if i thought it was busy last month, i had no idea what busy was. this past week was kind of a combination of not really doing a lot but a lot going on so it ended up busy anyway. everyone was stuck for snow-pocolypse—a week when georgia was covered in snow and ice. everything was closed for the first three days of last week, and i do mean everything. even the school district that needs a disaster to close because anything short of one means that kids should be able to get to school even if we have to slog there in waist high water. okay, that would be a disaster too, but you get the picture. for gwinnett county to close, it has to be really, really, bad. there have been times when every other county around us has been closed, and gwinnett is still open. my older students, saxy and kitten, were home until thursday. jewel was pretty much stuck as well. it was just craziness. not a lot of snow to me, but 5", give or take, is a nightmare for georgians.
but even with all the snow, saxy made it to his interview on wednesday. HE GOT THE JOB!!!!!! :D
9.50 an hour, 30 hours a week (which is going to be a bit of nightmare with the full time school, but he seems ready to go for it), a lot of benefits right away with improvements in benefits over time. we've already enrolled the whole family in basic dental and vision and him in very basic medical. we'll also get a discount on our at&t bill, there's an emergency type fund that's available right away, and a few other things. they have programs to get a vehicles, though we probably won't really qualify for another year since he needs a record of regular employment to qualify for any kind of loan. they even have pet insurance (which we can't afford at the moment). his first paycheck will be friday, though it will be VERY small because it's one day of work minus the $50 we'll be paying weekly for benefits.
it's going to take some time to get back on our feet, but at least we have a chance to now. they kind threw him into the kitchen his first night to see what he could do, and he apparently impressed them. this is always a good sign. the plan right now is to stay with them for several years, maybe make it up to grill master (the highest position in the kitchen other than management positions), then move on to one of the other, more high end restaurants in the group. the money per hour is lower than he was receiving at the st regis, but he's not been called in more than one or two days recently. getting paid $200/week ($285 minus $50 in benefit payments and minus taxes) on a regular basis is a heck of a lot better than getting $88 every now and then. because of the snow, he had to call in his notice, and he's just going to turn down anything that comes up in the next two weeks.
and he'll be getting the kitchen experience he needs, seeing how a good kitchen works, learning the various positions, and all that. when he moves on to one of the more high end restaurants in the group, he'll see how plating works and so on. all of which can go into him opening his own place eventually.
so, saxy's employed at last, and we have a hope of this one working out for longer than a year. i was so relieved, i just started crying. things will still be tough for a bit though. we've been discussing his b.a. and continuing on now to get it over with and so we don't have to take a hit later when we're finally on our feet again. but we're also talking about bring him down in units, which means it'll take a bit longer to get through. we'll have to see.
thursday, linnorm came in to spend the next 5 days with the kids. not that it quite worked out that way, but that was the plan. he just left today. he brought a few gifts for the kiddos—a few books and some blankets made by a friend of his. friday, he took them out to do some shopping—he spent a little, they spent a little (youngest had $20 from baby sitting), much needed clothing was found and acquired. as we expected, taz is just too small in the waist for anything that's the right length, so they picked up up an extra belt (wal-mart doesn't carry suspenders; not sure anyone does). saturday, we all went to see voyage of the dawn treader (not a bad film, par se, but not impressed—not as good as the previous films), grabbed some fast food for the kiddos and dropped them off at home, then did our grocery shopping for the week, including treating him to lunch. the older girls went out that night, and stayed out all night—which irritated me to no end since they were supposed to be spending time with their dad. kitten went to work on sunday while jewel stayed out with friends the whole day. kitten was off again sunday night to do something with her bf on monday, though that fell through last minute. meanwhile, jewel and her bf went out to lunch on monday with linnorm. they all spent time in the evening with him last night watching tv. he saw the younger kids off to their buses this morning and visited taz's school before heading off to turn in the rental and go home. hopefully he didn't have too much trouble getting out...more snow or rain is expected starting tonight.
so, yea, a lot of stuff was going on despite the snow that made it so we couldn't get to a whole lot of places until the end of the week. i'm hoping the next bit of snow and rain heading in doesn't trap us again. it's already going to be quite a trick making up 5 days when the schools only have 3 snow days built into the year. besides, we were lucky to have only one explosion between the kids during the snow-pocolypse. not sure we'd be that lucky twice.
~*~
word of the moment: anaphase
the stage of meiosis or mitosis when chromosomes move toward opposite ends of the nuclear spindle
