What Do You See Out Of Your Window This Morning?

'Cause I see this.


Blech. Isn't it suppose to be spring?

Mariner Fan In Training

Levi rockin' his Daddy's M's hat.

After the Angry Post

Here's a pretty photo I took of some blossoms that were coming out on a tree that hangs over our alley. Not the most beautiful of locations, but I can't complain.

More photos like this are on my photography blog.

I'm An American Citizen

And I'm mad as hell!

But here's the thing. I'm not just mad at my government, I'm mad at myself as well. I'm one of those who has sat by and let the government just do as they please. Now we're in a huge hole and, to be honest, I'm having a hard time seeing the blue sky for the steep walls. I regret not getting my butt in gear and down to one of those tea parties, but believe you me, I will be there next time!

And for those of you who voted for Obama...wrong! Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. He has done NOTHING to help this country thus far. His first 100 days in office have been one failure to represent the citizens of the United States of America after another. Don't try to defend him to me, he has failed. You should have gotten nervous when people started hailing him as a savior...believe me, this man does not walk on water.

And don't try to make this a "liberal" vs "conservative" thing. Don't try to tell me that there isn't a huge group of liberals out there who are mad as hell also. I don't have to be conservative to be pissed off about how my government is spending my money.

Pull your head out of the sand, America, before our government completely buries us in it.

Nothing Says Flip Flop Time...

....like bright red toe nails. Aw yeah.

Awake!

I promised I'd work on getting photos of the boys while they're awake, so here they are! After having an incredibly lazy weekend (bliss, let me tell you) we planned on going to the 6:30 pm service at our church...little did we know that that service doesn't exist anymore. Who knew?! Instead, we came home, bundled the boys up, and headed into the backyard to keep Daddy company while he worked on the garden. Levi's in the green hat, Asher's in the orange one.

The boys' eyes just keep getting bigger and bigger, which I looooooooooove. They had fun rolling around outside, and Mommy was having a blast snapping away with the camera, but we only got to hang out for about 20 minutes before it got a little too cold out and we had to head inside.

The Doggies

The other recent development in the boys' lives has been the recent addition of their doggies. Up until now, we've been nervous about putting stuffed animals in the cribs, but we figure that they should be alright with them now that the boys can roll any which way they want.

I think Levi enjoys having the company in his crib, yet he hasn't glommed onto his doggy the way Asher has. For the past three nights, Levi has started randomly screaming and crying in his sleep, and we have to work really hard to get him to way up in order to snap out of it. I'm wondering if it's nightmares or just missing having someone right there...but how weird is it that this would start, out of the blue, months after we moved the boys into separate cribs? Anyway, we're hoping that Levi's doggy is a source of comfort to him, watching over him in his sleep.


Asher, on the other hand, has fallen in love with his doggy. He has a hard time falling asleep, whether at night or for naps in his crib, without his doggy's ear clutched firmly in his little chubby fists and planted against his face. And please, what ever you do, don't try to take that doggy's ear away from Asher when he has a hold on it. It's his comfort.


Wow, I really need some photos of the boys while they're awake...I'm just so in love with how peaceful and adorable they are while asleep. Ok, I'll work on that.

Finally, Yeesh!

Yes, I'm finally putting up photos of the boys. Nathan had to go to work at noon, and I am barely functioning after just getting 4 hours of sleep after two graveyard shifts; thankfully, both of the boys have deemed it necessary to take naps, Asher in his crib for the last two hours or so, Levi enjoying his second one of the morning in the bouncer. Because let me tell ya, Mommy is on basic functions at the moment, and it hasn't gotten better for all that I've up for an hour. Usually it does, but not today.

But enough about me. I'd like to share with you a study of my boys. More particularly, my second born.

This is my second born. We recently stopped swaddling the boys and Asher has developed a very interesting habit. He pretty much flat refuses to sleep on his back anymore.


This is my first born. He's perfectly a-ok with sleeping on his back. Sometimes he'll roll over to his side or tummy, but those instances are few and far between.


But then there's his brother. Unfortunately, sleeping on your tummy isn't easy business folks. There are times when you just plain want to be on your back or side.


