The Rundown
Monday and Tuesday I worked late so that I could leave at 3 pm on Wednesday and trek my way to Alpharetta for my job interview. After 40 minutes my Mitsubishi Mirage whined its way up the steep driveway to the quiet, built-in-the-90s-looking office park.
I met Aaron and Lee and they got me started on the test. I had never touched AutoCAD before so I was fully expecting to not get a single one of the 18 questions right. My recruiter told me 15 of 18 were required to pass. But the test seemed less geared toward testing AutoCAD knowledge and more toward ability to follow instructions. I’m decent at doing what I’m told and everything I needed to do was pretty spelled out.
When I got to question 9, I realized something was weird. The tasks seemed to have been completed already. I wondered if they were testing my honesty as well. Instead of just using the already completed work and calling it my own, I just duplicated the results by running through everything any way. I was on question 14, about to move onto question 15 when Lee came back. Time's up! He started looking through my test and I told him about half of the test already being completed. He was confused at first but realized that the person before me had not followed instructions and had saved their test as the original. Lee consulted with Aaron and they decided to give me 25 more minutes to complete the questions that hadn’t been left blank. I went back in and completed everything in time.
As we finished up discussing the position, I apologized for not having told them sooner that my test was already half filled-in. I walked out wondering if I had put out that happy, confident, “hire me! hire me!” vibe needed to be offered a position. On Thursday, I found out I had and was offered the position starting April 11. I consulted with Melissa and decided to accept. The pay will be the same as I’m making now, but will take a serious jump in 6 months. And I can work completely remotely. Melissa and I are very excited.
I figured there was no time to delay putting in my 2 weeks’ notice as the start date was only 12 days from then so I worked up the courage to talk to my boss. I thought it would be a short conversation. But he ended up trying to give me a competing offer. He said he might be able to swing me working from home and that he could give me a pay raise of 1 dollar more per hour. But the new pay rate the new company offered me will be 3 dollars an hour more. He said the supervisors above him aren’t really very flexible on raises and he didn’t think there would be any way he could match the offer. He said he was sorry to see me go which was nice to hear because I battle imposter syndrome at any job I’ve had. I always start thinking that I’m not doing enough and I’m about to be fired. Anyway, next Thursday will be my last week at Pike Engineering.
In other news, Reese has been very needy, always wanting to be held. At first, we thought he was sick, but now we think it’s just a normal phase. As he’s spending more time awake and alert during the day, I think he now realizes he’s alone and feels abandoned when he’s chillin’ alone in his swing. And we are sleeping better, he wakes us up once around 1 am and once around 5 am. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that he’s sleeping better when it’s the middle of the night and I have to go to work soon on 5 hours or so of sleep. He doesn’t need to be held as he sleeps because he co-sleeps with us in our bed most of the time so I think that keeps him calm. His little belly button thing finally bit the dust and we bathed him for the first time. He likes to be held in a warm shower better than sitting in his baby bathtub. He’ll be 4 weeks already on Thursday the 7th. We’re in that weird time warp where our days are so busy that we don’t have a ton of time to reflect and all of the sudden he’s a month old just like that. He’s gaining weight and the cutest of chubs. His banshee screams don’t rattle me as much anymore. It took me a good 2 weeks longer than Melissa to get used to his auditory assault. Sometimes if we’re laughing, he’ll start laughing too. Rayna didn’t laugh until 3 months, if memory serves, but Reese really laughs. His body shakes and everything. Adorable!
Rayna is starting to express herself a lot. She gets mad and says “Rayna mad.” Or “Want to cry much” She can pretty much say whatever comes to mind and we’re glad she can express her emotions. She’s obsessed with watching finger family on YouTube which is just a song with a million different versions: sharks, dinosaurs, spidermans, ghosts, robots, zombies, broccoli, and lots more. Because of this show she calls the thumb “daddy finger”, the index finger “mommy finger”, the middle finger “brother finger”, the ring finger “sister finger”, and the pinky “baby finger.” She loves to eat fruit the most, always asking for strawberries or grapes. She is intense so we always breathe a sigh of relief when she goes to sleep. She requires nearly undivided attention in her every waking moment.
On Tuesday was the 3 year anniversary of my father in law’s passing. Melissa spent the day doing things her Dad loved like singing ballads to Rayna and Reese. She started journals for each of them, writing about each's beautiful quirks and what value those traits add to our family dynamic. From my perspective, her life revolves around being active with the kiddos and so she doesn’t have much free time for any hobbies. I wish she did have more time for herself and I do my best to give that to her. She has expressed feeling so much better now that she’s no longer pregnant. Some women get postpartum depression, but for her, postpartum is when the depression goes away.
The weekend
On Friday we took Reese to his kidney appointment and we’ll have the results by Monday. We talked it over and made the decision to move in with Melissa's mom. The soonest we can move will be around May 1. Friday was pretty nonstop with running errands and taking Rayna to the park. People from the ward we used to attend have been bringing us meals so that has been very nice.
Saturday, Melissa took Rayna out on a mommy-daughter date. They got boba ( a drink with tapioca balls in it) and bought a few cute spring outfits. I stayed behind with Reese and watched Dances with Wolves and fell asleep on the couch.
So far on this Sunday, Melissa’s mom and brother came over bringing tamales. They’re always so good. I had scheduled a yoga class at 10 am so I was unable to stay for the whole time they were with us. Yoga was great! It has been about a month since I’ve gone to a class and I could feel that in my tight muscles. It is always good to go. Yoga classes are one of my favorite things.
Our time in Marietta, Georgia is coming to an end. Melissa and I started reflecting on our year in Marietta and what it’s taught us about ourselves. This year includes more growth than just about any other. In Marietta, we became a family of four. We made gigantic changes in which direction our life will go. It’s been a challenging year, but a very necessary one.
Media Diet
(Book) Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihard. A biography of a Plains Indian who lived in the 1800s. He has visions as a child including seeing white settlers taking over. In civilization his visions may have classified him as schizophrenic or something, but Native Americans saw a lot of value in his visions. He is forced to see what civilization is all about and ended up traveling with Buffalo Bill’s roadshow all over the world. I’m about halfway through, and will finish it this week.
(Podcast) Tangentially Speaking Episode 285: Liam and Allison - Their 10 year old fell off a 40 foot cliff (he survived somehow with minimal injuries) and they reflect on how that changed their parenting style and their lifestyle. It helped them get their priorities straight. They kind of get out of the way and let their kids be more free than the average kid. They switch careers to something they enjoy more because they realize life is short. I enjoyed their perspective.
Looking Forward
On Monday, we’re gonna hang out with our friends the Thurgoods. It may be the last time we hang out for a while. They’re moving further out and we’re moving back to Roswell so it’ll be harder to get together. We think we’ll invite them over for Korean food which is a favorite in our house.
My job training begins on April 11.
We are moving out of our apartment and back in with Melissa’s mom April 30. It will be a blessing to raise our kids in a multi-generational household. We intend on buying a home all together later this year where we can live together more comfortably. That way we can share household expenses and save money. The challenge will be communicating in a way that prevents us from stepping on one another’s toes very often. I do think that my kids being raised by three adults is better than two.
We’re still looking forward to spending Memorial Day at the beach in South Carolina.
Take care y’all!
Braxton