Completely Blessed

We are completely and utterly blessed.

Chris has several jobs which he's been given by a contractor that should take him into January. The work he's getting is,without a doubt, given as a blessing. Well, I mean a lot of it has to do with the fact that he's an awesome worker and does a fantastic job. But additionally, he's getting this job through a friend from our bible study group. At a time when the housing market and economy are so bad, the jobs he is getting are for commercial work. It's just a complete blessing at a time of year that is usually very scary to us.

We have Christmas decorations up at the house... but nothing outside and no tree as of yet. We also made lots and lots of Christmas cookies. Yummy!

Kayla, Chris, Julie and I all had a talk last Sunday. Actually, Chris started talking to Julie, and eventually Kayla came in the room. Chris did a good job of talking to her without getting emotional about it. First he chastised Julie about working on this with Kayla without talking to us. Then with Kayla, he basically told her that he honestly believed that her moving out now, before she finished high school, would be a mistake. He talked about the obvious pitfalls: changing schools, perhaps not being able to start a new school because she's be over 18, Julie's very small apartment, having someone there to help her if her car broke down, and other things that would be harder for her. But he did a good job of just telling her how we felt.

I got the opportunity to tell her that I was really upset that she was telling everyone that she and I were fighting all the time - when we weren't. At first she said that we DID fight all the time, but when I asked her to tell me of ONE time, she couldn't think of anything. She then told me that she was very upset with me because I wouldn't let her go to parties. I asked WHAT parties (because we rarely tell Kayla 'no'). She said that there was this one time that she asked if she could go to a party and apparently I said no. She never asked again, just assumed I'd say 'no' to any future parties. We then had a long talk about what was a party, what 'happens' at parties, and about our general rule: as long as we know where she is going, who she is going with, how she's getting there and getting home, and when she'll be home... all is good.

I can't say that I know what Kayla has planned for when she turns 18, but I do know that I feel better after talking to her and getting it all out in the open.

I have been swamped at work. This week we have a big event here in the power industry called "PowerGen". It's in Orlando every other year, and so every other year we plan a big event. Monday is a big golf day - 18 rounds of golf with the big-wigs of all the companies we represent. Then on Wednesday a chipping/putting contest, dinner and awards ceremony. I'm in charge of running this whole event, and have put it together with no real problems. However we have some big things going on here at the office which have made this quite problematic.

First, I may have told you in a prior blog, but one of my bosses - Steve - is in the reserves. He's been called to Active Duty and is to report in February. He's really trying to get out of it because he has some medical problems... but we'll see how all that goes.

Then there is my other boss, David. He's been having neck/shoulder problems for a week or so which started after he was golfing one weekend. Come to find out, he's got some ruptured vertebrae or something to that effect... he's going to need spinal surgery this week to fix it. This means he can't go to Orlando with us to give out awards, golf, do the dinner or anything! OIE

So, guess who is going to have to pick up the slack? Yepper... me. I now have a script to read when passing out awards. (We award the principals who gave us the most commission every year.) Thank goodness Chris is going with me because I think I'll be a nervous wreck. My boss rented a hotel room for us Wednesday night so we didn't have to drive back at midnight... which was nice.

All this stuff is happening at my work, and -- all the while -- I don't know what's going to happen with me in January 2009. Are my hours cut? My pay? I'm still looking for a job like crazy - but nobody - and I mean NOBODY is calling back. It sure seems to ME like a really bad time for them to cut me to part time and therefore lose me. But... I don't know what the plan is. And now with David out, I don't know how or when I'm going to get to ask him!

Geez

Okay... on to more wonderful stuff!

So I told you that Jonathan is doing horrible in school, right? Middle of the 9 weeks and he was failing 3 classes. You look in his book bag and it's HORRIBLE... papers everywhere, not in folders - his whole life from school just scattered in a book bag.

Well, I got tired of it.

Across the hall from my office is Gail Myers of Myers Tutoring. She is always SO NICE to me, and she has a beautiful office, so I went over there to ask her if she could help me somehow. She offered to give him 'organizational classes' -- for FREE!

Amazing!

We went to meet with her on Sunday and she was awesome. She looked at all the papers in his book bag and saw that his papers that were graded had good grades. In a matter of minutes she figured out that he was a "global learner". She asked how he was doing in math... he said he was doing okay, but didn't understand imaginary numbers... it didn't make sense to him. She said that she LOVED imaginary numbers and she showed him how to do them in a way that made complete sense to him. She was doing problems on the board (a really cool 'smart' board!) and at one time Jonathan corrected her answer.

She then told him that she would try to help him get organized, stay organized and get better grades, so that HE will have more FREE time.

I told her about how he didn't ever want to do his Notebook in World History because it's only 4% of his grade. He said it took up too much time to put the notebook together for that little of a grade, so he'd rather just not do it. I see a zero and freak out! Gail explained to me that - because he was a global thinker/learner - this made total sense to him and to her. But, she said and looked right at Jonathan, that means the rest of your grades have to be good enough to allow you to miss that notebook assignment.

She suggested we get him a pendflex - which is an idea he hated. But she told him to just give it a try and see how he does with it. Chris picked one up today so we'll see how he does with it.

Justin is going in for surgery on Friday. I feel kinda bad that I'm not going to be there the day of his surgery, I have to work. But Chris and Michelle will both be there, and I'll see him when I get out of work. Please keep him in your prayers!

Julie is supposed to be having surgery on her hand for a carpal tunnel type injury on December 19th. I have mixed feelings about this surgery... on one hand, if she's uncomfortable (tingling in two fingers) and they can do surgery to fix it - great. On the other hand, she'll be off work through Christmas (bad time of year) and she'll miss a lot of work - who's to say in this economy that she'll have a job to come back to? And let me tell ya... it's HARD getting a job right now anywhere. Plus I can't imagine them just doing surgery right off... not trying anything else first. But anyways... she's having surgery on the 19th so keep her in your thoughts and prayers as well.

"We love Him because He first loved us." 1 John 4:9-10