Something good!

I'm so glad that something good did happen today. Ben got his letter from the Smyrna Fire Department stating he passed the written exam and that they want him to come back for the physical agility test. The only bad thing is that the physical agility test is on a day that he works, the same week of Brittany's wedding and he has already requested a day off work...I'm not sure how he's going to pull this one off.

:(

Well he did not pass his paramedic exam. He's pretty upset about it but that's ok. He is going to get some study manuals and study for about a month and tried again. All his paramedic coworkers have told him that it took them 2 or 3 times...so hopefully the next time will be better.

Total Fake Out!

My sleep was completely broken today. I got home from work at 7am and went straight to bed. Ben woke me at 9 to tell me he was heading off to get a blessing from his dad before heading off to his test. Then I woke up around 12:25 because the house phone was ringing. I hate telemarketers by the way...they called 3 times during the 7 hours I TRIED sleeping. haha. I have the most annoying answering machine too...it beeps until you check the message if one is left. I hate it. Anyway, then ben texted me at 2:45 telling me about the test. Well then I just had to get up and talk to him about it.

He feels like he did really well considering. The test is no more than 150 questions. It is a computer adaptive test which means if you get a lot of questions wrong then the test will cut off early. If you keep doing ok then you get another question. Well one of Ben's classmate's test cut off at 80 questions and he failed. Then his buddy Chris ran out of time and he failed. Ben had 2.5 hrs for a 150 question test. He finished in 1.5 hours and answered all 150 questions. So it looks pretty good. Passing is 70%. That means he can't miss more than 45. Ben doesn't remember there being that many that he was unsure of.

While I was at work this evening, Ben comes in and he's on the phone with one of his classmates. He was telling Ben that he'd been checking the wrong part of the website for his test results. Ben finally gets to the right page on the website and he sees PARAMEDIC and he scrolls down really quickly and sees PASSED! He gets all excited. I hear that from another room, leave my patient and go jump him with a huge hug and kiss... Well...Ben got a little over excited...the PASSED was beside his practical exam which he took a week ago. The grades for his written exam are not posted until Friday. :( We got all excited over nothing. Hopefully we can relive that moment again.

In other news today. I got an email from the clinical director of Baptist Sleep Center. They want to meet with me. He called Cathy today and spoke with her about 30 minutes. Fortunately I was not the topic of conversation for the entire 30 minutes, but nonetheless Cathy told him that I was wonderful and knew what I was doing...fabulous! So I am meeting him Monday @ 10am. I am to bring my RPSGT certification, CPR card and my drivers license. Sure sounds to me like they are making a file on me...:)

Wishin' and hopin' and thinkin' and prayin'

Ben took his FD test. He feels pretty good about it. They narrowed the list of 120 applicants down to about 40-50 people to take the test. They will let us know by mail if he passed...

Thursday is the paramedic test. A buddy of his is worried that he failed it, and this guy always did great on his tests in class...so hopefully they will all do well!

We had a scare today. Someone got a hold of my debit card number from something i purchased on line and was buying things with my card. Luckily Visa Identity caught it and stopped a $2995 purchase. Fortunately my card was canceled quickly. Awesome job VISA! So the only thing that got charged was a $39.95 charge to some weird website...but we went to the bank and objected to the charge and signed all the paperwork...Needless to say my card is canceled...and we were SO incredibly lucky! Thank Heavenly Father for that. So just a friendly reminder to be really careful where you use your cards! I can't live without my card because cash is dangerous for me...I spend it.