The rough part is when you're sleeping too hard to get yourself back onto your back or side. Fortunately, Mommy or Daddy is always just a ear-piercing shriek away.


They're always happy to run into the room to roll me back onto my back before I wake up my brother.


After which I promptly roll onto my tummy again.


Lather, rinse, repeat.

Ok, I can't lie. There's something about a baby sleeping on their tummy that just makes my heart melt. I know, there's no rhyme or reason to it, but there it is.

Le Sigh

I heard back from Life Flight today. I knew immediately from Claudine's voice that they would not be offering me a job. Sure enough, "We're sorry, but we're going in a different direction." What exactly does that mean, anyway? I think it's a 'polite' way of saying that someone else fits better or is more qualified. Personally, I prefer the blunt approach, but oh well.

Honestly, I'm slightly relieved. After doing my sit-in, I was having a hard time getting real excited about working there. It seemed like they have the same amount of calls coming in as we do in my current center, only without the diversity of police, fire, and medical. To put it bluntly, I think I'd get bored.

Today I called Washington County in regards to the Administrative Specialist position. The lady I talked to there said that they've had a lot of applications, and wouldn't be done going through them until the end of next week. After that, they'll be contacting those candidates that they want to interview, and hope to have someone in the position by June 1st. It didn't sound hugely promising, but I'm going to keep on it. I also attempted to call the recruiter for the Evergreen position, but he was on the phone when I called and never called me back so I'll be bugging him again tomorrow.

Other than that, I've applied for another 3 jobs tonight; one as a dispatcher in Tacoma, one as a call taker in Tacoma, and one as a dispatcher with a medical response company in Seattle. I'll be calling both of those places tomorrow to find out more info about the job and the interview process. I'll also be keeping my testing date with Eugene dispatch on May 9th, so keep the spare bedroom open for me, Kate! All in all, I still have 7 applications out there, waiting for someone to bite. Seriously, someone HAS to bite. Please?

But there's good news behind the blechy job hunting nonsense! We made a counter offer on the first offer we received on the house, accepting their price (since it was essentially our asking price) but adding a stipulation saying that we have a week after closing to move out. So basically, we don't HAVE to be out of the house until June 29th. And even better? We figured out that, after we pay off all of our debt and all of the fees for selling the house, we will still have enough to live conservatively for 7 months without having a job! Hopefully we won't have to use that, but it also means that I can put Clackamas County dispatch back on the list of possibilities if nothing else comes through!

All in all, I'm amazed with how calm I am about all of this. And can I just tell you again how excited I am to be so close to being out of debt?!?!?! Seriously, only 2 more months (if everything goes through with this buyer) of writing house loan, student loan, credit card, medical bill checks. That's essentially $1000 worth of bills each month, GONE. We're going to write all those checks at the same time, and then take a picture of us holding them up and smiling our biggest possible smiles. Here's to financial freedom!

On The Fast Track

Well, today has been a super exciting day!!! No, I haven't heard back on Life Flight yet, but a lot of other exciting things happened. We left Baker at about 7:45 this morning to take the boys for their NICU Follow up Clinic in Boise. They saw a developmental pediatrician and an occupational therapist, both of whom said they don't see anything to be concerned about and that the boys are developing amazingly well. Yay! They also both weigh just above 14 lbs now, no wonder we've started taking them out of their car seats if we're going to carry them any further than about 10 feet. We tried to stop by the NICU to see if any of our favorite nurses were in, but all of them are on night shift. Sad day. We did stop by the Ronald McDonald house though, to show them the boys and tell them how huge of a blessing they were to us while we were there.

While we were on our way to Boise, we got a call from our realtor's assistant, Carla, who does some of the showings on the house. She had scheduled a showing for Sunday afternoon, but wanted to reschedule it for this afternoon at noon. Last night, our realtor hosted a first time home buyer's seminar, and evidently the lady who wanted to see the house on Sunday overheard someone else talking about how much they love our house and that they wanted to make an offer on it. Which prompted this lady to tell Carla that she wanted to see the house this afternoon, because if it's the house she wants, she wanted to make an offer on it right away. So Carla showed her the house this afternoon, and when we called her at around 5:00 this evening, she told us she has a written offer for the full asking price of the house!!!!! The offer includes us helping with half of the closing costs, but we're hoping that maybe we can write it into the contract that in exchange for helping with closing costs, the buyer will be responsible for anything the inspector might find that needs to be done on the house.

