Summer of 2013

Wow, it's been a while since we've posted anything. We've been so busy this summer! What have we been doing?

• Chris completed an online course about machine learning.
• We grilled out in our back yard a lot. At one such party, we played a baseball game with Luca, and I think everyone would agree it was a blast. We're so happy to have our own yard!
• Kyra and Luca took a couple of trips to Minnesota to visit Kyra's Grandma ("Grammy").
• My brother, Kenny, and his wife, Joana, announced they are pregnant!
• We had a trip to Door County. We stayed in a cabin, went to lots of restaurants, hiked a bit, played cards, and all sorts of other things. Our friend Nick set up a treasure hunt for Luca one morning, including a treasure map and all!
• Our marriage turned 5! Kyra got a little older, too... : ) So did our foster child. Parties all around!

• Luca took a trip with friends to see Thomas the Tank Engine. He had a lot of fun, and it was his first weekend on a trip without parents or extended family!
• Luca took T-Ball lessons. He's still taking swimming lessons, too.
• Kyra and Chris, along with one of Kyra's coworkers, went to see Delta Rae live in downtown Madison. It was a great concert!
• Chris's cousin Matt got married, and Luca is still talking about it. It was held at a barn converted into an event hall, and Luca had a lot of fun running around with Chris's young cousins.
• Kyra and Chris went to a Mallards game with Kyra's coworkers. We played cards and we're not sure who won the baseball game.

At some point about here, a couple of our friends saved a family from drowning! They heard some thrashing in the pool and realized someone was in trouble. Chanel dove in and pulled out a couple of kids, then realized the father was still in the pool, and pulled him out too. They did CPR until the ambulance arrived. It was amazing!

• Luca attended a birthday party at a pet store. It was fun seeing all the different animals and how excited all the kids were about it. The guide got a gecko out and let it crawl on the kids, including Luca. He wouldn't let the snake near him, though.
• Kyra initiated the "Geeky Cooking Night", where we made all sorts of geeky food, like zombie leg meat (turkey actually), Star Trek tribbles (very tasty), and 1-up mushrooms.
• Marquis, Kyra's dad, got older by some unknown amount, and had a dance party. It was a lot of fun, even with the kids in tow. Luca and Kyra danced for a bit, as well as Chris and Kyra.

• We attended a corn boil for our CSA farm (community supported agriculture). The owners have kids near our age, and it's amazing to see them grow along with our own.
• Luca had another night without parents, when he took a trip to the Twin Cities with Nana. Kyra joined the next day. They had a birthday party and saw Grammy again.
• Kenny and Joana had a baby shower. Unfortunately, one of us was sick that day, so we couldn't make it, but we took them out to dinner a week later.
• We started to do some house fixing projects, including the driveway, plumbing, and insulation. Hopefully we'll be done before we have to turn the heat on full blast!
• Kyra started a training course for foster care that we have to take within 2 years of starting foster care.

Recently, Kyra and Chris had a day off to themselves, no kids! We went out for a leisurely breakfast, went for a walk at Olbrich, and had a late lunch followed by specialty chocolate. It was a glorious day. The first symphony of the season followed two days later. It was a very nice weekend.

What's coming up?

• Luca's birthday is coming up! We're going to have a swim party, so we'll have to figure out something else for all the adults in his life. We'll let everyone know.
• Kenny and Joana are due with their baby anytime now! Looks like another October birthday!
• We have a ton of birthday parties in October... Not sure if we can make it to all of them!
• It's been almost a year since we started foster care.
• We have a Halloween party planned with a formal theme, but in any state of repair. Kyra's going as a zombie, and Chris will be a silent film villain (cape, mustache, and all!).
• Kyra's already planning for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals, with turkey and goose for each, respectively. That should be interesting!

Wow, it's been busy, and it looks like it will slow down a bit.

Stay tuned for photos from all these events!

A Day at the Farm

I had a week off in between jobs, so I decided to take Luca to my uncle Doug's farm for a day. Grandma joined us, and we started by having a snack with great-grandpa:



Then we found Doug and took a tour of the farm. Luca helped with some hay:





He actually got a sticker for helping with that chore. At one point, he nearly fell in that hay chute in the floor, but Doug stepped in the way just in time.

After that, we looked at some big farm equipment: tractors, trailers, and even a front-end loader.

Doug is a busy farmer, so we let him get back to work and headed down to the creek. On the way, Luca had to sit on a tree stump:



I think grandma said that was a very old tree, and it was there when she was a little girl. She also said there used to be a house around here.

