My poor husband

Okay, seriously! I know I just posted about "my poor kids," but there is no better title for this post.

Mike had an interview today. I KNOW! Less than a week after being laid off. He came home from work, in his t-shirt and shorts, and changed into the sole suit in his closet. He drove 40 minutes, with no traffic, to the job site for his interview. We just keep reflecting on how great he's had it these last couple of years working at the church - 5 minutes from home, working in shorts. Um, yeah, life's gonna be a little different!

He called me on his way home from the interview in a great mood. The guy who interviewed him also went to Arizona State, so they bonded, plus he knew one of the uppity-ups at one of his former employers. Mike was talking a mile a minute, feeling really excited about the interview and encouraged about the whole job-search process, even if this particular company doesn't extend him an offer.

Mike walked in from the long drive home, in traffic, and the kids were intrigued by his suit and tie. (they were napping when he left for the interview) They begged to put on ties, too, and everyone wore their ties "like Daddy" through dinner. I haven't seen Mike so cheerful and full of life in weeks.

After dinner, we all walked down to get the mail, as is our nightly routine. In the mailbox, was a letter from the company where he interviewed this afternoon.

Let me back-track and say that he submitted his resume to this company twice: once on his own and a recruiter also called him about it. He got the interview through the recruiting company.

So he opens the letter and it's a "Thank you for submitting your resume, but the position has already been filled" letter. Hmmm...um...really? Mike said, confused, "This letter is dated yesterday and it's not signed by the person who interviewed me. Too weird." I quickly deduced that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing at this place. One person received his resume on line, decided he wasn't a fit and sent a letter while another person talked to the recruiter, liked his resume and set up an interview.

Regardless of what happened or why, this immediately let the wind out of Mike's sail. His whole spirit suddenly deflated. I tried to help him blow this off, because he interviewed and is still in the running for this job. Regardless, he's back to being apprehensive about tackling corporate America, looking for a new job. Dang.

Like I said: my poor husband! Just when he was feeling positive about things...what a bummer...

My poor kids

I've been short with my kids lately. Maybe not always on the outside, but I have so much on my mind that often, when I hear them call, "Mommy?" - I think, "WHAT?!?!?" but pleasantly say, "Yes?" I'm sick of feeling this way toward them. They didn't do anything wrong.

I mentioned I'm sleep deprived, right? Well, I my need sleep. It not only keeps me sane, it keeps me healthy. And I think this lack of sleep is making me sick. My throat is scratchy, I can feel gunk in my sinuses, I'm sneezing (that could be the sudden temperature change and stuff blowing around in the air) - anyway, you know how you feel when you have allergies? A little drugged from sniffling and sneezing? Add that to being overtired and throw in a couple of poor, unsuspecting, ridiculously talkative children. My patience isn't up for that.

My poor, sweet kids. I had to invest so much time and emotion into them before Mike got laid off. Most days, it takes everything I have to stop everyone, slow down the situation, hear each child out and remind them to use their words and resist the temptation to cry or grab or scream or tattle. It's become even more emotionally draining.

For instance, here is a conversation that happened on the way to the gym this morning:

Kids: (talking, asking questions, more talking, finding anything to talk about and ask about, talking more...)

Ryan: LA LA LALALALALA dum de dum de dum LALALALALA (because, just because)

Kaylin: Go, Mommy! GO!

Me: I can't go until the light turns green, Kaylin. See? The light is red. Let's wait patiently for it to turn green.

Ryan: Mommy?

Me: Yes, Ryan?

Ryan: Can I roll my window down?

Me: No, honey. We're getting onto the highway.

Ryan: Why can't I roll it down?

Me: Because it will be too windy.

Kaylin: Mommy?

Me: Yes, Kaylin?
Kaylin: Can I my window down? (not a type-o, that's how she talks)
Me: No.

Kaylin: Why?
Me: (rolling eyes and counting to 5...slowly...) When I tell Ryan "no" the answer for you is usually "no" too.

Ryan: Mommy?

Me: Yes, Ryan?

