Karen's New Job

Well, this is something I didn't ever think I would be writing about at this stage of my life! A couple of weeks ago, we still didn't have a job, and I was starting to freak out. (Trent wasn't so much--I am much more paranoid and get more worked up about things in life than he does. He really does balance me out!)
I had the thought to just update my resume and write a cover letter and just check out Craigs List to see what was there. Before I had Cory, and after I graduated from BYU, I worked as a full-time secretary in one of BYU's Advisement Center offices. Before that, I had been a receptionist and held a variety of office jobs. So I thought--why don't I just check things out and see what happens?

So I applied to several jobs on Wed., Feb. 17. The next morning I got a call from one of them. Actually, it was a recruiter for their company. The company is called Gen-Probe--about 20 minutes away from us. They are a biotech company that produces and manufactures nuclic-acid test kits and several other tests that have early and more accurate detection of human diseases. Ironically enough, Trent had applied to them once or twice since we've moved here. (But didn't get any because of lack of experience.)

After the inital phone screening interview (for the receptionist position), they called me the same day to set up a face-to-face interview. I went in the next week, and a few days later, they called me with a job offer asking when I could start. I started on my birthday, Monday, March 1. They are paying $6 more per hour than any other receptionist job I saw here-and twice my hourly wage at my last job 6 years ago. So it's good!

Things are going so well. I really like what I'm doing. The company is great--voted one of the best places to work in San Diego. And they are one of the most successfull and fast-growing biotech companies in the area. I only work part-time--it's 7:30-12:30, so I'm only gone in the mornings. Trent gets Cory ready for school and then has the girls in the mornings. He's even taken them grocery shopping, went to their first doctor's appointment since moving here (so LOTS of paperwork to fill out!) and Hailey's speech therapy meeting on Friday. He's been so positive and helpful and wonderful since I started working! I don't like calling him Mr. Mom (plus he is only by himself with them in the mornings--and he still is going to school AND looking for a job still) because he's not Mr. Mom. I mean, what does that make me? Mrs. Dad? He's our children's FATHER and he's extrememly capable of feeding them, cleaning up after them, doing our laundry, running to the store, taking them to appointments, etc. Just because he might be home with them more, doesn't mean he's a mom. It means he's a really great dad who pitches in when the family as a whole needs something.

Sophie has definitely formed a special bond with him this week (as if our girls weren't already daddy's little girls). She will bring him book after book and plop herself down on top of him and scream and grunt if he doesn't immediately start reading books to her.

SO my first week of work went really well. It's so refreshing having something else to do during the day rather than straightening, cleaning, cooking, and changing diapers. And I still get to do those rewarding and important things all afternoon and evening! Trent is still applying to jobs--in fact he has a very promising second interview early this next week. So if he gets it--then we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Our very good LDS friends that live just around the corner from us have their own in-home daycare. I've spent many hours in their house observing their daycare and how things are ran (mostly because Hailey and Cory LOVE to play over there--so I just go to hang out and bring Sophie too, and it's like a big party.) They are great with kids and you can really tell they love children. They've been doing it for the last 2-3 years since her husband got laid off doing construction work. Anyway, I casually mentioned to them last week that if Trent finds a job soon we may need to find somewhere for Hailey and Sophie to go for a few hours in the morning. They said they should be able to take them, and they've actually been hoping for a couple more kids lately to help make ends meet. Chad (the dad) takes Sophie sometimes at church for us and she goes to him so well. I would have no qualms at all about leaving the girls with them for half a day. I mean, this isn't a permanent thing with me (working part-time). Once Trent does find a job and once we get our credit card debt paid off, I'll want to return to the home full-time. I mean, Sophie still is my little baby (even though she's one) and I really have started to miss her in the mornings, even though it's only been a week!

We'll see what the Lord has in store for us. But I really love being able to step outside for half my day. It makes me really cherish my kids more--I'm happier when I am around them--and I gladly want to play with them and go outside with them--instead of just doing it so they'll stop begging me.