We got down to the creek and threw some rocks in and listened to the animals. Then we decided it was time to get going and headed back to great grandpa's house, going through the woods:



Great grandpa convinced us to do one more thing: feed the cows.





We had seen these cows in the woods, probably trying to keep cool. It wasn't so hot that day as it is today (July 4th at 100 degrees Fahrenheit), but it was still quite warm.

About then we said goodbye to our family and the farm and headed home for lunch and a nap. It was a good day at the farm!

A Whirlwind Spring and News

It's been a busy spring! We've done a bunch of things: For example, Kyra and Luca went to the House on the Rock with Nick and LP:







Luca liked the carousel quite a bit. It sounded like a good way to wear him out!

Bucky Badger came to Luca's school one day. I won't post photos of it because there are other kids in the photo, and I don't want to post other kids here without their parents' permission. Here's Luca on a bike instead:



I got to hear Neil deGrasse Tyson, a famous astrophysicist and speaker, give a speech at the University:



The speech was awesome. His speech was similar to the one he gave before the Senate regarding science and transportation. This video about the most astounding thing he knows is also quite awesome.

We've also gone to Olbrich a few times:







Kyra is so beautiful. I think those were taken on Mother's Day.

We also went to Devil's Lake for Kyra's birthday and Memorial Day weekend. Kyra told Luca about the story behind the lake's name, where two giants had a fight and threw rocks at each other. I tried to teach him that the glaciers dropped the rocks when they melted, but that's not quite as good a story, so it hasn't stuck as well. Kyra and I also got to go out to a concert for our anniversary and dancing for her birthday. It was a great weekend.

We also have some big news on three other fronts: First, I've decided to take a new job with a local marketing firm, as a Data Scientist. This is a pretty cool opportunity in a relatively new field of data analysis, using some of the same technologies behind IBM's Watson computer, the computer that bested two top-rank Jeopardy winners. I'll be learning the programming languages Python and R, and I'm really excited to put these skills to commercial and research use.

Second, we've completed the foster care process, and we can start accepting children just about any time. We've decided, for the moment, to start in August, which will give us a bit more time to prepare. Further, our plan is to eventually adopt, but that may not be an option with the first or subsequent children. It may take some time to get to that point.

Just so everyone is aware, we cannot explicitly tell anyone anything about the new child in our care (other than the child's name, of course), not even that the child is a foster child. All we can say is, "This child is in our care." Further, we cannot post photos of or information about the child online, so we may not be able to post any photos with people since the child may be included, and we won't be able to post many details about what we're up to.

I still plan on updating our site with as much (and as little detail about the child) as we can, but it may be even more difficult in the future. So bear with us as we go through this next transition. We would also appreciate everyone's patience and support, including going along with the restrictions about posting photos and information online.

Third, we've decided to try to find a new place to live. We put our condo up for sale, and we hope to find a larger place to accommodate our expanding family. It would also be nice to find a place where Kyra could do childcare in the home, if she decides to do that some day.

There are a lot of exciting new things in store for our family! Stay tuned!

News Email

Here is a recent email I sent to friends, family, and professional contacts:

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Hello everyone!

This year has been a busy one already! Kyra continues to work at the same childcare center, where Luca attends school. She is also taking several courses throughout the year to advance her childcare certification. Luca is 2-1/2, he continues to swim, and he likes to ride canoes. He also attended his first political event at the capitol in downtown Madison last winter. Chris has been working on a recipe and meal planning database for Kyra, dubbed "Kyra's Kitchen", with the possibility of developing a web application. Chris is currently working as a Clinical Data Analyst at a local physician practice organization.

In July, Chris will be starting a new position within the university system as a Programmer Analyst. The program supplies physicians with data from hospital and physician claims for research purposes. Chris will be working closely with physicians to identify the necessary data for their research.

Thank you to everyone who has been supporting us this year, especially our close friends and family, and Chris's references!

– Chris, Kyra, and Luca

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I'm excited about the new position since I miss being involved with research. I start the new position in a few weeks!

New Transitions

I have been working with an insurance company for almost two years, and I primarily worked with insurance claims to evaluate the effectiveness of care for our members and to discover patterns in care. Last week I accepted a new position with a physician clinical practice organization. The new position will provide experience on the other side of the health care industry, working with data from the doctor's office rather than the insurance company.

