With unemployment, I’m allowed to earn an additional $216 without it affecting my unemployment benefits. To help supplement our income, I took a part-time job with Lane Bryant. I’m working between 15 and 20 hours per week. It’s not a glamorous job, but it’s giving us a few extra dollars each week to pay the bills. I’ve met with more job placement agencies than actual employers which is extremely discouraging. It’s been over 9 years since I was in the job market and things are done very differently these days. I was contacted last week by two employers and I interviewed with one of them on Friday. The gentleman I met with contacted me Friday night and they want to bring me in for a second interview. I’m thrilled about that. I also have another job interview this Friday. I’m hoping something comes out of these interviews. In the early part of my job search I thought I had landed a job, but then the market dropped over 800 points and the financial firm decided to hold off until things improve with the economy. Please keep us in your prayers as I continue my job search. All prayers are greatly appreciated. And if you know of any job opportunities in my area, please let me know and I would be happy to forward you a copy of my resume. I’m looking for an Executive Administrative position and/or Office Management. I’m not necessarily tied to the finance field.
Life of the Crist’s
We are enjoying life as a family of four. Rachel is truly a blessing and keeps us on our toes. She is a pro at walking now! She is all over the place and is getting into everything. If being a mother to a cruising almost 14 month old princess doesn’t help me loose weight, nothing will! Rachel is learning more and more words each day. Here’s what our little jabber jaws can say:
1. Night Night
2. More (and signs more at the same time)
3. Da Da
4. Ma Ma
5. Baby
6. Ba Ba (bottle)
7. Hot
8. Thank you
9. Yes (and shakes her head yes as she says it)
10.No No (points and shakes her finger when she says no no)
I’m truly amazed that she is saying so many words already. With hearing Chinese for the first 8 ½ months of her life, I really thought there would be a delay in her speech. Apparently I was wrong. This little princess is right on track.
Rachel really is a little social butterfly. She loves to talk to people and animals, especially dogs. Whenever we are out and about and Rachel sees a baby or a dog, she wants to give them a kiss. She puckers up and says mmm mmm. I love it, but we are trying to teach her that blowing kisses are just as good. She blows kisses very well too! I melt every time she blows me kisses when I’m leaving to go to work.
Jake is doing great too. He is busy with school and his extra curricular activities. Jake did win the student council election, so he is the Student Council Representative for his 5th grade class. He also joined the school paper which is new this year and he signed up to be a safety. Wow, so many responsibilities for a 10 year old. I’m proud of him though for taking on new challenges. Unfortunately, he learned that football isn’t for him though. Jake started asking us if he could quit football which we were absolutely against. The start of games in September seemed to prompt Jake’s change in football. Dave and I truly believe that once you commit yourself to something you need to follow through till the end. Well, the complaining of stomach pains on practice nights started. He seemed to be getting hurt a lot more and the crying before practices were becoming more and more frequent. I then found out that he was stressing so much about it in school that he was visiting the nurse once or twice a week. His anxiety was affecting the rest of the family too. After careful consideration and a long debate with Dave, we decided it was in Jake’s best interest to allow him to quit. I even talked with his counselor at school to make sure we were doing the right thing and she absolutely agreed that in this situation we should make an exception. We made it very clear to Jake that we don’t quit things and that we will not make a habit of this. He just feels that football “is not in his heart.” Playing with kids who have been playing for 5 years or so is extremely intimidating to a kid who has never played before, especially when it comes to hitting. To make Jake accountable, he had to break the news to the coach. I think that was the hardest thing he ever had to do. The coach felt badly for him and shared with him that his brother had the same problem and he also ended up quitting. But when he reached high school, he was their star player. The coach hated to see Jake leave after all his hard work, especially loosing so much weight to play. Jake heard that our church will be starting a flag football team and he was so excited about it. The only thing he said that he hated about football was hitting. Basketball will be starting within the next month or two and Jake is looking forward to that.
Our lives really have been uneventful in the last month. We need to watch our pennies, so we aren’t going out as much. Rachel will be baptized on November 9th, so we are looking forward to that. My sister and her husband will be visiting from North Carolina. This will be there first visit since we brought Rachel home. I can’t wait for them to meet her. Sadly, my parents haven’t seen Rachel yet. I’m not sure when we will be able to go to North Carolina to visit. We just can’t do it financially and not to mention that Rachel absolutely hates to be in the car. If we are in the car for more than 15 minutes, she starts freaking out. She doesn’t like to be confined! I don’t know how we will ever make the 8+ hour drive.
Well, I hope you enjoy the latest photos. Please continue to keep us in your prayers!
