Hello everyone, this is Mike. Long time no blog. Well I always don't know what to say since Adria always seems to cover every aspect of our life when she blogs, but there are a few things to get you all up to speed on. Number one being that Jake is just the most adorable little kid in the world (biased of course). He spends much of his time looking cute while playing with his toys or trying to get mommy's attention. He loves trying to eat our noses, and has successfully managed to french a nostril or two. When he is not playing he is rolling around, he is becoming more mobile everyday and will soon have carpet-burned knees when he finally figures out how to move around on all four. Number two happened on March 25th. I got a call from my little sister, Katie. Back when I was on my mission I met a member family that had a friend who wanted to listen to the missionary lessons. As my missionary companion and I taught the family's friend, I got to know the family's daughter, Katie. She was just about to turn eight and expressed a desire to have a brother or sister; her parents could not have another child. Well my parents only had boys so I never had a sister and so I asked Katie's parents if we could pseudo-adopt each other; they said of course. So now Katie's my sister and I am her brother. Well I haven't spoken to her for a few years (my fault), other than birthday and Christmas cards; so this year I called on her 16th birthday (March 23rd) to sing happy birthday. She was not home (I got to talk to her mom and get all the dirt on what she had been up to); she was out on her first date, but she called me back on Sunday and we had a good chat. The job hunt is going. I have learned an immense amount about the hiring process these days which has led me to change my strategy on finding a position. You might think getting your resume out to as many recruiters, businesses, and job postings is the way to go when you're not networking; but that just isn't the case. I learned that in the world of hundreds or even thousands of emailed resumes to one position, that companies have gone to reducing your nicely presented resume to a few keywords in a database of keyword searches and if your resume does not have the necessary keywords the computer pushes you to the proverbial trash bin. Not only do you have to worry about the cold, calculating server chomping up your resume but you have to watch out how many times and how many ways your submit your resume to a given position or company. Some companies will let you send numerous resumes to the same or different position from yourself or a recruiter without punishment; however, the majority will only allow you to submit once to any given position by either yourself or a recruiter. If you double submit you run the risk of being rejected all together and even in some cases you are only allowed to submit your resume to one position to a company during a given period of time. So with that knowledge in hand I have visited with several St. Louis recruiting firms (of which I have also learned a lot on how the recruiting industry works, but that is another story) and have selected two of them to represent me so I can have an in with the companies the recruiters have contacts at while I continue to locate work through my own means. Like Adria said I have been to a couple of job fairs, but they turned out to only have entry level positions in non-technical fields; the one company that did advertised they were hiring for IT positions asked me to visit their website to see what IT positions were available and to submit my resume through their online resume crunching machine. While I was at one of the job fairs I did run across a Career Seeker Support Group provided by the state; I attended it on Tuesday and it seems like a potential help so we will see what happens there. Well beside looking for work and spending time with Adria and Jake, I have been studying for my fifth out of seven tests to complete my MCSE certification; my test is on the 16th of April. Also, I have most recently been assisting Gary, Adria's dad, with reconstructing a basement bathroom that was damaged during a water leak. I have been learning quite a bit about framing and installing drywall; which will help if we move into a house that has an unfinished basement. Well that's it for me.
Michael
Stuff 'n Junk
I always think of things to put on this blog but I just never seem to think about it when I am in front of the computer or I'm too tired, lol!
Jake is 9 months old today, I've been told that I need to start planning his 1 year birthday party... I'm not sure where we will be (apartment or new home) on June 23rd, but least I can send invites to save the date.
Mike turned 30 on March 2nd. We celebrated with friends on both March 2nd and 3rd. Christy got him a mylar balloon that simply says "30" which has become one of Jake's favorite pastimes to make bounce in the air. Christy pointed out to Mike that she couldn't possibly buy the "Over the Hill" balloon cuz then she would be "dissin" the rest of us as we are all older than him, hehe.
I'm impressed with how Mike is searching for a job. He's not just searching for a JOB, but a CAREER opportunity. He has driven around the nearby areas and recorded what businesses are close to where we want to live and then visited their websites to see what positions are open. He has also attended any job fairs he hears about, which always end up being only for entry level positions, but he manages to obtain more information from the recruiters about websites to use to find a position more suited to his experience, etc.