Kyra is also looking for a new job. She's been having a rough time at her current child care center with the way it's being run. Last weekend she started submitting applications, and she's already had two interviews. She hopes to have a new job very soon, we hope with a daycare center where Luca can enroll and Kyra can seek state teaching certification. One day she would like to teach in an elementary school.

Luca has been growing rapidly. He's very talkative and he really seems to know what he wants. He enjoys going to school and visiting his friends. On the weekends, he's been taking swimming lessons and he loves the water! A bit too much actually--he really wants to swim on his own, but I'm sure he'd sink like a rock! Soon he will be two, and we hope to have a big birthday party for him.

So we're all undergoing changes. It may be a turbulent summer, but I hope we all end up a little older, a little wiser, and a little happier with these new transitions.

Winter Events: Decorating, Birthday, and Snow Day

On Saturday last weekend, our friend Carla visited and helped us put up the Christmas tree and other decorations. Our home is now all decked-out for the holidays.





I wanted to try to capture the lighted tree, but it doesn't quite work out on film.



My mom made a wreath for me a few years ago while I was in college. It consists of all of my ornaments when I was growing up, and this year is the first year I've had enough room to put it up. Everyone who's seen it really likes it. Thank you, mom!



We also put up some stockings. I'm not sure what Santa will leave in the stockings, but they look nice on our mantel.





It was a bit of a challenge getting the Christmas tree up with Luca running around, but once he went to bed we were able to get things done faster. Even now he constantly toys around with and pulls down ornaments, as does the cat (Mars). Fortunately, Kyra had the foresight to put the precious and breakable ornaments up higher up on the tree so Luca and Mars cannot reach them.

On the same day, Kyra made cookies, and we had Door County Cherry wine (from Door Peninsula Winery, in Door County, WI) after Luca was asleep. (The wine was very good; I recommend it!) We listened to Christmas music while decorating and even danced with Luca, who sort of marches in place and laughs when he likes the music. It was a warm, cozy evening with people I love.

The next day was my birthday, and Kyra took me out to lunch. A group of my friends and my parents showed up as a surprise. It was fun seeing everyone, especially little Xander (son of Amelia and Michael), and both of these events were great way to start my birthday and the holiday season. Thank you Kyra, Carla, and everyone who showed up at my birthday lunch!

We'll be adding more photos to our new Christmas album, so check it out for more photos as the holiday season progresses. (The link will also be in the sidebar on our site.)

Christmas 2009 Album

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As most of our readers know, today, December 9th, is a snow day. It has snowed over 14 inches in the past day, schools are canceled, and even business days have been canceled. We all stayed home today. For a very short time, we went outside. Luca has been quite entranced by the snow, staring out the window without any attention for anything else. When we went out, it was a bit difficult for him to move around with all of the winter cloths and all the snow.

I thought it would be funny to stick him in the snow drift and take a picture. Kyra said the tree near our home would be perfect for the scene:



Luca tried to crawl out of his snow trap... He ended up going face first into the snow right after this shot. We went inside right after that!



We were quite bored inside all morning, so after we came back inside, Kyra suggested that Luca and I play with some shaving cream. I guess he's done this at preschool before, and it sounded like a fun activity to keep him occupied. I spread shaving cream on the dining room table and he went to town. I thought it was quite amusing, so I spread some shaving cream in his hair. When I did that he smeared it all over his face...



It wasn't too bad to clean up, actually. Of course Luca didn't like it, but he never does. The photos reminded Kyra of the recent potato soup incident.

We hope the snow will clear up soon, so we can get back to work and our normal lives! Stay safe everyone!

Missing My Boy

Today I am working at my preschool's east side location. Usually I take Luca with me to work, but of late I feel it has been kind of hard for him to adjust to two locations. So today I had Chris take him to the west side location, rather than go with me. I think it's better for him really: he only has to get used to one teacher, one room, and I won't cause any major meltdowns by walking past his door. But I have to admit, sappy as it is, I miss him. I'm spoiled I guess. On my breaks I just walk on down to his room, plop down in the rocking chair to nurse him, and play with him. It's way better that monkeying around with the stupid breast pump. Now what am I supposed to do on my breaks? I even forgot the breast pump today (duh!).

As I walked past the infant room, I peeked in out of habit. I got a little catch in my throat as I realized he wasn't there.

I am a lucky mommy to get to work in the same place as my son. And a little spoiled. But I miss him all the same.

