a little girl

three years ago today, i was HUGE. i was having contractions constantly and VERY uncomfortable. my feet were so swollen that when i walked, the tops of my feet would jiggle. on april 2nd at 2:35 pm, my sweet baby girl was born.

my life changed forever. she has been such a joy to me. she makes me smile everyday and she has a heart of gold. jase and i love to spoil her with hugs and kisses.

she is turning 3 this week and i'm so proud of her. she is so smart and loves to learn. i can't wait to watch her grow up and be a part of all her accomplishments.

happy birthday sweetheart:)

new job!!

as some of you have read, i've been job hunting since december. yesterday, i had my first job interview in almost 10 years! it went really well, the radiology manager was really energetic and it rubbed off on me so i hope i didn't seem hyperactive to the other radiology supervisor that was with him! i guess they liked me b/c they offered me the job! it's a PRN position, those of you who don't know what that means, it's basically 'as needed'. which works out great for me b/c you don't receive benefits with that position which means i get paid more(i'm on jase's insurance), and also, it's not everyday so i can spend time with henz. and this is a very large hospital, which i prefer to work at, i will be doing a very broad range of xray work(portables,er,or,fluoro,outpatient...)and if you're worried about where henz is gonna go when i'm at work, she will go to a daycare/preschool. it's a great place where they have all kinds of classes and activities, which i'm sure she'll love everybit of it.
jase was really excited when i told him. i also informed him that he's gonna have to buy me a steak dinner at outback tonight! oh by the way, i'll go through orientation hopefully the beginning/mid april. i'll of course put up a posting when i start, so i can fill everyone in on the juicy details of rotten feet and colon-blows...hehe. that was gross, but anyone else in the medical field will say "yeah, she pretty much got it right"...

website

i was browsing the UALR photography website and i saw myself in one of my photos! i took this photo for a digital class. here is the link:
http://ualr.edu/art/index.php/home/minors/photography/

makes-up

henz played with my makeup today, it was super cute! and hard to clean up:)

actuarially...

jase has been taking exams every may and november since 2003. he is working in the actuary field, technically as an "actuary student", but in order to be a true actuary he will have to pass 7 exams. he is currently studying for his 3rd. he has a mathematics degree w/ a minor in statistics. and let me tell you, the stuff he studies is like from another planet. i recognize some letters everynow and then, but the word problems are crazy. here is an example from some of his study material:

C(S,K1,T) - C(S,K2,T) > K2-K1

P(S,K1,T) - P(S, K2,T) < K2-K1

okay...so that's the best that i could do b/c there are some keys i didn't even know existed on a

keyboard.

check out this sentence:

"An equivalent way of expressing convexity is that the price of the K2-strike option is less than the linearly interpolated prices of the other two options"

is that even english?! what amazes me is that my husband understands it...i am absolutely horrible at math. i'm not exaggerating in the slightest. i can hardly do simple addition and subtraction. it really is sad. i'm not sure how i even graduated high school, maybe they felt sorry for me, i dunno. but, i am just glad my husband can do it....i would've had to get my kids tutors when they reached 1st grade!

jase is starting to get into 'study mode'. it means very few dates and many notes and books laying around. oh and he has a series of dvd's he watches. it becomes kinda lonely and boring around here. i have a few projects i pick up when he studies, so i can keep myself entertained. right now, he is studying an hour at home in the evenings after henz goes to bed. this will only go on for a couple more weeks, and then his study load will really increase. we probably won't see his cute face after he comes home for work. his plan is to lock himself up in the guest room. i'm really thankful that he tries so hard. (sigh). may is still far away...

unemployed

during college, when i finally decided that i needed to pick out a profession and stop taking "fun" classes (intro to running, intro to piano, aerobic dance...), i decided to pick a profession in the medical field. i figured that the baby boomers were getting older and would need healthcare, and everyone always needs healthcare.

did i want to be a nurse? heck no. did i want to be a respiratory therapist? only if i wanted to throw up everyday. i had worked at a chiropractic clinic for a short while during college and helped with processsing the xrays. well, i fell in love with it. so, i decided that i definately wanted to go that direction.

i completed the prerequsites i needed and i applied. needless to say, i got accepted into a program. not just any program. uams was where i had wanted to go learn for a long time. when i was younger, i had the ambition to be a doctor. but, not long after i had that desire, i decided that i didn't want to be in school for such a long time. i wanted to be a wife and mother.

so, the 2 year radiology technologist program was so perfect for me. i could get married, have children, work anywhere my husband would take us. or if i ever needed to work i would have that on my side. it was a fail proof plan.

i have a great transcript, 7 years of experience, excellent refferals....but no job! i've been looking since december. i've had one lead that ended in a 'no go'.

it's been really frustrating. we have debt, like everyone else, in this sad economy. we'd like to pay some of it off before we have more children. we don't want to have to put our kids in daycare. we really want to expand our family, but we just can't afford it right now. babies, if you don't know, are expensive. ugh. bummer. hire me?

"fruggle" rock...

my hubby and i love thrift stores. we have always found the coolest stuff at those places! we love discount items, period. but, sometimes we buy things that we think is a great deal and it ends up being more of a hassle. such as, i went to ikea a couple of months ago and bought a bed frame in the "as is" section. it's black wrought iron and gorgeous! and it was only $50! what a steal right? well, i got home and realized i didn't have the side rails the bed sits on...i'm such a dufus. so, i call the ikea store and they find us the rails at the ikea store in houston for like $40. we call our friends to pick them up for us and being the sweethearts they are, went to pick them up for us. this was back in january. our bed is still on the floor....we just have to arrange to get them here:)

AND...about a month ago, i went to the salvation army to look at rugs. i found one for $50! it was in great shape, cute and all geometric looking..so i bought it..what a steal! i got home and found a note stapled to the back: returned to store, bad odor. okay....so, i sniffed it. it wasn't bad. did i mention i don't have a great sense of smell? jase got home and was like, what is that funky smell?! of course, it was the rug. so, we tried to return it after febreeze, resolve, oxyclean, and more febreeze, but it had been too long and i had already thrown away the piece of paper from the store saying it had a bad odor when i bought it. bummer. we arm & hammered the heck out of it with baking soda. it doesn't smell anymore:)

so, this past saturday, we went to another thrift store and found an almost brand new couch and love seat set! the style we've always wanted. we totally bought them. they had them listed for $350, but they had like 2 cushions missing, so we talked them down to $150. what a deal!! hehehe. we thought, hey we'll just get some made! so, yesterday and today i've been calling furniture stores and upholstery shops to see if we can get cushions made. and after 50 phone calls and a couple of trips, an upholstery man is coming tomorrow to see if he can help us with custom made cushions. which will be interesting...

is it all worth it? i dunno. but we have a story for every piece of furniture and decoration we own!