Fun Date, Flowers and Further Job Searching

Penny has been doing marvelously in community college.  So far she's working ahead and getting A's in all her classes.  She's also learned about how to take the bus by herself to and from school.  So, I had confidence that she would be fine if we let her go off to school by herself while Jay and I went on a morning date!  Never could have dreamed of this possibility just a few years ago.  Now, how is a morning date possible?  Well two or three weekdays every week I'm not working at the front desk.  My dear hubby is also unemployed.  But, we had received a postcard in the mail, since Jay turned 50 and his mom signed him up for an AARP membership.  The postcard was inviting us to a free entry to the Denver Botanic Gardens, thanks to our membership.  The funny thing was that we were both feeling "old" when we went.  Jay has a tennis elbow injury bothering him and my ankle was killing me.  So, we "hobbled" over to the botanic gardens and had a great time.  Unfortunately, I never got a photo of the two of us together.  But, I have some great shots of my dear hubby...

and a few of me...

 along with millions of beautiful flowers.  I'll try not to bore you with too many photos.  But, it'll be hard to choose.  So, here are a few of my outdoor favorites from mostly the English and American gardens...

Next we went to the Japanese gardens...

 

Finally, we went to the indoor gardens, where it felt tropical and we got to see the kinds of flowers that would be growing in Thailand.... 

 

 After our nice, free outing to the Botanic Gardens we stopped at Burger King to get some whoppers.  And then we went home so Jay could get ready for his afternoon interview.  He said that he came away feeling like he had hit a home run with how well the interview went.  The lady who interviewed him had said he should hear back by the middle of next week.  However, soon after coming home the company's HR rep called and said that the manager who interviewed him called her and said that she felt like Jay might be not quite the right fit for her branch, because he would be almost too good and she'd be afraid of losing him too soon, as he is so fit to move up in the company.  So, she said, instead he should interview for something in their headquarters.  So, it's sounding like early next week another interview will be arranged.  So, he's feeling quite optimistic as we enter this weekend.  Thanks for all of your prayers!  We'll keep you posted!

Transitions for Late Summer/Fall 2015

Well, August has certainly been a season of transitions around here.  The biggest of which was the fact that Penny became a college student.  Here is a picture of her on her first day to community college.

 

She is taking English, math and public speaking, which is a full 12 credits, because her English class is worth 5 credits and her math is worth 4 credits.  She's already having a lot of homework.  But, she's working diligently and doing a great job!  She's also learned how to take the city bus to and from school by herself, since twice per week Mom is unable to drive her. It's hard to believe that she's already completed almost the first two weeks of school and is anticipating having a break for Labor Day.  She just gave her first speech in her public speaking class and I understand that it went quite well.  I was pleased to hear her say that when they went over a grammar lesson in English class today it was easy for her, but hard for others, so she helped another small group of students who were struggling.  She's already getting practice in helping to teach English to others, like she dreams of doing in Asia someday.  She also has faced her fears of taking public transportation by herself and discovered that she can do it!  She also has begun learning practical skills in math, such as how to create bar graphs and pie charts in Excel.  She has enjoyed meeting Thai, Hmong, Congolese and former homeschooler friends at community college, among others.  She's already learned so much and it's only been two weeks!

As far as Chandra is concerned, the biggest transition has been getting used to working more hours.  I (Chandra) now work 9 hours more per week than I used to.  I decided to take on this extra part-time custodial job at the church to help out since I'm no longer the primary homeschool teacher, but rather have become more of a tutor for Penny.  

Jay is hoping that there will be a transition into a new job soon.  He's been feeling strange about not going back-to-school when all of the kids are back to school.  He's still looking for a job and hoping to perhaps find one in a bank or credit union this time around.  Meanwhile, he's enjoyed doing some singing.  He joined a chorale group, which will perform some upcoming concerts.  Also, he sang some solos at a farmer's 85th Birthday party near Ft. Collins. 

Chandra also got to sing by joining the choir from our former church at the birthday party.

 

What was fun was that I got to sit right next to one of our former neighbors from when we lived in Ft. Collins.  We also enjoyed seeing a show horse prancing to music.

 

Penny was happy to find some furry friends who seemed to like her.

 

She also had fun, as usual, holding a baby, whose mom is planning to homeschool her 5-year-old boy starting this fall.

 

Along the theme of transitions, it looks like I finally had to say, "Good-bye!" to my favorite wallet that I bought when I lived in Japan.  I've had it for probably at least 20 years!  It was a very good quality leather wallet from Japan with a cute teddy bear that said, "Milk Teddy".  But, alas, it finally fell apart.

 

 

R.I.P., my little Milk Teddy wallet!  I'll miss you!

So, make way for my new, American-sized wallet....

 

I even got a new fanny pack (Broncos-style) and a new checkbook cover.  Wow!  That's a lot of new things for me!  So, I'm ready to go shopping now!  Well, Jay's probably thinking, don't get too happy about shopping until he finds that new job!

 

If what you carry in your purse (fanny back) tells you about yourself, mine must be saying that I'm rather simplistic and old-fashioned.  In fact, I still use a paper calendar and have a flip phone, rather than a smart phone.  And, as you can see from the above picture, I'm an old lady now, because I use those clip-on sunglasses, which I said I never would.  

 

One transition that we're looking forward to is cooler weather, which is supposed to start happening tomorrow and into next week.  We were having lots of smoke in the air, due to the fires out west.  Here's what the hazy sunset looked like this past week.

 

Here's hoping that you all are having glorious transitions in your lives, as well!