Fine in Nine

Luca and I just got back from his nine month checkup. We're both pretty happy considering he didn't have to have any shots this time. This means no cranky baby and no fever. Vital stats are as follows:

Weight: 25lbs

Length: 30"

Head Size: 41cm

Luca is now fully mobile. He crawls with great speed and crawls up on everything he can get his little fingers around (and some things he can't). Daily Chris and I have to put things up higher, back farther, or away completely as his range extends. He also has taken some tentative steps along the furniture and from one piece to another. His two front top teeth are coming in slowly but surely. He can now eat most soft table foods, and loves feeding himself. This may be significantly messier, but I appreciate having both hands to eat with again!

As Chris mentioned, sleeping has been a bit rough of late. Honestly I think it's a phase. The positive is he is no longer nursing at night, which I am ecstatic about. Now instead of having to get up at night I can send Chris to take care of him. Te he he.

This week I started at a new job. I am working at a brand new preschool on the west side. And I mean BRAND NEW, we have no kids yet and are still setting up furniture. The bonus is I get to take Luca with me to work. At the moment I have been looking after him myself, but once we get kids he will be in the infant room with the other babies, and I'll be teaching the older preschoolers. He loves the new variety of toys, most of which play some type of annoying music, but napping has been a challenge. Luca is anti-napping-in-anywhere-that's-not-my-crib. And I don't think it will get any better when it is someone else trying to put him to sleep. I'm sure he'll adjust though. Eventually.

I can already tell Luca's more tired during the day, due to the lack of naps. Today I came home (I worked a half day today) and he slept for two hours SOLID, on his own, in his crib. This hardly ever happens. And yesterday he fell asleep while I was feeding him lunch. It was so funny to see his head nodding and his eyes drooping while he was chewing that I kept laughing and waking him up. Here is a picture I managed to snap when I finally stopped laughing:



And here is a lovely example of Luca's (non-existent) table manners:



And here is where we stuck an banana sticker to his forehead. He is not amused:



Then he read the sticker ("Place sticker on forehead. Smile.") and got the joke:



Happy Days!

They Come in Threes

They say things come in threes. I think the origin of that saying was the observation that buses in the UK would never show up, and then all of a sudden there were three. Whatever the origin, we have three things:

• Today I won an employee recognition award! It consists of $25 shopping card and lunch with the head of our division. I was nominated once or twice before, and I was finally selected at random.
  
• We put an offer on a condo, and when I came home from work, we found out our offer was accepted! We'll be moving in August to a place of our own!
  
• Kyra had a job interview on Wednesday, and she received an email this evening extending an offer. She'll be starting on July 13th at a pre-school!

What a day! And all of this before bedtime! How are we supposed to sleep!

Here are some photos of the condo:

Condo Photos


Arial view courtesy Bing Maps

And now the cutest baby niece ever:



She's so tiny! Get big and strong little one!

A Long Week

As you may know, Kyra went in to the hospital again last weekend. About a month prior, she had what appeared to be an infection around her left eye, and after a weekend in the hospital on intravenous antibiotics, it cleared up. This time, it was all over her face, red, itchy, swelled, and painful. So we thought whatever she had before came back. However, it seems to me like it is actually something different, like an allergic reaction or something else no doctor could figure out, especially with the addition of pain and itching.

The odd part of the story is that no specialist saw her last time or in between. I had to chew out the emergency room doctor to get him to ask the specialist to see her. Over the weekend, three specialists saw her, and the hospitalist actually gave a damn. This happened in part due to my complaints, and I think Kyra caught on and complained about it too. It's sad that patients need to complain to their health care provider to get the right care. Too bad I don't know anyone who works for an insurance company... Oh wait, I do.

At any rate, Kyra now has two appointments, one with an allergist and another with an internist. She'll get a scratch test, and maybe get cultured to see if she has colonized any antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Hopefully, one of these tests/examinations will reveal what happened.

The rest of this week we were trying to recover while I studied for an insurance exam for an introduction to insurance course. The course was offered by AHIP, America's Health Insurance Plans, a coalition of health insurance companies. I studied for a couple of hours every night this week, staying up late to do so. It was a bit draining. I had already read all of the material, but it's hard to remember all of that information, so I was reviewing it and going through the study guide. I took the test yesterday and passed, although I'm not sure what my score was - the software wasn't very clear where to find it. I'm glad it's done. Luca is just too small right now for me to be working and taking any amount of classes.

