Friday is Heather's last big test of PA school. It's an enormous test, I think around 450 questions or something like that. Then next week she has a group presentation, then she's done with the academic side of PA school! So, keep her in your prayers the next couple days!

Last time I blogged I mentioned we were looking for a new car....well we got one!

I was considering getting a new car, but decided that if I could find a good deal on a used car with real low miles, that it would be better for us. I watched Craigslist pretty closely for about a week. I saw a few different cars I was interested in, but most of them weren't quite what we wanted. I finally called about one car that I didn't think would work for us (I didn't think it had AC, which for us was a must in a new car after being without it for the last 4 years or so!). It turned out that it did have AC, and it turned out that it was only about 2 blocks away from where we lived. So I managed to go over and see it and really liked it. It's a 07 Ford Focus with under 21,000 miles on it and still 1 year on the factory warranty. The price was pretty good and so I was a little suspiscious of that. A similar car/price we had looked at had turned out to be a salvage title, so I almost expected this one to also. But we got a Carfax report on it which came back clean and showed the warranty to still be valid. Also, I took it to our local mechanic to have him look it over. He said it looked like it was in great condition. So, I went for it. I even managed to talk them down a bit more on the price. Really it fit perfectly into our budget and we were able to pay cash for it and not worry about getting a loan or anything like that! It was very providential how that worked out, since just a couple months earlier we wouldn't  have been able to do that. We've now had it for a couple weeks and I really like it. It's certainly not the best car out there, but it is the nicest car I've ever owned and it gets the job done. After driving in my old car for the last few years, it feels like a luxury car to me.

Last night we enjoyed the annual St. Patrick's Day feast at Mom and Dad's. I arrived late because I had to work, but the food was great and so was the company.

As usual, the weather here is quite nice. We are in the low 80's today! I even had to get the fan out of the closet!

Other than that, I haven't been doing to much, just some paperwork for Westminster stuff. I am trying to get started with preparing for classes next fall. I'm trying to do some reading and I'm also going to be starting reviewing my Greek pretty soon. I've got some good resources for refreshing my memory on that stuff...hopefully it all comes back!

We are looking forward to seeing Dave and Andrea Gordon next week! It will be fun to see them again. I don't think I've seen them since Wendy's wedding.

That's it for us...Hope you are all doing well!

Not everyone has abandoned Xanga, see?

We have been half very busy lately. That is to say one half of us have been very busy and the other half has not.

Heather is the busy half this month. She is in a surgery rotation right now and the doctor she works with is crazy. He works ALL THE TIME!!! Heather is working about 75-80 hours/week right now and there is even some shifts that he has not made her stay for that he still works! I can't really imagine working those types of hours, but she is managing it somehow, though she is pretty much exhausted all the time. So, she works 75-80 hours/week, plus add another 7-8 hours of driving time for the week. On top of that she somehow has to find time to do all the schoolwork for the month: write a paper (she's gotten that one out of the now), prepare a presentation (I think she's got that one mostly ready), and study for her next big test which is coming up soon (that's a work in progress still). To make it worse, some of the shifts are work are basically back-to-back 12 hours shifts with just a couple hours break in between. In other words, just enough break time to fall asleep and make yourself more tired. After a couple shifts like that you're really not in any kind of state to do the aforementioned schoolwork. I think we're both glad February is a shorter month than most. Oh I also forgot that she is also supposed to be deciding where her next 4 rotations will be and possibly getting them set up herself in the middle of all this. Yikes! Thankfully, the doctor is a very nice guy and easy to get along with. It certainly makes all that work much easier when you aren't putting up with a nasty doctor. If she had this many hours with some of her previous doctors, well, it wouldn't have been real pretty. She continues to get high marks from all her doctors (no surprise there) and they are all a big encouragement to her. I am certain she will make a great PA!

As for myself, I have been working pretty regularly at Outback, I have been able to get a few more shifts each week recently, mostly from picking up shifts from other people that don't want them. I really like it at this Outback. The people are all real nice and the store is very well run. the clientele is also very good and so the tips are pretty good. I have been looking for a second job for a while though. Unfortunately, nobody is hiring in this economy. Most places won't even let me fill out an applications. Most of the ones that do won't give me an interview, and the couple of restaurants that have given me an interview haven't been able to work around my schedule (since I really just need week day lunches). No exaggeration here, but I visited, called, or otherwise contacted almost every single restaurant in Escondido (there are a lot more than you would expect!). I even turned in applications at the mall for retail positions. I've also been monitoring craigslist for anything and have sent my resume to a couple strange different places that might have the hours I need. Still no luck......until this morning. Randomly this morning I got a call from one of the restaurants I used to work at when we used to live here: Old California Mining Co. (OCMC). When I had previously talked to them they didn't have any positions available, but they said they would hold onto my application in case something opened up. Apparently something opened up and they are willing to work around my schedule like I need. It was really a surprise and completely unexpected this morning. Especially since today is Valentine's Day and the restaurant will be really busy today I wouldn't think they would have time to be doing stuff like that. Anyway I am very thankfully for this. It should be just what I was looking for. The Lord has provided for us once again!

So that' the big stuff going on right now for us. Who knows what the next month will bring!
Happy Valentine's Day