REEEALLY??

Surprisingly, I haven't received thousands of dollars towards my Paris birthday party. Whaaaat??? Hmmm...maybe Chuck E Cheese would be more in line.

I have been applying for every job I can get my greedy little hands on, which isn't much let me tell you. If you are a facebooker, you have heard all of my whining. My newest hunt has been at the smaller hospitals, but even there, pickins are slim to none. The good news? While scrapbooking one day, I was sharing with my friends the dismal job outlook, and a woman came up to me asking if I was looking for a nursing job! So...long story short, I was able to get a job at her home health company. Most of the jobs are LVN level, and do not pay what hospitals do, but it will be excellent training and experience for me, and will help me get a hospital job eventually. So I am very thankful for it, even though it is not exactly what I had been hoping for. As quite a few good friends have mentioned to me... it sounds as if it was a gift from God, and is probably right where He wants me. I have been praying to be wherever He wants me. So, at the end of the month, I will begin training. The patients are all children, most with neural issues. I hope to be a comfort and blessing to these families.

On the home front: Hubby continues to struggle with his job, but is really trying to have a better attitude. Meanwhile, we've just been told, that $200-$400 MORE will begin to be deducted from his ALREADY $700 pay cut to pay for benefits! So my little job does come at a good time.

My kids are enjoying school, the daughter is starting to gear up for the change over into college, and my boy is loving high school, and has his first girl friend. She seems very sweet, and he has been good about it so far.

We love Fall around here, and went to Oak Glen to enjoy the colors. It was too late to pick the apples, but we did buy a big bag of Honey Crisp apples, yum.

Our last Jane Austen book club meets this week. We will be discussing Persuasion. So far, my least fave. A tad slow, and what the heck, I'm 2/3 through, and NO romance! What the heck.

I think that's it for me. How are you doing? Leave a comment!

Taking donations...

So, I've decided how I want to celebrate my 50th birthday, but it will demand a large commitment on your part. Send cash now, I only have 2 yrs, 2 months to save up. Really, it will be worth it to empty your coffers for me. I mean, really wouldn't it be worth it, just to put a smile on my face? I thought so.

Art Home at Palais de Tokyo for more photo's to seal the deal.

I think I'm totally worth it, so start sending me the cash. Euro's will also be accepted. Yes, it is in my favorite place in the world...Paris. Or as us natural french speakers say...."Par-eeeeee". Okay, not so natural. My french withers year by year, which isn't saying much since I only had a 4 yr old ability to begin with. But hey, I have 2 yrs to come up to par, and found another site, Alliance Francaise which has lessons, which I WILL TAKE as soon as I get me a job!

so...welcome to my dream.

Hookers green

no, I'm not speaking about a nauseous prostitute, just a name of one of my watercolor paints. I just thought it might grab someones attention since I don't have anything life shaking going on here in my blog....

Well let's see what's new with me...

nada...nothin'....zilch etc...

I am applying still all over the place, and now I'm trying to hunt down the boutique hospitals (my term). You know the little hospitals with a couple hundred or less beds. These are wonderful little hospitals, but they are not easy to find. They usually don't have a website, a nurse recruiter, or any information you can find! So hunting is what you have to do to find them! I went to 4 of them on Friday, dropped off resume/ap, and now I wait. I took and passed the NRP class (Neonatal Resus. Program) so I can better try for those NICU jobs. CHOC finally opened their new grad jobs, so I applied there, and I'm waiting. They can take until Dec.15 to notify. I also applied for the local hospital for their new grad program, but I know they REALLY look for a BSN, so I would be surprised to hear from them. I will take an EKG class later this month, so I can better apply for all those Tele/ICU jobs.

I am still plugging away at watercolors. It is definitely more difficult now, but still just as enjoyable. My lemons came out so much better the other day. And we worked on more monochrome still-life's, but actual objects. So dang hard. But so dang fun. My homework is to make sunshiney clouds and stormy clouds. Remember when my homework was concept maps? Me too, it makes me laugh...and cry for those of you still making those horrid things.

Halloween was very fun. The daughter was Luke Skywalker, and the boy was batman. They both are regressing, because you know, nerdy is now cool. The hubby and I took turns handing out candy. Weird.... it was the first year we were both doing that. Usually one of us was with the kids. *warning, warning, sneak peak into empty next syndrome!!!*

I've started a new exercise regimen (that I am breaking at this moment...) to get up earlier, get exercise clothes on, and NOT to hit the computer until I have exercised. Well...I had a good two days before breaking it. I will still go though...really.

In home news, we found out we have a MAJOR termite infestation, Here's the mound in our backyard that we had thought was one of our kids mud pies.... All right, that wasn't in our yard, because if we did have one of those, we'd just rent a chimpanzee, give him a stick, and be done with them, right? No, we have the wood kind, in the whole bloody house! So THAT'S why our house has gotten more squeaks in the last few years! Oh good, hubby has a major pay cut, I don't have a job, and here, here's $1000 bucks! Urgh.

And yesterday, my hubby had a really stressful day, with a fellow cycler crashing, and dieing! to then be revived.... (thanks to some quick thinking CPR for over a half an hour, and Prayer!) and then he had to chase a mousy down that our sweet kitty brought in for him to cheer him up. Poor Eric, quite the day.

Well that's all the news I can think of. Have a lovely week.