Hangin' In There...

That's pretty much what we're doing right now: just hangin' in there. I am still job hunting, but have had little to no luck. I'll admit, it's kind of hard not to get discouraged sometimes. At times it feels like we're doing everything right, and getting no results. Kyle is working as much as he can, I am job hunting like crazy, we're scrimping and saving, we're following every lead we can but seem to be getting nowhere. I guess that's not entirely true. I should be getting a small pay check for the two days that I did work. There was some delay in that, and I had to go out of my way to get paid at all, but we should be getting a check any day now. I never thought I'd be so glad to see $150. Anyway, this whole experience has been, well, a bit of a character building experience. I've amazed myself with my newly found grocery shopping skills. We normally spend about $60-$80 (depending on if we have to buy meat) a week on groceries, but these past 3-4 weeks, we have spent about $20-$30 on groceries each week! Kyle has had a great attitude about living off of peanut butter and jelly lunches, haha. Thanks to Auntie Kathy and Uncle Rich, we have had a good supply of meat for free:) One of the wedding gifts we received from them was a catalog of frozen meats of all kinds, fancy stuff too(!), and a gift card for any package out of the catalog:) We opted for a big package of non-fancy meat, and that has proven to be the most useful wedding gift we got! haha:) So thanks to them, our nutrition (at least our protein intake) has not suffered, lol. If only we could order a bit of morale to go with it. Don't get me wrong, we're not broke, suffering, or getting into debt of any kind. We're just...well, a little discouraged. When I lost my job, we didn't expect that it would take this long for me to find another one. Now we're wondering if I even will. Since we're planning on leaving the area in June or July, my chances of finding a good paying job get slimmer and slimmer the closer that draws. Most companies want long-term employees, and many temporary jobs don't pay anywhere near what I need to be making. Needless to say, this hunt can get a little frustrating. In the mean time, if anyone needs their house cleaned...*holds up windex*:-D

Picture Update!

Here are the "before" pics...

...and here is the after pic:)


I'll try to get a better picture soon, but you can get the idea from this one:)

My 101 Update

This post is in reference to my post awhile back about 101 goals I'd like to achieve, or at least make progress on as some of them are a process, within 1001 days. So far, I'm not doing too bad:)
(1) I am finally OFF birth control. Those nasty little pills were too much for me...
(2) I've started a "Body Binder" to keep track of (a)my basal body temperature, and (b)what I eat!
(3) I've made it through a couple of grocery shopping trips now, without buying anything extra!
(4) This one is a process, but...I'm getting better at communicating my feelings to Kyle, before stewing about them for a long time. And he, as always, has been more patient and understanding than I could ever ask him to be.
(5) I've scratched "Learn to ignore pregnancy symptoms" off the list because (a)since getting off birth control, I haven't had pregnancy symptoms, and (b)if I do start getting pregnancy symptoms, I should probably not ignore them, haha.
(6) I am scratching "cut my hair short again" off the list because I am going to do that this weekend!:)
(7) We made chocolate dipped strawberries for Valentine's Day:)
(8) I've been getting better about eating my vegetables with a good attitude. I don't think I'll ever like them, but...I suppose I can tolerate them.
(9) And lastly (for now), I've begun to understand politics quite a bit more lately. With the elections going on, I can't really avoid hearing about them! And hearing about them regularly, I've started to catch on to the lingo, who's who, and so on. I don't think I'll ever really be "into" politics, but I feel a little bit more qualified to vote intelligently now:)

That's it for now:) Hopefully I'll have more to check off the list soon:)

Job Hunt Update - Perhaps A Change of Scene?

Well, I suppose it's about time I updated you all on the job hunt:) To make a long story short, things fell through with the job I previously blogged about, and I am still hunting. I have recently started broadening my job search criteria. See, I have been told that, based on my resume, "my field" is...well...the front desk. However, while job hunting, numerous people have commented that most of my experience is in working with children. This morning it occurred to me that I don't even have all of my child-care experience on my resume! I only included the experience where I was formally employed! Come to find out, many listings posted by people seeking childcare also accept experience such as church ministries, camp counseling, etc.! Now, I love working with kids. I wouldn't say I'm an expert - I'm not a mom yet, so I won't try to claim to be an expert, haha. But I have spent two school years as a part-time, unpaid teacher's aide. I have worked for a day care. I have been involved in non-profit children's ministries. I've been a camp counselor. I've taught sunday school, been an AWANA leader, and been involved in children's musical programs. I've worked in the church nursery. Why am I not building on that?! I love working with kids! Why am I hunting for a job behind a front desk?? SO...while I'm still keeping the front-desk option open, I've started searching for job listing that are more kid-oriented. I've applied for a job as a full-time teacher's assistant at a preschool, and one as a full-time nanny. I'm really hoping to hear back from either or both of them. The tough part is that I don't have any child-care or children's education training, as in college units in that field. I'm really hoping that somebody out there (an individual, or private organization) will at least give me a chance...

Anyway...please continue to keep us in your prayers. We're still doing okay financially, but we can only go for so long without a steady income! Pray that a good opportunity comes along soon:) Thanks everyone!

Valentine's Day :)

Due to the fact that Valentine's Day is on a weekday this year, Kyle and I decided, again, that we would celebrate Valentine's Day the weekend before Valentine's Day. So yesterday was Valentine's Day for us:) It was a nice day, so we decided to go to a park up in north Hollywood. Unfortunately, there was a run going on there, and we couldn't get in. We tried to go to another park we saw on the map that was nearby, but it turned out to be someone's private property - a big garden/park by a mansion. I'm not sure why it was on the map...anyway, so we ended up coming back home. Activity attempt #1: failed.
As a surprise for Kyle, I'd planned for us to make chocolate dipped strawberries sometime in the afternoon. So around 2:00, I started melting the chocolate. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but it ended up more like clay than melted chocolate. I'm sure I could've sculpted a sizable creation out of it, if I wanted to. Needless to say, it wasn't a very dip-able consistency. Activity attempt #2: failed.
Then Kyle, having figured out that chocolate dipped strawberries were supposed to be part of the plan, decided he actually wanted chocolate dipped strawberries, so we went to the store and bought some more chocolate to try and melt. This time it was successful, and we dipped our strawberries:) They turned out very nice:)
After dipping out strawberries and putting them in the refrigerator to cool, Kyle started fixing dinner. That's right - Kyle cooked dinner:) No offense to Kyle, but while I pretended to be fixing up my hair and makeup for our nice romantic dinner together, I was really keeping an ear to the wall, wondering what was going on in my kitchen. haha. Don't get me wrong, I have no fears about Kyle being in the kitchen. He can bake cookies like a pro, and knows how all the kitchen stuff works. But he wasn't baking cookies! He was cooking chicken fettuccini alfredo, from scratch! I've been cooking meals longer than he has, and I still failed at making alfredo sauce from scratch. And now he was trying to juggle three things at once (the chicken, the fettuccini, and the afredo)! I'm sure he forgives me for keeping my ears and nose focused on the kitchen. But, lo and behold, he didn't need my help at all! By the time I got pretty-fied and came out of the bathroom, he was dishing up pasta and salads, pouring wine, and lighting candles:) As for his cooking...well, I don't really have much reason to go back to Johnny Carinos anymore. I'll just make Kyle cook!;)

Wedding Pictures :)

To Check out our wedding pictures, go to www.myspace.com/theluckiestgirlever and click on my profile picture. It will take you to a page with photo 'albums' on it. Click on the album you want to see, and check them out! Sorry for not posting them all on here. Blogspot doesn't make picture-adding very convenient:-p Hope you enjoy the pictures!