A huge hiatus

Keeping up the blog has taken a bit of a back seat, and here is what’s been going on in my life that caused this.

About last September or October I (Stephen and I) decided that I should work.  There are numerous reasons that we thought this would be a benefit to me and our family.  In October I met with someone at my church that works in an industry that I thought I might enjoy (HVAC engineering), I loved his company: the culture, atmosphere, what they did.  Everything intrigued me.  In November I had my first interview at his company (an engineering consulting firm).  They weren’t hiring at the time, but they liked me and suggested I think about taking the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Exam.  I had thought about taking it, but after having this interview I realized I needed to take it to prove that I wanted to work, and that I’m just as smart as I was when I graduated (as most people take it when they graduate as it’s harder to pass the further from graduation you get).  

In January I began to study.  2 hours a day.  with 2 kids at home.  Usually studying happened during Clara’s nap (Samantha doesn’t nap), other times it was at night after they were in bed but Stephen was at school.  There were missed days here and there.  There was an entire week that I had migraines that I couldn’t even read the words on the page.  Some days were good, others I struggled to put back the neurons in my brain where they were suppose to be.  It was hard to realize some things that used to be so natural were now so hard.  But I did get them… eventually.

The test was April 14th.  two-4 hour sections using a 250 page book of equations.  I was at the Minneapolis Conference Center for nearly 12 hours.  I came home exhausted, and sick.  (anxiety sick, fortunately it let me finish before hitting full on)

After the test I updated this company that I had taken the exam, and thought I’d done decently well.  I had another interview but they were still not hiring, but could possibly be soon as work was ramping up.  So I decided to spread far and wide, and applied to many jobs.  I didn’t hear back, it was extremely discouraging.  I did hear back about my test though.  I had passed!  What a relief.  I’m glad I don’t have to sit through that again!  (Until the next round to become fully licensed….)

And to cut this story short, on July 16th I will start working full time at this company.  Their call (email) came from out of the blue as I was waiting to hear back from another company at the time.  I went in for a third interview and at the end, I had an offer.  I’ll be working with the Fire Protection Group, designing the sprinkler system and such that go into the buildings.  I’m not totally sure what I’ll be doing; but using fluid dynamics, thermodynamics and heat transfer are all a plus and those were my specialties in school.  I’ll be using AutoCAD and AutoCAD’s Revitt.  I am very excited.

So that’s why I haven’t been updating the blog.  The girls are still as cute as ever, growing, talking.   And I still take pictures and I take them places.  Clara is in the midst of potty training, Samantha on the cusp of reading.  Both are still way too big for their ages.  They are both little fish and we’ve spent a fair amount of time at pools and lakes.  Samantha loves cutting and drawing while Clara loves cutting Samantha’s drawings and drawing on herself.  Samantha loves doing her chores and Clara loves crawling out of her crib.  They both watch way too much My Little Pony and Strawberry Shortcake, they loved their Aunt Maraina’s and Uncle Danny’s “big iPod”.  I’ll hopefully start backdating some things soon.

Here are the girls on Sammi’s last day of Preschool.  May 17th.