Happy International Respect for Chickens Day

I'm all about respecting chickens, but really, who comes up with these observances?

Anyway...

The excitement about our new car vanished quickly on Friday when Tony went outside to check the oil and found the car wouldn't start. We had it towed to a mechanic who later called and told me that the car's problems were the type that no mechanic liked to deal with (too complicated). However, he said he was hopeful he could get it in working order by mid-week. Well, thankfully, this mechanic is awesome and is getting our car in working order. It should be done today or tomorrow. For those of you living in the Omaha area, I HIGHLY recommend Excellence in Auto on 84th and Blondo. The owner, Tom, is a great guy and will do good work at a fair price. A good auto mechanic is hard to find.

Also, my job is going well. I work every evening but Sunday and Wednesday from 6 to midnight. I'm doing payroll and administrative stuff, and the people I work with at the Census Bureau are great. Sometimes it gets a little tiring, but I'm glad to have a job so we can pay for our car troubles! It's hard to find the motivation to be productive some days (like today... I had to work until 1 a.m. this morning and didn't get to bed until 2 a.m....), but overall things are going well with the job situation.

We have a busy week coming up with Mother's Day, our anniversary and my birthday. We also have a goal to plant our garden and work on our yard all day tomorrow, since both Tony and I have the day off. I'll try to remember to take some pictures!

Workin' woman

In case you didn't know, a few weeks ago I got a part-time, temporary job with the Census Bureau. I was a QAC, or a worker at a questionnaire assistance center, and I basically got paid $10.50/hour to sit in community centers and libraries to answer people's questions about the Census. (Nobody came and asked me any questions, so I got paid to read the newspaper and my Harry Potter book.) It was a super easy job and only 10-13 hours/week for a couple of weeks. That job ended on April 19, and they offered me a different job doing data entry at their main office here. I'm going to be working four days per week, 6-8 hours/day. Most of my shifts will be 6-midnight, but I'll be working 3:30-midnight whenever I can (basically whenever we have someone to watch Ruth that long). The job will last 4-6 weeks, so generally speaking I'm not worried about being away from Ruth. What will be hard, I think, will be not seeing Tony as much and having less time to do stuff around the house and the yard. But it's only temporary, so I'm sure we will survive. I train on Tuesday and start on Thursday.

To make this whole job situation work, we went out and bought something we've been wanting for a very long time now: another car! We paid $1100 for a lovely Buick Regal. Tony sees it as a "project car" (it needs some minor fixes - for example, it's missing a radio) and is enjoying it so far. I like not having to coordinate picking Tony up from work and school with my appointments. So yay for owning another car!
Also, we had Stake Conference today. I enjoyed Stake Conference very much, but I will say it's a BIG challenge to attend with a grouchy toddler. We had to go find an empty room for a time-out at one point. She eventually got distracted by a sticker book I brought along. I figure it's important that we go, and as she gets older she will get used to being there.

Anyway, busy week ahead! I'll let you know how the job goes!