September 2009

September came and went without much action until the very last day. I went into my favorite clothing store, Lane Bryant, with Allen one day looking for clothes, and I asked them "Are you hiring?" (I ask this in pretty much every store I go into) Many of the stores I've asked have pretty much said it would be an eternity before they were hiring again because the horrendous job market has lead hundreds of unemployed people to apply anywhere and everywhere, leaving them with hundreds of applicants for a handful of positions. However, this time things went a little differently. They said that they were hiring, so I filled out an application on the spot (much to Allen's dismay). A few weeks later I called back, asked if they were scheduling interviews yet, and secured myself an interview. When I went there, the person had no questions for me, and wanted to hire me on the spot. Awesome!

Not to sound like a broken record, but Allen's job searching process entered its 4th month on September 1st with very few prospects presenting themselves. Early in the month, he attended a career conference at the LDS Employment Resource Center with his spiritual guru Elder Larsen where he learned a lot about generating resumes and being confident in interviews. He parlayed the knowledge he had acquired into an interview with The Family Summit Foundation - A Center for Grieving Children and Top Ten Reviews (toptenreviews.com). The first interview went well, but he didn't get the job because someone more experienced came along after he met with Barbara Norris, the lady who runs the center. The second interview was far more promising. He had several good conversations with their recruiter, and a first interview that went extremely well. But you will have to wait until next month to hear the rest of that story.

On September 19th, Allen was baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He had to be submerged a second time because his knee floated to the surface, but it went off pretty seamlessly regardless.

We got our awesome niece McKenna a pink bicycle. The party was awesome. She fell asleep before we ate cake though, so she wasn't too happy to be woken up to blow out the candles. Oh well!

Toodles, sunbeams and sunbeamettes!

August 2009

As August began, our first anniversary crept ever closer, and we couldn't have been more excited. On the morning of the 8th, I went out to our car, the adorable Chevrolet Tracker, to get something out of my purse. To my surprise, it wasn't there. We searched the car inside and out, and turned over every leaf in the house. No purse anywhere. Since Allen left the car unlocked, we all came to the obvious conclusion that someone had stolen. Contents of the purse appeared near our house to further prove this claim.

Later that day, we were supposed to go to the Hilton Garden Inn in Layton, Utah to celebrate getting over the "one year hump." But after the demoralizing blow we had just received, we didn't want to do anything, let alone celebrate. Somehow, someway, we mustered the energy to go to that hotel, but needless to say the night was pretty lackluster. It was nowhere near how bad the day had been, but it wasn't as great as I wanted it to be. A little reminiscing later and the entire shindig wasn't a complete loss.

Towards the middle of the month, Allen began missionary lessons to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I'd been casually suggesting that he should join the church since we got together, but I wanted him to make his own decision. It might have taken him awhile, but he stood on his own two feet against a family who didn't agree with his religion, and forged ahead. For that, I'm proud of him.

The job search continues. Finding a job these days is like finding a needle in a haystack, or Waldo in a "Where's Waldo" puzzle on steroids. Oh well!

See you next time. Buh-bye

July 2009

Our trip to Camp Tuffit in Proctor, Montana went off without a hitch on June 26th, bringing that month to a close and starting July with a bang. Before we left, the house we share with Jean got sold, leaving us scrambling to find a new place to live. She looked at a few places before settling for a condo on a golf course in Pleasant View. The trip was made a lot easier without the worry of potential homelessness hanging over our heads. Unfortunately, the prospect of a strenuous, lengthy move loomed in the distance.

Allen and I had a good time with each other for the most part while Brian, Andrea, Valentina, and Jean provided some occaisonal bursts of enjoyment. The back and forth between Brian and Allen made for a lot of laughs while the girl talk between me, Jean, and Andrea was invigorating. Valentina is a ray of sunshine who brings smiles to the faces of everyone who sees her. We were excited to get home at the end of the week and start working.

We never realized how difficult narrowing down the amount of stuff three people have, packing what's left, and transporting everything. The new place needed the carpet removed because it smelled like cats and dogs had free reign. Paint would finish the process of making the condo look like a perfect home. Needless to say, we can't wait for the seemingly endless moving process to end.

Next month, we have our 1 year anniversary. Whoa. The time has flown by fast!

Talk to you all Later

Sunbeams

June 2009

We went up to Allen's mother's camping lot at Sourdough Wilderness Ranch in Ogden Canyon on June 6th. This lot has been in the family for 15 years, but has been neglected for the past 10 years. We hope we can return it to its former glory. Allen thought it would be a lot of work, so he tried to get out of going. Little did we know, it wasn't that bad. 6 hours of weed-trimming, tree-chopping, junk-rearranging, surface-scrubbing, floor-sweeping, trash-hauling goodness later, we were finished and ready to come off the mountain. Little did we know, this would be our last trip there until after our trip to a little slice of heaven in Montana called Camp Tuffitt later this month. After we return on the 4th of July, we look forward to many more weekends of fun on the lot. That is...until our leaning snow shelter gets fixed.

Allen is still looking for a job. The market is being fairly kind to him, offering a couple of recent interviews, but not kind enough in our eyes. Although the picture looks grim, he continues to work at it every day, applying for more than 30 jobs a day. We were taught that persistence pays off, which we hope comes true in our situation.

As we stated earlier, we are leaving for Montana for a week on the 27th. Allen's brother Brian, his wife Andrea, and their little baby Valentina will be there along with the woman who started this madness, Allen's mother Jean, and, of course, Allen and I. Allen has been going off and on for 15 years, and I have been gracing all those lucky people with my presence for 3 years.

We're going to be putting pictures from that trip and telling stories about all the fun things we did in July's post.

Toodles, sunbeams!