Please read this.

I've been a terrible emailer and blogger lately...I'm sorry for that. Been trying to spend more time scrapbooking and with my family. I do have a part time job now as well. I'll tell you about that later but right now, I have to share something else.

We had a big scare with Zachary yesterday. He's been sick for a few days with a little viral infection. Thursday night he developed a slight fever. We gave him Tylenol and put him to bed. Friday morning he woke up at five. Still had a fever and felt a bit warmer than the previous night but not HOT in a scary way. More Tylenol and we napped together on the couch. By 7 when we woke up his fever was gone. At 8:30, he had a seizure. And I'm crying again just typing this. My baby boy just laid down on the floor and started shaking. His left hand was up in the air twitching. His eyes were open but he couldn't see me when I was holding him. His head fell back and his whole body went limp. I called 911 and the ambulance took us both to the hospital.

He'd had a febrile seizure. If you have small children or will ever have the opportunity to care for one, please read the link. I'm hoping I'm in the minority of parents who aren't familiar with them. If I had known more, it might not have been quite as scary. There shouldn't be any long term health effects and *hopefully* he won't have any more. If he does though, at least we'll be better prepared. His temperature at the hospital was right around 102...not terribly high. The onset of the seizures is caused by the rapidity of the temperature rise, not necessarily the actual temperature. His temperature rose approximately 3 degrees in a matter of minutes. Just educate yourself so you know what to expect better than we did. Yesterday was one of the scariest days of my life.

tagged by...

Robyn AND Brandi AND Shelby AND Rachel (anyone else? hehe)

four jobs you have had in your life:
1. counter jockey at Arbys (YUM)
2. trainer at Boeing
3. Supervisor at General Motors
4. Supervisor at Gallo Winery

four movies you would watch over and over:
1. Godfather (I and II...burn III)
2. A Christmas Story
3. Say Anything (:p)
4. Napolean Dynamite

four places you have lived:
1. Waterford, Michigan
2. Mt. Pleasant, MI
3. Renton, WA
4. Fresno, CA

four TV shows you love to watch:
1. Dora
2. Spongebob
3. Jimmy Neutron
4. Max & Ruby
:p (I've totally fallen out of the habit of watching any shows regularly)

four places you have been on vacation:
1. this
2. question
3. really
4. sucks

four websites I visit daily:
1. gmail
2. 2peas
3. I Love Photography
4. Erica Hernandez Designs (wink, wink)

four of my favorite foods:
1. thai
2. chinese
3. italian
4. mexican

four places I would rather be right now:
1. bed
2. bathtub
3. Hawaii
4. Starbucks

four bloggers I am tagging (keeping it local this time :D):
1. Jen
2. Wendy
3. Brandi
4. Ashley

check it out!

Lots of pics people...

The approach (please note, our boy Jake tossed these balls all by himself...about 13 or 14 frames worth until he discovered something else further down this post - they took a little while to get down the lane, especially towards the end, but for a three year old - not too shabby! Mommy and daddy alternated standing by to make sure he didn't run down the lane himself :p)



The toss!



The wait (excrutiating, lol)



The celebration - yay!



The score (and, let the record show that the very FIRST ball Jake through was a strike! Mommy was still messing with the scoreboard though so it didn't register:-( )



And here is what Jake *really* wanted to be doing once he spotted it...stupid video games :p



Sorry the pics aren't that great - I was trying to take pics, help Jake and bowl myself all at the same time. My mom and stepdad Scott came too and it was a blast! So glad we did it...Jake is already asking to "go bowing" again though I suspect it has something to do with the Racing game and the M&Ms...

OH, and by the way...size 11 bowling shoes with velcro are about the cutest things ever!

Lots more planned for us this weekend (well, compared to a usual weekend, lol) hope you all have a good one!

you guys are awesome...

Seriously, thank you all for your advice and insight, your friendship and your uplifting words. I'm overwhelmed by your kindness to me. I'm doing my level best to stay positive about the whole situation and will definitely continue to work on my interviewing skills and my networking.

Again, thanks to you all :D

blog schmog...

at least, that's what I said to a friend yesterday. I've thought about getting rid of it but on that rare occasion that I actually have something important to write down, it's an invaluable resource. So, today I vent (and ask for advice, if you have any to spare.)

I've been looking for a job now for months. This is hard for me, harder than I could ever articulate. I want to go back to work badly. Seems no one wants me though. I've had a lot of really good jobs. And I've always gotten every job I wanted and interviewed for. Boeing, GM, Gallo...these are BIG companies. I'm a good worker, I learn quickly if I don't already know, I would be a great resource to any company that would give me a chance. No one will allow me that chance to prove myself though.

I've applied to more places than I can count. I've had interviews with three pretty large companies. No second interviews though (this, is hard! if I'm not even getting second intervies, will anyone EVER want to hire me??) Michigan's economy pretty much bites right now (last I heard, our unemplyment rate was highest in the country.) Add to that the fact that I haven't worked in over three years and the odds are pretty much stacked against me. So tell me, what do I do? How do I get employers to take a second look at me? How do I convince them to hire me for jobs I'm clearly overqualified for (I'm ok with that, I understnad that after three years, I'm not going to be able to step back in right where I left off.) Honestly, I don't *need* to ever be in management again. I'm content to just be a worker bee with BENEFITS for my children. That would please me. Greatly.

I think the worst incident so far was receiving a nice little envelope, very much resembling a Christmas card, handwritten to Erica Hernandez, tucked into the middle of all the other holiday cards I received on CHRISTMAS EVE, telling me that I hadn't made the cut to be interviewed for an Admin position with a local school district. Ouch. And Happy Holidays to you as well Clarkston schools :p

The good news? According to Kelly Services most recent newsletter, by 2013 there will be more jobs than employees :p Think I can get hired then?

OK, on to happier stuff, I have a stack of older Scrapworks paper and alphadotz sitting here that I need to get rid of (out with the old, in with the new!) Probably 50 or so sheets of paper and 15 or 20 sheets of alphadots (with a few missing...probably less than 10 total) First person that lets me know they're interested will get it :)

And my funny for the day? Looked at my hit stats for this blog the other day and saw that someone had found my blog by searching for "androgynous haircuts." I thought that was funny :) There have been a few humorous searches that led to my log but that's my favorite so far :p

A quickie layout I did of Zack yesterday...haven't been scrapping very much in the last month or so and I'm hoping to redisocver the groove I was in a few weeks ago. He's such a little stuf.



Okey doke, so have a nice Wednesday! My family is coming over tonight for lasagna dinner (yum!) looking forward to that! Later gators!