Happenings This Last Week

So far my employment has been great at Loma Linda. I realized how important my role is ( I have my own part-time assistant that is a doctorate student from India who does copies and errand for me, not that I have needed her yet)  and yet these last four work days have been relatively boring. The girl I am replacing named Grace is in her 30's, has four children and is married. She is also in nursing school. Her father recently passed away and her mother has a terminal illness. Her husband was just told he might have liver cancer. This woman can't catch a break. Yesterday her husband had surgery to see about the liver cancer. Well he doesn't have it instead it was kidney stones, thank goodness. But while in the hospital waiting for her husband to get out of surgery she gave herself a minor stroke!!! So far I have had about 2 hours of training with her because she hasn't been here. That is why I am somewhat bored. There might be things for me to do, but my boss doesn't know how to train me on anything because Grace did it all. So instead I have been getting to know people and familiarizing myself with the confusing building. Everyone is so nice and helpful. The only thing I haven't liked so far is their jewelery policy. Yesterday Dr. Z pulled me aside very nicely and told me about it. So I guess Seventh Day Adventist don't believe in wearing much jewelery and dangley earrings are a definite no no. She said it might be able to slide if I wasn't in the Dean's office, but that I should be very conservative with jewelery, so I can only wear studs. Anyone that knows me knows that earrings are pretty much the only jewelery I wear except for my wedding ring, so I was pretty sad to hear that.  But I guess it would be like a non LDS member going to BYU and realizing they can't wear tank tops or flip flops. Every religion has its reasons.


Well I got all my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving, I don't think I have done that before. I'm pretty excited to decorate and for Christmas music. Yes, I have withheld myself from listening until after Thanksgiving. Although, Tyler and I did go with our good friends the Frei's to a Christmas tree lighting at the Grove in LA. I guess they were filming a concert there that was broad casted during the Christmas tree lighting which we got to witness parts of. But mostly we just saw Mario Lopez redoing his intros to the artists and the chit chat between them after the artist sung. They even had fake killer snow. If you breathed it in you started coughing like crazy. But at the very end they had fireworks which were so much fun.

After talking with the Frei's we were kind of sad. They have had non stop visitors since moving in August. Maybe it is because they are actually in LA. But we haven't had any friends or family come to visit since we moved here.(Tricia, Pat, and the little girls did come to move us there so I'll give them credit for that).  So if you want to come to Redlands, CA please let us know. We do have an extra bedroom and couch and we are not that far from LA and the beach and Disneyland or even from San Diego. Oh and we would love to have you!





Very unexpected...

No I'm not pregnant. But here is a good story: On Wednesday I went to an LDS employment seminar thing to find more ideas about getting jobs. While I was there I learned so much, but one thing they told me is that I should own a suit to wear to interviews. I have tried on suits and I really don't look like I belong in them. They are for business women and I am too young and look like I'm playing dress up. But yesterday I decided to go look for one again and brought my friend Tia along. While we were in JCPenny I got a phone call. The lady said that they needed to schedule a physical and TB test and then a final sign on meeting to do paperwork. I was totally confused but decided to go with it because I thought it might be some kind of interview. I start making an appointment and jotting down addresses and then I tell her I'm confused. 

Me: "Is this for a job? Because I haven't actually been hired by Loma Linda, I only had an interview, but I was never told I got the job. I mean she said she would call me last week, but she never did."

HR Lady: "Hold on"

(I stand there outside of JCPenny thinking they called the wrong person and how bad I feel for her that she is going to have to tell me that she made a bad mistake)

HR Lady: "Well Clare you have just been hired, congratulations  and welcome to Loma Linda!"

Tia came out by this time and I jump all over her because I'm so excited. I couldn't wait to get home and tell Tyler. It really is one of the biggest blessings in my life right now and I'm am so grateful for it. I know Heavenly Father has given this opportunity to me even though I know there are so many deserving people that need jobs at this time, I know I will never take my employment for granted again.

So here are the details:

I am Administrative Assistant to the Associate Dean, Dr. Zimmerman, in the Allied Health College at Loma Linda University. It is about 10 minutes away from our home which is another huge blessing that I won't have to commute far away everyday and be stuck in traffic and pay for a lot of gas. I will be working where Tyler goes to school so we can meet up easily. I'll get awesome benefits because well Loma Linda is all about health and taking care of yourself. The building where I'll work is right next to the Drayson center (gym) which I have free membership to. Every Friday I get off work at 2 because of their Sabbath. Last but not least I'm getting paid a lot more than I ever have before.

It really is such a relief getting a job. I know I also learned a lot from being unemployed for so long. Life is looking great right now, especially because I don't have to buy a suit after all   :)

Nothing Too Exciting

I've been waiting for a good reason to blog again. Mostly waiting for good news from a job, but nothing. I figured I should write anyway to start a habit of writing. So here is what we have been up to:

Midterms -- Tyler got A's on all of his midterms. On one or two of them he got the top score. Believe me that week was stressful and no fun for me either since I barely got to hang out with him. But it all paid off. He sure is a smart one.

Halloween -- Tyler and I carved pumpkins with our friends...twice. First with the Davidson's and again with the Larson's. Sorry no pictures of the first time. We had a lot of fun at both and there were no injuries thank goodness.

Baby Blessing -- This last weekend Tyler and I went to my parents home for our nephew AJ's baby blessing. It was such a nice weekend having all the family there and enjoying everyone's company. We even were able to get some family pictures done which I'm sure will be posted soon.

Disneyland -- Tyler decided that he didn't need to study yesterday so once he got out of school and after we jump started his motorcycle we headed to Disneyland. The drive only took 45 minutes to get there and it was the perfect day to go. We went on almost all the rides we wanted to and the wait times were pretty minimal, we even walked onto some rides. The longest one we waited for was Star Tours but it was worth it because during the ride I was the Rebel spy that Darth Vader wanted captured it showed my picture (a very candid one) up on the screen. It was so fun. We also watched Captain EO. What a weird short movie with an incredibly weak plot. We met up with our friends Amanda and Tyler Tatton and their two kids Hadlee and Calvin. They are quite the bunch to hang out with, we are glad they think we are cool enough to let us tag along.  Except I think Hadlee has a crush on Tyler, which means I have some competition with a cute 8 year old. Once the Tattons had enough of us we decided to go over to CA Adventure and do some rides over there. We went on the Ferris wheel first and decided to go on the swinging gondola which was fun and exciting last time I went on it with Tia. This time it was still fun but the other couple in the gondola with us were two high school aged boys that were gay and one of them wouldn't stop screaming because he was so scared. I have nothing against gay people, I would have found it just as annoying if it was a teenage girl screaming the whole time. But it gave Tyler and I something to laugh over when we got off, because we normally don't hear guys scream that high or  make as big of deal over being on a ferris wheel. I wish we had a video camera and taped him. CA screamin was open and we went on that for the first time. I really really liked it. It is a great roller coaster! I recommend it to first time roller coaster riders as well as veterans like myself.

Here is my wonderful chauffeur and me driving around the pleasant area.

We had a fancy little sports car. Tyler was very excited except you can't pass anyone. Oh and he was determined to get it off the track.

Here is Hadlee and Calvin.

We totally made them go on all the scary rides with us. They were troopers.

 

 Well that about all we have been up to. Oh we both got callings, Tyler was called as a Cub Master and I was called as a CTR 7 primary teacher. I won't say I'm excited about the calling, but I'm willing to do it the best I can.