Justin Has a Job!! (does anyone else have deja vous?)

Justin got hired today by the University of Phoenix as an online enrollment counselor! He starts October 5th. It's full-time, salaried, and he'll qualify for health, dental and life insurance on Jan 1st! We are very excited for an answer to our constant prayers. Hopefully this job will last longer than 2 1/2 days . **See recent post titled "Just Kidding"**
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Through this whole no-luck-job-searching lately, we've sure learned to appreciate each other and the traditional roles of Mom and Dad. Justin has said recently that someday when we're stable and I'm staying at home full-time that now he knows what I do all day and will appreciate what 'running the house' involves. I, in turn will very much appreciate him going to work day in and day out to bring home the bacon.

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For now our plan is for me to keep working. I've been working about 3 days a week lately and it's manageable. I would much rather be home, but I make good money as an RN and the company I'm with is a temp agency so I can tell them when I can or can't work. We're working on get some of our debt reduced and are looking forward to building up savings to get a house someday. Unfortunately we won't be able to take advantage of the $8000 tax credit (there is no possibility of us even making it close to the deadline). Oh well, things are looking up anyways :)

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Th point of this picture is- look at her left leg. It's sticking out of her crib between the bars. It may not be very interesting to anyone else, but I thought it was adorable.

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This video shows Carrie's newest trick... Waving :) Of course, she was a little shy for the camera, and this is not the best she really does, but it's still pretty cute. She'll wave "hi" and "bye". A few days ago, she waved "bye-bye" to a lady at the grocery store. (ooohs and ahhhs galore).

P.S. JUSTIN'S BIRTHDAY WAS THIS LAST TUESDAY THE 22ND. He turned 26!!! (I didn't realize I was married to such an old man) We got to go out to dinner while my parents babysat. Nothing fancy, but it was still great! Happy belated b-day babe!!! Love you!!

I'm so glad to be able to write happy news!!

Finally Updating

I knew it had been a little while since I posted, but I didn't think it had been two weeks! Oops! I blame it on work, which is a very good thing. I've been working 3 days a week this month and we're starting to feel a little more secure with our finances. Justin has been Mr. Mom a lot lately. He's still applying for jobs and trying to contact the interviewers etc. to make his name stand out among the many other applicants... It's slow progress, but hopefully someday soon something good will happen.

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Carrie is crawling... pretty much. She does whatever is between an army crawl and a real crawl. She uses her arms and her knees/feet, but doesn't like to pick her belly off the ground. She's sure fast! Every day she gets closer to pulling herself up on furniture. She loves to stand by the coffee table the best. It is a little funny when she gets tired of standing though because she doesn't know how to get down. We have to help her sit down. She loves to walk (with help of course). We're wondering if she's just going to skip "real" crawling and go straight from army crawling to walking... We'll see.

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I have yet to find a food she doesn't like yet and she is a super eater. The last couple weeks she has started eating the little fruit-flavored baby puffs. She's figured out how to pick them up with two fingers instead of a fist, so now she can feed them to herself. Yeah! She still doesn't have any teeth or any signs of them anytime soon, so for now she's gumming them.

I tried a ponytail again... You probably can't even really see it in this picture... Cute girl anyways!

She fell asleep during the last few minutes of Relief Society last week and I had to put her on the floor so I could play the piano for the closing song. Fortunately she stayed asleep through it!

Waiting to take a bath (Gotta love the leg rolls)

She's gotta get a good workout jumping like this!!

And speaking of a good workout... This may be weird to blog about, but I figure, this blog is supposed to be about our family and what is going on with us, so here's what's been going on with me lately. A couple months ago I decided I was a little frustrated with the extra baby weight that didn't go away on its own after Carrie was born. So, I started keeping a food journal and doing pushups/crunchies etc. everyday. I am proud to report that last month Justin and I reached our goal of crossing weights finally (I've always weighed more than him) and I am down to my weight from high school! My shape will never be exactly the same, a baby will do that to you, but I feel fantastic and am very proud of myself! Ok, yes, I'm bragging... but whatever... :)

That's all for now, I'll try to keep up better.

Student Loan MIRACLE!!

Today we got something in the mail from UHEAA, the people who manage our student loans. It was adressed to me (Rebecca). Justin started to open it saying, "Weird, I wonder what they want?". I jokingly (though wishfully) said "Congratulations, your balance is zero... hahaha wouldn't that be nice?"
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Justin pulled the paper out and this is exactly what it said:
"Dear Rebecca Greer: We are pleased to inform you that the remaining balance of your student loan(s) has been forgiven as a way of thanking you for taking care of your loan obligation in a diligent manner. Total Principal Forgiven: $817.23"
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HOLY COW!!!!!! We have NEVER heard of this happening before! We don't have to finish paying off my student loan! They're "letting it slide". How in the world does that happen?!?! I say it a lot, but I'll say it again- we have our fair share of struggles (especially financially lately), but prayer and tithing works! We'll now be able to count on $50 more a month that we were expecting to go towards my student loan. YEAH!!!

Just Kidding

So you can scratch Justin's portion of that last blog. He found out today that the company was eliminating his position company wide and he got laid off. He did make about $300 in the very short time there so that helps...

Well here we go again. Justin continues to look for a job (how many times have you read that on here?)

Keep the prayers coming!

Justin's Job, RN Rebecca and a Crawling Carrie

Well, yesterday was Justin's first day at his new job. I'm still unsure of exactly what he does, but I think he has a little bit of a better idea now. He is the Marketing Manager for Four Season's Sunrooms. It's a company that does house additions, windows, doors, security doors etc... Justin will be working in the showroom and traveling for trade-shows sometimes. Yesterday he got a "commission" for making an appointment with a customer for the sales people. Mostly I think he'll be running the showroom and helping with marketing for the company, trying to create customer leads. His position is salary plus commissions and in 3 months he'll qualify for benefits! It's a real job! Woohoo!
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Carrie does everything but actually crawl. She's not off her belly yet, but holy moly, can she move!! She has discovered the vertical blinds on our sliding patio door and loves to watch them "wiggle" as the air from the ceiling fan hits them. It's so much fun to watch her try to figure everything out. She's now having three meals a day (of baby food, oatmeal, crackers, watered-down juice etc). She still has bottles before sleeping though. She LOVES her sippy cup and would live on water if I let her. Here she is playing the piano, eating crackers and hanging out with mom and dad.
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My nursing license expired yesterday. Renewing it, and switching it to an AZ license has been on my to-do list for at least a few months. Well, I slacked off and didn't turn in my renewal until a couple weeks ago. I didn't think about the possibility that it might take a few months for it to be processed. Once I found out, last week, that it could take so long, I had to apply for a temporary license (another $50 fee). When I did that last week, they told me it could take 2 weeks to process that. So I was "looking forward to" a little time at home, not being able to work, although we really could use the hours. Well, what they should have said was that it could take UP to two weeks... or as little as two days. I just got my temporary license in the mail yesterday. So today, I picked up shifts for Thursday and Friday this week! So much for staying home, but yeah for the money!

Thanks again to EVERYONE who is continually praying in our behalf. Times may be stressful, but we're certainly learning to work together and trust our Heavenly Father.