If we accept this offer, we'll probably have enough left over after paying off all of our debt to almost complete Dave Ramsey's Baby Step 3, an emergency fund for 6 months worth of living expenses. I'm so excited that in one step (selling the house) we'll complete both Baby Step 2 (get rid of debt) and Baby Step 3 (emergency fund) all in one swoop! It makes me want to do the happy dance.

Even better? Carla said she had a second person come in to make an offer at 6:30 this evening! They didn't offer as much as the first person, but they did not ask us to pay any closing. We're going in to meet with Carla and Mary Jo tomorrow afternoon to look over the offers and see where we want to go from here. Mary Jo said that usually, when she gets a situation like this, she has the sellers look over the offers and then send them back to the buyers, saying that there are other offers on the table and asking them to think about whether they'd be able to offer any more.

We've already told ourselves we're not going to get greedy, that our #1 objective is to strike while the fire is hot and accept a good offer while interest in the house is still up. It's written into the house description that we can't close before June 22nd, which is just 2 day over us owning the house for 2 years. That way we won't get hammered by the capital gains tax. But Mary Jo said that closing after receiving an offer, when you figure in all the inspections and such, usually takes about 2 months anyway, so that's not a big deal.

God is good!

On our way home from Boise today, we realized that without Marla leaving us the house, none of this would have been possible. Yeah, we'd be a little less in debt, but we most definitely would not be looking down the pike at being 100% debt free in just a few short months, and we would be in panic mode over me losing my job. So thank you Marla! This is going to put us so far ahead for the rest of our lives, as long as we use this blessing wisely. Funny, if we had been selling the house only 4 months ago, we probably would be looking at how we could blow the money we'll have after paying off our debt, or we'd be looking at buying another house, without even considering the other options.

OH! And I totally forgot to write about the fact that our boys turned 7 months old yesterday! SEVEN MONTHS! In just 6 days, their adjusted age will be 5 months. Nathan and I both commented today on the fact that we have a hard time thinking of them as preemies anymore. They just look and act so much like normal, every day, full term babies. I have some adorable photos of them, but in the relative insanity that has been our past couple of weeks, I haven't really had the time to edit them and post them on here. Soon though! We just recently switched from putting the boys in swaddles at night to just putting them in sleep sacks, and since then they have loved sleeping on their tummies. Especially Asher. We've also started putting really soft stuffed doggies in the boys' cribs at night, and Asher LOOOOOVE that. He holds onto his doggy's ear and puts it up to his cheek as he's falling asleep, and woe on anyone who tries to take it away from him! Levi isn't quite as possessive, but I think he likes having something to cuddle up against as he's sleeping.

I love being a Mommy.

Lovely

It's so peaceful in the Labunski household right now.

Asher is asleep in his crib after drooling on Mommy's shoulder for a few minutes.

Levi and Daddy are asleep on our bed, all snuggled in together.

And Mommy just finished watching the Dave Ramsey show and is now going to snag a few minutes to curl up in the recliner with her book.

I repeat...lovely.

I Need...

...another 5 or 6 burners. You know, to go with that old saying "put it on the back burner"? Except nothing going on in my life can go to the back burner, each item on the to do list requires a front burner. So to be more accurate, I need another 5 or 6 front burners, and then a burner conversion to turn my current back burners into further front burners.

Wait...where was I going with this again?

Oh, right. I applied for another two jobs last night. Having NO calls and access to a type writer makes for some good application-filling-out time. The first one is for a job as an Administrative Specialist (fancy name for secretary) for the Washington County dispatch center, fondly referred to as WCCCA (pronounced Wac-kuh), in Hillsboro Oregon. The application for that one closes in three days, it pays essentially the exact same amount as the Life Flight position, has great benefits, and would mean a regular schedule...aka, no grave yard shifts. 5 days a week. I faxed that off early this morning, so we'll see if I get a call.

