New Job

This may come as a shock to some, as we have not talked much about Jeff's recent desire to find a new job with very many people. Now that Jeff has a new job, and gave Preferred Medical his letter of resignation, we feel we can let everyone know what happened and why he chose to leave.

First, it all goes back to the middle of June. Jeff's branch manager Andy, one customer service person, and one driver, were all let go. The reason they were all let go? Preferred was not bringing in the numbers they were expected to by corporate. So basically the Branch Manager was blamed for Preferred not performing the way they should. Then Jeff's clinical supervisor, Dave, left Preferred the same day Andy was let go (Dave had already put in his letter of resignation and was planning on leaving at the end of June). With Andy being let go, the Branch Manager from Cour d' Alene, Scottie, was made the Branch Manager over both the Spokane and Cour d' Alene locations. Soon after Dave leaving Jeff was promised by Scottie that he would be promoted to Lead Therapist, along with this promotion in job title, it would also mean a pay increase.

The last part of June and July passed without any word as to when Jeff would be promoted. August comes, still no word. Then Scottie, Joy (Cour d' Alene's Lead Therapist), and Linda (the Regional Clinical Manager) began having meetings together at Preferred (Spokane location). Jeff was not involved in any of these meetings, was not filled in as to why they were meeting, he was basically left in the dark. With out any explanations Joy began making changes to how Jeff (and the rest of Preferred) handle patient care. She changed how Jeff was to preform CPAP follow ups with patients who were recently set up with a CPAP, she also informed them that the Respiratory Therapist would no longer be setting patients up with oxygen or nebulizers, this responsibility now would fall on the drivers who were already short-handed.

Now, with Jeff under the impression that he was going to be promoted to Lead Therapist (over Spokane) he was, well, really ticked off that he was not involved in any of the decision/implementing process. The day Joy came in and made all these changes, Jeff got really mad at her, he told her he was not going to follow these new changes, said it was a bunch of crap and left to go take care of a few patients at their homes.

The next day, Jeff was called into the Branch Managers office. In the meeting was, Scottie, Joy, and Kathy, the marketing manager. Why Kathy was in the meeting is still beyond me, she had NOTHING to do with Jeff's issues with Joy. In the meeting Kathy did all the talking, she (as Jeff described it) ripped him a new one. Jeff was told that the CPAP follow up process was changing because the Doctors were not receiving the follow up information fast enough and so the Doctors were not giving Preferred any more referrals. So in a nut shell, Jeff was the one now being blamed for Preferred not preforming and bringing in new business the way corporate expects them to.

Jeff was also written up for swearing at Joy and walking out of work. He explained to Scottie that he did not swear at Joy, he said "This is a bunch of crap" and that he did not walk out, he had patients to take care of. Jeff was informed by Kathy, (not HIS Branch Manager), that Joy was Jeff's new boss- meaning that Jeff would not be promoted to Lead Therapist as he was promised.

Jeff came out of the meeting feeling betrayed, lied to, thrown under the bus, pissed, mad, and I'm sure may other feelings. I think it was at that point, in that meeting, Jeff decided he was going to look for a new job, he didn't care how long it would take to find one, he was not going to stop looking until he found one.

Two weeks ago, Jeff called his former clinical supervisor, Dave to basically vent to him. Dave completely understood where Jeff was coming from, validated his feeling, and told Jeff to hang in there, because there were going to be some major changes in the home care world. A few hours after Jeff's conversation with Dave, Dave called back and clued Jeff in on the changes he was talking about. Dave's wife, Deloah (who is also a Respiratory Therapist and was working for another home care company, Stat Medical) was approached by someone who wanted to start up a home care company who would only set up people with CPAP's. This person wanted Deloah to start working with him September 2nd.

This meant that if Deloah did decide to start up this new company, there would be a position for a Respiratory Therapist at Stat Medical. Deloah called Jeff the last week in August to let him know that she was going to take the job starting up another company, and that she was indeed going to start September 2nd. Deloah said she would put in a good recommendation for Jeff at Stat.