Ryan: When are we going to (friends name)'s house?

Me: Saturday.

Ryan: Tomorrow morning?

Me: No. In 4 days after lunch.

Ryan: Can we go tomorrow?

Me: No. Saturday.

Kaylin: Hey, Mommy?

Me: (I'm done, by this point) You know what, guys? I don't feel well. My throat hurts and the more I talk, the more sick I get. Could you just talk to each other so I can rest my voice?
Ryan: Of course!

Kaylin: Hey, Ryan?

Ryan: Yes, Kaylin?
Kaylin: Can I have my sunglasses? (that's what she wanted to ask me...finally a valid question and I blew her off)

Ryan: I don't have them. Mommy has them.

Kaylin: Oh. Hey Ryan?
Ryan: I'm busy. I'm playing with my skeleton right now. (a toy, not his own bones)

Kaylin: I'm busy, too. With my balloon.

(Then, sweet silence. Yet, it was deafening because I knew they both wanted to chat.)

Me: (Feeling so small for not having enough patience for these kinds of conversations all day. And it's only 8:30am.)

A couple of things about the kids: Ryan got the fireman's badge (that he's wearing in the picture above) from the firemen we ran into at a gas station in San Diego. After I put it on him this morning, he stood in front of my full length mirror, tall and proud, with a big smile on his face and blushed when he saw me watching him.

Then there's Kaylin. This kid is an accident magnet. On Sunday, Ryan was swinging his golf club in the backyard and Kaylin stepped in the way and was clocked right in the kisser. I swore it knocked her teeth out...blood was pouring out of her mouth. This girl and her poor teeth...it wasn't enough to have her tooth chipped and repaired last year?

After the drama calmed down, I noticed a huge cut on her gums and it looked like a tooth was popping through. As I showed it to people through the day, I got more and more nervous and decided to take her to the dentist yesterday.

Thankfully, no teeth are loose and she took the brunt of the blow on her gum, not on her teeth. Or in her eye. Or her head. Or broke her nose. She walked away pretty lucky for someone getting hit in the head by a golf club!

And it didn't get better the rest of the day. She stepped in front of another kid on the swings and got a bloody nose and fell down countless times, scrapping her knees and bruising this or that. Sunday was a rough day for our little princess.

Keeping my Home a Haven

I need to start off by saying how overwhelmed I have been with the love, encouragement and prayers we've received since I mentioned Mike's lay off. Your notes and calls (my phone rang off the hook last week!) were such a blessing to me...each and every one. One friend immediately invited us over for dinner last weekend, another wanted to bring over groceries, many others have extended additional offers to help or babysit, Mike was taken out to lunch by a co-worker, and another friend of his even offered to teach him how to lay wood floors so he can bring him on jobs to bring in some $$$ until he gets hired somewhere. Seriously overwhelming - THANK YOU for everything!

Mike and I are in good spirits, though I'll admit that we trade off feeling anxious about the months ahead. I noticed something interesting this weekend: Mike is obviously concerned about providing for our family, taking care of our financial needs, things like that. While I'm hopeful that he'll find a job soon and that we won't exhaust our savings, that's not what has me rattled. I've suddenly become a little over-protective of our "family life" and keeping things healthy and on the right track with our marriage and parenting.

I remember before Mike took the position at our church a couple of years ago, he had about a week (maybe two?) between leaving his old job and starting his new one. It changed the dynamic of our family having him home so much. Toward the end of his "time off," he finally let me know that he was looking forward to those days being just that: time OFF. Yet, my expectations were not for him to goof off and relax all day while cleaned up after him and I ran my preggo-body all over the house after our very-active-two-year-old. It's a little hard to explain, but I can honestly say that I remember being very excited for him to go back to work and get out of my hair start his new job.

How horrible is that? I don't want to be in that place again. I am thinking of ways that we can intentionally and purposefully enjoy this time together and not get on each other's nerves. You know the old saying of "distance makes the heart grow fonder." It's true for us.

