Interview – blew it!

\ Leave a Comment

I had an interview today. I think I blew it. I’d be really surprised if I received a job offer. He’s going to make a decision by late tomorrow morning.

It’s been a long time since I’ve done a formal interview. I think it’s been three years. In fact, I’ve only been to one formal interview. The rest of my jobs were informal interviews or I just sort of fell into them because of circumstances.

What do you tell a potential employer when they ask you to tell them about yourself? When that’s the very first question in an interview, it’s really hard to gauge what you should be telling them. I didn’t prepare for that question and Ummmmm-ed my way through it today. Oops.

This evening, I received a phone call from a chiropractor’s office that was interested in meeting me for an interview. Unfortunately, I couldn’t meet their one available interview time tomorrow as my husband has work scheduled! Not sure if I should be disappointed or not. I’m thinking not because his work is more important than my interview!

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged:

Possibilities

\ Leave a Comment

Hubby had an interview today that lasted two and a half hours long. The recruiter loved him! This was a face to face with the recruiter who kept hubby on the phone last week for an hour and a half. Hubby is one of two candidates being submitted for this particular job. The recruiter says he likes hubby better than the other candidate and will be recommending him specifically to the client. We’re looking forward to finding out if Jeff gets a job offer!

Also, hubby has been talking to a consultant about some contract work. Supposedly, if the contract work goes well, hubby will be getting a job offer from this company. We don’t know yet if that will happen, but hubby has been assigned a 5 day contract starting next week. We’re extremely excited about this as his paycheck will be quite a bit more than the unemployment check for that week. The state will keep their money if Jeff makes more at a contract job.

Nothing too exciting going on with my job search. The one job I really wanted was already filled. It was working as an office manager at a camp in a small town in northern Arizona. Hubby and I would be working together to run the front office and the computer systems. That would have been amazing because room and board was included, we would have been living in a cabin, and had access to all the outdoor activity we could possibly dream of! Oh, well. I guess God didn’t want us to leave town just yet.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: ,

Update and SMART Sunday

\ Leave a Comment

My temp job seems to be over. I say “seems” because we finished the labeling project but I’m still waiting to hear if the company wants us to return for the original project. My partner and I worked 5 days, 26 hours total.

It was tiring! I’m just not used to the commute, the hours away from home, and the stress of working under someone else. I am very very thankful to God that He blessed me with the hours. It was just surprising that I’m so out of practice with working schedules. 6 months really does make a difference.

I’m excited to get back to blogging. Last week, I didn’t really have the energy after work to form coherent thoughts. I love writing and this is one way I can express myself, regardless if anyone reads!

I am also making a change to my Sunday blogging. I was posting a summary of my exercise over the past week and then a weigh in report. I found myself wanting to write more about some of the workouts and my challenges. However, I didn’t want to post every day on this blog as that wasn’t my original intent in starting the blog. I also didn’t want to post an entire book every Sunday.

My solution? I started a separate blog for my exercise/weigh-ins/and future raw food challenge. Adventist Runner will be my new training log and anything health related that doesn’t fit in nicely with homemaking.

Instead, I plan on posting SMART Sundays. The Lazy Organizer originally created the SMART Saturday, but as that is the day I celebrate the Sabbath, I’ll be posting on Sundays. I know I posted about The Lazy Organizer’s blog before, but she really is a genius about organizing and homemaking. I love reading her posts.

My goals for this week:
-Make the bed every day. I really like how our bedroom looks when the bed is made up in the mornings.
-Go to bed each night with a shiny sink. This is really a Flylady concept. The idea is to have a clean sink at night, which means the dishes will be washed and put away, the counters will be wiped down, and the sink will be clean. The kitchen looks so much better when the sink is shiny.
-Spend 15 minutes in personal Bible study each morning. Hubby and I study together every night but I’m missing personal study. It’s not enough that we study together. I also need to be fed spiritually as an individual. 15 minutes isn’t that long, but I think it’s a good place to start.

I’ll post again next Sunday with an update of my goals and possibly some new goals for the following week.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , ,

Tired, tired, tired…

\ Leave a Comment

This job is wiping me out. I’m not sure why I am so tired but I’ve been going to bed early every night since Friday.

Today, the two of us labeled 6,000 post cards. That’s an increase from both Friday and Monday (5,000 post cards each day). We finished labeling all of those that are Phoenix addresses. We only have two more huge piles that are the size of Phoenix! We’ll be busy for awhile…

My working partner has been taking me to lunch every day since I pay for gas and do all the driving. On Friday, we went to Boston Market and I had three sides. It was pretty good. I had thought Boston Market only sold meat. Yesterday, we visited NYPD Pizza. I had one slice of spinach pizza. Today was the best. We visited Wildflower Bread Company. I ate half of a roasted sweet potato sandwich. It sounds kind of odd, but tasted wonderful. All three lunches have been $4.00 or less. It’s amazing what you can find for a cheap(er) lunch if you look.

Well, I’m off to bed shortly. I’m hoping for 10 hours of sleep tonight.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged:

Good news

\ Leave a Comment

My temp job is going to last longer than originally planned. We were scheduled to arrive at 10AM on Friday. After meeting the boss (head of PR) and getting shown around the building, we started work. What’s our job? Peeling address labels from the Avery sheets and sticking them to postcards. Fun stuff. 🙂 We finished 5,000 post cards on Friday and have probably close to 15,000 more.