This week Jeff was on vacation, so Tuesday (Sept. 2nd) he took his resume into Stat Medical. While Jeff was there he was interviewed by Steve, Stat's Branch Manager, by the end of their meeting Jeff said Steve was making comments as if Jeff already had the job. Wednesday Steve called Jeff to ask if he could come in to fill out an application, background check permission form, and all the other legal junk. Steve told Jeff that the Manager in Seattle had already called him to ask what Jeff would want on his business cards. Funny, since Jeff really wasn't offered the job yet. But hey, I guess they just wanted to be on top of it.

At 8:30 this morning Steve called. He offered Jeff the job, asked if he could start Monday, and let him know what he would be making. Around 11:30 this morning, on our way to do a few errands, Jeff stopped by Preferred and gave Scottie his letter of resignation. Jeff didn't give Scottie two weeks notice, Jeff felt like the Preferred managment didn't deserve that respect, since Jeff was not shown respect from them.

At Stat Jeff will be preforming essentially the same duties, except he will now have the opportunity to do sales as well, with the possibility of making bonuses. He feels that this will be a stress relief and feels it is the best decision for us right now.

Monkey Man

Here is yet another example of why I believe Mason is 1/2 boy, 1/2 monkey. He climbed on Jeff's shoulders without any help, and held himself up there by squeezing his legs around Jeff's neck.

Standing Man

While I was out shopping with Michelle on Monday, Jeff said that Cooper stood by himself a lot. So here is a video of him standing. He only stood for a second before trying to grab the camera.

Shopping again

I decided to return the khaki colored curtains that I had purchased for our sliding glass door and went with more of a bold color. While I was shopping with Michelle on Monday, we decided that we should put some burnt orange accents in the kitchen. I knew I wanted khaki colored roman shades in our family room (which is right off the kitchen & dining area where the slider is). I didn't want to have all khaki colored curtains in that room, so I went with these "cinnamon" colored curtains. I am not sure why they are called "cinnamon" because when I think of cinnamon, I think of red, but these curtains are burnt orange. They are just like the blue curtains I got for Jeff and my bedroom. I am sure some of you will not like this choice in color, if you are one of these people, please don't tell me you don't like them, because I don't care.

And here are the roman shades for the family room.

Moving date

We have had several people ask us when we plan to move into our house. So to answer every one's question- we will be moving in on Saturday September 13th. If you would/could help us move- please meet at our apartment at 10:00am!

We will be having Jeff's 26th Birthday Party/Open House the following weekend. (September 20th) The time and other details will follow soon. So if you will not be able to help us move, do not fret, you can just come to Jeff's B-day part/Open House.

Shopping

Yesterday Michelle and I went shopping for curtains for our new house. We went to Bed Bath & Beyond and Target. We were not able to find curtains for the informal living room or the kitchen, so we will have to make another shopping trip in the next week or so, or buy the others online.

We got these roman shades for the formal living room.

And these are for Jeff and my bedroom. We also got this same curtain for the back sliding glass door just in khaki. This picture really doesn't do the curtains justice. The rings where the rod goes through is rustic and has a cool design on them. The curtains have a neat design on them. The main part of them is blue. Then they have brown thread going vertically, about every 1/8th of an inch and thicker blue thread going horizontally also about every 1/8th of an inch apart. The curtains for the slider are the same, as I said. They are just khaki were the others are blue.

We got the curtain rods at Target. The rods are thick with big balls on the ends. The rod for the slider is black and the rods for our bedroom are chrome.

Thanks Michelle for lending me your decorationg expertice!

A new language

Are you having a bad day? Do you need to have a good laugh?

Mason has a new language!

Of course!

Mason has a new saying for EVERYTHING! It is his new way of saying "yes".

Mason do you want some breakfast? Of course!

