March wrap-up

Well, there has not been alot that has happened in March. I have been very busy at work, it's not even the busy season yet. I really love my job. It is really great. I get to do lots of design work, but in addition I get to meet with clients (which I like) and I get to interact daily with the Latinos (which I love) Alot of them are Hondurans who speak similar to Salvadorans so I get to practice my Salvadoran accent. I get to be outdoors about 1/2 of every day. This job is better than I could've imagined.
My fingers are better. The Doc said most stitches stay in for about 10 days. Some of mine where in for 21 days. It's been 24 miserable days since I cut them.
You can see where the blade went thru. I now have 95% full use of my fingers. I need to wait a little longer for the internal sutures to dissolve to be able to really use my hand with confidence, right now I'm still a little hesitant to really yarf on on em. The weather has been quite pretty and everything is in bloom. I wanted to post this pic:But then this happened:What month is it anyway? I took Henry to see "Horton Hears a Who" last night (his first time to a theatre. He loved it by the way. After the movie we went out and it was nearly blizzarding. We walked over to Jack-in-the-box for some fries and we stopped to play in the snow. then when we got home (at 10:30pm) we made a big snowman. We had alot of fun. Even though we are freezing! Well, till April, here is a parting shot of us (well most of us, someone had to take the pic)

Great /slash/ painfull start.

Get it? Wait just a sec.
So my first week at my new job was fabulous. I heard nary a curse word the whole week: which is unheard of in my industry. My boss is Mormon and one of the other Project Managers is / was too. I got a nice Ford F-250 extended cab to drive. I got my business cards and phone already. In contrast other companies have taken months to do the same. My laptop will be delivered tomorrow. This is the first job where I feel that I am neither "in over my head" nor "wasting time and talent". I return calls from people looking for our services, meet with them, design/ determine the program, put a crew on it, make sure the crew does it right, order materials, and help with the technical stuff. I love it. This is also the first company where I can see a long term future.
Well you are probably dieing to know why I said a "painful" start. Well Thursday I was teaching the crews how to prune hedges the right way. "look is that a rabbit?!" [name that movie] I was working with motorized Hedge Shears. They function like Hair Clippers but for hedges. Ther were 2 pairs, both turned off. I was trying to start one, and I couldn't do it. As I let go of the cord my hand slipped backward into the 2nd set. The freshly sharpened set! Any how it hurt my thumb, as I looked at my thumb I felt something warm on the back of my hand, I turned it over and saw 2 Hollywood style large gashes or slashes (get my joke?) on the back of my 1st and 2nd finger. Well after forcing myself out of shock, I cleaned them up in the garden hose and determined that I would need stitches. I called my co-worker to come get me. While He was getting there I finished lining the crew out on the job. To shorten things up I ended up getting 19 stitches; 3 in my thumb, so 8 on both fingers! Don't worry it hasn't slowed me down hardly at all at work. A cute anecdote: Henry found a Band-aid yesterday and put it on. He said to Lyn "I need this, I hurt my finger." "How" replied Lyn. "I cut my finger, real bad!" "really?" Lyn said. "yeah with pruners... Wanna see it? it's pretty gross." Wow I knew Henry looks up to me, but even to the point of pretend wounds!? Wow!
Well that's it for now.
.........................There is a picture below in the picture section IF you want to see my stitches, otherwise your imagination will suffice.

Trip to Utah

I'm trying this new way to post pics; within the text. Let me know if you like it or hate it or just leave a comment for fun.
Well alot has happened but not alot to write about. We flew to Utah last Friday and stayed till Friday the 29th. We visited with Mom and Dad Tidwell, Grandparents, brothers and sisters (on both sides) and old friends from school. It was pretty cold down there. When we arrived there was almost two feet of snow on the ground. It was sunny most of the time we were there although it was not very warm. The kids had a blast, and got very little sleep and got colds too. :) oh well! I enjoyed seeing my old professors and friends from school . Two of them took jobs with the University. Seeing my bother and sister was a high point. I am trying to get them to move to WA. [Audrey, you know you want to be up here, think of all the hiking... :) ] On Thursday we went to a cool park and had a great time. It had some toys that were even fun for adults. It was sunny and peaceful.
Well church was nice today, I bore testimony in front of the congregation to the fact that God knows each of us and is aware of our sufferings and blesses us, usually through the kindness of other people. Like the song says "I have no hands but yours".
I start my new job tomorrow. I am very excited, yet very nervous at the same time. I will have a lot of responsibility, more than I have ever had, and while I know I can do it, it still makes me nervous. Life is going well. In addition to this great new job, we cannot describe the happiness that we feel for the blessing that it is stay in our lovely house and in our great ward. I put up a new light fixture in my kitchen and it transformed it. It completes the 'Retro' look that I was going for. It also adds more depth to the room while improving the lighting. I get so excited about aesthetics; inside, outside, home, garden, or auto. I am turned on by enhancing things. This house has been alot of fun.

Hurray!!

Yep, You guessed it. I am now gainfully employed. I had a job interview last Saturday with a company in Snoqualmie, and I received a job offer on Tuesday. The name of the company is American Pro-scapes. The owner I found out in the interview is Mormon! I had several questions for the owner so I meet with him yesterday[Thursday] and got them figured out. I feel really good about this position. Today I called him and accepted his offer.
I will start March 3rd as a Sales Project Manager. This position will have alot of design, but more project management. I will have the luxury of overseeing the installation of my designs, which is something that very few designers actually get. The position pays considerably more than the previous and I will also have a company truck which will eliminate commuting costs. The best news to us is that we can stay in our house and near our wonderful friends. I was very sad at the thought of having to leave my shady hammock trees behind :( and my garden too!
Thank you to everyone for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers, I know that the Lord watches out over us and will never leave us stranded. It might appear that way but we just need to have faith that there is a master plan that we fit into.
Well there is not much more to write about so, until next time...

