Thursday's Random Thoughts...

Mother's Day is coming up. I don't know what to get for the moms in my life.
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I told Zac he could get a new, non-broken X-Box if he did ALL of the dishes. That was on Monday. The dishes were never finished. He is playing Call of Duty.
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I can't stop drinking blue Powerade at work. I like to call it "Smurf Blood" since it makes it sound more hardcore.
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I am a sous chef at a mediocre restaurant. And I hold a bachelor's degree in English from a fairly prestigious university. Figure that one out.
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I want these:

Sunday Snapshots...

I Don't Know What To Do...

The most terrible, heartbreaking thing in the world happened. My dorm neighbor from freshman year (and then again when we moved into our townhouse) lost her beautiful five-month-old daughter on Wednesday. She simply passed away in her sleep.

And I can't handle it.

I've been sobbing since Wednesday night.

I can't imagine what their family is going through.

I visited with her mom last night. She was the one who found the baby. All I could do was hold her hand and cry with her.

I want to go to the memorial service today, but I want to go and be strong for the family. I don't want to go and break down. And I don't know if I can handle a tiny coffin.

I wish I hadn't been so upset about losing my stupid phone.

I don't want this post to sound as selfish as it does.

I've been watching my children sleep a lot lately.

I want the K* family to know how much I love them and feel for them. And that I think about them often. And I would literally do anything to help ease the world of pain I can only imagine they are going through.

I don't know what else to do.

Just Another Something I Would Like To Win...

A Giveaway for a 40-page critique. Whoo!

Sunday Snapshots...

Look at this crawly girl!!!

Texas...

Wow. It's been a month since I got there and I only posted "day 1" of the trip. Lame. So here are days 2-7: (also, pictures area little out of order and some are repeats. can't figure it out right now...baby on my lap!)

Day 2: We went to Dani's gym. She works in the daycare for a few hours, then gets to go workout herself. So that's what we did. And let me tell you, a good, sweaty workout followed by ten minutes of breastfeeding makes you feel like you've burned a million calories. (Which reminds me, I have access to a full gym at work so I'm starting to work out a little more. And yes, I'm sore.) Also, no pictures of that. Sorry.

Day 3: San Antonio Children's Museum.
Oh man. If this place wasn't AMAZING. Three floors of the most fun things you could imagine. We spent close to three hours there and still didn't see everything. The highlights: the ball thing (lots of tubes and air and ways to get plastic balls into a huge bin that would randomly dump them all out), the full-sized airplane cockpit, the mini-house, and the miniature HEB grocery store. The grocery store was probably my favorite...they even had actual computerized check-out stands where you could ring-up your groceries out of the mini-shopping cart. So fun!!!









Day 4: SEA WORLD!!!!!!!!!! Orcas, Sea Lions, Dolphins, Sharks, Penguins, Racecars...it was just so exciting that we had to go back the next day.






Day 5: Sea World again (because a daily admission pass is good for a year!) but this time, with Uncle Mat!!!!!






Evening of Day 5: Dani and the girls and I got to go out. I got my hair cut and we went out to dinner. It was a toss-up between Olive Garden and a steakhouse. We went for the steakhouse because of the name:


Day 6: Church in Texas (I grabbed a Spanish hymnal and couldn't figure out why it wasn't the right song...) and a laid-back afternoon at Mat and Dani's...which involved cookie-making.









Day 6: I packed and Dani took me to the airport. And then she came back and got my when I took a voluntary bump because my flight was oversold! (Which got me $800 in Delta flight vouchers and a hotel for the night. Which is a long story in and of itself...with the horrible web of lies!!!... but I just stayed the night at Dani's.) Oh, and before we left, we took these:






So after Dani picked us up, we went to the mall and had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. We also took the boys to Build-a-Bear where they made a bear together. He will be traveling between the two of them until it becomes uncool.






Day 7: We flew home for real. Only this time it was in First Class.

We had such a good time. We can't wait to go back! And I'm so grateful to have a best friend like Dani!!!!!!!!!

Give Him A Break...

See this guy right here? He is wonderful.


Amazing.
Smart.
Talented.
Kind.
Sexy.
Hilarious.
Compassionate.
Patient.
Charitable.
The list goes on.

But here is the thing...he deserves a break. Not from life or being a father or anything like that. But we are talking career-wise. He stuck around BYU (paying tuition, I might add) for an additional year in order to work on his portfolio and to be able to be in direct contact with recruiters for jobs. I will spare you the details as I've posted about them before, but here is the bottom line: we have been waiting to hear back from Microsoft, the Holy Grail of Zac's career path, since his interview back in February.

And we are still waiting.

Now someone he knows got a callback on Saturday.

But we are still waiting.

This is what the Microsoft Jobs blog says about that:

On the JobsBlog alias, we get a collection of stories from people who don't hear back from their recruiters, and these emails all ask the same question; "What happened?".

Those of us who are on the alias usually go after these silent recruiters and chase down an answer, and typically the answer is the same; "We don't yet have a team that is interested in your candidacy".

At this point any well-meaning recruiter will say that they will continue to circulate your profile, and if there is a match then they will let you know. And then the cycle repeats, the silence soon returns, and so does the question, "What happened?".

I know this answer is unpopular, but I'll tell you the truth...if we have something for you, we'll call you. If you don't hear from us then we don't have anything (yet). That "yet" is what gets us all in trouble.

Recruiters will rarely tell you a final "no", and the reason is because there is seldom a terminal status. There are always new positions with new profiles and just because you are not a fit today does not mean you won't be a fit soon. Recruiters follow-up on those that are what we call "closest to the hire" - this is recruiter lingo for prioritizing time, which means that if you are farther from a "hire", then you will get prioritized lower. Like it or not, it's true.

This is all solved by setting expections a little better, and while recruiters should do this for you, it may not always happen. If your recruiter doesn't help set expectations, you should ask when/if you should expect to hear back.

So keep writing the alias, and we will continue to chase down the answer for you... and also know that when we have something, we'll call you…

- Jenna

So we sit here. Waiting.

And all I'm saying is that Zac is amazing. And I'm putting that out there into the universe with good feelings and positive thoughts as we wait.

Easter Eggs...

So I saw this thing online about dying Easter Eggs using old silk ties. The idea is that if you boil the eggs wrapped in 100% silk, the design will transfer to the egg shells. I figured it was worth a shot. Logan and I went to DI (the local thrift shop) yesterday and he picked out 3 ties. Then this evening, I cut them apart and he helped me wrap them. I wrapped the eggs like two to three times around which, for future reference, was not the best idea. You're also supposed to wrap the tie-wrapped eggs in an additional fabric, like an old pillow case. I skipped this step. Again, not the best idea. So then Logan helped me put them in a pot with water and vinegar and we boiled them for 20 minutes (with three more unwrapped ones for good measure. And again, not a good idea if the eggs aren't wrapped in that extra layer).

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Then pulled them out, cooled them off, and unwrapped them...





They did turn out pretty neat looking. But next time, I won't wrap them more than once with the tie itself. It made the print run into the main color of the tie. I will also be sure to wrap that second material around the egg to prevent so much of the color from bleeding into the water and onto the other eggs. Our burgundy-colored tie seemed to really dominate all of the other ones (teal, yellow, and blue).