Air Traffic Control Job Update

Cory interviewed today for the air traffic control position in Texas. He interviewed with a woman at the salt lake location. He said it went really well. They gave him a tour of the facility and after that and talking with her for over an hour Cory is really optimistic that he would enjoy this line of work. The location in Texas has not been set in stone yet, but we will keep you posted. We are hoping for El Paso since its the closest to Utah ( 13 hour drive) so it would be the easiest to move to as well as cheapest for visits home as the other locations are too far to drive with three kids in the back!

The next step is a background check.. one of those government ones where they want to know everything about you from the past seven years. ( every address you lived at, job you worked, your finances, parking tickets, everything!) We are not too worried about this part, since Cory hasn't had any problems with the law or anything. It will just be tedious to fill out since he has had 7 addresses in this time period as well as multiple jobs and you have to have two references from every single place with current phone numbers so they can call and harass them about all your dirty secrets! lol. He also will be getting a letter in the mail about where and when to report for a medical screen. After the two of these he will have a psych test done as well. Once he hopefully passes all of the above then he will get a final offer letter that will disclose the location and also his date to start at the academy in Oklahoma for his three to four months of training.

So you now you know about as much as me! Which is not much, but we are just pleased that things are moving along. We just hope they don't move along too fast, since I am due in 6 weeks and i want him here for that!

In the meantime he actually got a promotion at his current job along with a nice 4,000 raise so we are glad that we can finally get me that van regardless of what happens! Good thing too since this little boy will be here soon and we have no where to put his car seat!

NST ( Non Stress Test)

Some of you have asked about how these have been going so I thought I would just post about them. The reason I get NST is because I have had a stillborn because of a placenta problem. The NST measures the baby's heart rate and also amniotic fluid both of which are impacted from the placenta so if they usually can tell if baby is doing okay in there. I get mine done at the University of Utah hospital up on the second floor the same place that the ultrasounds are located, just across the hall from labor and delivery. They have you sit in a lazy boy type chair and first they have me recline it all the way back. Then then they use a little ultrasound machine to measure the amniotic fluid levels. I also get to have a peek at my little boy ( yep still a boy! He likes to show us the goods every time) They check his position and then put a heart rate monitor on him. Also they put a contraction monitor on because if i have one they like to see how it affects his heart rate. They tell you the test takes 20-40 minutes. What they are looking for is his heart rate to accelerate twice in a 20 minute period and then return to baseline. The heart rate accelerates usually when the baby moves, just like ours does if we ran up the stairs. While I am waiting I also am supposed to push this little button every time I feel him move and it makes a mark on the paper strip that the other things are recorded on. I can choose to either sit up for this or stay partly reclined but turned to the side with pillows supporting my belly and back. I usually recline and then read a magazine or chat with the lady doing my checks. I know her pretty well by now since she did all of mine with Theo twice a week for 2 months!

So yesterday I had a NST. I hurried up there as soon as Cory came home to watch the kids. I was late so instead of taking the elevator i walked up three flights of stairs from the parking lot, and then another two flights in the hospital. I got lots of looks from strangers.. but hey just because i am pregnant doesn't mean my legs are broken! I got up to the second floor, used the restroom, and got settled in my chair. She got me in there and hooked up, then got me a cup of water because i was sooooo thirsty! I love water at the hospital, because they have this ice that is little balls and I love to chew it. I sat there for about 30 minutes.. she kept checking the monitor print out and sat there right by it after a bit. By 60 minutes I was starting to wonder why i was still there?? I could feel him moving around a bunch, so I assumed they had lots of good accelerations. With Theo my problem was he would sleep and be lazy so his heart rate would not go up and they had to wake him with a buzzer. So this baby being awake and kicking i thought would produce a quick session. She called over the other lady that works in that area to look at my read out. They talked about it for a bit both acting concerned. The woman that does mine has been working there for 31 years, so i assumed she could have read the results on her own by now and was a little worried she needed to talk to the other nurse! I asked what the deal was as i could see the print out and it looked like a tight zig zag so i knew his heart rate was fluctuation and didn't see the problem. They told me that it just keep going from 130 to 140 then back again. Even when he moved it just kept the same pattern.. I guess it needed to go up higher like 150 or 160 when he was moving. At this point she left me on the monitors and riped off my sheet to go show to a DR across the hall at Labor and Delivery. Of course now I am on the verge of freaking out. In all the times i saw them with Theo they only talked to the Dr once and they just called him and asked what to do and then i had a high level ultrasound since he wasn't moving. ( he was fine, just liked to sleep alot) She came back and said they were going to monitor me a bit more.. so for 30 more minutes she manually held the monitor and chatted with me. After that they consulted some more and decided to just send me home, and my next visit to have me come in the morning to see what he does then.

So of course i come home and scour the Internet to see if i can find anything about his heart rate doing that. I couldn't find a thing. This little boy likes to give his mother anxiety. I hope that he is okay in there and things just were not showing up right for some reason that is no big deal.

Porter, star wars, and name my baby!

Porter was running around the house with his two bowling balls like this. I didn't think much of it at first until he shouted " mommy look at me! I am a woman!" Hehehe.... Kids are so funny.

Porter is so big now.. I cant believe it! He is on the verge of learning to read, and he is really into spelling right now. He loves to assemble words ( with foam letters) and then asks me to pronounce them. He also will pick out letters in signs and such and then tell me what they are in... like he will see the T in exit and tell me there is one in his name too.

We went and played miniature golf on Saturday and this kid is actually good! He had a purple ball of course, and got it into every single hole on his own. He then wanted to play at the batting cages.. but I don't think he is big enough for that and all i could picture was a fun ER visit with him and a bloody face. He screamed all the way to the car over that one. Theo was there too.. but all he did was follow us around the court while carrying three balls and trying to kick our balls.