Trying to stay busy

Next week is a big week for us. Ben goes tuesday to test for Smyrna's Fire Department...Big prayers needed! Then Thursday Ben goes to AL to test for his Paramedic License...again, big prayers needed! Ben and I both are trying to get second jobs to save as much money as we can to set aside in case we do have to sell the house and move. I have emailed out my resume to 8 or 9 companies who score sleep center studies on an outsource program. So far, 3 have emailed me back and told me they do not have a large enough flow of studies to hire me on but that they will keep my resume...Then tonight I randomly got onto Careerbuilder and searched for RPSGT and found out that Baptist Hospital (who has a 14 bed sleep lab) is hiring for a PRN status!! This is exactly what I wanted, and because Baptist is such a big company, they will pay good money on a PRN status. I hope they will pick me. Ben doesn't want me driving that far but mom and Shannon are both right there off the interstate if I needed to catch a couple hours of sleep before heading home. Then if we do move to Smyrna, they are a great asset to have on my resume. I hope they call me in for an interview. We hope everyone is doing well. We love you all.

Planning for the unknown...

Ben and I decided to get away briefly on Sunday. We wanted to visit the Rock Springs ward. We enjoyed it there. I had no idea three wards were working out of the same building. The work has boomed in Rutherford Co. Ben was just happy to see married couples our age to make friends with. He was plotting in his head who would be his friend. haha. On our way home from church, Ben and I decided to go neighborhood hunting and drive around and see what kind of homes were for sale if he were to get this job.

Little did we know we would happen upon the Belmont subdivision being built on Almaville Rd. As we drove through we realized, hey these are the size homes we can afford....maybe this neighborhood would be in our pricerange. We went to the office and walked through the model home. GORGEOUS!! We fell in love immediately. The broker showed us floor plans and price ranges, which much to my suprise did fall within our range and some not. He showed us some finished homes. I was sold..and I think Ben was too.

The guy explained that they would be opening up a new street for development in 60-90 days. They were taking lot reservations at this time. The reservation is a refundable check if we choose not to build when the development starts. We really felt we had nothing to lose. We can back out at any time in the next 3 months. By the end of that 3rd month, we will know if Ben got the job or not. We came home, talked with Shannon and Rusty and Rusty was gracious enough to go back with us to talk with the broker and get it in writing that our money is refundable if we do not sign the contract to build. Talk about spur of the moment realtor when you need him. :)We showed mom and Shannon the model home and they have already picked out our cabinets and flooring..haha..

Ben and I have crunched numbers and we think the home will be perfect for us if he gets on Smyrna's fire department. It's a little more than we wanted to spend but the home will be brand new (which means no painting, no roof repairs, no big repairs for a while, etc), has a great warranty, is right by the Almaville Vol. Fire Dept (big plus for Ben), and puts me in a great area for Sleep jobs. We also realized that the homes that match the size of our house now that are newer than the 80s are also in this price range...so we really would not be saving that much money...Anyway...enough chatter...here are the pictures and lot layout.

We had two lots chosen and the architect plotted out how the home would fit on both lots and which would give us the best yardage for a fenced in back yard for the dogs. Also being a corner lot, the home will have a side entry garage unlike the picture.

Finally, Some Great News!!

Monday Ben called the Smyrna HR department to check on the status of the letters that will be sent out notifying the applicants of the test date for the written portion of the application process. HR told Ben that the fire department had all the applications and that they would be sending letters soon. Ben took this as good news and we waited for the letter to arrive.

Tuesday Ben and I both had to work. He calls me at work and tells me that he got a phone call from the fire department. The administrated called and told him that the test date would be Aug. 14 at 9am sharp. Ben got the details of where the test is held, etc. Then he said, so I guess you guys are calling everyone instead of sending them the letters. She said, no, we are still sending the letters but there are 2 or 3 people in particular that we wanted to call because we wanted to make sure that they would be there to test. She told Ben that they really liked what they saw on his application. She told him that there were 120 applicants and it looks like they will have 8-12 slots to fill due to retiring fire fighters and some who moved on to other departments.

Finally, some really good news from a fire department. Ben will be there that Tuesday morning with bells on. :) Hopefully he will do really well on the test and then come back for the physical agility test and then be hired on and then we MOVE to SMYRNA!!!!! He has asked for everyone to pray for him, so I would like to extend that to everyone. Please keep us in your prayers. This means the world to Ben!! It means a lot to me too because I'm getting tired of Winchester ;) and I want to see Ben in a career he loves 110%. I will keep everyone posted.