But that doesn't change the fact that in a couple of weeks, Mike will be home a lot more. His last day is November 14th, the day after his birthday. I'm the queen of efficiency, so I'm psyching myself up to relax my standards, get flexible and cheerfully welcome Mike into our Monday-Friday routine.

So please continue to keep us in prayer. If we're careful, we can last several months while Mike looks for employment. But personally, I'm praying for peace in our home. Oh yeah, and sleep. (I can't seem to shut my mind off at night!) We're a little on edge (and sleep deprived...) and the kids are starting to feel the tension. We need to concentrate on having a grace-filled home with joy and contentment, even though luxuries will be scarce. I also desperately want to stay on the same page with Mike, though I'm not sure that even HE knows what "page" he's on. He knows we could/should cut some things back in our lives, but I'm not sure he's ready/willing just yet. Its tough to support someone who's still trying to figure themselves out, you know???

Happy Halloween!

The kids had a blast tonight. We went door to door with a couple of neighbors...

Ryan had his mask on most of the night, so the majority of my pictures are of my sweet little bunny...

Kaylin RAN from house to house and caught on to the concept immediately...

Many people dressed up to pass out candy and one particular mask scared the kids pretty badly. They were still talking about it at bedtime...

After Trick or Treating, I stuck to the new rule of each child getting as many pieces of candy as they are old. Ryan got four, Kaylin got two. And I got 32!

I hope everyone had a fun, safe evening!

Stretching Our Faith

I have the gift of faith. (I even believed in Santa for way, way too long; I felt so sorry for the other kids who believed the lies that their older siblings and other kids told them.) My faith is rarely tested...I know with 100% confidence that God is in control of every aspect of my life, whether or not things are going the way I think they should.

But this week, we were blindsided.

Mike was laid off. It's no surprise in this economy that people are losing their jobs, and I'm convinced it will only get worse. But for some reason, this really caught me off guard.

Yes, giving at our church has decreased this year. (To my Christian readers - please continue to tithe, even through the tough times. The church still has a staff to support and bills to pay!) Yes, our church is very large with an equally large staff. But Mike is a great employee - works smarter rather than harder, doesn't chit chat around the water cooler all day, he is a man of integrity, and he's very knowledgeable in his field. But I suppose the majority of the people on staff at our church are all of the things on that list, too.

Somehow, I just thought my husband's job was more secure. He was a part of the meetings where they tried to trim any and every area in an attempt to not have to let people go. I thought that if they had to make cuts, it would be the lower men on the totem pole. But his job is being dissolved and the group remaining in his department will now have to share his duties.

Isn't that always how it goes? It's great to be one of the people still on the payroll, but when there are layoffs, everyone suffers. The people left with their same jobs end up with more responsibilities and longer hours. All because of this horrible, stupid economy. Ugh, don't get me started.

As for me? I'm doing fine. I should say that I'm doing better. Last night, I wasn't doing so hot. I tried to hide my tears from Mike and the kids, realizing all that will be changing in the coming months. We've had a pretty sweet deal these last couple of years. Mike leaves for work at 8:25 and arrives at 8:30. He comes home every day for lunch and has to drive through 3 stop lights to get back home in the evening. The only employers between our house and our church are in a grocery store strip mall.

Now I'm wondering where God will take him next? I know He has a plan. And just like a friend said: I know this happened for a reason, I know I'm not given more than I can handle, I know many people are going through much worse, I know we will survive this and I know I will come out of it a stronger person. It's just tough, you know? It hurts my heart that Mike has to go through this again.

The last time he was laid off was just weeks after I found out I was pregnant with Ryan. His department was being transferred to California and he was given 6 months to find a new job. That was a scary time. And, of course, God provided a great position for him. I am confident that will happen again, it's just a bit unnerving.

It's also frustrating to know that in recent months, I've tightened up our spending quite a bit. What will we have to do to scale back now? Will we have to pull Ryan out of school? Sell a car? Sell a house for thousands less than it's worth? We're locked into certain commitments like our cell phones and we have pre-paid discount plans with places like our gym. So our lifestyle may not appear to change much at first...especially because we've lived very frugally for quite a while! Or so I thought. I just learned the definition of a "spending freeze."

