Tuesday, December 22, 2009

H1N1 clinic at Shamona Creek Elementary

This evening I volunteered at Dima's school during the H1N1 clinic. I was one of the people there to check kids and school staff in and to get their paperwork filled in before they went to the nurses. Most of the kids were brave or maybe just didn't know what was coming, for a few there were tears, there was some screaming (not from the volunteers) , there was one escapee whose poor mom was dealing with a fussy younger sibling while the older one made a run - out from the nurses station, across the gym, and out the door. Thankfully Mr. Reed, the principal, was nearby and caught up with the kid - out in the parking lot! I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Dima's made up words

Booby pair = bra. Dima makes up words once in a while booby pair being his most recent. Before this he's combined pretty and beautiful and come up with prettyful and when he couldn't remember the name of a neck tie he called it a church bow. I guess that goes along with his creative bent - we just got a nice post card from his art teacher telling us what a pleasure it is to have him in class. He's definitely got a creative mind.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

laid off???

Hey, next time a Veep of the company you work for that's reducing it's workforce tries to call you into his office to talk - tell him you're too busy or something - DON'T GO!

Last year around this time Chris's company laid off about 10% of their work force. While feeling relieved that we weren't effected by that lay off I was thinking of the situation that puts those people in and wondering if it's better to go through Christmas and then being laid off or if having it happen before Christmas would be better. Well, this year we were effected and on Dec 4th Chris was laid off. It's hard to believe - still feels like a dream to me!!

So, this year our Christmas will be scaled back stuff - wise from what we'd originally planned. But the kids don't have to know it. We had been thinking of a DS game system for Josh and a kid's GPS for Dima for geocaching but we're definitely not spending that kind of money now. We're switching to plan B and will go simpler things. People have been very good to us and we even have friends who gave us their old (very well taken care of) Game Boys to give to our kids - I know they'll think they're the greatest things!

We're going to a concert on Tuesday night that the tickets are already paid for - just no dinner ahead of time now. It's hard to feel festive when something like this looming. The company gave us a decent severance package, well, Chris earned it with the time he gave to the company, but I'm definitely aware of getting creative with what's already in the pantry, using leftovers, eating at home instead of going out and stuff like that. We're both being very aware of what we're spending - I usually am but now Chris is on board with me - something I'm hoping can continue even after it doesn't HAVE to. Can't hurt to be aware of the day to day nickle-and-diming that adds up over time if you're not careful.

Now Chris's days are spent in our basement - he set up an office down there, no, I didn't just send him down there! - working on his resume then getting in touch with lots of people to get the word out that he's looking for work. He's spending time during work hours looking for work. He's already had a phone interview and a face to face interview in Wilmington, DE on Friday but we'll have to wait a few days to see what the word is from them. I'm not too sure that would be a pleasant commute - like being in DC all over again!

In the mean time I've put his resume on here and would encourage all of you to get it out there. Please feel free to send it to anyone and everyone who might be helpful in this situation.


Chris' Resume


When you do forward the resume if the job just happened to be near here and pay really well and have great benefits that would be ideal - I can dream can't I??

Thanks, Lyn