We were planning on going to Whitewater, WI, today to visit the alma mater and some friends from a music fraternity I was in during college, Delta Omicron. The group focusses on promoting music, including supporting music students through scholarships and performing music at an annual concert. It's not the usual fraternity as it's more academic than social. They were having an annual alumni reunion, but we were so tired we slept in until 9:00 am, which is when we needed to leave to get there on time. I was looking forward to it, but I was really just too tired.

We have our anniversary dance coming up, too, on May 23rd at 6:00 pm. We'll be having some snacks and lots of ballroom dances. If you'd like to attend, let one of us know or look for our event on Facebook.

Two Weeks

Our son is two weeks today (actually, early this morning at 12:32 AM). A lot has happened in that time, and we've gone through funny and stressful situations.

Luca has been fine since he was born. (He has an appointment tomorrow, so I'll be sure to post an update then.) Kyra, on the other hand, has struggled a bit after the surgery. She had unusual abdominal pain that persisted for a few days. We ended up going to the doctor, then to the hospital for an abdominal ultrasound, and finally to the ER for an emergency CT scan. Everything was negative, except Kyra's pain receptors blaring at 8 out of 10 on the pain scale. Eventually, the pain subsided and just went away. We don't know what happened.

Then there's the nausea, which could be from a number of things, including her body recovering from the surgery, which included a massive anti-biotic and may have killed off her friendly bacteria, the ones that help her digest food; lack of sleep; or breast feeding, which has been a challenge unto itself.

We visited the lactation consultant (a nurse who is actually trained in lactation and breast feeding!), and Kyra practiced with the baby. He keeps falling asleep; then he also screams and is unable to eat because he's screaming (way to go, little guy--kind of self-defeating, isn't it?); and of course he is hungry all the time, giving Kyra as little as an hour to sleep or rest in between feeding.

Every day is different. I'm sure once Kyra has the time or energy she'll have plenty to say about all of this. Today sounded like it was okay. Things have been going better. Little by little. (Thanks to everyone for the encouragement!)

I'm back to work, now, too, so it's difficult for our family to be separated for 8 or more hours every day. I'd like to be at home to help with our new family member, but we do need to pay the bills with something (preferably cash, or so they tell me). Work is okay. I'm still doing a lot of training. I get the feeling one of my superiors really did not like the fact that I took an extra week off to help Kyra recover from the surgery. She never stopped by on my first day back to congratulate me or ask how we were doing. Almost everyone else did (except one of the guys, who doesn't seem too interested). At any rate, with some time, it should all be forgotten.

Eventually Kyra will be back to write again. And we'll write an entry about funny things babies do!

New Job

I feel like it's been a while since I've written an entry. (The last two didn't count since I didn't write the content of the most recent one and the other was mostly photos.) Last time I wrote, I mentioned that I had received two offers. The first offer was from the health insurance company. Once I received that offer, I went back to the other company that interviewed me, the online survey company, and told them I had an offer. They came back later that day with an offer, too.

Then I had a decision to make based on the duties of each job, the challenge and learning experiences with each position, and the compensation and benefit packages. It was a tough decision because the health insurance company reformed the department I was joining, and only the supervisors had been there longer than two years. I had a feeling that they may not have been sure what direction they were going to go with the department, and it sounded very challenging and possibly very stressful. The job with the online survey company sounded more laid-back and flexible, but the opportunities for growth and the compensation and benefits were limited.

On the same day, I called the apartment landlords, figuring I had at least one of the positions, and asked for the open apartment on the first floor that we had planned to move to before I lost my job. It was still available, and we took it. We also said we were interested in taking the managerial position, but we had to work out the details later. We had actually planned on moving two or three car loads of stuff to Kyra's dad's house. (When I lost my job we thought that would have been the safest bet, especially if I was offered a job outside of the Madison area.) We dropped that plan and decided to celebrate with a friend. Even though I hadn't chosen a position, we were going to stay in the Madison area one way or another.

Over the weekend, we moved and I weighed my options with the companies. I decided on the health insurance company because of the opportunities for learning and the compensation/benefits package. I think it is going to be more stressful, but I will certainly learn more and be able to have some extra money to make our lives easier. (Eventually--first I want to pay off my student loans!)

I actually had two other interviews, too. One was before I received the offers, one after. The first was with a mental health center in eastern Wisconsin. The position was an assessment administrator, administering psychological assessments to people with psychological problems. The second was with a college in Chicago for a position as a survey coordinator. They both sounded less than ideal for many reasons. The assessment job was in a crappy town and half of the job was just paperwork/secretarial. The other job was in the inner city of Chicago (across from the Sears Tower, actually), which would require hours of commuting every day and high living expenses.

