Fantastic!

They finally called today. Ben got a call after 2pm. They told him that the chief wanted to meet with him on Wednesday morning. He will ask him some questions about his goals, interests, etc. Then the administrative assistant said he will more than likely offer him the job. She said he likes to offer the jobs in person instead of over the phone. I can't tell you how excited we are. Ben is staying very reserved about it all. He won't gush over it until he gets the official offer. I'm proud of him for that but I can't contain myself. I want to be in Smyrna yesterday! Thank you EVERYONE for your prayers and your love. We love all of you! See you soon!

Good news..but still cautious

Ben's buddy Chris called him tonight. Chris went to Paramedic school with him and used to work out at Smyrna Fire. He knows the Lieutenant who was in Ben's interview. Chris had told Ben that if he could get ahold of him, that he would try to find out some details. I think the Lt name was Bobby. Bobby told Chris that they were very impressed with Ben's interview. He said, "I can't gaurantee that Ben got the job, but I can gaurantee that he got the job." So I'm guessing in a weird round a bout way he was telling Chris that Ben was a done deal. He said the Ben should be getting his offer letter in the mail soon. This is confusing to me though because today Ben called the main office and they said that if you get hired the chief will call you and if you are put on the waiting list then you will get a letter. So maybe the chief will call him and he will also get an offer letter to make it official. Who knows. Ben says he likes knowing but Bobby had to say but at the same time he won't feel relieved till he hears it from the chief...

Strange attitudes and behaviors

I'm really getting quite sick of Winchester...and so is Ben.

Ben almost quite his volunteer department the other day. He is tired of them questioning him on things when he is the one with the greater knowledge and training. He gets so frustrated.

We just had a conversation about his coworkers at work. He is the only one at work who does not complain about their spouse. One tells his wife to shut up...that he is tired of hearing her speak so he won't have to listen to her for 3 days....one keeps talking about the inevitable divorce he and his wife will have because they view things differently...it's such a defeatist attitude. They expect the failure of the marriage...or don't find the joy of talking and confiding in their spouse. Ben mentioned to them that he can't understand where they are coming from because we don't fight. Sure we have disagreements and arguments but a full fledged...fight...never had one. We made a promise a long time ago never to yell at one another, never to let a disagreement go unresolved. They laughed at him and said our marriage was still in the new stages...I really don't think that makes a difference. I really feel its a choice you make. Anyway...ranting.

I'm slowly getting tired of work here as well. People don't seem to have a lot of faith in our lab. They appear to have almost given up on it. It makes me wonder why I work so hard to make sure everything is right. Why do I work so hard to look out for this lab? Why have I put a guaranteed full time job on hold at a great facility who recognizes my strengths and wants me there for a place where people are just getting burnt out on the work? Why...because I'm loyal to my in laws...and its biting me in the you know what.

I think I'm going to give this area a named attitude...it's called the "redneck attitude." I've met so many of these people who's philosophy is just to give up. There is a redneck boy here who has a speech impediment. He went to one day of speech class and decided it was too hard and quit. Seems to be a theme for him. When life gets too hard, he quits. That is the way people are around here...

Gosh I need people with hopes and aspirations. I need people with joy in their life. I need people who are uplifting and who find a joy and love from their spouse. I need people who can strengthen me....not tear me down. This place is depressing enough... Please, please, please....SMYRNA needs to call Ben today!

Change is good

Last night I worked for the first time without shadowing James at Baptist. It was a nice feeling to be on my own, on another new software yet I had 4 other people there to bounce ideas off of if I needed them. My studies went really well and I was pleased with how it all turned out.

I was a little bummed this week because in a two week period I had less than 40 hrs on my winchester pay check. We have really slowed down on studies. This is not good for my pay check. Marilyn told us that we are dropping back to two days a week. This means that at best I will have 24 hours a week unless I come in some during the week and make up hours. This is a major cut to the paycheck. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to supplement our budget with money from baptist. I wanted all of that to go to savings. I hope that we will pick back up and my paychecks will level out.

I was also a little nervous that I might not get as many hours as I wanted at Baptist. Paul told me that they have a budget for each month and once they get close to it, they push patients to the next month, which means no excess of patients for me to come in and work if I wanted. But today I got an email from Paul asking me to work on Tuesday. I had originally told them that I would work it so we could get my TB test done. Then I decided that I really didn't want to do it because it took time away from me and Ben. I had my TB test done here and I was only going to work Sunday night of this week. Paul then emailed me today and told me that one of my coworkers was in the hospital sick and asked if I could work. Ben and I thought about it and both of us felt impressed for me to work.

Then I got a call from Paul a little later. He was offering me a full time job. They feel as though I have a good energy and jump in whenever I am needed, such as helping Tuesday night even though I didn't really want to work. I told him that I really only wanted to work the Sun-Tue shift. Paul said that is a coveted shift and that he thinks he can get it for me. They just wanted a time table as to when I could come on full time. I told them that I just cannot commit yet. I have to remain dedicated to the lab here so long as I live here. He understood and we have an under the table understanding that he will try to get me on full time as soon as we know if we are moving and when. They want to do whatever it takes to get me in there full time. I never thought I would be liked so quickly in a job. It is nice and reassuring that I can play in the big leagues. :) Whenever I move, they said that they think they can keep me at the same pay scale just without the mileage reimbursement. Sounds good to me :).

Smyrna Fire

Ben's interview went well. He presented himself the best that he could. They had a list of questions that they had to ask. They seemed to be concerned that he has done so much with medicine, as if he would leave their department to pursue medicine. Ben told them that fire is his passion and that medicine is just a side job. They may be concerned about this because a lot of fire departments are going medical. They might be thinking that he would leave them after he gets some experience and go to Nashville where they do fire and EMS. The interview was held with the assistant chief, captain and a lieutenant. The chief wasn't there because he is going to go back and look at the responses from the interviews and he will make a nonbiased pick of the applicants based off the answers instead of how the applicant looked since he wasn't there. They told him that they would call and do reference checks on those that they were interested in. Today his mom got a call at the Urgent Care asking about him as an employee. Little did they know that he worked for his parents. Hah...she gave him a great review and didn't tell them that he was her son. So everything looks good.

The Dr. called me today and told me that my hCG levels are back to zero which means that we did have a very early miscarriage. I am sad but I am ok. We look forward to trying again. Hopefully this has prepared my body to properly carry the next child. We are just trying to have faith that there is a greater purpose to which we do not fully understand. Anyway. Back to normal, for now ;)

Update

I called the Cooks today and left a message on their machine. Mike called me back and we chatted a bit about Smyrna's openings. He said that 30 people passed the agility portion. They just finished testing today unlike what we thought. We thought they were done last week. He said they should be notifying Ben within the week. He said that if they didn't tell you that you failed the agility, then you passed it. So that means that Ben passed it and should be going in for an interview soon. Another thing he told me which was shocking, was that there are up to 35 positions open. I guess they are having to hire a lot for the new fire hall being built. It sounds like an aweful lot of open slots. So sounds like things are going well for Ben's chances. Keep praying and your fingers crossed.