This is Me Shouting from the Rooftops

DAVE GOT A JOB!!!!!!

Yup, we're super excited.  I started this blog about a month after Dave got laid off and after 2 years, 3 months, hundreds of resumes sent out and dozens of interviews and meetings in 3 different states, we are proud to announce that not only does Dave have a new, REAL job (he has been working a temp job since January), but it's in the field he wanted so he's successfully moving into a new career.

After years in the lab and being an unemployed foster dad to our lovely four-legged friends, then working a very short term position that ends in three weeks, Dave landed a position in lab equipment sales that he'll be great at.  His technical background, having used most of the equipment he'll sell, will really help him be successful.  I'm so proud of him and how hard he's worked to get to exactly where he wants to be.  He made getting a job a full time job, even when it was hard and discouraging.  Even when he spent over a year talking to and meeting with about a dozen people from the same company, hoping to convince them to find a place for him (oh, yeah, the job isn't even with them!), he pushed through.  Even when the unemployment checks stopped and we tightened our belts even more, he tried to stay positive and kept me sane, telling me of all the things we'd do and places we'd go "when I get a job." 

It hasn't been easy and I certainly don't wish these circumstances on anyone, but I am so proud that he was able to find exactly what he wanted and stay true to his commitment of not going back into the lab.  Spending the first years of our marriage dealing with unemployment and a career shift hasn't been a picnic, but I know it's made us a stronger couple and we'll be able to get through the next challenges that lie ahead because we've become a pretty good team.   

We are so thankful to all our friends and family who have been supportive and understanding these past few years. Knowing when to ask about Dave's prospects (and even more, when to stop asking), definitely helped us know we had people on our side.  Our gifts have been meager (but made with love) and we appreciate all the friends who never pressured us to go out and let us host them in our home so we could be conscience of our budget. 

Celebrations will come and we'll share the celebrating with all our friends at some point.  But in the meantime, I've been promised a honeymoon and it looks like we might actually get to take it.  Guess we should decide where we want to go.

Oh Interwebs, Why Do You Toy With Me?

So I love Pinterest (follow me!).  It's kind of awesome and it's a great place for me to find recipes and post what I've make for the cookie blog, as well as find crochet projects and other cool things.  This morning, I logged in to post some muffins and noticed that 185 people had repinned a recipe that I posted yesterday.  Woohoo!  It's a lot for me because I might get 5 people repinning something and those are mostly people I know.  I don't know 185 people, so that was pretty cool.

Anywho, on the side bar, Pinterest will list the most recently pinning and liking activity for your pins.  This morning I had this:

My first thought was: No, that's probably just some chick named Eva Mendes, it's not a completely unusual name.  But I clicked anyway.  Sure enough, this is the profile I was taken to:

Sigh.  You almost got me crazy interwebs people.  And then I thought, well, I supposed if my name was Eva Mendes, I'd probably use the "famous" version of me's picture on my profile too.  I mean seriously, she's hot.  Plus, I figure with these things pinned under her Movies & TV board, it can't possibly be the real Eva--I mean, there's not one movie from the Fast & Furious franchise.

I Can't Make This Up

Conversation between Dave and I the other night:

Dave: I'm going to be busy tomorrow.  I got a lot of stuff to do.

Me: Oh yeah?

Dave: Yeah.  I got a shed to clean out.  I have 3 cars to wash.  I have to go to the hoobajoo to get the spinny thing.

Me: The who and the where?

Dave: The hoobajoo...you know, to get the fan.

Me (laughing, hard): No, I don't know.

Dave: Well, I couldn't get storage locker and since I was committed to hoobajoo, I couldn't say, 'I need to go to the hoobajoo to get the...fan.'  That wouldn't sound right.

So Halfway Through April, huh?

It's been one of those times without very much funny stuff going on.  But that's not to say that nothing at all is going on.

Cindy and Keith welcomed little Jessie a couple weeks ago. On March 29th she finally made her entrance.  She's super cute and both Mom and baby are healthy (but a bit tired).

This is Dave holding little Jessie.  He'd never held a baby before.  Not that he hadn't held a baby who was three days old--he'd never held a baby ever.  Of any size.  He finally relented to my peer pressure and agreed to hold Jessie.  And he didn't even break her.

Yes she's wearing a pink hoodie.  And she LOVES it.

Before Lemon went back to her foster home, she got comfortable enough with us to snuggle up and go to sleep on us.  (See--she really is super tiny.)  We were so glad that she finally came around to us and let us treat her like a pet.  She still has a lot of confidence to build and I'm sure her transition to her forever home will be a bit of a challenge, but she is definitely a dog worth saving.  Amanda told me this weekend that she was supposed to have a meet and greet but it was cancelled.  We'll be watching Lemon again this weekend, so hopefully she'll remember us and be a good pup.  And on Sunday I'm taking her to Especially for Pets for an event sponsored by our group, All Dog Rescue.

I'll just help you check your email.

Dave and I have been enjoying the bursts of spring we've been getting, taking to the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail on our bikes as often as we can.  We can access the trail from the end of our street (well, the cross street at our corner), so it's been easy to just hop on the bikes and go.  At one end, the trail dumps into the parking lot of a movie theater.  With The Avengers, Men in Black III and other movies coming out this summer, I think I know what we'll be doing over the next few months.  And if we take the trail to the other direction and bang a left, we can be at Kimball Farm for the most delicious ice cream EVER in about 5 miles.  It is my understanding that the calories don't count if you ride your bike there and back.