The second job is a dispatch position with Jefferson County in Madras Oregon, a small town north of Bend, which has a population half the size of Baker...ha ha ha, wow. The cost of living there is only .5% higher than in Baker, which is great since the beginning pay is about what I make right now. I just faxed that one off about an hour ago and the application closes on the 8th, so again, we'll see if I get a call.

Oh, yeah, and we'll see if I get the job with Life Flight. That just might make all of this completely irrelevant.

We have had a small success in the Labunski household! The boys have graduated from their Velcro-enhanced swaddles and are now sleeping in sleep sacks! For any of you who might not know, sleep sacks are like light weight sleeping bags with arms that you zip the baby into...they fit like a shirt on to top and are nice and roomy at the bottom for the legs. This has given Asher the option of sleeping on his side or tummy and Levi the ability to stretch out his arms as far as humanly possible. I never knew a baby could stretch that far...I thought that distinction was saved for cats, but noooo.

Yesterday morning, when I got home from work, Levi was wide awake and ready to party. So I scooped him up and snuggled him for a while in the recliner until I started falling asleep, at which point I brought him into our room and plopped him on the bed while I changed into jammies. All his kicking and squeaking woke Nathan up, who promptly scooped up Levi and tucked Levi in next to him. Where Levi promptly fell asleep. A few minutes later, he had commandeered the center of our bed, arms stretched out, effectually pushing us to the outside edges...we all slept like that for a good hour or so. I was so tired, I even slept through the dual snoring coming from my boys, even the big one.

Big shout out of thanks to Kate for coming to Baker for five day to help out. Because of her taking care of the boys, we were able to accomplish a TON on the house during the weekend, and she did an amazing job keeping the boys entertained, fed, clean, and happy. The basement, which was where our TONS of junk was stored, is now starting to look manageable, thanks to a shed full of stuff for a yard sale and 1800 lbs worth of crap taken to the dump. Don't hate us, most of it was Marla's! Even our garage is looking like a shadow of it's former self. Unfortunately this weekend, when we were planning to have the yard sale, is suppose to be rainy/snowy. Not exactly enticing weather for yard sale junkies, so we're postponing until May 2nd (weather permitting).

Well, I hear a baby cooing to himself over the monitor, so I better swoop in to snuggle him before he wakes his brother up!

Bath Time

I had to share this series of photos of Levi after bath time.





As you can probably tell, it is a great hardship on me to be mother to the two most adorable boys in the entire world.

Aaaaand, I'm Back

Home sweet home. In the space of 30 hours, I drove a total of 12 hours, across the width of the state and back. I don't think I'll do that again...actually, don't quote me on that, the job search isn't over yet.

The interview went really really well, I feel like I answered all of their questions as well as I possibly could and now it's just up to them as to whether they think I'd be a good fit. I'm suppose to hear back by the beginning of week after next, so in about 9 or so days. Until then, I will be waiting on pins and needles. More about that later, it's 5:30 am and I'm tired.

Until then, tide yourself over with the following photo. And if this one isn't enough for you, head over to my photography blog to see more.

I'm On My Way

Well...I will be in about 6-7 hours. First I need some sleep, then I need to finish packing (shouldn't take to long as it's only an over night trip), and then I hit the road for Portland.

Tomorrow morning is my interview. I'm such a jumble of emotions: terrified, excited, hesitant, hopeful. So much hinges on whether or not I get this job.

So please, pray prayers, keep your fingers cross, send good thoughts, send good juju, however you roll. Much appreciated!

By the way, this is the first over night trip I've taken away from my boys since we brought them home from the NICU. Yes, I've been away from the house several nights for work, but not out of the same town and never clear across the state from them. The thought makes me want to cry. Or smuggle them along with me. But then again, I'm kind of looking foward to not having to make feeding stops, which always add another hour or so onto the trip. I think I'll satisfy myself with printing out a photo of the boys to look at on the trip and getting back home to them as quickly as possible.

Got My Workout's Worth

I skipped 30 Day Shred for the last three days. I'll pick it back up this morning, but after two full days of schlepping boxes up and down a flight of stairs, I think I more than made up for missing those three days! Believe me, I'm feeling the soreness.