So that's it for now! I would love to hear feedback from moms who have worked either part-time or full-time outside the home and how they felt about it.

Torrey Pines and Sophie's 1st Birthday

I had a lot more beautiful pictures to add, but blogger isn't letting me. So I'll have to post more later. Here is us on Saturday at Torrey Pines State Preserve in San Diego. We hiked about a mile and a half to the cliff. (Trent pretty much carried Sophie the whole way.) It was so beautiful. Then we went down to the bottom and the kids got to play in the water, too.

Our sweet Sophie--just too tired to eat.

Our little Sophie turned one on Feb. 8. I can't believe all that has happened in the past year

and that she is already 1! It just went by WAY too fast. She's walking now, we're teaching her baby sign language, and she is picking up a few signs already. (Her favorite is "all gone").

We love her so much and her favorite thing to do (other than LIVE outside) is when Cory chases her and plays with her all over the house. She squeals and giggles with delight.

She literally started walking the day before she turned 1. She loved the little

dolly stroller we got her. She walks all around with it now!

Here she is with some cake.

Sophie's first birthday!

Opening her cards with some help from daddy.

Our Big Move and recent events

We moved from this.......




and this.....

To THIS!

This is the view of the sunset from our driveway.

We're kind of up on a hill, so we've had some incredible sunsets so far.

Five days after we moved there. Yes, it really was Jan. 2

And the kids were getting in the water.

Sophie LOVES to eat sand! Yeah! She loves to crawl straight out to the water too.

The next time we went to the beach, we were smart enough to bring her

bathing suit.

Hailey fell all the way in the water shortly after this picture was taken.

Good thing we brought a change of clothes!

It was about 72 degrees this day.

We went to the San Diego Zoo last Saturday. (Totally free because of Trent's cousin's family.)
Well, I took the kids to the zoo with Julie and her 2 little kids. Trent got to go sailing on the ocean with Ryan.

Cory lost his first tooth on Monday, Jan. 18. He was so excited!

Now we're going backwards in time--this is the awesome Barbie cake that Lisa (Trent's sister) made for Hailey's 3rd birthday. Thanks again Lisa!

All the Halterman side cousins.

Some of Hailey's Christmas presents.

Cory's Christmas presents.

Hailey with her doll house and wearing her tutu.

Sophie on Christmas morning.

The Nativity Skit at Shaw's house in December.

Sophie taking her first steps in December.

Sophie with her cousin, Chloe Goodman.

Hailey's actual birthday of New Year's Eve.

Skipping back to her birthday with the Halterman side.

Don't ask her to do something she doesn't WANT to do!!

Trent put curlers in her hair one day after baths--it was so cute! (She's wearing Cory's old Diego pajamas--at her insistance!)

Cory with cousins, Matthew and Andy Sorbe at Thanksgiving in Arizona.

Cory's 6th birthday party back in Utah with some friends from school and cousins Mason and Joseph.

Another birthday party for Cory with the Halterman side.

Cory with his tiger cake that Lisa made.

A trip to the mall with Hailey

This is a typical look for Hailey--tiara on head, mirror in hand.


So today I didn't want to sit around all afternoon playing with Hailey and Sophie on the floor like I usually do (when I'm not cooking or cleaning or apartment-hunting in San Diego) and Cory was at school, so I did something I haven't done in months. I took the girls to the mall. The weather has been in the 20's lately, so an outside walk was out of the question. I seriously haven't taken Hailey to the mall more than once since she turned two, so I have not trained her to be this way.

