More Possibilities

The last two weeks have been a bit of a job search whirlwind.  Joel interviewed at Cleveland Clinic.  He walked away pretty sure he's not getting a second interview, but he doesn't officially hear back for another couple of weeks.  The program director was hard to read, but some of the things he said made it sound like there are other candidates in the front running.

Joel had a phone interview with Oklahoma City (Oklahoma), Columbia (Missouri), and South Bend (Indiana- think Notre Dame).  All of the interviews were positive experiences.  Columbia and South Bend are extremely small programs, so they're very different than what Joel's used to at a large hospital.  We're still waiting to hear back from those two to fix an interview date.  Oklahoma City got back to him this week, and they are flying him out for an interview the beginning of March.

The most random occurrence occurred this week with Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Joel originally applied to their program back in August, followed up, and never heard anything from them.  They posted a job a couple months later, so Joel reapplied, and they never responded back except to tell him to officially apply on their website.  When Joel followed up later, he got a terse response saying they were already interviewing.  We completely took them off the list and then two days ago Joel gets an email from them asking him to fly to Albuquerque for an interview.  They even skipped the phone interview, and now he's scheduled to fly out there the end of this month.  The whole thing is so bizarre, but hey, it's an interview, so I'm not complaining.

Oklahoma City is expanding and hiring 3 more physicians, and Albuquerque is hiring 2 physicians, so that raises the likelihood of Joel getting offered a job.  We'll see how it goes.  We're excited he's finally getting interviews.  The locations are really random, but I suppose that's the way it works. 

Reflected Houses

Module 10's homework dealt with photographing reflections.  Water and glass are the two mediums that first come to mind.  I thought about finding a reflecting pool downtown, but it's the middle of winter.  Most of the fountains don't have water in them right now.  I could of found a pond, but I didn't feel like hauling all my children to a pond and then trying to keep them away from the water, in freezing temperatures, while I'm trying to take pictures.  It's a little too complicated right now, so I turned to glass.  In fact, I skipped the traveling all together and used my front door.  It's a much more convenient subject for practicing. 

At first I just played a little bit with Aperture: low for only focusing on the reflection itself and then high, so that almost the door itself would also be in focus.  The reflection loses some of its sharpness when you try to keep the door focused, but I like looking at the difference.

Here's the whole door view:

Silver Linings

The job hunt continues to be long and painful.  We thought for sure we'd have a pretty good idea of where we would be going, or at least a really good idea of our options by this point in the process.  Sadly, we're back to square one again.  It's one of those things where you thought you were running a half marathon, but all of a sudden you find out it's a full marathon. 

Joel found out on Monday that Hershey decided to hire someone else.  They are trying to build a youth program and the final candidate was a Med/Peds Oncologist.  This tailors perfectly for what they want, so we couldn't exactly be upset with their choice.  Joel wasn't a bad candidate.  They just chose to go in a different direction.  Nonetheless, Joel was crushed.  I don't think it would have been quite so bad except he had waited 3 months to hear back from them, and we had started to get our hopes up.  In the mean time, a lot of the other options fell apart, so it felt like everything was riding on Hershey.  For example, Wake Forest was supposed to be a sure bet on getting an interview.  He had been in contact with the division chief for almost 6 months, had waited patiently while they approved the new position, and had been led to believe the job posting was just a formality.  They kept telling him they were interested, and then at the last minute they decided not to even fly him out for an interview.  It was really disheartening.  Also, the other fellow he works with was offered a job here at Nationwide Children's and at Michigan.  It looks like he's going to take the job here.

Joel also heard back from Atlanta and Albuquerque on the same day as Hershey informing him they had already chosen their interview candidates.  Yep- Monday was rough.  Des Moines followed that up with a "No" as well.  I've lost track of the number of places he's applied to at this point. 

All of this bad news probably would have completely sent Joel over the edge except for 2 pieces of positive news: 

1. Joel had a phone interview with Cleveland Clinic, and it went well.  They've scheduled a first interview with him for this coming week.  Wahoo! There's new hope on the job front.
2. Oklahoma City contacted him, and he has a phone interview with them this evening.  I can't say I've ever particularly had a desire to live in Oklahoma (no offense if you love it there), but quite frankly, I'm relieved he has another lead for a job.