We now have a large shed absolutely FILLED with things for our garage sale, and we're still not done sorting. Nathan took two truck loads of junk to the dump, each of which weighed around 600 lbs...no, that was not all our stuff, most of it was things Marla had stored in all the little nooks and crannies of the house, it was insane! And again, we're still not done! But we made a lot of progress in the space of two days, which makes us feel a lot better about how smoothly the moving process will (hopefully) go when that time comes. And hopefully it comes soon!

Today our realtor came over, took pictures of the house, and went over the paperwork for putting it on the market. So it's official, we're selling our house! The listing should be on Nelson Real Estate's website and the RMLS website sometime today. I had a moment while Mary Jo (our realtor) was taking photos and I was standing in the living room watching our boys nap in their swings, a moment where I just couldn't stand the idea of leaving the house that Marla gave us, the house that we have made into our beautiful home. I love what we've done with it, loved watching what has come of putting our blood, sweat, and tears into it. It took a lot to keep the tears from flowing at that point.

There is a small blessing, however; with all the changes we've made, I really no longer look at our house and see it as Marla's. I think if that weren't the case, if I still saw Marla in this house, it would be much much much harder to part with. As it is, I seem to have separated the house from my memories of staying with Marla, of her house being my second home. Now it's the home that Nathan and I have made together...which makes it difficult in its own right. It's the house where we learned what it means to build a marriage, the house we finally got to bring the boys home to. I just pray that we will be as richly blessed in the home we make wherever we end up, as we have been here.

Last night I took the first three hours of my shift off in order to go help out at Young Life club, as several of our usual leaders were going to be MIA. Besides organizing the skit, I also gave the talk at the end of club. I can't even describe how much I am going to miss Baker Young Life; the kids and the leaders, who have become like family. There are so many things that I look forward to about moving, mostly for the sheer adventure and newness of it all, and so many things I regret leaving behind. Can't I just take those things with me?

A Promise

I was considering the talk I am giving at Young Life club tomorrow night, mulling over what it is God wants me to say these teenagers on the day after we celebrate His resurrection. On every social website (such as Facebook and MySpace) that I've logged onto tonight, I've seen people posting "He is Risen!" Amen! That made me thing about the thing that has set Jesus apart from any other founder of a religion; He said He was going to die and rise again. And then He did it.

What an amazing promise. If you think beyond the fact that in a single moment Jesus took our sins upon Him on the cross, here are the bare facts. He died. Everyone dies. If He had left it at that, He would have been what many claim Him to be...a really amazing teacher. But He didn't leave it at that. He promised us that He would rise again, and rise He did! He conquered death, hallelujah!

I thought about taking a photo of the words "He is risen!" from the bible, and actually ended up doing so, but those weren't the words that touched me tonight. Rather, it was Jesus talking about himself, saying "he will rise". It was His promise that death will not win. What a promise. It's a promise I rest in.

Happy Easter everyone.

Whew

Today was a bit of a whirlwind, what with finding about my interview, having the boys' final Synagis shot appointment (MAJOR yay), getting some sleep in there somewhere, editing photos, and arranging for someone to come take care of the boys tomorrow while Nathan and I unload a few tons worth of stuff from our house. I feel like I'm losing weight in so many ways; physical weight, debt weight, and cutter weight! Love it!

Go check out my photography blog to see the rest of the edited photos from my foray around town...I finally managed to get them all edited, which was no small feat. I think photography is going to have to take a back seat for a while until we get re-settled where ever it is that we end up re-settling. Unless, of course, another morning with perfect lighting comes along and I feel inspired. I have no control over that.

The boys gained almost a full pound since their last dr appointment only 2 weeks ago. Levi now weighs 13 lbs 10 oz while Asher weighs 13 lbs 9 oz. But Asher did poop right before we left for the appointment, while Levi did not, so that probably makes up that 1 oz difference. Sorry if that was too much info.

Next week is going to be off the hook insane. On Monday I'm taking the first three hours of my shift off in order to head up the YL club, and then will be going to work. I work Tuesday night but am hoping to get off a few hours early to get some shut eye before I head to Portland around noon. I'll be staying with my father in law Wednesday night, then will be up early to get ready for my interview at Life Flight at 10 am on Thursday, after which I plan to toodle around the Aurora/Canby area to see what it's like since I've never really spent any time there, and then will be driving home that evening. Joy. Then it's back to work Fri-Sun. But who knows, maybe by then I'll have a job offer!

