Three years old

Tabby turned three years old today.



Becky had hung a whole bunch of balloons in front of her bedroom door which she was absolulely thrilled to find and play with for most of the morning.

We spent all morning in the library, played at home all afternoon, then had cake and opened presents. I think her favorite is a pink tent. Becky bought it a long time back and has been hanging on to it for right now.

Tabby liked it so much she's sleeping in it tonight.

Whitefish Dunes

The kids had a great time in the water.

And playing in the sand

Jack hoped that maybe if he planted himself and was watered, maybe he'd grow a little more.

Didn't really work

Really, I was there too.

Pizza Hut

Brittyn (store manager): "Good to meet you, Jack."

Me: "Thanks. Good to meet you too."

Brittyn: "Okay, these are the hours you're available?" (shows me the weekly schedule format from the application).

Me: "Yes. Everyday except Sunday. Any time of day, Saturdays, weekends, holidays. I'm available any day but Sunday."

Brittyn: "Okay." (Crosses Sunday off the chart). "And you want to work full time?"

Me: "I do. As much as possible if it's available."

Brittyn: "All right, well, you passed the DMV screening and that means we hire you. I've already ordered your shirt and name tag. I can start putting you on the schedule August 10th."

Bay Shore Park

Becky took us all out to Bayshore Park yesterday. I have to admit I'm the only one who didn't want to go. I had things I wanted to do at home and the sun and beach just don't do anything for me. But she made me go.

Of course, we had a great time.

Phone Service

I have always been pretty happy with our AT&T service. But man, this has a been a bad week for it. They were supposed to hook up our phones the Friday we moved in. It didn't happen. When I called they said it got put off until the next Monday. No reason. It was really like they just ran out of time on Friday and were taking the weekend off. We have cell phones so it wasn't that big a deal.

Monday they hooked up our service. Tuesday it was dead. A technician came and looked at things Wednesday evening and told us we had a bad jack. When we plugged our phone in, it shorted out the line. Again, not a big deal. We have enough jacks in the house that we plugged the phone into a good one and we'll tell the landlord about the bad jack when we get a chance.

Over the next few days our kids notice that the phone line upstairs (not the bad jack) has no dial tone, but if they unplug the phone and plug it back in again, the dial tone comes back on.

This morning our phone rings, but only the downstairs line. The upstairs line is dead again. When we answer the phone, there's no one there. So I play around with my cell phone and find that I can make outgoing calls from our home phone, but incoming calls are getting a "number has been disconnected" message. I called AT&T, they did their thing where they ping the house to check the signal. No problem. Called our house, they got through fine.

Frustrating. I mean, are prospective employers going to get through? Or get told I no longer have a phone? Fortunately, Pizza Hut got through last night. With an inconsistent problem though . . . who knows if anyone else has tried to call?

Stress

I ran a red light yesterday. One of those roads without much traffic, but with a light in the middle of it? I saw the corner, saw no traffic anywhere around, but missed the light and totally blew through it. That's not something I do. I'm a very good driver, very safe. I guess I was just preoccupied with . . . well, Becky and I had been talking about jobs I was going to apply to and I just started thinking about the whole unemployment thing. It's been over seven months looking for jobs and being told no over and over and over. I handle stress really well, but that's a lot. I guess I'm starting to feel it a little bit.

Over the past week I've put in applications at United Health Group, Pizza Hut, Pondersa, Applebee's, Papa John's and Jimmy John's. Hopefully something pans out so I have some type of job while taking my class.

A sinkful of Tabby

Apparently our bathroom mirror needed washing. Being the industrious girl she is, Tabby took the initiative to get the job done.

Or maybe the soap needed playing with. Either way, Tabby's the right girl.