Update on Everybody

Hi! Hopefully this will be short and sweet. I've been having trouble getting here to post but that's okay, it just means I'm busy!

First, the most important news: Mark started a new job today! He's been somewhat hesitant to tell people about it, because it's actually through AccountTemps and it's not permanent yet so he's still kind of paranoid. But the good news is it's a job and it has benefits, which is pretty much all we care about. It doesn't pay very well but hopefully once they make it permanent that will change. It's at Wells Fargo in downtown Des Moines and I know nothing about what department it is or what he'll be doing, just that they want to create a new Senior Manager position but it hasn't been approved by corporate or whatever so they're hiring someone on a temporary basis until they get the position established. Hopefully, obviously, that's Mark, so definitely keep up the prayers.

Mark's mom is still doing very well with her chemo. We had a great visit with her a few weeks ago, and Mark's siblings are all kind of taking turns visiting her one at a time and then we'll all go there for Thanksgiving. Nothing much to report, actually, which is a good thing. :)

The rest of us are doing about the same. Grace is climbing up on furniture, learning new words (so far: "oh no!" "Sha-oh" for Shadow and "Daddy!" - I'm still "non-non" and her brothers are usually "Bob.") She's been spending more and more time at the baby-sitter's and that's been going well. I think I'm going to keep working as much as I can until we can get caught up on bills and stuff so it's nice to have a place to bring her. My friend is literally 3 blocks away and she has kids in Jacob's and Sean's classes so we already trade kids on a regular basis anyway. We even borrowed her cat this weekend hoping he would catch some mice for us, but he was too content to just eat Shadow's food and lay around waiting to be petted so he had to go back home.

When we went home a few weeks ago, we also visited all the grandmas and all of them are doing great. My brother is still being an idiot and his choices seem to be getting worse instead of better so I definitely still covet your prayers for him and his family. Everyone responds differently to stress and Mark and I know better than anyone how hard it is to maintain a marriage when you're all stressed out, but it's very frustrating to watch him go through this. I keep struggling with what else we can do about it from a distance, and I think prayer is probably our most powerful tool. Please continue to pray for Cory and his family.

That's about it! Sean had to go to the University for a blood test last week but we haven't heard the results yet so I'll let y'all know about that later. Have a happy halloween!!

Laurie

Update

I know it's been a while, but I do have some updates. First, Mark's mom is doing very well so far with her chemo. It's been somewhat frustrating to wait so long between treatments (she wasn't healing from her incision very quickly) but in general she's doing okay. We're pretty excited to finally be able to visit this weekend and see her in person.

Second, Mark is still unemployed but our finances do seem to be working out okay so far. He's had several leads with 3 different "head-hunting" groups in the last couple of weeks and he's optimistic they'll be able to help him out. In the meantime I've been working a lot and he's kind of enjoying the time home alone with Gracie. :) Since it took so long to start getting his unemployment checks (it's been six weeks and we still haven't received any) we actually qualified for Medicaid for the entire family, which is awesome so we don't have to pay the $1000/month for COBRA, and it's kind of weird/embarrassing but we even got a debit card with money for food stamps ! I can't believe we're actually getting food stamps. We found out a few days ago they finally wrote the first unemployment check so we won't get any of that stuff in October, but the Medicaid thing helps a lot because we have another 60 days to find insurance.

My grandmas are also doing much better. My dad's mom is still in Sanborn in the nursing home there and it turns out she's really enjoying it! I don't think she or any of her kids would have predicted that, but she's been very content making new friends and having other people make her meals for her. So as far as I know she'll be staying there for a while. My other grandma is still having issues with her hip/back but my mom said she started physical therapy so hopefully that will help.

And lastly, our vehicle situation: we did get the first problem fixed right away and unfortunately had to shell out some money for that, but we're hoping to fix the brake problems ourselves this weekend. My dad and Mark think maybe they can handle it and we can get the parts cheap through my dad's shop. We've only put on about 500 miles so all we have to do is get to Sioux Center and then we should be fine.

I do have one new request but I don't feel comfortable sharing too many details yet. My brother Cory and his wife live in Orange City and it seems they are having some financial and marital problems right now. Mark and I are very sympathetic because we've definitely had our ups and downs before, but I don't know if there's a whole lot we can do except pray for them. Please keep them in your prayers for the next couple of weeks as they try to figure out what to do next.

Wish us luck this weekend with the van repair and also for a great visit with all the grandpas and grandmas! The kids and I don't have school on Monday so we're making it a long weekend and it should be a good time.

Love,

Laurie