The good news? Kate, the best sister in law in the world, has agreed to come over to Baker on Wednesday and stay through Sunday (or something like that) to help take care of the boys. That way Nathan can still go into work on Thursday like he was scheduled, plus he'll be able to get a TON done on the house with someone else there to take care of the boys while I'm at work. Thanks Kate, this means the world to us! Dinner at Barley's on us, Thursday night! And I'll wave at you as we pass each other on I-84 on Wednesday.

In closing, a photo of Asher falling asleep in his bumbo. Rest assured, moments after taking this photo I relocated his sleepy body to his crib.

*Tap Tap* Is This Thing On?

I have an announcement.

And no, I'm not pregnant...again.

Ahem

I GOT AN INTERVIEW WITH LIFE FLIGHT!!!!

It is scheduled for 10 am next Thursday, April 16th. YAY!

That is all, thank you.

YESSSSS!

Oh man, today was a good day. A little hectic, but good!

On my way home from work, I noticed that it was slightly overcast, making for perfect photo taking conditions. So rather than going home and immediately working out like I've been doing for the past 5 days, I grabbed my camera and lurked through the alley ways of downtown Baker (all two of them). It's amazing the photo ops you can find in alley ways. See?


Ok, that wasn't really in an alley way, it was outside of an old shed on the outskirts of town. As you can tell, I'm continuing my love affair with Photoshop.

After that, I had about 5 minutes to browse through the 60+ photos I took before the kids walking to school outside woke up the boys with their yelling and laughing. Ah well. Feed the boys, edit the above photo real quick, go to bed.

After getting some sleep, I got up, helped Nathan out with the boys for a few minutes, and then headed downstairs to bust my butt with 30 Day Shred. Day six today! And I was able to get through the entire workout without taking a single break besides about 3 seconds here and there for a sip of water. Yay me! That's a big difference from day 1. After grabbing a shower, I weighed myself. Are you ready? I've lost 4.8 lbs in 6 days!!!! And yes, I'm being healthy about it. Trust me, I'm eating! The difference is, I'm eating healthy food instead of junk food and I'm working out every day. And it feels SO GOOD!

So between getting some photography time and getting that weigh in, plus getting to snuggle my boys for a bit, it was a super day!

PS

I have been doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred dvd for the past 4 days. 20 minute workout every day for 30 days. I didn't think a 20 minute work out would be effective, but let me tell you, she's kicking my butt! She's one of the trainers for Biggest Loser on tv, and the workouts are INTENSE. And it's showing.

I just weighed myself and I've already lost 1.4 lbs since starting 4 days ago.

YESSSSS!

All those salads probably aren't hurting either.

A Good Day

Yesterday was beautiful. Gorgeous. We had the windows open all day long and now our house smells SO good. I'm anticipating doing the same thing today. And the house is getting deep cleaned today, and not by me. Yay!

Nathan woke me up at 1 pm in order to help him clean up the house because we had a local realtor coming over to talk with us about putting the house on the market. Yep, we're already putting it on the market. We figure that we never really know when we're actually going to have to move, and that when it does happen it's going to be an absolute whirlwind so it's better to get it on the market now than later. She absolutely loved what we've done with the house, and was even more pleased than usual as she has sold this house twice before (once to Marla) and knows it really well. After giving us some pointers on little things that needed to be done before it's truly sellable, we made an appointment for her to some back on Wednesday with paperwork and estimates. Yay! Evidently she thinks this size house is going to be selling like hot cakes thanks to Obama's $8000 first time home buyer incentive. I think that's the first time I've ever used "thanks to" and "Obama" in the same sentence without it being sarcastic.

Anyway, we have a really good feeling about getting this house sold, and realize that we're going to take a bit of a hit as it's a buyer's market right now, but you've gotta sell the house when you've gotta sell the house. The best part...selling this house, as much as we hate to do it, will get us 100% out of debt.

100%!