Anyway, we walk into Macy's (Hailey calls it the"pretty store"), and she literally starts gawking at all the manequins. She has to stop and stare and smile in wonder and touch their pretty, shiny boots. She told me they were wearing such pretty shoes as she stroked them. Then we proceed to walk through Macy's when she points and giggles with delight and glee at all the evening gown dresses and fancy coats sections. Her eyes are lit up like stars. She has walked into Paradise. (If any of you have seen "Confessions of Shopaholic" just picture her face when she would walk into stores.) Perhaps the funniest comment came when she pointed up at a manequin wearing skinny jeans, shiny boots, a fitted pea coat, with lots of accesories and says, "mommy, she looks like you." I busted out laughing right then and there. I mean, yes, she's a two-year-old, and I guess it did make my day, but trust me, it couldn't be farther from the truth.

Then on our way out of the mall, she saw the little girls dresses section. Oh dear. We stayed there for THIRTY minutes because she had to make sure she had seen (and touched--I made sure her hands were clean) EVERY single dress in store. I have to admit, they were beautiful dresses--I believe the cheapest dress was $30--and that was 50% off, but she wanted to "try them on", which just meant to hold them up to her to see how long they were. She kept pointing to dress after dress saying she wanted them for her birthday (coming up this month). When I told her it was time to go, she almost started crying because she wanted to keep looking at dresses and making their skirts swoosh back and forth. I told her we would have to come back someday. (Yeah, like in 5 years!!)

Okay, so don't get me wrong, I was a little proud of my daughter to be such a girlie girl, but STILL. I got a little nervous. I mean, she's not even 3 and she's already this aware of fashion? I know I like to shop and I love buying clothes, but since Sophie's been born, I have gone shopping for myself maybe, two times--neither of which time I had Hailey with me--so I know she can't just be copying how I am! It's truly just in her genes! I'm a little worried for when she's a teenager!

Halloween Pictures

This is just a random picture of Sophie in October.



The kids with their loot.





Hailey was Snow White, Sophie was a luau girl, Cory was a ninja.



This is Cory's last soccer game in October. He aboslutely loved it this season and got way more into it. He was the biggest kid on his team and one of the taller ones on any team they played, so he ended up scoring at least 2 goals each game. There were a couple of games that he scored more than 7! That's when we had to start reinforcing the idea of passing the ball to his team mates!




Looking for pumpkins at a local pumpkin patch.

San Diego--Here we come!

Okay, so we should give a little update since our lives have been turned upside down.
(I will post Halloween pictures later). About 4 months ago, Trent and I decided maybe we should look into going back to school and getting more education that would help Trent get a clinical research job. He's been applying to jobs in this field for the last 18 months and found nothing. We have been very blessed that he has been working at ARUP Laboratories. It's just not what he wants to do for the rest of his life. So, we started researching programs all over the country. I spent several hours over a couple of days researching schools while he was at work. I found a Masters Program at the University of California San Diego that Trent really liked. It was specific--JUST for clinical research. It has job placement help at the end and the classes are very hands-on-training-type experience for a real job. This program is much more specific than the Masters Degree he earned from the Univ. of Utah. Although, we are very glad he did that program (Masters of Science and Technology) because without it, he could not have applied to this program. Just to apply to this program, you had to have one advanced degree or another. A bachelors wasn't gonna cut it. So we started the whole transcript-sending, personal-statement-writing, letters of recommendation process all over again. FUN. Haven't we done this before?

So we finally heard last Tuesday that he got accepted! It is on a condition, though. They were concerned about his lack of experience doing clinical research. Duh! Isn't that why we need to go back to school?!?! He has to take the first class in the program (Epidemiology 1--starting Jan. 4), receive a B or better, than he can be officially accepted into the program. He's not too worried about that condition--it will be the only class he's taking, so he can really focus on it.

So after that, he can sign up for the full 6 credits starting summer quarter. The program has a track that can allow people to finish it in 18 months and that is what we are shooting for. I mean, seriously, how much student loan debt do we REALLY want to be in when all is said and done. I thought we were doing pretty good after he graduated from the Univ of Utah. But now we are going to double that amount. Fun!!