We started working as managers soon after we moved, and I started my job a week before Monday. I've been doing a lot of training on the practices, software, database structures, procedures, medical codes, and many other topics of the health care field. I completed a project last week examining different groups and they're behavior using medical visits. It was a bit tedious because I was using Excel instead of something more powerful like SPSS. I will be trained with SAS, so I hope it will be easier to run analyses later on. That's one of the perks--the company is paying for SAS training and providing opportunities to put it to use. I'll also be learning Business Objects and an internal data collection tool, not to mention new analyses related to the health care field.

The managerial position has been going well. The most annoying part is that the many children in the area litter all over the property, and some of them like to make trouble, like running like mad through our hallways. Kyra showed an apartment once, but we haven't heard from them again. We did our first weekend of cleaning last week and it wasn't so bad. It took a while to vacuum and sweep the entire place. I'm not sure how this is going to work after the baby arrives. We may need some help fulfilling the duties during the first few weeks. Oh well. We'll figure it out.

At the end of the day, I'm still surprised I was able to find a job in Madison and that we have an apartment all to ourselves. I guess that's what happens when you have nothing else to do but look for a job. I think it helped that I set up my own website with samples of my work (using Synthasite) and an email address associated with it (using Google Apps), and CareerBuilder.com kept me busy with relevant job listings. A flexible resume or two helped apply for jobs quickly, as well as a default format for "cover emails" (or, rarely, actual cover letters).

Some say it was luck or fate. It was not. It was hard work!

I'm happy that I'll be staying in the area. Thanks to everyone who supported us through this tough time. We'll need more of it in the coming weeks, too!

P.S. I have new audio clips of our son's heartbeat. I'll upload them soon! I hope before he's born!

The Whole Shebang

In the words of Indigo Montoya in the Princess Bride "Let me 'splain. No there is too much. Let me sum up." So here goes:

Chris has a new job, I have a part time job that allows me to work at home, and we have a new apartment. Yeah, wow.

I'll let Chris blog about his new job, cause he has the details, but I can talk about mine, which is related to our new place. But perhaps I should backup and give the background for our situation:

So two weeks ago Chris and I are both without jobs and packing up our old apartment to move in with my Dad when our lease ran out. This would also allow us to save money and be more flexible with job location as we wouldn't be tied to a lease. The day before our planned move, Chris and I are walking out the door on our way to a midwife appointment when Chris gets the phone call: the job offer, a really good offer, and in Middleton. In that instant, as Chris stands shirtless talking to his future employer and I search for my purse, our plans change. Chris frantically calls our apartment manager to see if the apartment we had planned on taking before Chris lost his job was still open. It was, as was the position of apartment manager. We took both. So our lives did a massive 180 in the space of a half hour or so. We have our own place, and Chris and I are both gainfully reemployed. Like I said, wow.

My job is now the aforementioned apartment manager position. Its not complicated really: advertise and show apartments in the building, respond to to tenant concerns/complaints, communicate with the landlords, clean the common areas of the building. I'll be doing most of the work during the week, but Chris is listed as manager too so he can help with cleaning and probably some of the web stuff like advertising. It won't bring in a whole lot of money, but will help with rent and let me stay at home with the baby as long as I so desire, so in that respect it's perfect.

One of my favorite quotes is "We plan, God laughs". I don't know how much I believe in God anymore, but I still like the sentiment, and somehow it feels appropriate in this situation. We can plan all we want, but in the end everything can change in an instant: Chris and my life changed when I found out I was pregnant, changed when he lost his job, changed when he got the new one. I don't think either Chris or I expected to be where we are now a year ago, six months ago, hell, we aren't even where we expected to be two weeks ago! And as much as things have changed, and will change in about a month or so, I don't regret a thing.

Especially these past two weeks. As uncertain as the future seemed, as scared as we both were at times, we got to share something which we probably won't get again for a very long time: time alone together. We shared our whole day, woke up together, went to bed together, did just about everything together. Now I really miss Chris when he leaves in the morning.

So I'll end with Kyra's cheesy moral for the day: Planning, although helpful and necessary, at times is useless because life makes its own plans, and even from the worst of times can come something wonderful.

Moving - Be Back Soon!

