CR, IA Bound?!?

Hi all,

Just wondered if you had any "calm down" advice for me. After an interview with another company on Friday, I think Mr. Mouse is going to accept a job in CR. The only problems I see with this are #1 we don't currently have 2 reliable long-distance vehicles and #2 CR is a big city and the thought of driving in it to get to a job interview (have to work in same area if only one car) with him at work in a brand new city during rush hour is beyond me. I hate driving, especially in more traffic than 2 lanes. I know, its sucky, but what I can I say, it "paranoys" me. I know, stupid quoted word, anyway, those are my big concerns. I am flat out scared of having to drive in that by myself. I get nervous in towns of 20,000 with turn lanes, how am I ever going to handle getting a job where I have to get to work on a freeway, and then, if not, how to get to doctor's appointments if we #1 share a vehicle and #2 if I have no idea about the city or how to drive around it! Ahhhh! This will be the deal, prolly, if we go there its time to mak-a-da-babies because I'm fast closing in on 30 and it scares me to pieces thinking about having kids over 35. Help me!

Oh a hunting we will go...

Hi readers,

Just wanted to check in and let you know that despite my long absences, I am still here and doing well. We are just now through with finals and that means interview time. We leave when I get off work and head to Cedar Rapids, where Mr. Mouse will interview hopefully for a REALLY good paying job (that he loves)...and visit a realtor... and visit my friend Alissa (and hubby Nate) for dinner, etc.

We are excited and feeling insane at the same time. It will be a great adventure if we choose to embark on it, and at the same time it's a little sad because we will be farther away from our families. Granted, they don't come and see us, we go visit them, so it won't be much different except we won't be able to go back for church every weekend and we won't be able to "see" the puppies grow up I guess, unless we visit a lot. Sure will be different not to have slobbery mouths licking at us 2 days a week. Guess that means we need our own dog if we move? Crazy!

And there there's land/house hunting and figuring out a new place and finding me a job!?! And everything that goes with that. Some of it sounds really fun, some of it not. One day I'll get around to telling you about the Last Time We Moved. Yuck!

And if not, I stay in the job that I'm in, umm Matthew goes to graduate school and we job hunt in 2 years or less. Clock is ticking, best get back to work, but wanted you all to have an update, since you keep yours up to date.

Btw, finals went well, I got an A, so hopefully that means an over all A, and Matthew said his went well, we shall see.

Mr. and Mrs. Mouse's new house?

Hmmm. May be moving in a different direction than we thought. Mr. Mouse has been contacted several times from a company out of Iowa and they want him to go visit and see if he wants a job with them. They know he doesn't have experience and they're okay with that. What?!? Anyway, I have no idea how much money it will take for us to get established. I want him to ask for plenty in case I need to settle down and have a couple lil' meeces running around one of these days. I had bad luck trying to find some land to buy, but he found some so I guess I was looking at bad real-estate websites. Anyway, it would definitely be a new adventure for us. I just want him to be happy and this place seems to like him a lot and all they've done is talk to him on the phone. I would kind of like to go with him to see what this place is like, but I imagine it can' t be much different from where we are now. The general temps seem to be the same and we do have a friend that lives nearby so that would be nice. Hopefully there's not too much snowfall. It would be probably about 4 hours from our respective families, so that's not too bad, and it is a town about the same size as KtJrdn lives in. We would want to be outside of town, of course, but in general we've been told the commute is not bad and it takes about 20 minutes to get across town. Sometimes it can take that long where we are now and it's a much smaller community. We shall see. More updates about that when I have them.

Two left feet

I feel like I have 2 left feet this morning. I'm up waaay too early, but I had a procedure done on my left foot yesterday, and when you sleep on the right side of the bed, it's hard to keep your left foot out of harms way. I have to walk across campus today and I'm not looking forward to it. It's going to hurt. I am probably also going to do a lot of sit on my butt and that's it today. I'm interested to see what's under the bandages. Pretty much they trimmed the sides of my big toenail down to keep them from infecting the rest of my toe. My toes get squished a lot in shoes and my toenails (did) cup under, so the minute they get squished, they cut into the sides of my toes. Enter foot-dirt and you get infection. I have been dealing with this for at least a decade and finally some relief. I had one side of my right foot done in January and it looks good and I can't feel a thing. Glad it's sandal season so I can let my feet breathe a little bit. I certainly hope this doesn't hurt very much today. Note, I have been on some pretty hefty antibiotics, so if you thought I was crazy a few posts ago, blame it on the fact that my hormones were going crazy. Sorry :-(

Interview

KtJrdn asked me the following questions:

1. If money were no object, would you have a job? What would you do?

• I would probably have a part time job, or volunteer in the community. I can't do enough of that now because we're so wrapped up in what we have going on at the present moment. I have a feeling when kids come along we'll have a lot more to do.