In other news.. we still have no name for this baby boy. Any and all suggestions would be great! We can not agree at all. Right now Cory likes the names Arthur and Austin and I like Preston and Elliot. I guess we need a new name we both can agree on because we are too stubborn to agree on the ones we have already. Porter wants to name the baby ArthurD2... which he thinks is the same as R2D2 from Star Wars ( he says them the same) So Cory has him on his side.. I told Cory porter doesn't get a vote!

funny side note, porter also told me " Mommy i don't want my name to be Porter " I asked what he wanted it to be then and he said count duko (not sure how its spelled...from star wars... he is a bad guy)

So yes.. Porter is just a tad bit obsessed with Star Wars right now... he loves to play fight with his light sabers, and will use the force on you ( he makes a krshhhhh sound while holding his hands up towards you) He has played the Lego star wars game on the x-box for countless hours and you would be amazed at how well a three year old can handle the controller! Its his new obsession... Cory is thrilled. Every fathers dream, right? star wars and video games.

Update on the ATC job

This morning Cory received an email from the FAA. As most of you know, he has been going through their application process since last June... apparently the government really takes their time. Just as a recap he was invited to come and test for them back in January and passed in the well qualified range. He had then been put on referral lists for all sorts of locations that he applied for and the waiting game began. So the email today said he has been chosen to interview for a job in Texas. It did not specify what part though, and he had applied to positions in the following five locations: Dallas/Fort worth, Houston, El Past, Lubbock, and Abilene. We are to reply to the email and then we will know when he actually interviews. After that he will also have to complete a security screening, medical evaluation, psychological evaluation, and drug test. I have heard ( well read actually from my online browsing of Air traffic controller forums) that this process can take a few months. Just thought I would let you know so you can pray it all goes smoothly!

I am hoping that at the interview they specify what location we are looking at. This is for two reasons; first his pay would depend on the size of the facility and location ( there is locality pay) and I want to know what we are looking at financially, and second I would like to start learning everything i can under the sun about where we are going (like where to live etc)!! ( all assuming this works of course!) I have spent most of the day today online already looking at the housing markets in all of the locations.. and am really pleased! Housing there is about half as much as here, so that is always a plus!

Now of course this is all still tentative.. and i do so hate getting my hopes up! I cant help it though. So you all can get your hopes up with me so if it doesn't work you will know why I am being such a downer!

And just like that.. its summer!

We have had temps in the 80's this week! It was weird to go hot so fast.. but we are loving playing outside and enjoying our back yard. The downside is that our bedroom is on the top floor, while the air conditioner is in the basement, and i guess its not the best unit because our bedroom is HOT HOT HOT!! Its so hard to sleep at night. The sad part is i already feel this way and the highest temp we have had is 88! I bet you all cant wait to hear me complaining come mid July when I am 38 weeks pregnant and its usually 110 degrees here! I might sleep downstairs at that point!!

Today was Porters last day of preschool. They had an hour long thing and the parents were supposed to come. We stayed for 15 minutes. Porter was actually done about 30 seconds in but we waited long enough to get his year end diploma and a fathers day thing he made ( purple hand prints! ) from his teacher. They had all the kids sit in chairs and sing some songs from the year. Porter wouldn't go near the chairs.. he sat in Cory's lap on the other side of the room on the floor. He also covered his head with his arms and sat there curled up the whole time. We were delighted later to hear bits of the songs in the car though. He just was too overwhelmed with the change of routine at preschool combined with all these parents and people he didn't know there. Add to that clapping and chatter and it was just overkill. I wonder how the kid is ever going to survive the public school system.

After that fun time, we headed off to my 30 week appointment for the baby. Baby looks good, measuring well and heart beat sounded nice and fast! However my anemia has dropped again.. which is so frustrating to me. She suggested eating red meat EVERY day... just the thought makes me want to barf. I am just not a big red meat eater. I don't know what else to do. I also lost a pound.. which i guess is bad because she gave me a hard time about it. She asked if I was eating.. ummm YA! I eat all the time! Then she turned to Cory and asked him " is she eating?" Okay, does she think i am lying?? Do I look like a small person? I started out this pregnancy heavy so I don't see what the big deal is.. i have gained to date 14 pounds so I am not too worried plus i have 10 weeks left! I must say I was not upset i hadn't gained any weight... but hey I have a lot of fat left over from the last three pregnancies so maybe the baby is just feeding off of that! lol. Everyone pray though that my anemia gets better because i am Sooooooo tired all the time. Also as my levels go down i get many head aches and breathlessness ( is that a word?). I feel like such a sub standard mother/housewife right now because I just don't have the energy to do much. So if you stop by my house pardon the mess!

Oh and had to add... at my appointment Theo wanted to come up on the table with me and the midwife helped support him while she measured my belly and listened to the heartbeat. Theo was so interested and had this calm thinking face on. It was really cute! I wonder what he was thinking, if he remembers the sounds of the womb that he heard with the Doppler. Wonder if he knows there is a baby in there, understands more than me maybe!

Going Private

I know that the blogging world is not about privacy. But after getting stats on my blog I am surprised of all the people that read my blog all over the world. Since I didn't start this blog to be witty and have people read it ( I started it to keep my out of state family and friends in touch with my family) I don't really see why random people would want to read this? But apparently they do.. I guess they are really bored because my life is pretty slow going and not exciting! I have decided that I don't like random people reading my blog and me not knowing it. I guess i dont mind you reading and not posting ever.. just i mind not KNOWING you are reading it. I like to know who is checking in on me! Anyways.. so if you read my blog, and want to keep reading my blog please respond with your email address so when I go private you will be allowed to still view! I really don't care who wants to have access.. just like the thought of knowing who does! I will go private in a few weeks, so respond by then!