Since I received two job offers last Friday, we decided to move downstairs in our complex and take the managerial position for the apartment. It's not set in stone yet, as we haven't signed a contract (or a lease!) yet. We'll be back to writing soon, once we get our internet hooked up in the new place.

Feel free to sign up for our email list, which sends an each new entry to your email. There is no need to keep checking the site for new entries!

Job Offers

Today I received two offers! The first is with the health care company and the second is with the survey company. Woo-hoo! Now I have to look at all the details and decide which position would be the best for us.

Final Class and Job Search Update

We had our final baby class tonight. It was about breastfeeding and pumping. We received a certificate that says we completed the course. I'm not sure if that qualifies us to be parents now, but the class did provide some good pointers about late pregnancy, delivery, and early infant care. I feel comfortable bringing a baby home, although there are a lot of things I'm sure I'll need to learn or review. The class at least makes you feel a little more informed. (Thanks Carla!)

I brought some business cards with our journal address and email address for the other students, so I hope we have some new readers soon! I'm not sure if anyone took any, but I left a handful at class, so they should end up somewhere... If you are from our class, welcome to our journal!

I'm still looking for a job, and it's going well. I had three sets of interviews for a position with a health care company, and I have two upcoming interviews--one with an online survey software company and another with a mental health institute.

The interviews with the health care company started with a human resources person, then with a manager, and ended with a series of interviews over the course of 2.5 hours with an analyst, two members of upper management, two managers, and the HR person. Thursday I am going to meet the department for a lunch meeting, which I hope is a good sign. The position is for an analyst of health care data, and I would be analyzing data to discover trends about costs and effectiveness, while answering all sorts of other questions about health care trends.

Tomorrow (Monday), the interview with the survey company will be much shorter with the hiring manager. I like what I've read about the company so far--it sounds interesting, complex, and successful. This interview is for a survey analyst position, and I would be designing surveys with customer input and analyzing data from the surveys. The final interview is Tuesday for a psychometrist position. Basically, I would be administering assessments to patients with psychological disorders. The job is located in eastern Wisconsin, which does not sound attractive. Nonetheless, I'll be going through with the interview anyway.

I'm not sure which position, if I received all three offers, I would accept. I think I'm leaning toward the survey analyst position, as it sounds as if the company is flexible with work time and work-at-home possibilities. It is a private company as well, so it may be very successful and offer the potential for growth. At any rate, who knows what will happen. Wish me luck!

Weekend Trip and This and That

This weekend, we're heading to the Twin Cities to visit Kyra's mom and sister's family. We're missing the Olympic opening with Carla, a dance, and Kyra's dad's birthday, but it will probably be the last trip to the Twin Cities until after the baby is born. I'm looking forward to seeing Kyra's niece, who is already walking! She is so cute!

We'll probably be getting the baby's stroller/car seat combo and a crib this weekend, so it should be lots of fun looking around at baby stuff. We haven't had a chance to do much of that with everything going on. Kyra enjoys looking at baby stuff, like clothing, because it makes the baby seem more real, like he will be arriving soon and in her arms. It's been pretty real for me ever since I first felt him move. Whatever your stance on the definition of life, the fetus sure seems like a separate entity from the mother when you first notice it move on its own. It feels that way to me.

The baby is doing just fine. He's getting bigger and bigger and pushing more and more on mommy's bladder and other internal organs. It's a bit uncomfortable for Kyra, to say the least. We're starting to see what might be little body parts pushing through, which is exciting and somewhat odd--it's kind of like a sci-fi movie. I try to help by massaging her belly, and that seems to work most of the time. I really want the little guy to come out and play, but his mommy said he's still too busy growing. I guess I'll have to wait.

In other areas, I've been looking for jobs all over the place. We are considering moving just about anywhere in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois. I kind of hope I find a job in the Twin Cities area. A friend told me the options for schools (elementary through college) are much more diverse and of higher quality than in Madison. Additionally, I think Kyra could find more job opportunities in her area of education. We'll see what happens. Perhaps we'll be moving after the baby is born. Oh, and job searching is so bloody boring! Wait wait wait, apply apply apply, hurt my arm from being on the computer too much, wait wait wait...

And to finish today's entry, here is a picture I have titled "Non-Bridezilla Bridezilla Pose":

Terrible News

According to the current journal description, "Kyra is a teacher at a bilingual Chinese/English preschool, and Chris is a researcher at an educational software company." Soon, however, neither of those descriptions will be fitting. The description about me is no longer fitting now--I lost my job. Many people will ask why or what happened. Unfortunately, even I do not know the answer.

