I GOT A JOB!!!

Ok, picture this:

Last Friday, I jump up from my desk and then I jump up and down screaming, "I GOT A JOB!!! I GOT A JOB!!!" Over and over again.
Last Friday, I was offered a position with RCS Millwork. Sort of a purchasing, material overseer type position. It doesn't actually exist, they are creating it for me. They wanted me enough to make a position for me! It still doesn't sound real yet. We met yesterday, discussed the terms, and came to an agreement. I accepted! I start on January 3rd. I have all next week off. I am excited, and scared. But the pay is an increase, and allows us some movement in the upcoming year. Hopefully we can find somewhere larger larger and nicer to live. Maybe plan to add to our family in 2013.

So, Merry Christmas, I have a Job!!!

new opportunities!

I've started a new blog for the project that I am working on. I can't call it a company, but it's definitely an exciting possibility. If you are interested in my services, let me know!!!

Affordable Arts Designs... my new logo

the end

My Company is closing.
After 70 years, the Onthank Company has decided to shut its doors. And this is incredibly sad to me. I'm not saying that I love my job (because I don't) but I like it at times. I Love the people that I work with. We have gone through so much. We've had weddings, infertility, babies and grand-babies. We've lost coworkers to other employment and lay-offs. We've lost one friend to tragedy, something that haunts a few of us daily.
I had planned on being at Onthank for a while. Maybe long enough to move up the chain a little more, or to have the company compensate me for all the work I've done.
The last 2 years have been hard. Having to constantly talk around our situation to our customers, having to go against morals and honesty, losing friends to lay-offs.
I should be happy to be able to find another job with a company with less stress. Instead, I am scared to death. I haven't had to look for a job since 2003 when I moved to Sioux City to be with Scott, without any job prospects. It was terrifying. And things are different now, we have Weston. He has daycare, etc.
And to bring my personal feelings into this, because it is personal, it may be business, but it's still personal to me, this puts a real damper on our family planning. We had put into action all the beginnings to try for another baby early next year. Obviously, we can't go through with that at this time. Even the best company would more than likely require one year on the job before granting maternity leave. And there is no way I can have another baby without a job. Everything is dependent on the next job.
So, thank you Onthank Company - for giving me a career that I felt uniquely qualified for (and is becoming glaringly obvious that I will not find again), for now depriving me of spending 8 hours a day with people I love and customers I adore, and for sending my family-planning to the back burner because this in 2011 and not 1950, and we both have to be gainfully employed just to have children.
I think this Friday may be my last day, not that anyone has said anything for certain, and I am not going to promise not to cry.

Homonymy

Mom in the '60s or 70s on Christmas

Looking at this picture, it's no wonder that I love plaid, big hair, and more than anything, vests! I love Vests! I have 9 I think. At least 4 sweater vests, 3 suit vests, and 2 long cotton ones - one of which has a lace back and lace panels.
That being said... definition states:
In linguistics, a homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings. Thus homonyms are simultaneously homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of their pronunciation) and homophones (words that share the same pronunciation, regardless of their spelling.) The state of being a homonym is called homonymy. Examples include: stalk (like a corn stalk) and stalk (the act of following/harassing a person.)
(thank you Wikipedia.)

So, why the Grammar lesson, you ask?
Well, first of all, I like grammar. And everyone could use a grammar lesson once in a while. But seriously, upon reflection this past weekend, I think my Mom and I are Homonymy. We are the same, but with completely different meanings.

My parents have sold our childhood home. Their home for the last 18 years. My Dad was in the Navy until the summer of 1990. Prior to that, we moved every 3 years to military housing. So in 1990 we moved to Clinton, Iowa. In 1992, my parents purchased their first home. And it was a doozy. Built in the 1860s (I think) it was 2200 sq and 2 stories with 4 bedrooms and 1 upstairs bathroom, an unfinished basement that still had the original oil drums from when the furnace was converted from coal to oil, before our own natural gas, and no central air conditioners. It had many previous owners, the last of which was a middle-aged bachelor who started projects and then... moved onto something else. So my parents had a lot of work to do with their first home. But they (along with my aunt and uncle) did it. They made a huge house into a home. And we loved it. So... Shannon and my little family travelled back to snap some pictures of our old house and our hometown. To have something to show for the 18 years of memories that we made. We plan on making Shutterfly books to hold these memories.

Mom and Dad are scheduled to sign the papers on their new condo on Thursday, November 10th.
Scary... a whole new place to live.

Guess what? I am wearing a sweater vest today. Navy blue over a white button down... with my hair in a high (but much smaller) bun.
The Homonymy continues.

Career Woes

I love the people I work with. I love some of our customers. It's just becoming difficult to be here. This economy is not helping a Family-owned business. And neither is our Congress or President - which is sad considering we've been in business for 67+ years. But there is only so much an employee can take. And I think we've all hit our limits:

Instagram!

I've recently joined Instagram... kind on a photographic Facebook App for my iPhone. I got turned onto this by CJane at CJane Enjoy It... I love the square photos and the filters that take any picture back to the days of non-digital photography. Beside the filters, one of my favorite features is the "Tilt"... this allows me to to focus on a specific part of the picture and gradually unfocus the rest of the picture. I always wanted to learn how to do this with a real camera.
So... here's a tour of my favorites so far from my growing collection of pictures that no one "follows."

This is my Post-Tango picture. Tangles of curls pried from tons of hairpins, lipstick worn off, and eyes still lined and a little drowsy. Sometimes I look at this and think I look angry, the rest of the time I look at it and think, "Wow... I've never felt so empowered and sexy."

Last Friday - We went to Valle Drive-In in Newton, Iowa. It was a first... for all of us. I love this picture of my boys waiting for the "Dark Time, so the movie can start" (Weston.) I love how Weston is so very comfortable... leg thrown over the chair and all. I felt the situation deserved a retro touch.


"Leave. Me. Alone. Mom." Yesterday... Weston's dark mood seemed to fit this dark filter. I love how his lips are pursed in frustration.



Yesterday we were at Adventureland. Weston rode the Chuck Wagon ride, this is the closest to a Farris Wheel as he can get. I chose a filter that would be reminiscent of tintype photographs... a little burnt looking around the edges. I love taking pictures of this boy.


Hydrangea Explosion... These petals were literally the size of Weston's head. This picture got a little saturated in a Photo Shop App on my iPhone, and then a blurred filter on Instagram. It just glows now.

Tango 2011

*** Pictures to come ***Ok, so it was beautiful and fun. the food was mediocre. Pretty but not as delicious as usual. I felt a little self confident in my strapless dress. I wish someone had told me to never sit down, because the "girls" literally rise so far to the occassion that I looked awful. All boobs and nothing else. And so white in pictures! And Shannon looked amazing, but her dress never showed the details in the pictures. Which is incredibly sad considering how stunning it was in person. Lots of sequins, lots of silk, and even a few uni-pants (or silk jumpsuits, if you must.) My favorite person of the night was a young blonde who looked like she walked off the beach at the Hamptons for this. Dress: browns, burnt-raspberry, teal, white, woven with gold... Small little triangles for a top that were perfectly spaced apart to show her sternum with skinny straps, detailed, beaded empire waist, flowy (to the ground) bottom. Small heeled sandals, flowing sun-kissed blonde hair on perfectly tanned body. I want to be this girl. Not kidding. Perfection... alas, I have no pictures of her to show, you'll just have to trust me on this one.