Rough start - Fun finish

Well this past week went as stated in the title. On Monday I received a call from the organic farm in Alaska and they said my job history was too risky for them. The manager a the design firm that I was interested in showed a marked reduction in interest in me, telling me to "call back sometime" ! And the Planner position in Moses Lake never did call back even though he said he would call me within a few days. (14 days ago) Now 2 of these jobs I didn't want, but it is disappointing to be rejected from them anyhow. Monday thru Wednesday were spent being depressed but still trying to find stuff. Wed afternoon I noticed that Henry had been very moody all week and I realized that he was mirroring my stress. So we decided to take Thursday and use one of our coupons to go to the Seattle Aquarium.
We took the 545 bus to downtown and then walked down to the Aquarium which is on the waterfront. It is a smaller aquarium, but is well appointed and has several unique features. The had a birds section, where we got to see birds swimming under water. One bird spent well over a minute underwater. They had exhibits of Sea and River Otters and different Seals. We had the luck of being there during feeding time and got to watch the Sea Otters breaking open clams and eating them up. There was also neat domed underwater room where you could just sit and watch the fish swim by. (see pics) They also had some well thought out tide pool areas in which you could pet the Starfish and Anemones. that night Henry had a bad dram about Starfish trying to get him, I'm not quite sure how that dram played out, I mean Starfish aren't exactly agile...!?
After the aquarium Ferny was in her backpack carrier asleep, so we decided to just walk around the city. We saw some neat things, and before we knew it we found ourselves at he entrance to the underground bus tunnel, so we hopped on an made our way to Chinatown. There is a really interesting oriental store called Uwajimaya. We had a coupon for buy 1/get 1 free. at the noodle bar, so that is where we had dinner. It was so fun. We spent over and hour eating. then we went shopping and purchased some weird and fun Asian groceries, including my favorite Banana Sauce. We then went to the bus tunnel only to find that it closes at 7pm. It was now 7:30pm so we had to hike all the way back into town. It was a bit chilly (40) but Seattle is such a scenic city that we didn't mind at all. We all went to bed happy that night.
Since then we have all been much happier. Henry and Fern have been my best little friends.
Saturday we had a lot of errands to do, so we decided to do them all together as a family. We went shopping for groceries, and went to the pet store to find a light for the kids fish tank. It wasn't anything special, but it was just fun to be together.
Well that's about it for now. We are all doing well. Fern is doing well at learning how to go to sleep on her own. (instead of having to be held every single second) I am finding new job postings and trust that it won't be too much longer till I find something. Well, till next time something cool happens... Adios!
{edit} About the pics: Tuesday Lyn went to a lot of trouble to make phad thai and right before dinner discovered that he mix she used had gone bad. Dinner was late as it was so we took advantage of the local pizza places "half price Tuesday. Henry loves pizza and it is one of the only was to get him to eat veggies. In the pic you can see just how much he loves it.
Wednesday Lyn had to go grocery shopping so I watched fern. We played some games and read some books. Then I decided to give her a Horsey-back ride. I went down the hall and back and around the ottoman, then as I passed in front of the Hutch I noticed hat she had fallen asleep. Since I was on all fours and she was on my back, there was nothing that I cold do except lay down and read the National Geographic and wait for Lyn to get back. When She walked in I'm sure it was quite the funny sight. {/edit}

Finally a tidbit

I really don't know what to write about my trip to Guatemala. I had a fantastic time. I logged 40 +/- hours on Chicken Buses. I got to hike to a active volcano and throw rocks in the lava. I got to go body surfing at sunset in El Salvador. I spent 2 weeks with my best friend and got to see many old friends from the mission. --- Whoa a bird just flew into our window, so I went out to see him and he (or she) allowed me to pick him up and hold him. My mom-in-law (the bird professional) said he was probably just in shock so we left him outside but I did get to allow Henry as close up view of a bird (mom: probably a Warbler) I hope he recovers. Henry says "Maybe he'll come back and visit us." --- I don't exactly know what to write about. I could write a travel log, but that is not why I went down there, it was just a nice side-effect. I had many spiritual experiences, but those are kinda for me. I guess what everyone probably want to know is "Is Caleb feeling better?" The answer is definitely YES! Many things have changed: my ability to see Gods hand in my life, my perspective on work and on what exactly one needs to live. (when you see how people live in Central America you cant help but realize that you don't NEED most of what you think.) My outlook on Designing has improved. I have worked so hard for it I cannot give up so easily. Friday I went to turn in an application and some of my design work and after looking at it they brought me in for an interview immediately. They want me to return on Monday for a follow up. I also have a possibility to work in organic farming in Skagway Alaska but I think that the pay is a bit too low. And there is a positive response from the city of Moses Lake to be a city planner, but if you have ever seen Moses Lake it is flat dry and about as dull as watching Supreme Court sessions on CNN. (i.e. Very Dull) but at any rate there are starting to become available several good jobs now that the new year is under way.
Things are going much better and the future looks brighter every day. If you would like to know more of the travel side of my trip let me know and I'll share it with you. But don't forget to scroll down on this page and you can see many pics of my adventure.
Till Feb. Love Caleb