2. Do you believe that everyone has one and only one soul mate?

• Yes. I'm so glad I found mine! I think you can be compatible with other people, but the one you're supposed to be with is out there.

3. When you use a towel to dry off after a shower, is it dirty or clean?

• The towel is dirty. Even if you body is technically clean, you still have germs, bacteria, etc that get on the towel. Gross.

4. Nature or nurture?

• If I had to pick I guess I would say nurture. I have never met a sibling pair that are so alike that it's scary, so there's no way nature can do it all. I have also known people with parents without the best pedigree, but since they were raised away from them, are nothing like their non-present parent.

5. If you could go back in time and influence your parents, would you have been an only child? 1 brother? a sister? younger or older?

• I would have definitely had a sister. It was tough growing up just having my mom and no one else to talk to. It was difficult to live in a house full of boys. Especially if they're more towards chauvanistic than not. It's still difficult to be around them. I've had more education and some damn good experiences, but it's never enough, I'll always be considered less because I'm female, I wonder if I'd had a sister we could have made more of an influence together.

Biding Time

Hi all my loyal readers! Sorry I've been so late in getting another post up, basically I've been biding time. Mr. Mouse DID get into grad school, YEAH! Good for him. For now I'm stuck working, which I guess it could be worse. Now, though, I'm going to push for an upgrade and a big fat raise. Crossing fingers, my truck should be paid off in June, and then maybe our lifestyle will upgrade a little bit. The only caveat is that if Mr. Mouse finds his dream job then we'll book it out of here. I'm torn, I do kind of like what I'm doing, and despite numerous attempts, I can't get into the school program I want (and if you tell anyone else I know, I'll kill you!) because it's so damn picky. But that's what I really want to do :-( It's very frustrating. Sometimes I wonder why in the hell I'm so smart and nice and knowledgeable (there's a difference, ya know) and I'm stuck working as a secretary, granted, my boss really depends on me, but the pay and prestige just aren't there. It's not even really satisfying unless I'm completely busy, I guess I like crossing stuff off of lists, even if they are mental lists at that. And, I'm getting to the age where if I don't start having kids, then I won't get to have them :-( My boss is VERY pregnant and we did a surprise baby shower for her today, we had to reschedule it 3 times at least because of doctors' appointments, but at least we got it done, she was VERY surprised and seemed thrilled with everything. I guess I dont' envy her the bad parts of pregnancy, but I guess we will see how I feel once she's got her own little bundle of joy in the office. I know with my other friends, I have harbored a secret jealousy (sorry!) for their fortune. And I have other friends that aren't as fortunate, and that hurts. I have seen all those orphaned kids from Africa on tv recently, and just want to say, I could take care of you! I figure I'd be sucky at taking care of my own, but I'd do great at raising a kid from another culture that has nothing. I wonder why? Maybe because they're not helpless? Maybe I figure all my classmates and my family is right and that I'm just worthless and could never raise a kid? I guess I have figured that eventually I could have a child at any time, but that may not be true. I'm torn, I want to be a good role model for my future kids (especially if they are girls) and have a good career lined up for after I'm a stay-at-home-mommy, but it looks like those dreams are probably forever crushed. It sucks, because I moved back to live with Mr. Mouse instead of going straight to grad school like I had hoped. Now it really seems like I've missed my chance to do it before having kids. Can any of you that have kids consider a full time job AND full time school with your kids? Somehow I don't think so. So that means giving up some time with your kids and/or not working at the same time, so we would depend on Mr. Mouse's job to pay a mortgage, etc. I guess it's all the unknown, so it's really scary, and now if we're here for 2 years, not only am I NOT getting my degree, but I still can't have kids yet because I have the insurance and the income, so I couldn't stay home with them, and that's what I want. I always knew I wouldn't be lucky enough to have it all, but basically, now, I have NOTHING. :-( Sorry, just feeling sorry for myself. 2 more years of low pay, no kids, and a hubby that is so busy that you barely see each other is just so hard to handle, especially when everything you thought you wanted is gone. My husband doesn't like me to think negatively, but can you blame me? I really want to have a decent career, but i can't get it because of my lack of education, and I can't get an education because I'm married and the program is prejudiced against that, and I can't have kids because my husband is in school, and well I'm just stuck I guess... biding time.

52 Ford F6

http://52fordf6.blogspot.com/

We have been working on the truck lately, so you can check out our progress.
Pictures will be up soon.