Myself, I am still enjoying being a mommy. I'm finding it difficult to get in to a schedule with Mike here almost everyday, but we make the most of it and take Jake and Zorro (our dog) to the park when it's too nice out to stay inside. We also go out to breakfast and/or lunch at least once a week since we won't be able to once he starts working again. I am able to go and visit Jennifer and her new little girl, Gabrielle, every couple of weeks. And I have been visiting with Christy more regularly since she had minor surgery (err... augmentation) and was unable to lift the children she cares for every week.
I also get to go visit with my Nana every week. I decided to try and tackle her recipe for Heavenly Hash and it tasted rather good, but was definitely not executed quite as well as she could do. The main ingredients are chocolate, pecans and marshmellows. The first time I made it, some of the marshmellows melted so it was a gooey chocolate mess with most of the marshmellows intact. The second time I heated the chocolate too high and it started separating so it did not coat the marchmellows and pecans well. Both times it still tasted absolutely devine though, lol! Maybe the third time will be a charm.
My dad found a house in Lake of the Ozarks. He did not expect to find what he wanted so quickly. It has a detached four car garage and a boat dock so he is will be in heaven with fishing and tinkering. he still needs to sell his house in South County and is working to finish all of the remodelling projects he's started.
There's not much else happening... oh, I found a pediatrician for Jake, our family doctor's office just hired a pediatrician so whole family can go to the same place now.
Our website www.scooby-gang.com expired and GoDaddy wants $90 to get it back, um... they can keep it, we're not paying that much for a url. So now you can get to our pages using www.doitandshutup.com or www.gratiotfamily.com
~ Adria
Jake is 9 months old today, I've been told that I need to start planning his 1 year birthday party... I'm not sure where we will be (apartment or new home) on June 23rd, but least I can send invites to save the date.
Mike turned 30 on March 2nd. We celebrated with friends on both March 2nd and 3rd. Christy got him a mylar balloon that simply says "30" which has become one of Jake's favorite pastimes to make bounce in the air. Christy pointed out to Mike that she couldn't possibly buy the "Over the Hill" balloon cuz then she would be "dissin" the rest of us as we are all older than him, hehe.
I'm impressed with how Mike is searching for a job. He's not just searching for a JOB, but a CAREER opportunity. He has driven around the nearby areas and recorded what businesses are close to where we want to live and then visited their websites to see what positions are open. He has also attended any job fairs he hears about, which always end up being only for entry level positions, but he manages to obtain more information from the recruiters about websites to use to find a position more suited to his experience, etc.
Myself, I am still enjoying being a mommy. I'm finding it difficult to get in to a schedule with Mike here almost everyday, but we make the most of it and take Jake and Zorro (our dog) to the park when it's too nice out to stay inside. We also go out to breakfast and/or lunch at least once a week since we won't be able to once he starts working again. I am able to go and visit Jennifer and her new little girl, Gabrielle, every couple of weeks. And I have been visiting with Christy more regularly since she had minor surgery (err... augmentation) and was unable to lift the children she cares for every week.
I also get to go visit with my Nana every week. I decided to try and tackle her recipe for Heavenly Hash and it tasted rather good, but was definitely not executed quite as well as she could do. The main ingredients are chocolate, pecans and marshmellows. The first time I made it, some of the marshmellows melted so it was a gooey chocolate mess with most of the marshmellows intact. The second time I heated the chocolate too high and it started separating so it did not coat the marchmellows and pecans well. Both times it still tasted absolutely devine though, lol! Maybe the third time will be a charm.
My dad found a house in Lake of the Ozarks. He did not expect to find what he wanted so quickly. It has a detached four car garage and a boat dock so he is will be in heaven with fishing and tinkering. he still needs to sell his house in South County and is working to finish all of the remodelling projects he's started.
There's not much else happening... oh, I found a pediatrician for Jake, our family doctor's office just hired a pediatrician so whole family can go to the same place now.
Our website www.scooby-gang.com expired and GoDaddy wants $90 to get it back, um... they can keep it, we're not paying that much for a url. So now you can get to our pages using www.doitandshutup.com or www.gratiotfamily.com
~ Adria
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