The Happenings of Life

So lately things have been a little stressful and hectic around here. As some of you know I have been doing temp work for Walmart since last July, well now my assignments are up and I have been looking for full time work for about 2 months now. I have had probably 8 interviews, and no job offers. It is stressful and depressing. This coming week, I do have a second job interview with Arvest Mortgage company. Charlie works for Arvest in a bank, he is a deposit counselor and he loves Arvest. So hopefully they will love me and I can have a job. I only have 2 weeks left of mine, so we are praying that I will get a job before then. Also I have a job interview for a teller position at Arvest this coming week, so please pray for me to get a full time job, time is running out FAST. I've been at this for over 10 weeks now. Finding a job is one of the hardest things to do, especially now days. So that is what I've been up to.

Charlie is doing great at his job, he told me he has opened cd's for people with thousands, I think like $100,000 or more and a couple this week. Arvest gives incentive pay and those accounts really bring in the money! We like that. Also, we get to see Charlie earlier in the evenings most evenings now that he has this job and not a teller, so we love that too!

Nate is getting so big! Some of his favorite new words are: No (who would have thought) I love, (he doesn't know how to say "you" yet, that puppy and alot more. He is now telling Tangent, the dog, "no" if he doesn't like him doing something. He also does this to mommy and daddy if they touch the ottoman, Nate has claimed that as his seat. In the pictures, you will see Nate eating. We have discovered that he LOVES sour cream. So he is eating Empanadas and sour cream in the one pictures. I tried to get him with a hat on, but he hates hats. It has been over 90 degrees for 2 weeks here, today it is only 84 degrees and we are thankful. Nate has been mad because I won't let him go outside, but it is just TOO HOT! I thought I moved out of the Sunshine State, maybe I took it with me.

Memorial Weekend

Grandpa and Nate

Nate at the zoo
G&G with Nate, Charlie, Alexis, and Spencer in the background

So as you can tell, I am not very good at blogging anymore. I just hate making time for it b/c I feel there isn't much time for making time. Anyway...For Memorial weekend we went to St. Louis with my parents and my sister Vicky's family. It was a fun weekend. We went to the temple, zoo, science center and an art museum that the kids didn't like b/c you couldn't touch anything. Nate loved the zoo. He liked the hippo's, there was a big hippo that liked the attention so he would go into the water and put his HUGE face against the glass where the kids were. I thought it was pretty awesome too. Then we went to the penguin house, which stunk really bad so I walked really fast through it and waited on the outside. Charlie and Nate stayed in there, it was FREEZING in there by the way, and Nate loved it. They watch the penguins jump and splash and swim and have a great time. We also watched some bears wrestling, that was pretty neat too. I am not very good at remembering to take pictures, sorry. So here is what I have. Below are the bears wrestling and the girls were trying to see the hippo in the tank. You can't see the hippo very well in the picture, but it was big.

Catch-up Time

Shoady and Juan



We have been busy here lately. We had Shoady & Juan come and visit at the end of April. (Charlie's sister and her husband). I have been busy trying to find a permanent job b/c I am temping at Walmart home office and that runs out in July. That will be here before I know it. So wish me luck on the job search. Charlie has been in training for his new position for the past 2 weeks and will have 1 more week with help and then be on his own, I think. Nate got last week and that was no fun at all. We did a good job of not spreading it around the house though. This week I got cold sores ALL over my lips. They looked like Angelina Jolie's lips, not exaggerating! They are still really sore, but are getting better. We too Nate's pacifier away exept for nap and night time, and church b/c he is SO LOUD! I don't know what to do about that. The picture right below this is from when he got Pink Eye. My poor baby!

Grandma's visit

So, long time coming...Charlie's mom came to visit in March for 10 days. She was great. She watched Nate while Charlie and I had to work. They wore each other out. We went to a BBQ of some friends on the Sunday she was here. At the BBQ Charlie got to see Scott Jones and friend of his from Idaho and they were able to play guitar together. They had a dune buggy that Nate loved to sit in and "drive". Grandma helped Nate "ride" the 4 wheeler too. They never actually went for rides on them b/c they were both not working. But as you will see, Nate was in heaven! Grandma and Grandpa Rice (we were sad b/c Grandpa Rice could not come) got Nate a Little Tikes police car and he loves that too. Grandma taught Nate how to "put gas in the car" by putting your finger in the spout and making a sound with your mouth that sounds like running water. We are so glad that Grandma was able to come play with us for a while. Next time try to bring Grandpa too though!

Fireman Nate

So on Friday Nate got to go to a birthday party for Bennett, a boy from church that turned 2. They got to go to a local fire dept. and play on the trucks. The fire dept. said they are the slowest in all of our town. Nate thought it was so neat. I didn't bring my camera because I didn't know about the party until that afternoon and I was already at work. So these pictures are curteousy of Miquilin, Bennett's mom. Nate got to go on top of the fire truck with one of the dad's. (no way was I climbing up there!) He thought that was great too, but I don't have a picture of it darn it! We then went to the church for pizza and Nate ate the whole slice by himself, higglety pigglety! It was a great day for Nate. FYI- I asked how much this certain fire truck cost b/c they were bragging about all the "bells and whistles" on it. They got a great "deal" at just over $650,000! Man those things are expensive!

Nate tried to jump off of this part of the truck, giving mommy a heart attack!

Charlie and I are doing well also, life is busy and hectic. A couple of weeks ago Linda, Charlie's mom came to visit and we (Nate especially) had a wonderful time. Nate wore grandma out and grandma wore Nate out. When I find my camera cord, I will post some pictures.

Did somebody say...PROMOTION!

So we found out today that Charlie got a promotion to be a deposit counselor. While he did not get the Assistant Manager position, this is still great news! He will have a sit down job, which is great for his feet. (He has MAJOR feet issues) Now maybe we'll be able to go on family walks. He will work 8:45-5:45 which will put him home earlier, better incentive pay, and a raise! We are very excited and proud of him. He's only been with the company 8 months and things are going great! Good job Charlie, we love you!

Hide-n-seek

Lately Nate has decided that hiding in/under/around things is so much fun. He is into everything. He empties out my cupboards so that he can play in them. Our cupboards don't have handles and are cheap, so child proofing has been hard. We had to get creative and we put velcro on them to keep Nate out. So far, so good. He pretty much went from crawling to running in a matter of days. He is at such a fun stage. We love to play with him. This week he has taken a big interest in playing with balls. He has 5 teeth and another one on the way. His doctor says he's too skinny and needs to be putting on the weight. He has been eating like a horse, but he never sits still long enough for any fat to stick. Who wants to carry around a little chub that makes your back hurt anyway.

Charlie is doing well with his job at Arvest Bank. He had the opportunity to interview for an assistant manager position on Friday, and we should know the results by this Wed. Also, he is interviewing for a deposit counselor position tomorrow. Hopefully he will at least get one of the jobs. I'll keep you posted. Also, we got a new desk for our office and now Charlie and I can both be on our computers at the same time. This is great, that way I can try (no promises) to blog more often than once a month. It is a bit overwhelming to work full time, keep a house, take care of Nate and find any "me" time. Charlie doesn't make it home until 7PM most nights and then I am so tired that I go to bed by 9. My job is going well too! I survived the 800+ layoffs that Walmart home office made, that was a nerve racking week. Life if good, but busy. If Charlie gets the assistant manager position, I might be able to quit my job and stay home with Nate. We don't know what the pay is, but hopefully it would be enough for that.