Before we're thirty no less. Both Nathan and I have been watching Dave Ramsey's show on Hulu.com (check it out, he's awesome, be prepared to have your misconceptions about money absolutely rocked; did you know that you really don't "deserve" that new car if you can't really pay for it and that credit doesn't count as being able to "pay for it"?) and we're even more motivated to claw our way out of debt as quickly as possible. The sooner we're out of debt, the sooner we can start saving up our 6-8 months worth of emergency living expenses, and the sooner we can start saving for a house, retirement, and college for the boys. I know I'm tooting my own horn here, but I'm so proud of Nathan and I for admitting that we've made some pretty major money mistakes and working to turn them around. Not to mention resolving to never go into any debt that doesn't involve a house ever again. It feels good.

The other good news we received yesterday? I called the Life Flight HR office to check on the application I had submitted for a dispatch postition with them, as there was a warning on the application page saying that they'd been having problems with their application website. I also wanted to know what their hiring schedule looks like because almost all of the jobs that I've applied to have a hiring process that takes around 5-6 months, kid you not.

When I talked to the gal in HR, she immediately recognized my name, saying she had just read my application. Evidently they are going to be calling applicants to set up interviews in the beginning of next week. I explained to her my situation with my current job and asked when she expected they would be actually making an offer of employment. She said that once they do the interviews (2 or so weeks after scheduling them next week), she expects that they would be making an offer 3-4 weeks after that!!! At that point, she pulled up my application and told me that she had already forwarded it on to the hiring manager and that I should be expecting a call next week. If I read her correctly, that means I'm getting an interview! YAY!

I also received an email from the regional manager of Snohomish, the Young Life area I applied for an Area Director position in, stating that they don't have a position available to match my gift sets. You know, I thought I'd be really disappointed if I didn't get that job, but I think God has been working in my heart because I had honestly stopped wanting that job. For some reason, I'm feeling like we're really suppose to be moving back over into the Portland area, or at least Northwestern Oregon. But we'll see. Just when I think I have God's plan all figured out, he brings something completely different and even better along.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), with the prospect of having to move relatively soon looming over us, we've also realized that we need to get rid of a TON of stuff. So for the next couple of weeks, every spare moment not devoted to taking care of the boys, eating or sleeping is going to be consumed with mercilessly paring down our collection of junk. If we don't absolutely need it in our day to day lives or haven't used it in six months, it's getting put in our shed outside. And then in about three weeks or so, we'll be having a massive yard sale and anything that doesn't sell will be taken directly to Salvation Army. I can't even tell you how excited I am to get rid of all of this clutter. I mean, massively excited. Once the yard sale is over, we'll be focusing on getting the last touch-up's done on the house. It's going to be insanely hectic, but so rewarding at the same time.

Please be praying for these hiring processes for me and that we'll sell the house quickly. And that everything will fall into place at just the right time. Oh, and for our sanity please. Thanks and we'll keep you posted!

More "Awww" Moments

For those family members who check in here on an hourly basis hoping for new photos of the boys (Mom), here ya go. It was so hard to go to bed yesterday morning when the boys were just waking up and giving me their best smiles.

Awww, they love each other!

Levi left, Asher right. Flashing the irresistible smiles. Making Mommy's heart go pitter pat.

They're perfect. Don't try to deny it.

My precious boys.

And finally, my favorite photo of all time. My three best boys.

A Change

Our current blog is boring. Highly boring. But I got SO tired of my horizontal photos getting cut off, so I switched to a template that doesn't fit the background I had so painstakingly made. Ok, it wasn't THAT painstaking, but still. It makes me sad. White is boring, unless it's a photography blog at which point it's preferred.

But the photos of the boys look better, do they not?

Post Edit: Ok, tan is a little better. Not by much, but it's definitely not white.

Motoring Along

I now live with two motor boats. They're continually revving their little motors, sometimes in the midst of crying. It's entertaining, to say the least. Is it wrong for a mama motor boat to laugh at her baby motor boats when they're crying?

Both Asher and Levi have picked up the habit of wetting their lips and making zerbert noises. It's a pretty constant thing. Asher started first, and had been perfecting this particular talent for a couple of days before Levi caught on. Now it's not uncommon to be in the other room and hear two little motor boats going from the living room. The downside? It gets fairly messy during feeding time.

