Wow, I guess I sort of just had an interview

So lots of happenings in the Crozier household (as I'm sure you are now aware with all my posts!) I'm starting to wonder if anyone will ever believe us anymore when we say we're gonna do this or pursue that.....nothing has quite worked out so far as far as school and jobs go! But please don't give up on us yet, thinking we're "all talk." We may be 43% talk, but eventually I think there is going to be some action. Like today for instance.... I better start at the beginning....

About a week and a 1/2 ago, I discovered that the outpatient pediatric dietitian at my hospital (the only peds RD in all of Snohomish County!) has quite, leaving a vacancy in the clinic downstairs. I had referred a number of my babies her way after they discharged home so was always intrigued by her job. Anyway, after finding out that she quit, I decided to go way out on a limb and contact her manager to let her know that I was interested in finding out more about the position. I didn't hear back and so thought I'd burned my bridge.......until yesterday. The manager called me and wanted to set up a meeting, much to my excitement. So today we met to chat about specifics of the job description. Now I'm back to weighing pros and cons (but this time for ME) so here we go:

PROS:
-No weekends or holidays.....EVER
-Very flexible schedule
-Get to follow kiddos as they grow up and see their progress
-Get to be challenged again in what I do
-More diverse nutritional problems (not the same thing over and over)
-Pay would be at least the same (if not a smidge more)
-Get to do home visits and assessments in the clinic

CONS:
-Position (as it stands now) is only 2 days/week
-Position (as it stands now) does not have benefits
-Would still have to drive to Everett

Basically the manager wanted to know if I was seriously interested and I said yes. We discussed the fact that the position would be much more appealing if it could be at least 3ish days a week to include benefits. She said she was willing to push for this if that would sway me. Also, she is willing to go to my current manager to see about creating a split position between the NICU and outpatient so that I could work full time. SO MUCH TO THINK ABOUT! I'm really excited, we're praying a lot, and are trying to figure out if this is what God has for me right now.

PS--An update on Graham's job...his manager came to him asking what they needed to do to keep him on staff. He requested Sundays off so it looks like he might get it!!! Which would make me having weekends off even more appealing!!

Running

Months back, I wrote a post about the Wellness Challenge that I'm a participant in at work. Well, we're now on challenge # 2 so I've basically spent the ENTIRE summer wearing a pedometer (quite the fashion statement! In fact, I'm sure Graham would not find my outside incomplete without the plastic lump on my right hip.) Anyway, I completed the first 12 weeks of walking 10,000 steps a day and was quite impressed by the results I saw. I'll admit that I thought twice about joining the repeat program, but because I was seeing so much progress, I signed up for a 2nd twelve weeks of walking. We just finished week 4 and I'm doing quite well. In fact, I've been talking to my mom and she's been mentioning that she's turned her routine AM walk into more of a walk/run sort of deal. AND, to make matters worse, my sister and brother-in-law have decided to train for a 5 K (and they NEVER ran before). So, not to be outdone by my mom and sister (and because Graham thinks I can't run), I decided I'd better hit the trail and see what I could do. So on Saturday, after walking 2 1/2ish miles, I decided to start running. Two miles later (without stopping), I was quite proud and realized I probably could run a 5 K right now if I really felt like it. Shock of all shocks! I know that 2 miles is pretty minimal, but the best part about it is that I could have kept going!

Interviews 2 and 3

Yesterday Graham had his final interviews at Children's Hospital and now we're both thoroughly confused. Don't get me wrong, they went great and I'm positive they loved him! However, we're not sure whether he should take the job (if offered) and we're not quite sure why this opportunity presented itself if he wasn't meant to pursue it. I usually helps me to write things out when I'm thinking something over so this post will be used to weigh the pros and cons.

PROS:
-get to work with kids!
-get to work on the Seattle side (and hence getting the final incentive to start looking for a new home over there so we could be closer to our friends and church)
-managers seemed awesome
-would get to work slightly fewer weekends
-lots of variety as the position involved rotating between inpatient and the outpatient clinic
-opportunity to expand current cancer knowledge base tremendously (Children's is a teaching hospital and he'd have a steep learning curve)
-our future kids would have 100% of their medical expenses paid under their benefits as well as free childcare

CONS:
-Graham loves his current job and coworkers, why would he want to leave? (They love him too!)
-he'd be working on the Seattle side and, for right now, we leave on the east side = bad commute
-he'd probably actually get paid less since he'd have to join the union and pay $700/year
-he'd still have to work weekends
-we don't have kids so the benefits they could potentially have doesn't seem to carry much weight in the debate at this point
-this would be more of a lateral move than an upward one

Hmm, I don't think either of us expected this to be so tough! So many things to pray about. We are feeling so open right now and willing to do whatever God may want with our lives but we're not feeling a clear pull in any certain direction. It's been a bit frustrating for me but quite honestly, I think my faith is growing as a result. I feel like God's shaping and teaching me to be willing to take my life day by day by faith that He is sovereign and has a perfect plan. And for those of you who know me at all, you know that I love to have my plans MAPPED out before I live them out so this unknown is proving quite challenging. I'm excited to discover where we end up!

Our "Weekend"

Because we work in hospitals, our "weekends" don't always coincide with the rest of yours so the past "weekend" that I will be referring to includes yesterday and today, our days off.

So yesterday I decided it should be what I like to call "my morning." Since getting married, I've learned that Graham could sleep in until the cows came home. Most of you know that I am very much a morning person and waking up at 7 AM is sleeping in to me. So this has created quite the dilemma for us. I've learned to let Graham sleep in on pretty much every one of his days off as he gets super beat working 12 hour shifts. I often spend about 3-4 hours alone on the mornings of our days off, dinking around, waiting for him to wake up. Usually, if we end up doing anything on these days, we don't end up getting out of the house until around noon which has been quite the adjustment for me. But there are occasions (yesterday for instance) where I will declare the next day "my morning" which means I get to wake him up whenever I want and drag him to do whatever I want to do. :o) So I decided an hour-long walk was a good morning activity for us (aiming to walk about 5 miles). Well, we went to Woodinville to walk along the Sammammish River Trail only to discover that's what EVERY OTHER PERSON IN ALL THE EAST SIDE had also decided to do. We ended up in the middle of some half marathon walk and 4 mile run which was quite entertaining. We just joined in and pretended to be a part! Graham didn't like the 5 mile idea so we returned home shortly after 2 miles...

My parents and brother Ben came down around lunch time and share they stories and photos from their most recent Haiti trip (they got back early Sunday morning). See all the orphans really made me want to go do some mission work. It was cute to see pictures of 15 year old Ben holding hands with the teenage boys (this is a cultural thing and I think they'd be quite offended if he didn't hold their hands). You can really tell from all the pictures that the kids just love my family. In fact, this is Ben's 3rd trip down and since the last time he was there, the kids painted the word "Ben" on the side of one of the buildings-just his name, no one else.

For the rest of the day, we attended an extended family gathering in Renton which included games of Bocci Ball, Ladder Golf and watching my cousin's cat attack, kill and eat an entire baby bunny. Ewww.

Today Graham had interviews 2 and 3 at Children's Hospital. I'll share more about where we're at on that front later.

Blue and Red

This is going to be a shocker.....YES I am indeed blogging about politics!! NEVER did I think this day would come as I've always been the one to politely excuse myself from the table when the conversation turned political. Somehow though, this coming election has captured more of my attention than any other. Maybe it's because Graham and I seem to be on pretty opposite sides of the spectrum politically (surprise, surprise) so there has been quite a lot of debating going on in our household. I have never been to understand the "agreeing to disagree" statement. How is that even humanly possible!? I definitely don't deal well with disagreement and haven't yet discovered how to find a healthy balance. In my ideal world, I would convince Graham with my strong arguments and sway him into agreement with me--yeah right!

We listened to NPR last night (yes friends, probably the first time I actually paid attention while we were listening) and a bunch of "undecided voters" called in to share there opinions/which way they were leaning as far as candidates go. I learned a lot and I think it is really healthy for me to be considering both positions openly (which I think I actually may be starting to do!) So I am still not quite sure which candidate will be receiving my vote, but I am 87% sure Graham and I will be placing votes for different people--weird! Notice how I'm being completely vague and not mentioning parties or names? :o) So McCain named a female as his running mate today--that was a strategic move if you ask me! We'll see how this pans out.....

A Tandem Ride With God

At church on Sunday, our pastor shared the following poem that really struck me. We have a couple friends who are going through some tough stuff right now and my prayer is that they too will be encouraged to "keep pedaling."

"I used to think of God as my observer, my judge, keeping track of the things I did wrong, so as to know whether I merited heaven or hell when I die. He was out there, sort of like a president. I recognized His picture when I saw it, but I didn't really know Him.

But later on, when I met Jesus, it seemed as though life was rather like a bike, but it was a tandem bike, and I noticed that Jesus was in the back helping me pedal. I didn't know just when it was He suggested we change, but life has not been the same since I took the back-seat to Jesus, my Lord. He makes life exciting. When I had control, I thought I knew the way. It was rather boring, but predictable. It was the shortest distance between two points.

But when He took the lead, He knew delightful long cuts, up mountains, and through rocky places and at break-through speeds; it was all I could do to hang on! Even though it often looked like madness, He said, "Pedal!" I was worried and anxious and asked, "Where are you taking me?" He laughed and didn't answer and I started to learn to trust. I forgot my boring life and entered into adventure. And when I'd say, "I'm scared", He'd lean back and touch my hand.

He took me to people with gifts that I needed, gifts of healing, acceptance and joy. They gave me their gifts to take on my journey, our journey, my Lord's and mine. And we were off again. He said, "Give the gifts away; they're extra baggage, too much weight." So I did, to the people we met, and I found in giving I received, and still our burden was light.

I did not trust Him, at first, in control of my life. I thought He'd wreck it, but He knows bike secrets, knows how to make it bend to take sharp corners, jump to clear high rocks, fly to shorten scary passages. And I am learning to shut up and pedal in the strangest places, and I'm beginning to enjoy the view and the cool breeze on my face with my delightful constant companion, Jesus.

And when I'm sure I just can't do any more, He just smiles and says... 'Pedal.'"

~(Author unknown)~

Camping Adventures

This past weekend we went on our 2nd camping adventure of the summer--this time with my sister Lani and bro-in-law Michael. We went to Twin Harbors Beach State Park which is in south west-ish WA. We were unfamiliar with the area but it turned out that a beautiful sandy beach was a 3 minute walk from our campsite. The campsite itself was long and skinny so we practically sat back-to-back with our neighbor campers when we were sitting at our picnic table but Michael's always good at making conversation so we made friends quickly. :o)

The weather was beautiful when we arrived on Friday--blue sky and sunshine! We enjoyed the beach and then headed into the "town" of Westport to see what the "city-life" looked like--definitely not much to it! We did walk along the pier and gathered ideas for our next day's adventure......

We went CRABBING! Totally random but very fun! We bought a crab pot, bait and gear at a local fishing shop and settled on the pier for crabbing, a picnic and pinochle (our latest obsession). We were there for 6 HOURS and had SUCCESS! (If you can call 1 crab success....) :o) We had a great time despite getting only one crab of legal size. Another guy on the pier only caught 1 as well and so gave it to us so our crab could have a crab friend to join him in the pot for dinner. (We made fettuccine alfredo with crab). Look how orange they turned when dropped--live--into the boiling water!

Sunday we knew wasn't supposed to be great weather. I woke up expecting to hear rain pelting the tent....but it was quiet. I got up, thinking we could pack up really quick before the rain started but before I could get dressed, I heard the sounds of drops outside. Too late! We sure packed up quickly though and then "enjoyed" breakfast at Denny's. Now we have a muddy tent that is set up to dry in my inlaw's garage....