed, Bath & Beyond. Oh yeah, I also got an application for Starbucks after my mother treated me for dinner at Whataburger.

Tomorrow, I will return my filled out applications for Family Christian Bookstore, Barnes & Noble and Starbucks. I am also going to start looking into employment agencies here in El Paso. We'll see what I find.

Other than that jazz which rules my life, I've started the friend journal that Erin suggested and that Becca and I will be doing now that I am SO FAR AWAY from Austin. I've also started a new project...my step-dad clued me into it. You take a normal rubber ball the size of a tennis ball then buy TONS of pins and just start putting them halfway into the ball. Once you're done (Joe said it took him 5,000 pins to finish his) you end up with a pretty cool stress ball. Joe started me off by getting me a blue rubber ball and I've bought 1,000 straight pins today and started it before my mom took me out for dinner.

Anyway, other than that, life is alright. I was on the National Issues Forum on Tuesday evening concerning the cost of health care (this was aired on PBS at 6:30PM MST) and then Pastor treated me to Applebee's where I had a Blue Sunset Margarita...the glass was HUGE...well, not HUGE HUGE, but huge Huge...basically, more alcohol than I'm used to.

Yesterday evening, my cousin called to invite me to go bar hopping with him tomorrow night...I said no, since bar hopping is not really my scene. He did let me know he would bug me until I said yes so I told him if he was paying for everything, then I'll eventually say yes.

Now, I am hanging out at Krysia and Stephen's (I wonder how long before they get sick of me), listening to Stephen's World Religions class and, obviously, posting a new blog.

Oh, Becca!!! I introduced my step-dad to Corner Gas and even though it doesn't have Spanish audio and my step-dad doesn't completely understand English, he really enjoyed Oscar LeRoy...go figure. He then proceeded to say that would more than likely be him when he gets older. I responded "Your words, not mine." But I was actually thinking "When? Try now."

Oh, also, Beccs, thanks for updating your blog so soon after the last one. I say, keep it up!!! Even if it's just nonsense about a ho-hum day.

Please keep me in your prayers as I continue to look for employment.