One day last week, I submitted an analysis, and my boss complimented the work. He said he was going to send it to upper management and asked me to meet him to discuss the analysis and the next steps. I went to meet with him, and an HR person was in the room. Not a good sign. Ironically, before saying anything else, my boss complimented my analytical abilities. Then he said I would no longer be able to continue my career with the company. I asked why, and he gave me vague reasons, none of which made sense.

Ever since this happened, I've been searching for something that went wrong, but I can't find anything significant. My last performance review went well, and my boss had no negative comments. I received a raise, and although it wasn't very good, it was still a raise. I had been busy working on a number of analyses, albeit terribly boring analyses, and I was getting along well with other coworkers, with the exception of one, who may have had personal reasons for being grumpy. I did not receive a warning of any kind from my boss.

I've asked my former boss and Human Resources repeatedly for an explanation--something--about what went wrong. I still haven't received a solid reason, one that someone would lose their job for doing. I have a couple of theories about what happened, but all of them are based on factors I could not have influenced. I honestly think my boss was forced into the decision by upper management, as he complimented me during the "exit interview," he said in an email that I have dealt with this situation with "class and professionalism," and he's willing to not only write a recommendation letter but act as a reference. (I've obtained references from three other coworkers, too.) Go figure.

Since these events last week, we've been coping with the news and trying to figure out what to do next, which is one reason we haven't written in a while. On top of the changes with my career, Kyra will also no longer be a preschool teacher.

At first, her director asked her to work part-time in September for 4 hours per week. She said the reason was that it would be hard to find someone to replace Kyra should she go into labor early or have any other pregnancy-related complications. If you are an employer, you know this is a BIG no-no. It's called pregnancy discrimination, and it's illegal.

As soon as possible, I contacted the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and we obtained complaint forms and were ready to submit them. Later on, however, we found out they were closing one of the schools due to low enrollment, which invalidated our pregnancy discrimination complaint. With only one school open, they had no need for two teachers. (The low enrollment was probably due to mismanagement and poor customer, i.e., parent, relations by the director.)

We'll have to come up with a new description for the journal, but that's the least of our concerns right now. We're both jobless and our baby is due in October. What terrible timing!

On the bright side, we'll both be able to easily move wherever we find new careers. I hope Kyra can find a more appropriate career based on her interests and education, as Madison does not have many opportunities for her. Our baby is doing very well, too. He's kicking quite a bit, and we can almost feel little feet or hands. And every now and then I have some time to work on the wedding videos, and those always bring a smile to my face.

Preschool Streaker

Ok, so thanks to my lovely children being the little germ factories that they are, I have a cold. Again. I had to miss yoga cause I was too fricking tired to drag my butt to willy street. :( I'm sure my hips will be complaining withing the next few days. And its 90 degrees. And our air conditioner only cools about six inches in front of it. And my darling teddy bear keeps kicking me in my stomach to the extent that I get horrible stabbing pains in my side. Apparently he resents the fact that I need to, you know, sleep. Ugh to life.

On a more positive note, I wanted to share an amusing event that happened at school today. Over the past two weeks, two of my kids have been taking swimming lessons at the local pool. They have to be dressed and ready to go promptly at 10am to make lessons by 10:15. This morning, however, they had piano lessons as well which complicated matters. And by 9:55, one of my little boys wasn't ready to go. All of a sudden I see him streak, completely naked, past the class room. Thirty seconds later he streaks back, still naked. All I can surmise is he dropped trow right by the door, where his swim bag was, then suddenly discovered he didn't have his trunks and went searching for them "au natural". I laughed so hard I couldn't go on with class. Thankfully, all the other kids had their backs to the door, and the only other disruption to class was my children asking me what was so funny. I wasn't about to tell them.

It's events like this that almost make the constant germiness worth it. Almost.

Funny Quote from Work

Here's a funny quote I read at work today (emphasis added):

Online courses provide scheduling flexibility to students facing scheduling conflicts. Also, they afford opportunities to at-risk students, elite athletes and performers, dropouts, migrant youth, pregnant or incarcerated students, and students who are homebound due to illness or injury or homeschooled, allowing them to study outside the classroom. (Watson, 2007)

Why on earth would a researcher link pregnant and incarcerated students? I realize it says "or," but it's still just a bit strange to grammatically combine these two types of students.