Mason do you want me to help you with that? Of course you can!

Mason do you want to watch Bob the Builder? Of course I do!

Mason do you want to go to the store with me? Of course I do!

Mason do you want to take a nap? Of course!

Mason do you want to read some books? Of course!

Mason do you want a drink of water? Of course!

Mason can I drop you on your head? Of course!

Anyways I think you get the picture. I hadn't thought much of it, but today when I was at my parents house, they, along with my sister DeAnne picked up on it and thought it was pretty funny.

This first video is of Mason through a fit. Yes, Mason does throw fits, can you believe that?

I was trying to get him to say "of course", but he didn't want to be videoed. Later after he calmed down I showed him this video of him throwing a fit. He told me he never wanted to see that again. Well that makes two of us, I thought.

I was able to sneak up behind him later in the day and get his "of course" response on video.

Home furnishings

We went out early this morning to take advantage of the Labor Day sales that are going on now through Monday. We knew we were going to need to buy a refrigerator before we moved in to our new house. We also knew that eventually we would need to purchase some more furniture to fill our home.

We purchased a refrigerator similar to this one. We have been shopping around on the Internet and at various stores, trying to get the best deal. Well I think we did pretty good. This one is "top of the line" and was one sale for a little less than what a "middle of the line" refrigerator goes for normally.

After we purchased the refrigerator, we called my parents to see if they were home so we could go spend some time with them. They were on their way out to go to Furniture Row Outlet. I thought it would be nice to go up to Furniture Row to look for a new living room set, figuring that they would also be having some great deals for the holiday weekend, so I said we would meet them there. Well, we got to Furniture Row before them. We looked around and found two sets we liked. The first, we liked to price, but the furniture was not comfortable at all. The second, was very comfortable, it was a sleeper sofa (I really wanted a sleeper sofa), but was a little more than we wanted to spend.

I was not satisfied with just looking at one store, but it was getting close to Mason and Cooper's nap time. I asked my parents if Mason and Cooper could take a nap at their house so we could look at some of the other furniture stores. They said that was OK, so we took them there for their naps.

We then went on to Mor Furniture where we found this set. This set is actually really close to the second set we found at Furniture Row. There were four main differences: 1) this set has more of a modern feel to it 2) the price was better 3) not only was the sale price better than the set at Furniture Row, Mor Furniture was also discounting double the amount of your sales tax, and 4) this set was on sale as the 3-piece set (reclining couch, reclining love seat, and a recliner) I didn't want all three pieces. I wanted the sleeper sofa and the reclining love seat. I mentioned this to the sales lady and she automatically said she could probably put those two pieces together in a "package" and for a better price than the 3-piece set, and sure enough she was able to. Over all we spent $450.00 less on this set then we would have on the set at Furniture Row!

After we purchased our living room set, we figured we better stop spending our hard earned (saved) money. We went back to my parents house to pick up our boys and ended up staying there for dinner. Thanks Dad and Debbie for dinner, it was great!

Two weeks and counting

Ahhh..... I can feel my stress level beginning to decrease by the day.

The house is all done! The appraisal on the house was done yesterday, we received a copy of that today, and the appraisal came back at WAY more than we expected it to.

We had our final walk through today and everything looks great! There are just a few minor (paint) touch ups that need to be done and the tile back splash in the kitchen was STILL not completed. The site manager who completed the walk through with us did not realize that the back splash STILL had not been done. He assured us that it would be completed this next week. So we will see. All that is left to do is to wait for our closing date. (and pack, clean the apartment, shop for a refrigerator, furniture, curtains, decorations, etc)

These past few weeks have been really stressful! I have been dealing with all the stuff that goes along with acquiring a new mortgage. When I first checked in with our mortgage specialist a few weeks ago the interest rates were 0.75% higher than they were back in April when we talked to her about how much our payments would be if we built this house. I just about freaked out! Well, actually I did freak out. A 0.75% increase means roughly a $100 difference in monthly payments (not to mention the enormous increase in interest you will pay over the life of the loan).

