HiHoHiHo It's off to work we go

I am working at SkyWest again. Once my actual schedule starts I'll be working about 10 hours. 10 hours still gets us flight benefits. Enough said.

When Jason spotted the job posting I shocked all of us by intensely wanting to apply. I felt a little crazy since Eli was barely two months at the time. I dusted off my fancy clothes and updated the ol' resume. Actually, not much has changed since I worked for SkyWest before so there was very little updating to do. I thought about adding "midwife" to the skills sections since to by a lay midwife all you have to do is declare yourself a midwife and start delivering babies. Check. But in all seriousness it was a little weird getting back in to a working frame of mind. It really felt like the right thing to do though. Not to mention I had said, just one week before, that we needed to start planning and saving for a trip to Africa even if it meant I got a side job to fund it. Ask and ye shall receive or what?!

One week of training in SLC (a million thanks to Mom, EvaDean, Jess, Lisa, Amy, and Misty for helping with the babes), a couple weeks of On the Job Training, and I'm almost ready to go. It'll be nice to start working my set schedule so I won't work so much :) Working at the airport is WAY different from my cushy job at the Travel Center at the corporate office but I LOVE IT. I try to act cool around my co workers but I just about skip to the car at the end of the day. It's fun working with airplanes. I'm having a blast. The people I work with are really stellar as well. The only downer is the schedule I ended up with but I'm optimistic and I'm trying to keep in mind that it's not going to be those hours forever.

I find de-icing the plane extremely entertaining. It's crazy and cold but it makes me smile. Here's a picture of one of the more exciting days. This particular day my co worker had to de-ice 3 times before they could take off. He was mighty cold.

Huge snowflakes

I had the chance to de-ice for the first time last week. It wasn't storming, but that boom goes pretty high and it pretty jerky/tipsy feeling. The glycol spray that melts the ice also covered me pretty well. Luckily we wear more gear than an astronaut and it protects pretty well. (I discovered glycol tastes sweet though). Anyway, the point of all this is that on my first time I managed to break the very expensive de-icer. I'm pretty amazing like that. I was stuck up in the boom pretty high until the boss man manually lowered it from below. Later after the plane took off we had a chance to take a closer look and found the thick electric cord had tangled up in the hose reel and actually severed when I went up high to spray the tail. Severed! Hi, I'm the new girl and I just made sure your weekend of de-icing will totally suck.

Yeah, I broke that

 In closing, I promise to never again break the de-icer. I promise to try to be home before the kids wake up. I promise to use my flight benefits to the max. And I promise to do it all with a smile.

Education

This weekend I learned:


There is a much easier way to make cake balls.
Mason responds to my warnings better if I count backwards from 5 instead of from 1 to 3.
Beans really have rocks in them. Mason and I found 4.
100 lbs of wheat fill 2 and 3/4 buckets.


Eli thinks he wants 6 oz but his stomach only fits about 4.
I can wake up hours before the kids and not hate it.
Marshaling an aircraft makes me smile for 72 hours straight.
The average blanching time for cauliflower and broccoli is about 3 minutes.
If Jason signs up to substitute primary I will end up teaching.
4 year olds are really really wiggly.
One pot of beans feeds three once, five the next day, and then one more, and then three more. There is one bowl left over last I checked. Luckily not everyone was hungry.
Similarly, 1/2 batch of bread makes countless Doughjons (scones), three round loaves, and feeds everyone.
I can feed an unexpected crowd, clean up, get the kids to bed amidst the chaos, and really enjoy it all.
Games upstairs, movie down, and I pick alone time in the den.

Marching on

It's mid March already! I keep thinking that I'll catch up with writing and the other bazillion projects when life slows down. It's faulty thinking. Life just keeps picking up speed. Now that I have 2 minutes to sit and type my mind has gone blank. So much for meaningful essays. Here's a few random blurbs instead:

I have two incredible boys. One is almost three, one is three months. Guess which one sleeps through the night and which one wakes up frequently? It's not the obvious answer.

I get to talk to Lindsey weekly now. We found a time that we're both available and can chat for a bit while she drives home and my kids are asleep. It's wonderful to be current with your bestie. We'll always be close even if we live on opposite sides of the world and never talk, but it's really great to be in regular communication. Also, she brought me chocolate covered pretzels and a greeting card as big as place mat. That's why she's the best. 

We bought a huge 60lbs bucket of sprouts. Have I written about my sprouting obsession yet? Ooooh. I don't think I have. I will soon.

I FINALLY made cake balls after hearing everyone rave about them forever. They weren't perfect, but it was fun. Yes, cake balls are indeed noteworthy.

I asked Mason where he wanted to go for his birthday in a couple months. I suggested the beach or the zoo. He said he'd wanted to go to Kristi's house. 

Also noteworthy that Jason and I fixed our garbage disposal. It made me feel very handy. We are like real homeowners now! Really though, doing stuff like that together is better than any date out on the town. We're getting ready to plant our garden. We'll probably fall deeply in love with each other all over again :) Cooperation and hard work were the things that started our relationship and also the things that seem to draw us closer together still.

I was very recently telling my mom how overwhelmingly happy I was staying at home with my kids. I didn't want to go anywhere, not even the library. Not because I was too tired or scared to go out, I just didn't want to. I gloried in our simple life and quiet days. We were so content. And then a random job opportunity came up. And for some reason I went for it. And for some reason I got it. And for some reason I'm loving it. It's been a whirlwind of changes but I think it's going to work out. Craziness.

Amy took Eli for a whole night. Even though he's a great sleeper I slept so well knowing she was "on duty" and didn't even get sick to my stomach being separated from him. Ironically he woke up several times during the night which is very unlike him. Poor Ames. Oops, I just gave away the answer to the first question. 

Eli's baby blessing was a few weeks ago. Both sides of the family came for the occasion. We were only missing four brothers out of the 18 combined siblings. Mason loved being entertained by all his cousins. When he woke up the next day he wandered around the quiet empty house asking where his friends were.

And because no entry is complete without a picture, here's the fam. I just realized I look absolutely nothing like my mother.

little and littlest

Little Mason has never seemed so big. Eli seems absolutely tiny.