I know this photo of Levi is a little blurry, but this is the face they make when they're motor boating.


Fortunately, I've become more and more ok with various types of bodily fluid regularly getting on my person. But just from my sons, don't ask me to endure anyone else's, please and thank you.

In the job hunt area of my life (the biggest area besides my boys...ok, it seems to have taken over every aspect of my life but that's in order to keep a roof over the boys' heads), things continue to be interesting. Stressful. I cried tonight at work, quietly and unobtrusively. Which, if you know me and how I cry, is a real feat. I got an email regarding the Clackamas dispatch job I applied for, stating that I just narrowly missed the group of applicants being considered for the May hiring, meaning that the group I'm in will be considered for the next hiring date set for...are you ready? September. A full 2 months after I get the boot here, which has been made all the more real by my removal from the July schedule. It seems like it's pretty normal for the hiring process in other dispatch centers to take months, which is a far cry from my 15 minute interview and subsequent job offer here. Not good for the financial stability of my family, for which I am basically the sole provider.

But there's a silver lining. I went onto Oregon's employment dept website and found a listing that was just posted on the 1st for a "Communications Specialist" (aka dispatcher) for Life Flight's dispatch center in Aurora, OR. Crazy thing? When we were hoping for the Clackamas dispatch job to come through, we were considering living in Canby, as smaller community outside of Oregon City...Aurora is only 6 minutes southwest of Canby. So we'd still be super close to family. The posting closes on the 15th, and the message I got after submitting my application said that I should expect to hear from them soon if I qualify; if I don't hear from them within 2 weeks, then I didn't qualify. Trust me, I qualify. I plan on calling them on Monday to find out what their hiring schedule is; I'm hoping it will be a much shorter process as it is not a government agency.

I also applied for a job with the dispatch center in Kent, WA. Unfortunately, their description of their hiring time line included approximately 3 or 4 tests, and then the disclaimer that each testing could take months to process. Yeesh. I just know God has a break through planned for us, that something is going to fall into place at just the right time...or maybe just before the right time? Please? God? *tap tap* Is this thing on?

Otherwise, we're going to be up a creek without...well, without a motor.

Ahhhhhhh.

Not to be confused with "AAAAAAAAAAAAH!", which is more of a shriek of frustration or cry of horror.

It's just before 3 pm, and I have already accomplished the following:

• Washed dishes (twice).
• Paid bills.
• Taken and posted a photo to Mission 24.
  
• Fed babies (twice).
• Tidied up the living room.
• Tidied up the dining room.
• Tidied up and cleaned the kitchen.
• Cleaned the bathroom.
• Folded and put away a load of laundry.
• Played with babies.
• Put babies down for nap (twice).
• Swept the entire upstairs.
• Had Carly and Stella over for lunch.

Now, as I type this, Levi is happily napping in his crib, Asher is playing happily on the floor next to me, Bandit is happily pacing around his outside kennel waiting for me to let him back inside, and Nathan is not-so-happily plugging away at work. Soon it will be time to feed the boys again, but until then I am enjoying some peace and quiet in my relatively clean house. I still need to vacuum the living room and put away clothes in our bedroom, but I'm taking a break.

The boys continually shock us with how quickly they're developing. Earlier today, while enjoying some tummy time, Levi rolled over every time I put him on his tummy. Also, the Labunski house hold has experienced a first! For the first time since before the boys' due date, they successfully went down for naps in their cribs, without being swaddled!!! It's a momentous occasion! They're starting to already develop a sense of object perminance, where they know that Nathan and I have gone out of their sight and that bothers them. Nothing makes my heart go pitter pat the way that it does when one of them sees me and smiles like I'm the best thing they've ever seen.

Well shoot...some gradeschoolers from the school down the road were walking by and shouting, and they just woke Levi up. Maybe he'll go back to sleep, he hasn't been napping for very long. Asher has developed this slightly distressing habit of only taking 20 minute naps...distressing because that doesn't give us much down time.

Anyway, here's some recent photos of the boys.

Levi (left) and Asher (right)

Asher and Uncle Eliot

Asher and Bandit

Levi at Grandpa's house

Levi playing the Wii

By the way, it has now officially taken me 5 hours to complete this post. Yeesh.