Anyways, so we have been monitoring the interest rates for the last few weeks. This Wednesday we felt like the interest rates were not going to get any better, so we decided to lock in our rate. The rate had dropped in the last few weeks to just 0.10% higher than it was back in April, so we figured we could handle that. I called our mortgage specialist literally five minutes before 3:00pm to have her lock in our rate (3:00pm is the deadline each day to lock in rates). Around 4:30 that same day our mortgage specialist called me back and let me know that she found out that a sister company of hers was offering a better rate that day. Her sister company's rate was 0.25% better than what we were going to lock in at, so she had already gone ahead and locked in that better rate for us.

This has been just one of the many blessings we have received from our Heavenly Father in the past few weeks. The lesson I have learned from all of this is to continuously have faith, have patience, never question Heavenly Father as to why you have not been blessed with what you need- you will be blessed- just in HIS time.

Vacation!

Yeah! Jeff is on vacation from tomorrow through September 7! I usually love/hate it when Jeff is on vacation. I love it because we get to spend more time together as a family and I get help with the boys during the day. I hate it because I don't get much house work done because I don't want to get up and do house work while Jeff is sitting back relaxing.

This vacation will be different though. It won't be much of a vacation. (Sorry Jeff) Jeff took this week off to help pack up and clean the apartment and do all the other things we need to do in preparation for moving.

I have already gone through our garage here at the apartment, sorted through the array of boxes, found all the empty and half empty boxes and have brought those inside, and I have already began to pack pictures and other decorations.

Testosterone X 5

Today I watched my sister Julia's three boys. So to say I was out numbered would be an understatement! It is a lot of work taking care of five boys! Here is a quick run down of their ages: Connor turned 5 in April, Mason turned 3 in July, Zachary will turn 3 in October, Cooper turned 1 this month, and Benjamin turned 6 months old today. SO.... in other terms: three are still in diapers, two of them are still nursing babies (no I did not nurse Benjamin, but I still had to sit down and feed him a bottle). One REALLY nice thing though is that Cooper and Benjamin both took their morning naps at the same time and all four younger ones took their afternoon naps at the same time. Oh aren't they so cute!

This was really funny, Zachary was not happy about something and he ran behind the couch to pout and cry. Mason immediately ran over to comfort Zachary. As you can see in the picture, Mason began patting Zachary on the head, said in a low voice "it's OK.... calm down... it's OK... calm down". Then Mason began signing "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" to Zachary.

Eating lunch

Benjamin laid on the floor and looked out the window during lunch.

Once Cooper was done eating his lunch, he though it would be a great idea to wiggle to a standing position so he could look out side like Benjamin.

During the little ones afternoon nap, I cut Connor's hair. I was a little nervous to cut it. Connor's Daddy is a bit picky about how it is cut. But I think it came out OK.

Before

After

After nap we played out side and just like all other testosterone driven males, they had to stop what they were doing to stare at a passing plane.

My Dad invited himself over for dinner (not knowing that I already had three of his other grandsons). We had a good dinner and played outside for a while after dinner.

Coope (and Mr. Mow Man)

*Just a little side note first* I asked Mason what I should name this post. His response was, "Coope!".

After having a lot of really hot days (the kind where you don't even want to walk a foot outside of your air conditioned house) and then followed by a few days of rainy days, it was refreshing to finally have a day with nice weather. While Jeff was BBQing our dinner, Mason, Cooper, and I played in the big courtyard at the apartment I was able to get some video of the boys. Enjoy!

Starfall

I am always wondering as Mason is watching these so called "educational" shows, if he is really learning any thing from them. I have heard reviews that say that children really don't learn any thing from these shows. I am not surprised at these reviews. Have you ever sat down and watched these shows? I have. You know how Dora the Explorer, Go Diego Go!, Handy Manny and others like them "teach" children Spanish? I know for myself I don't learn any Spanish from them, so I am sure children are not either.

