Call Me Clark Griswold, sort of!

For those of you who don't know, I like to refer to myself as Mr. Griswold when Christmas comes around even though I don't cover every inch of my home with lights like he does! I don't know exactly why or when I started becoming adamant about putting a good display outside our home every Christmas but I have and will continue to do so as long as I possibly can and have a home to do so. If there's a year I don't, then find out what's wrong. You can count on me adding more when we finally have a house. Enjoy our lights, I hope they bring a bit of joy to your day!

Yes, we have already started decorating!

While it's only a month away from Christmas, I am STILL wondering where summer went!?! Much too fast, if you ask me. It's been such a long time since I thought that. Anyway, I wanted to put something up here with pics of the kids. And since we got the decorations out early because I like to try to put up the outside lights early if it's nice weather and supposed to get colder. So Monday morning while the boys where at preschool I did that and was still freezing, but it's easier than trying to do it in the snow. I will put pics of those up after Thanksgiving, because even though I may put them up early doesn't mean I will light them. That has to wait until after turkey day. Besides I have two more things to maybe put up. We're still not done with our tree, I thought I had all the ornaments but I think they must be in one of the other boxes we didn't grab from Grandma and Grandpa's house. Happy tree decorating everyone!

Some renewed hope, not false!

Well, I just called Massage Envy, the company I interviewed with. I still hadn't heard anything and Dave said I may have a greater chance of getting it if I called and at least thanked them for the interview, etc. So that's exactly what I did along with asking if they had finished the process of hiring one or a couple new therapists, which they haven't. And since they haven't decided and Dave is still job hunting, I was sure to let the owner who interviewed me know that I can be much more available and flexible with my hours than what I originally told her, at least until Dave gets a job. This way I could make up for what we might be missing in income difference with Dave's unemployment check. Unfortunately, I don't know how they calculate what to send him each week, but I know based on what they already sent us for possible numbers that we will be very tight with what our bills are each month, possibly having to take B & C out of preschool for the time being. Thankfully that's the only thing we would have to eliminate, unless their teacher and her husband are willing to do even more trades than we currently do, which is a possibility.

Dave is going to be going to banks tomorrow to physically give them his resume, hopefully something comes of that.

So please keep your wonderful positive thoughts and prayers coming. We truly appreciate them and know that they make a world of difference!!!! Love, Lys, Dave, Brendan and Carter

Some news

Okay, so we found out yesterday morning about Dave's potential job, but I didn't want to post quite yet to see if I'd hear about mine. I haven't and didn't want to leave you hanging any longer so here it is. Dave got a sorry, we hired someone else letter in the mail this week which we found out Thursday morning. Unfortunate but I'm still hopeful for him! It's only been 2&1/2 weeks and there are record numbers of people in our position, which can be good and bad. So Dave has already applied to, I think, at least 10 more jobs just yesterday and today combined. He's certainly making his chances better. And I haven't heard anything about my job possibility, which is a bit dissappointing because you start to think it's a bad thing when it's been longer than what they told you but at the same time I still have hope. And then again if they decided no for me I would rather know sooner than later because I don't want to be hanging on to false hope if they've decided not to hire me. Man, people should also have psychiatrists at their disposal when job hunting, it sure can mess with your head. Oh well, we'll keep you updated. And we are still planning on Pueblo for Christmas time, probably me and the boys for about 5 days at the least, is what I would like. And since we'd have to pay a sub to take care of the papers, probably only 2 or 3 days for Dave to join us closer to Christmas. Of course we are playing this all by ear in terms of travel. But I am very Thankful (been thinking about that a LOT lately) that we can still get our parents and my brothers and sister presents! I've had that saved since the garage sale in October. Don't you dare tell us not to get you anything, because even through tough times in the past and present, even if it's small we would not do this if we truly couldn't. So thank goodness for the garage sale I sold a bunch of the boys old things at! We know that gifts are not what the Holidays are all about, but it's just a little way, and the one consistent time of year, that we can show you how much you mean to us by doing/getting something thoughtful and hopefully pleasant for you, which just makes us feel so happy to see that we've made you happy! Even though this holiday might possibly be a bit hard to get cheery, I am looking forward to it just as much if not more than I have in the past. Because we have an amazing family and bunch of friends who are so loving and supportive which is the biggest thing we have to be thankful for!

Thank you for being a part of our lives!
We Love You! Lys, Dave, Brendan and Carter

Just waiting as patiently as possible to hear what's next for us, or not.