So now we have less than 2 months to: (in order of importance)
Trent needs to find a job in San Diego. ANY job!!!
We need to find an apartment or a house to rent (leaning towards renting a house--more inland, so we don't have to pay $2000 a month!) We will probably leave our kids with my parents over Thanksgiving break down in Arizona since we were planning on going there anyway and fly on over. And celebrate Cory's birthday somewhere in there since his birthday is just before Thanksgiving.
We need to actually MOVE there.
We need to find Cory's new school and switch schools
We have Christmas to plan and shop for--do we move right before Christmas? Do we move the day after Christmas? Who knows.
Work out money details--apply for federal aid, etc, etc.
We have Hailey's birthday on New Years Eve
Then hopefully, on Jan. 4 we will be all moved in somewhere, Trent will attend his first day of class, and then go to work.

All I can say is, thank heavens this isn't LAST year when I was 8 months pregnant with Sophie during the holidays! That would definitely make it much harder.

Okay, well, we're excited, and I'm so glad we took that trip to San Diego just 6 months ago! We went to Sea World for a couple of days and the beach. So I feel like we have a feel for the area. We loved it! 70 degrees year-round? Yeah, I think I can handle that. Too bad I just bought all the kids snow boots for the winter. And a cool sled at a recent garage sale. Oh well. I guess we'll just suffer by living in a perfect climate. But don't be too jealous. When I start to think about the student loans we'll have when all this is over, I start to feel faint and weak.

Just finished Jane Eyre

Okay, so I don't know HOW Jane Eyre has slipped by me all these years of me loving reading my whole life and reading well over 50 books since I got married. I never had to read it in school, and I never had anyone push me to say "you have to read this book!"

Well, now I'm going to say it: You have to read this book! It wasn't just the book I loved. After I finished reading it (the key is"after"), go to your library, and check out Masterpiece Theater's recent making of it. It was only made a couple years ago (it aired on PBS in Jan. 2008) and it's almost 4 hours long. (The cover has a close-up of her profile on it.) That's how you know you'll get the right movie. It has to be the right one! They've made different versions dating back to the 1940's (I think), and this is BY FAR the best version.

It made me remember all the good and noble attributes we should have like patience, temperance, forgiveness, modesty (not the clothing kind), and love. There are some beautiful illustrations to each of these virtues given in the book. It will make you remember what TRUE love is supposed to be like between spouses. It will make you wonder how quickly you could forget how madly in love you were during your engagement and first year or so of marriage and then when children came, that kind of love got set aside for arguments about who's turn it was to take out the garbage or bathe the kids. This book will remind you that there are such deeper kinds of love than just physical attraction (although that is the icing on the cake that makes it so much sweeter). It will remind you that when your minds and hearts are one with each other, there is no greater satisfaction and joy in a relationship.

When I turned off the end of the movie last night around midnight, the channel came up that I last had it on (NBC, I think), and they were advertising for some comedy (I can't remember which one), and the crassness and the baseness that I saw in just a 10 second commercial for some raunchy comedy that's on network television almost made me cry. Just compared to the purity and the goodness of character that a book (or movie) like Jane Eyre can conjure up in our heads, and then you see something like that on TV--it was almost as if someone splashed ice water on my face.

I love the modern conveniences of today's life--I am grateful to be alive at this time where we have the fullness of the gospel restored, and we have modern medicine and heating and air conditioning!! We can travel and experience more in a few days than most people 200 years ago couldn't experience in a whole lifetime. But it doesn't come without a price. Sometimes I think life was more fulfilling for some people back in those days than it is now. They had to work so hard (mostly physically hard) for every single thing they got out of life. People were hardly "bored." Is that why the moral standards were so much higher? People weren't so rude and inconsiderate as they are now. (Of course people in previous time periods were still rude and had bad qualities--I'm talking about society in general.)

Anyway, Hailey is needing me (she wants me to paint her fingernails), so that's my soapbox for today. So here's the lesson of the day:

Go start reading "Jane Eyre", take one attribute you want to have more dominant in your life, and we can all feel more satisfied and fulfilled with life!