OK I know the shows I mentioned are probably geared for children a bit older than Mason, so here are a few other examples. Sesame Street and Super Why, teach children numbers and letters. I have never once seen Mason be able to recognize a number or letter as a result of watching these shows. I mean give me a break, you think a child is going to recognize these numbers and letters, and know what sound these numbers and letters make, just from seeing them ONE time? Yeah right. I don't think so. Who came up with these shows? and really thought they would be "educational"? Obviously not a parent or someone with a degree in elementary education.

Alright, alright, I know you are probably wondering why I am ranting and raving about these "educational" shows. Well a friend of mine showed me a website that teaches children how to read. On this website there are four different sections to chose from, depending on how old and at what level of reading your child is at. I have not checked out all of the sections, as Mason is only three, and obviously not reading, yet. The only section I have used is the "ABC's- Let's get ready to read". Mason loves to get on and click on different letters in the alphabet and be able to do the different activities that go along with that letter. I have noticed that since I have let Mason go through the different letters and their individual activities, he is able to recognize letters more than ever before (watching those "educational" shows).

If you want to check out this website it is:

http://www.starfall.com/

You can also print coloring and other activity pages.

Sister's Retreat

This last Friday night, my sister DeAnne invited me and my other five sisters, and our one sister-in-law up to her house in Newport for a sister's retreat. First of all I would like to thank DeAnne for putting together such a great event. I think it would be safe to say that those of us who went had a great time. We had many laughs, learned more about each other, and over all had a great bonding experience.

Our one sister-in-law has a wonderful gift for decorating. She put together all the decorations for the retreat. All of the decorations were beautiful! Great job Michelle!

When we arrived, the table was all set up for our candle lit dinner.

Here are the napkin holders Michelle made.

All of us, sitting down for dinner.

Michelle, me, and Julia

In preparation for the retreat, DeAnne asked each of us to come prepared to share a talent or hobby with everyone.

Tammy put together a CD with the number one billboard's from the day each of us were born, and the day we graduated from high school.

Jenny played a few favorite hymns on the piano for us.

Julia showed us how to use cross-stich thread to write/weave our name on a pen. This has always been something I have wanted to know how to do. I probably have the longest name, and I finished my pen all by my self! After finishing, I don't think it will be something I will do again. I really don't have the patience of that.

Michelle and me "weaving" our names on our pens.

DeAnne showed off her quilting skills. Now this is something that if I had the time and money to do, I think I would like to learn how to do.

Britany had each of us take personality tests prior to the retreat. She shared with us what our personality type was.

My personality type is:

Introvert, Sensing, Thinking, Judging

My color type is: red

I showed everyone the scrapbook I have been working on for Mason. I am happy to say that I am current on Mason's scrapbook. But I have barley started on Cooper's. My goal is to get going on Cooper's once we move.

Michelle asked each of us before the retreat to think of one word that described each of our other sisters. She made these books with each of the words our sisters described us as and left room for us to write a personal message to each sister in their books.

In the morning DeAnne made cinnamon rolls and a really yummy veggie omelet for breakfast.

Don't we all look so beautiful in the morning?

After breakfast we just sat around enjoying each others company.

Tammy and me

Jenny concentrated on finishing Breaking Dawn.

Julia and Michelle

Britany with Julia's littlest, Benjamin. Benjamin was the only boy allowed since he is a nursing baby.

Michelle and me

All of us. From top to bottom and left to right: Jenny, Tammy, DeAnne, Julia, me, Britany, Michelle. The only sister who wasn't there was Rachel.

We all had a great time and I think each of us were a little sad to see the retreat come to an end. The only person who was happy to see it all end, was DeAnne's husband, Justin. Even though he LOVES all of his sister-in-laws he was grateful to have his house back to himself. I was nominated to host the next sister's retreat and the plans are already beginning to come together for that one!