I am proud to say that I took some time this afternoon to plan our meals for the entire month of November using only what we have in the house at the moment! I will still get the produce co-op every other week and will need to buy milk and eggs, but I think that's the extent of our grocery needs this month. We'll see if it works out.

So girlfriends (and the few gentlemen readers out there) - I need your prayers. WE need your prayers. Men put so much stock in having the ability to put food on the table and to support their families. It encompasses such a huge part of who they are as a human being and a member of society. I don't want this to get my man down. He stresses out way too easily and I want this to be a time where we pull together as a family and look back with thankfulness. I want this to stretch our faith and deepen our relationship with each other and with Christ.

And a quick, shameless plug: if my local Phoenix friends have any leads or connections to Accounting or Finance jobs (preferably in our area of town) - please let me know!

Thank you for your support and prayers. I'll keep you posted.

Easy Halloween Craft Ideas

Here are some cute, easy crafts to do with the kids this week to get them excited about Halloween:

Pipe Cleaner Spiders:

- Take a large-ish button with 4 holes in it

- Weave pipe cleaner through holes for the legs

- Use black beads at the ends of the legs for feet

- Glue two googly eyes on the button

PB&J shapes:
- Make PB&J (or any other sandwich) and use large cookie cutters to shape into ghosts, bats, etc.

PB&J Jack-o-Lanterns:

- If you don't have Halloween cookie cutters, use a paring knife to cut a jack-o-lantern face out of the top piece of bread for each sandwich.
- Trim off the crusts and form into a circle, if you want

Marshmallow Frankensteins:
- Put two large marshmallows on a candy stick
- Mix melted white chocolate with green food coloring
- Melt semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips in another bowl
- Coat marshmallows with green chocolate
- Dip the "hair" of the frankenstein in the brown chocolate
- Put a straight pretzel through the top marshmallow for the "bolts"
- Use mini chocolate chips as eyes

White Chocolate Ghosts:
- Melt white chocolate first, then mix in oil

- Drop 1 tablespoon of mixture onto a baking sheet lined with wax paper

- Use the back of a teaspoon to quickly spread into a ghost

- Place a lollipop stick at the base, spinning to coat

- Add chocolate chip eyes

- Refrigerate ghosts 5 minutes, then peel off

Lollipop Ghosts:
- Take a lollipop and cover it with a Kleenex tissue
- Tie around the "neck" with a piece of ribbon
- Use a black marker to draw circles for the eyes and mouth

Peanut Butter Cracker Spiders:

- Spread smooth peanut butter between two Ritz crackers

- Insert eight straight pretzels into the middle of the sandwich part as "legs"

- Use peanut butter as glue to hold on two raisins for eyes

Popcorn Hands:

- Put one candy corn in the finger tip of a clear, plastic glove

- Fill the rest of the glove with popped popcorn

- Tie at the wrist with a twist tie

Halloween dry-run

It took an hour to get the kids dressed for our first Halloween party today. I'm so glad to have had a dry-run before the big day!!! FAMILY PHOTO TIP: I'm a huge proponent of dressing kids up several days before the "big day" to take the staged pictures. Whether it's Halloween, Christmas, their baby dedication outfit, whatever. That way, the day OF, you're not concerned with staying clean or being happy for pictures...you already have your first photo shoot to fall back on.

Kaylin was such a good sport this morning.


I "colored on" her face (which she allowed, but begged me to stop) to turn her into a bunny. Once she saw herself in the mirror, though, she was thrilled.

But the first ears were too big and kept falling off of her, so I had to dig into the Easter decorations to find her ears from last spring. (notice her tail!)

Our first "nose" didn't turn out right.

But the final transformation turned out great.

Then there's Ryan: put on costume, cut eye holes bigger so he can see, he's done. Boys are so easy.

Happy early Halloween everyone!!! (I know this looks weird...hay and a scare crow with a palm tree behind it. Just GO with it...)

Palin on SNL

Some people are such good sports. Did anyone else catch this skit?