Out of Left Field

(Rod reading a bedtime story: Chronicles of Narnia, book 3, The Horse and His Boy, Jan 2009. Kids are coloring or drawing.)

Yah, beginning with baseball. I guess it's been on my mind today! We have had a huge surprise happen in our lives the last couple of days!

Sunday night, Rod and I stayed up late and watched tv online. He really "gets" the whole graphic design concept, and it hasn't been much of a struggle for him. Blessing there. Sunday night, we were thinking that Rod was going to be staying home and schooling with the kids, for the next 7 months until he's done with his program.

Then, out of LEFT field, Rod gets a call on Monday morning. Have you ever had *moments* that are engraved on your memory? One for me is the evening that I had told Rod, sitting in front of OfficeMax (where he was working at the time) that it was OFFICIAL... He was going to be a father.

Another is the moment where he sat down next to me, I had been typing on my computer, and told me that the Verizon store in Burlington was going to be closing.

There are others, but these are a couple that I just didn't expect. I EXPECTED Rod to ask me to marry him (I just didn't know when). (He asked me at Ernies at the Edgewater Inn, on the waterfront in Seattle, after I got home from a couple week mission trip to Mexico. We'd been to the waterfront MANY times, and we'd discussed eating at the fancy restaurant on the waterfront sometime... that's where he popped the question.)

Back to the point. I'm bunny hopping. Anyway. A friend of ours, that works for Microsoft, called and told Rod that there is a position open - that is short term - and that needs to be filled quickly. They are in the middle of a project and need to keep it a moving. Rod would need to commute to Redmond 4-5 days a week for 2-3 months. It just depends on many things. Well, flexibility is one thing right now, that we have!

So, we spent Monday in anticipation of expectation. Hoping that unemployment would approve of a temp job (they did at 4 pm in the afternoon). Hoping that everything would fall into place. Wondering if Rod really wants to do this. You know how we are about family time! Commuting, working AND school?? Monday night we hashed through all the WHAT-IF's. The what-if's good and the what-if's bad.

Tuesday morning we got up and I just felt sick about the whole thing. I guess I just didn't sleep on it well. Went to bed thinking I'd support the decision and woke up clearly hesitant. I guess since it's a temp job (I don't know how it all works at all) Rod would be hired through a temp agency. Tami from the temp agency called and offered Rod MUCH less than he was told to anticipate. So we spent until 2 that afternoon, which seemed like FOREVER, waiting to hear back about whether he was going to get the amount he was originally told. By then, we were wondering, if it were less, would it even be worth it? At 2, Tami called and offered him what was originally offered, relieving much of the stress.

Then she emailed him a ton of stuff to fill out - uh, forgot about that part. It almost took 2 hours for him to fill it all out.. not like the kids weren't a distraction! They were! He got it filled out, emailed it back and then was told to fax in the signature forms. So, Rod was at Workforce, at closing, the last one to use the fax machine that day.

Today, we faxed in Rod's social and drivers license. If all goes well, he will have the job and begin on Tuesday.

Why am I interested in him working there? To see if technology is one area that he would be interested in working in long term. It's an exciting project, so he'll be excited to do it. It's SO much more than he's getting through unemployment - which will really help us out. The unemployment end of it is worked out. Everyone has wondered at some time or another, what is it like working at Microsoft... He'll find that out! Rod'll get to build a relationship with someone who is important to our family. It's only 2-3 month commitment. (You can do almost anything short-term, right?) And last but not least, in this economy, if he gets his foot in the door, and ended up months from now getting hired.... at least he would have a job (Realistically, there is no expectation there, just one of those what-if's again!)

Today! I've worked on the newsletter. Will finish tonight. Amanda called and said that her church is having a dinner tonight - and that she'd like us to go. Rod and I looked at each other - that means I don't have to cook! Yay!

So we went, and had a nice dinner. Saw Amanda's family & Jessie's family. Fantastic time. Afterwards they were handing out groceries to the needy. We thought we wouldn't take any - that's for the needy! Anyway, they had way more donations than people to take them. So Rod and I got groceries and leftover good food for our family, my parents and another friends family! (I think we had 8 bags of groceries and 8 take out boxes of hot food.)

Then Rod & I got to play Grocery Fairy and drive around to deliver the groceries. Each family was blessed that we had thought of them! It was like Christmas with food! Amazing how happy people are to see you when you have something good to give them! That really blessed both of us!

Oh, back to Baseball. Got ahold of Josiah's coach from last year - hoping to find out when we should be hearing about the upcoming season. Got ahold of his All Stars coach from last summer, to make plans to pick up Josiah's birth certificate (needed the original to play All Stars). (He stilllll hasn't returned it to me - I just need to make a point to go get it.) Issue being, if I don't get it back, I'm going to go have to pay for another so he can play in the regular season this year!