We haven't quite hit the panic mode yet, but we are well aware that it's getting late in the job hunt season.  Fingers crossed and lots of prayers that one of these 2 options works out.  It will be interesting to see where we're meant to be when all is said and done.

Baby Steps for Baby Hearts

I was trying to figure out the last thing I had sewn, and I realized I had gone two months without touching my sewing machine.  I guess a crying baby who wants to be held doesn't lend itself to sewing very well. 

I have a block I need to piece together for do.Good Stitches, and a friend who's having a baby, so I knew I needed to dust off the sewing machine again.   Little by little I started working on a baby girl quilt.  A few minutes here and there didn't feel like much, but I kept telling myself eventually there would be progress.  It took me almost 2 weeks to get the blocks sewn together, but now I'm finally ready to piece the quilt together.

I love hearts, so I made 9 of these.  The only difference is I made my borders slightly bigger at 2.5 inches.

 It'll probably take me another two weeks to get it all pieced together, but one day it will be a quilt.  And since it's snowing outside, you're stuck with these lovely block-on-carpet pictures.

Merry Christmas!

Music at Christmas

I've participated in the Christmas music program at church just about every year since I was old enough to participate.  When I was ten I was the "official" page turner of our church choir just so I could sing with them.  Even though I'm always a participant, today was only the second time I've been the one who actually put together and organized the Christmas program.  I don't get to do as much with my music these days as I would like, so I really enjoyed putting the program together and starting up a ward choir again.  I love Christmas music, so this was even more fun than usual working with the ward choir.

One perk of being in charge is that I can assign my husband to sing (cue my evil but loving chuckle). He sang an adapted solo version of "Manger of Bethlehem."

One of my favorite quotes from the Christmas program narration:

Sister Jo N. Jepson, former member of the General Primary Presidency taught us how make the birth of the Savior relevant and motivating in our always busy and often distracted lives.  “I believe that each of us can re-create that familiar scene in Bethlehem in our own lives. We can have a star to follow just as the Wise Men did…The scriptures can light our way, and our testimonies can be a light from within. The voices of angels can be the voices of our beloved prophet and His servants. We can kneel at the feet of our Savior just as literally as the shepherds and the Wise Men, but we do it in prayer. The gifts we bring are our talents. We can shout ‘Hosanna’ like that angelic choir and spread the good news by bearing our testimonies. Each new day is an opportunity to bind ourselves to act according to what we know.  By works of righteousness, we can come unto Him each day of our lives just as if we had trod in our sandaled feet the rocky path to Bethlehem, holding a staff or bearing gifts.

“I pray that Heavenly Father will help us be wise men and wise women—wise enough to accept His invitation, nourish His word, and follow a ‘straight course to eternal bliss.’  May we all cheerfully answer, ‘I’m coming.’”

A Mini-Job Update

We thought December would be the big month for movement/news on the job scene, but the timeline keeps getting pushed back.  Here are just a couple of updates:

-Joel heard back from Penn State Hershey, and they ended up having a candidate interview in December, so they won't be deciding on the second round of interviews until January now.

-Joel had a phone interview with Cleveland Clinic over the Thanksgiving holiday and he felt good about it.  They will be finishing up their phone interviews this month and hopefully Joel will be a part of their first round of interviews in January.

-Joel also applied to 3 more job openings:
Mesa, AZ
Detroit, MI
Des Moines, IA
That puts him at a total of 44 CVs sent out.  Nice.

Ornament Time

I love the holidays.  I don't know what it is about a Christmas tree that makes a home feel even more homey (haha- that's probably not a word, but you get what I mean).  Everything feels a little more comfy cozy. 

Here are the ornaments we added to our collection this year:

Little Man: His ornament was actually made of Legos, so he got to put it together (which he loved). 

Little Lady:  Rainbow Dash! 

BB: Elmo!

From our vacation in Minnesota this past Summer:

Little Guy's "1st Christmas" ornament has yet to be purchased.  Sorry, Little Guy.  We'll get on that before it's Christmas - just probably not this week.  I also need to come up with a stocking holder for him as well.