After the post cards are complete, provided the company wants to keep us on for a couple more days, we will be assembling folders with presentation materials. The folder assembly was supposed to be our job but the person in charge said that the mailer took precedence.

At $8/hr, for however many days it takes to finish, I’ll take it! My bank account and creditors will thank me.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged:

Job updates

\ Leave a Comment

Things are starting to look up around here. Hopefully everything turns out!

Hubby’s two hour contract job went really well. He had “homework” to do after they were finished at the client. Hubby had to email the boss some recommendations for the client and it seems the boss was happy with the suggestions. He’s called here a couple times today asking Jeff questions. It also sounds like the boss will be setting Jeff up with an email account, so that is definitely promising. Now we just wait until the boss calls/emails with the next contract assignment.

As for me… I have a three day temp job starting tomorrow morning. Several weeks ago, I responded to a Craigslist ad about a temp job assembling folders for a presentation. It won’t be the most stimulating assignment, but it’s a paycheck. I will be working all day tomorrow and Monday, with a possible day on Tuesday if the project is not yet complete. The best part? The company needed two people so I volunteered a church friend of mine who really needs some exra money this month. Now I’ll have someome to talk to all day!

In preparation for working tomorrow, I cleaned today so the house would be ready for Sabbath. I cleaned the kitchen, caught up on all the dishes, vacuumed the apartment, and scrubbed down the bathroom. I’m very content.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: ,

Maybe, just maybe…

\ Leave a Comment

We sold our last two bookcases today. Our house looks so bare! If God is planning for us to move, He’s doing a great job making our packing easier.

Hubby had an interview this afternoon. After 45 minutes, he had a two hour paid contract assignment set up for tomorrow afternoon. If this two hour contract is completed to the satisfaction of the owner, then Jeff will have contract work for the next 30 days. The owner said he will be putting Jeff on a Tuesday, Thursday schedule. The pay rate is really good, the best hourly rate we’ll have ever made.

If the two hour assignment tomorrow goes well, and if the month long contract work goes well, Jeff will have a job offer for a full time position. I guess everything rides on tomorrow!

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged:

Interview gone bad

\ Leave a Comment

Thanks to all who prayed for hubby today. 🙂 He did well, but the interview was a dud.

Hubby drove half an hour to interview with a mortgage company. He meets with the CEO and someone else from the company, plus a surprise guest – the recruiter who scheduled the interview. They all shake hands, exchange business cards, and sit down for the interview. CEO asks hubby to tell about himself. Halfway through hubby’s spiel, the CEO interrupts and asks if hubby has such-and-such technology experience or this-or-that technology experience. None of which was listed in the job description. When hubby said no, they shook his hand, thanked him for his time, and ushered him out the door.

Grr. We had to put gas in the car for this interview, using money that was supposed to be for food. The commute took four times longer than the interview.

Guess that was a closed door. 🙂 Hubby is still waiting to hear back on one other interview from last week. I’m waiting to hear if my unemployment claim will be accepted and applying for jobs. I’ve filled out 17 applications thus far and have received only one emailed response to tell me the position was already filled.

Something will come through. Right. Right?

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged:

Prayer request

\ Leave a Comment

If anyone reads this tonight or tomorrow morning, could you pray for my hubby? He has a job interview at 11AM with the CEO of a mortgage company. They are looking to hire someone ASAP and seem to be interested in hubby.

We really really need a job. If you could pray, I’d really appreciate it. 🙂

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged:

Unexpected, unplanned

\ 1 Comment

This two week visit with my brother has deviated vastly from our intended plans. After he returned from deployment, Josh was assigned slightly shorter than normal work days. He hasn’t had a day off since he returned from Iraq. Josh working was the only planned, expected part of this trip.

Monday through Thursday of last week, we had no internet access in the apartment. I brought my laptop with me so that I could complete my contract work and had told my employer that I would be available starting Tuesday. Unfortunately, we were missing a modem and it took a couple days for the apartment to provide one (we’re staying in two executive suites, since my brother’s two bedroom apartment wasn’t ready yet).

My mom was sick on Tuesday last week with a 24 hour stomach bug. My niece was sick on Wednesday. By Thursday night, since no one else had come down with it, we thought it might have run it’s course. Wrong! I got sick very early Friday morning and it lasted through Sabbath morning. I was running a fever and had typical stomach bug problems. Not fun whatsoever. Due to being sick, I missed out on visiting the local church. That was also a bummer.

Yesterday, I was feeling like my normal self and was finally able to finish a contract assignment. I am genuinely surprised I haven’t been fired yet, as I missed an unplanned week in December (snowed-in in Michigan) and last week due to no internet and being sick.

It looks like things are slowing down now. Last Wednesday, I was lucky enough to see my hubby for a few hours, as we had to take my niece back to Phoenix. I’m really looking forward to going home this Wednesday so we can be together again. It’s been almost three and a half years, but I don’t like being apart from him. Being away from him, with unscheduled days, on someone else’s timetable, and staying in an unfamiliar home or hotel, makes me even more thankful for my hubby and the life we have together.

This week, I’m planning on completing some additional contract assignments, finish reading a couple books, packing my stuff, and returning home to my hubby! I’m excited to settle back into being a homemaker. I love spending time with my biological family, but there really is no place like home.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , ,