Interview Part Dos

I'm very critical of myself. It's not very good for me. So when people ask me how the interview went yesterday it's very hard to say "I think it went well." And I do think it went well, but I always doubt myself. I think they liked me, and I do have some pretty good qualifications, however, when it comes to the main task of the job (composing the newsletter), I have no experience. I don't know how to use Publisher, or Power Point. I've never written a newsletter before.

I did write for a blog though, and I edited John's papers for his English degree. I also transcribed for a friend who was doing his Master's Degree. Hopefully those are qualifications enough for that part of the job.

My experience at CFNI as the Admin Asst and even at the hotel in Dallas before Malachi was born seems to be perfect for this job.

I don't know how long it will take to find out if I got the job. If I do get the job it will be a couple of months before I start because I would need to get a security clearance (cool!). That's good though because that leaves me time to get a house keeper who can stay here with the kids on Wednesday's.

Interview

I have an interview at the Embassy tomorrow! This is very exciting for me! Then again, I haven't interviewed for a job in almost two years, and this interview is a lot scarier than the last one. Unfortunately I don't have the right shoes or clothes for it. So I'll be wearing a sleeveless shirt with my skirt and sandal heels with no stockings. Oh well (I seem to be saying that a lot lately).

In all honesty I know the person I'm applying to work with and I really like her. I get the impression that she likes me too. It helps my fear that I've been to the Embassy a few times already and know that it's just a normal work place when it all comes down to it.

I don't know how long it will take to find out after my interview what will happen. But as soon as I know something I will let y'all know. Wish me luck/say a prayer tomorrow at.

Bringing Up Geeks

Today I finished Bringing Up GEEKS Genuine, Enthusiastic, Empowered Kids how to protect your kid's childhood in a grow-up-too-fast world. By Marybeth Hicks

The day I posted the list of books I was reading, John went to the bedroom and immediately pulled this book out of hiding. He did tell me it was there, but I didn't see it.

If you were to boil the book down to one sentence you would say that this is a guide on raising your kids to remain kids as long as possible and to grow to be smart, authentic kids who have a very high self esteem because they know who they are and their place in this world. I certainly desire to do that. How do you ask? Marybeth has come up with 10 rules for doing just that.

Rule 1: Raise a Brainiac
Rule 2: Raise a Sheltered Kid
Rule 3: Raise an Uncommon Kid
Rule 4: Raise a Kid Adults Like
Rule 5: Raise a Late Bloomer
Rule 6: Raise a Team Player
Rule 7: Raise a True Friend
Rule 8: Raise a Homebody
Rule 9: Raise a Principled Kid
Rule 10: Raise a Faithful Kid

Going into the book I knew this is what I wanted to do when raising my kids, so this book has acted as a good starting point and has given me a lot of good ideas on how to Bring Up GEEKS.

Huh

I didn't realize it had been so long since I'd blogged. I really thought it had been a day or two tops.

John's going to be gone until about 11:30 tonight for work. It's the new President's inauguration tomorrow and there are some higher ups coming from the US (no one I know - don't get excited). So he's going to the hotel they're staying at to be there in case they need him. So from what I understand, he's going to sit in a room for 10 hours and do nothing. And because of all that's going on they're not conducting visa interviews this morning. So...before he goes to the hotel to spend 10 hours doing nothing he's going to spend five hours at his desk doing nothing. I wonder why they didn't let him stay home until he had to go to the hotel. They would've had to pay him overtime for five fewer hours. Oh well.

We've had a boring week. I don't know about other FS wives/moms, but I really think that my honeymoon period here lasted about one night. This week has pretty much been normal. I've realized that no matter what country I live in, I'm the same person. I don't know why I thought I'd be different, but I did. But nope, I'm still just the same ol' boring me. Poor kids.

This house we live in is huge! It's so much work to take care of! I should really clean the floors every day, but I've only done the bottom floor once this week, and the top not at all. I really need to get better at that.I haven't had to clean a house in so long that I'm having a hard time getting back into it. Hopefully next week John can start calling people for me, since I can't speak Spanish, who we can interview for maid work. I can't wait to have someone here to help out!

Still no word on the job at the Embassy - not even a call for the interview. I guess it takes a while to see if I'm even eligible for the job (I am).

John and Malachi planted the top of a pineapple last night. We probably won't get any fruit from it, but it's supposed to be really pretty as it's growing. The next family that lives here will have some nice pineapple though.

I have a flickr account with some photos on it. I'll put a link on the side bar so people can see what's going on here. There are only a few pictures so far because I can't dump a bunch of pictures onto our netbook. Our computer should be here in 2-3 weeks (the HHE is in country!!! It got here on Monday!!!), so then I can start uploading more pictures. I have pictures on a few different memory cards, so I'm going to have to organize it all. Bleh.

So, I guess I'm in a down mood right now. You can probably tell. I'm not always like this. I promise.

Query

I have a question for you...yes you. I'm putting together an interview form for house helpers and I'm wondering what you have or would ask prospective employees. Hm...that's less of a question and more of a statement but you get it, right? Please help me out! Thanks!

Link

I feel I have failed to give a link for the Spring Read Thing so click on this button to get to the official page:



I'll also put it on my side bar.

We had a good Sunday. We went to Price Smart with one of John's co-workers. She brought us first to Chez Christophe for breakfast and it was amazing! John and I are breakfast people and we were so happy to find a good place that is close. She mentioned that we'd always find someone from the Embassy there, and sure enough one of their co-workers from the consular section showed up when we were eating.

Price Smart was busy for Price Smart but it was the same as Costco on the weekend in my opinion. We got a few things and then came home. In the afternoon everyone but John napped...for four hours. John had to wake us up. During our nap John made donut holes...mmm. Then dinner, Skype with my mom and sister, bath/shower for the kids and bed. We started watching Chocolate and then stopped half way through so John could sleep.

I couldn't sleep...and I couldn't sleep. Finally after an hour and a half as I was about to fall asleep John's alarm went off. You see, last Friday morning we had a power outage for just a few seconds. Long enough to reset his clock of course. I reset the time, but failed to reset his alarm. DOH! So a little bit after that I finally went to sleep. When Simon got up to eat in the wee hours of the morning, I had such a hard time getting up. And then when Malachi woke me up it was just as hard.

And now here we are. I was blogging and feeding Simon breakfast at the same time. And now I'm done feeding him and I have nothing else to say except that I'll post a couple of pictures soon, but we don't have a regular computer yet to download pictures on (just a netbook and it doesn't have the space for our pictures). So I haven't put any pictures on our "computer." I'll do a couple though, I suppose.

Oh, and one more thing! Our HHE is in country today!!! It's supposed to take a few weeks to go through customs. Maybe it won't. That would be nice. No word on the car (which I'd rather have more than the HHE honestly).

Spring Read Thing

I realize I already have a blog entry with the same heading, but I haven't really registered for this yet and I wanted to make sure that I actually do it because I really want to.

I don't have very many books here with me unfortunately, so from now until June 20th I'll be reading the following books:

Bringing Up Geeks: Genuine, Enthusiastic, Empowered Kids by Marybeth Hicks
I actually started this one, and am probably about 2/3 of the way through it but I've lost it in my new house.

What is Reformed Theology by R.C. Sproul I started this one after losing my other one. This was highly recommended by my hubby, and I've been wanting to read it for a couple of years, so I'm using this as a way to push me to finally do it.

America and The World: Conversations on the Future of American Foreign Policy by Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft and Moderated by David Ignatius
Since my life now revolves around American Foreign Policy I think this will be an interesting read. This is another one recommended by my hubby.

I've Got to Talk to Somebody, God by Marjorie Holmes
This is a collection of different prayers she's said to God about all sorts of topics. The title really caught my attention shortly after I moved to DC because I didn't have my best friends from Dallas and hadn't made strong friendships in DC yet and I really felt like I didn't have someone to talk to. I did read part of it back then, so I'm going to finish it. This one probably won't take very long.

Housewives Desperate for God by Jennie Chancey and Stacy McDonald
Basically a book on how to feel good about being a Housewife when so many people look down on it. This was recommended by someone in my mom's group in DC. I actually started this one too a while ago, but didn't get very far into it before I got my Christmas books and put it back on the shelf for the other new and shiny books that looked a little more interesting. I'm excited to finish it though.

Being Real...Living What You Really Believe by Dean E. Landis
Sometimes I struggle with the balance of living out my Christianity in a secular culture, I hope this book will help.

All of these books have some kind of application in my life. I realize now that I don't have any "fun" books in there. I might have to add one or two in the midst, but we'll see. I don't know where I'd go to buy one with out spending an arm or a leg. And if I order it online I'm looking at a week or two (or three or four) before it gets here, so we'll see.