My {SUPER} hero...

Monday - His day off. I left early so I could study for my first college test in years. He got Dedan out of bed (a huge feat everyday) and delivered him to school, played with Nash, and did all the laundry before I got home from school.

Tuesday - He started his new schedule working evenings instead of overnights (yea!) and before he left for work he took Nash to preschool while I fulfilled some of our volunteer hours at Dedan's school then picked Nash up and took us both to lunch.

Wednesday - More class for me. I'm pretty sure he and Nash wrestled most of the time I was gone. Well, that and he totally cleaned the kitchen (which was almost fair since I had to completely clean the bathroom after Nash broke a glass bulb cover that spread everywhere)

Thursday - He let me go to lunch with some of my girls while he watched Wednesday's Idol by himself and picked up Nash from preschool then entertained him until he had to leave for work.

Friday - Got up early to help with kids since I have an early class on Fridays. Made hot cereal in a to go cup when I said I didn't have enough time to eat and my mouth hurt from dental work on Thursday. While I was at school he bought & installed 2 new bulb covers for our bathroom that are prettier and allow more light than the one that Nash broke. Didn't say a word until I noticed it that night and sent him a text at work. Humility.

Today - Took the boys to their pancake breakfast, picked me up & chauffered me to our Vons so I could (at the last minute) supervise Emma selling Girl Scout cookies. While we were there he replaced my broken headlight which we'd just talked about the day before...and I'd already forgotten.

Best. Husband. Ever.
He's supportive, handy, remembers stuff I forget, loves our kids, nurturing, hard working, good at telling me when to shut my mouth/slow down/step away from the iPad aaaaand easy on the eyes. {hubba hubba}

Wait...
if he's Mr. Incredible do I get to be Elastigirl?
Or maybe he's Batman and I could be Catwoman?
Who was Wonder Woman's boyfriend?

The email I can't write

I'm an optomistic person by nature - always have been. I try to only complain to my closest friends who will recognize the true me underneath all the whiney mess. And yet....I find myself unendingly mad at someone (or maybe several someones) that I've never met and need a place to vent in the real world. My head is getting sick of the same angry ramblings on a daily basis. Sooooo.....

Welcome to my rant!

We're unemployed...and I say that like a man might say "We're pregnant!" As a family we've decided it's my job to be the main care taker for our home and children. Harland's unplanned 20 months of unemployment hasn't changed that.

We paid Cobra costs for our health care insurance as long as we were eligible. Now we're on Medi-Cal. It took me several months to bring myself to apply. We've gone through our meager savings and haven't gone into debt. We've survived rather well, partially in thanks to living with my mom and partially because we had no debt to begin with. We're not on food stamps, although I'm sure we'd qualify. We are actively involved in our children's schools and church activities. We don't have our kids in sports or music lessons, because it's out of our budget.  We've made lots of sacrifices. I don't need to list them. I'm not looking for a pity party.

My point is we are honestly doing our best to weather this "storm" and maintain our standards.

Yet, both Harland and I on separate occassions (more than once each) have heard employed people complaining about their job or "wishing" they could just take help from the government instead of working. Generally, it's people who don't know us or our circumstance, but....seriously?!

We are - even in our circumstance - trying to heed the prophet's counsel to be grateful. I supposed that is a blessing/ benefit of believing in the current prophet of our Lord. (Want to know more - just ask me!) I can't expect others to believe the same thing.

There's the rub. The longer we're unemployed, the more I realize how blissfully ignorant other people are.

For example, Harland applied for a job in July at a new hotel that is opening in Park City. He got a call within a few days scheduling an interview. The guy not only didn't call on the scheduled day, but didn't answer Harland's call either....until a month later. Then he got passed on to another Guy who has not kept a single phone appointment (he kept the one in person appointment) or deadline that he gave himself. NOT ONE. The last time Harland talked to The Guy he excitedly gave him details/benefits of the job and all but offered him the job then said he would call in 2 days. I called my sister who lives in Utah to share my excitement about the possibility of having a job and being close to her. We sat on pins and needles waiting for him to call.

It's been more than 3 weeks.

Harland emailed him once and never got a return answer. You'd think we'd "get a clue", realize they chose another candidate, and move on. Well, in a sense, we have, since Harland is applying for all sorts of jobs and has a fairly good local lead. But when someone has such a reputation of not keeping appointments it is difficult to give up hope. Actually, at this point, hope is all we seem to hang on to. Daily I stop myself from sending him a nasty email by writing it in my head.

Unfortunately, this is not unique in Harland's long search for a job. Not even a little. Employers constantly avoid the unpleasant task of informing the candidate that they are not hiring. Some have even passed it off to other people who weren't involved in the hiring process. Some just wait weeks before they let you know. Others (the kind we like) call and field Harland's questions about why he wasn't hired and what he could've done better in the interview process (must give those guys big props).

This isn't just a job search for Harland. This is a job search for our whole family. Occassionally, like the Park City job, we even share our excitement with people we love. When we wait, they wait. When we get disappointed, so do they. So, when you ask how things are if I answer "fine", please understand. I don't need to pull anyone else into our circle of disappointment. 

And if you are in charge of hiring people or know someone who is... man up. Do the unpleasant tasks now. Don't make me wait. It's just rude.    

Merry Christmas

Love, The Carpenter Family

Why I'm Tired, a pictorial essay

Wednesday

Made 3 batches of homemade rolls and preped the turkey. I got the idea to brine my turkey from a blog I occassionally read. To sum up: cooler, ice, salty, sweet, spiced up water, overnight. Let's not forget the regular SAHM duties like making sure moments like this are caught for Nash's future wife to use as encouragement to get him to fix things.

Thursday
Kids were hanging from the rafters. Ok, so it was just my crazy brother, James (who drove in from Vegas unexpectedly) that would let his adrenaline junkie 18 month old do that. BUT we had plenty of kids who were so busy playing that they almost forgot to eat dinner...

...except Jackie. She wanted to go home. There was "nothing" for her to do at our house. The only thing she would eat was one of my homemade rolls. They are quite good.

We had lots of family and friends. Here's my adorable cousin, Shandra and boyfriend, Justin. She was my very first cousin...holds that special place in her heart.

Her brother, Phillip, and girlfriend, Jen are having a baby next summer! Congratulations!!!

Which will make these two GRANDPARENTS! Woohooo! And my mom will finally be a Great Aunt. She's still got a way to go to catch up with me. We've got 3 great nieces on Har's side....just saying.

My Great Aunt Joan protects her namesake, Emma Joan, with her karate moves because...

Uncle James is trying to give Emma her birthday spankings...a week late.

Papa fell asleep in a chair in all the chaos. Must've been from the morning of vaccuum dog hairs off of everything before company came.

Or it could've been from this good stuff. We had 2 turkeys totalling 40 pounds and this is all that was left. Enough for a couple of sandwiches this weekend!

Friday
This morning Emma and I were out the door around 5 a.m. for some Black Friday shopping - later than past years. We came home a couple of times in between locations, but when we came home for the night found Grandma had been working hard to get ready for the next holiday.

I'm sure when we go downstairs in the morning the Christmas tree will be up and we'll hear Christmas music playing on the CD player.