Hi all,

Sorry we haven't posted for a bit, not since my tirade anyway. I think it really helped me to get that all out because I have not been dwelling on it the way I normally would have in the past. It could also possibly be that with age (I am not saying I'm old, I refuse to do that), I am maturing and starting to notice it in myself even more so now. I know that we cannot change the past or even do anything to try, I also realize that Dave was working in a more negative environment than I thought before this all happened. And I know that we are being steered by God, a Higher Power, Karma, The Angels, whoever you'd like to say, into, hopefully a much more positive situation that we can all learn and grow from. Not to say that we didn't learn anything from our current status because you can bet your butts that we have already learned some valuable things and probably still will into the future. That's what life is all about, learning and growing as human beings. Hopefully into the best beings we can be.

For now we're anxiously and as patiently as possible waiting to hear now about our job prospects! Dave and I both had interviews last Thursday; Dave with a company called TechniGraphics for a junior accounting position and myself with Massage Envy to get more steady massage work. Both places told us that, at the earliest, we would hear by Wed. the 19th, so now that it's after, I am starting to feel a little more anxious not knowing where our path will take us, but am confident that we will go where we need to in order to grow and learn what we need to. And I also have a strong faith that no matter what happens we will be taken care of by God and our Angels, because I strongly believe that this would not have happened if we didn't need it, could not handle it and could not be taken care of by them and ourselves! That is what keeps me positive for our future, whatever that may be. Not to mention, Dave is a very smart, good working person and ANYONE would be very fortunate to have him, so I have great faith in him as well! Besides, are these the faces of bitter, regretful people? I think not. Just a couple who is looking towards their still bright future and whatever it holds; bring it on! We took this pic this past weekend, messing with the camera. I told Dave we don't take enough pics of just the two of us, so this was the result.

We will let you all know as soon as we hear anything! Thank you so much for all your prayers, good thoughts and blessings, we know you are helping make things more possible and positive for us by just doing that. We appreciate it more than you know!

We love you! Lyssa and Dave

The invitation for our blog

Hi all! Just wanted to let you know that I apologize for the added steps to view our blog. But it was brought to my attention that in order to not hurt Dave's chances at any jobs he may apply for that I should probably make our blog by invitation only. Because with technology today, even with the settings I had it on and tracking our blog on sitemeter, a potential employer could probably do a search and see what I have written about our experience with Dave's last employer. Since, I of course do not want to hurt his chances, making it invitation only was the best option. So, thank you for going through the steps to keep checking out our blog, we really appreciate it.

Major Prayers and Positive Thoughts Needed!

Hi everyone

It's time for me to rant, rant, rant! Now I truly believe the President of NCYH has something against Dave and is NOT telling the whole story. Dave was fired from his job today. We both admit that what he did was not the best way to handle a situation but this is the only mistake he has ever made and I think that's exactly what Christina (the president) was waiting for so she could pounce on the opportunity to get Dave out of there (no idea why though).

Their reason for firing him is that he left the building open and unattended for about 1/2 hour more than once (Dave says it only happened once, just this last week). The reason for him leaving it unattended is because he had to open the building at 5:30am and had not finished his route yet. So, he went to open the building and then went to finish the paper route, which by the way he would not have had to do if Christina hadn't finagled the board into cutting his pay by 20% this September (as I wrote in a Sept post)! So, yes we understand that he should have called someone to tell them he couldn't make it in to open but I strongly believe that SHE is the reason he made that mistake. How many of us can say we are thinking straight that early in the morning, especially when you have to get up every morning at 3am to do a second job like the papers and you are only getting about 5-6 hours of sleep every night. It was an honest mistake and according to them if something had happened it could have been bad and cost them money. Thankfully, nothing did happen but does that mean Dave should have been fired for that one time? I can understand firing him if something actually did happen, but I do believe he was treated unfairly by not being given at least one chance or warning that if he did that again, then he would be terminated. They have given him no chance or warning whatsoever .

What else upsets me is that Colorado is an 'at will' state, meaning they can fire him for no specific reason, therefor we cannot sue them because we think he was improperly fired, so we hope and pray, even more so now, that Amendment 55 passes so that future people in Dave's situation aren't screwed over and have a chance to fight back if they were treated unfairly.

What we really need from you, our friends and family, is your prayers and thoughts that we will get through this and that for whatever reason this happened, it will be shown to us soon and also that Dave gets approved for unemployment, so that we have something to live on while he is looking for a new job. Thanks in advance for all your good thoughts! We love you!