Our biggest test of faith yet!!! aka. update on jon's job search

Our faith is being put to the test. After quiting my job about a week and a half ago while having 3 job interviews lined up I found out that those "ENTRY LEVEL MARKETING" jobs were bogus! They were misleading in their descriptions and they turned out to be door to door sales, all day long with only a tiny percent of commission. I found many sites on line of people citing these companies as rip offs and scams. Sarah and I were devastated. I had just quit my job and now we had no possible job leads and very little money. Quit honestly we were sick. I asked my dad for a Priesthood blessing and I was told that all will work out, to have patience, be faithful and to be positive. We then went to the Temple and felt a reassurance that we had indeed done the right thing in me quitting my job and that we are being lead somewhere and I needed to quit my job for that to happen. It has been a week and half and still no interviews but things are looking up.
Stress and worry has been apart of our home this past week even after all the assurance, it's still scary running out of money with a family of four and no prospects. I gave Sarah a blessing the other night and she was told that this would all be over very soon.
One issue I have had in the job search is not having any straight career path I wanted to go into. I have been applying to all sorts of jobs with no real direction. All that changed after I went to a career workshop at our Stake Center last night. We were working on finding a career industry that we wanted to pursue then finding a job listed in the back of the book under that industry. I picked management and listed under that in the back of the book was an Insurance claims investigator. I have an investigative nature and really enjoy serving and helping others. I STRONGLY believe that this was NO coincidence that this job was listed under management and that I came across it. I now have a path and direction into a career I can get into. Today I have applied for at least 10 jobs in this field, all requiring skills I have!
Our Father in Heaven is mindful of us and puts tests in our lives to see how faithful we are and if we will rely on Him. I know that we will be OK and that all will work out.

Just so much FUN!

I have to admit, I am a craft store junkie!! The worst kind. Sometimes I go to Joann's or Michael's just to look at all the fun stuff they have and to get ideas and see what is on sale, even if it is nap time and I have two cranky kids with me. I find that Katelynn, my almost 3 year old, has gotten so use to leaving the house before lunch...that's when I get my craft store fix, that when she sees me putting on my jacket or shoes she asks where we are going, even if I am just headed out to the trash she thinks we are going shopping. A few weeks ago she asked if we were going to "Joann's", like it is a persons house.

Well, with all of my trips, I have picked up some goodies and now I am getting a chance to use them and see my ideas blossom onto or should I say out of paper. I mentioned a few posts ago that my friend and old roommate Melissa got me hooked on a new web-site http://2sketches4you.blogspot.com/ where they have weekly challenges. Well, if you like crafty stuff you should check it out.

Here is my card for Laura's sketch #18, hope you like.

BIG Sisters and Stickers

For those of you with older siblings, you will totally understand this video clip of my two girls. Here is a little background on the story so you don't wonder why little Lauren is just lying there on the floor. I was getting my day going and doing things around the house like laundry (you can hear the washing machine in the background), dishes, and making my bed. Well, Lauren was getting fussy so I was doing most of this while holding her but when it got to making the bed that was a little hard one handed. She had fallen asleep while I was holding her and I had to put her down somewhere because I couldn't make the bed with just one hand but I also couldn't lay her down on the bed because I was going to be pulling and tugging on all of the sheets so the next best place was on the floor next to the bed. That is where this little adventure all began...

For those of you who are the older sibling I'm sure this brought back memories...yeah you know who you are...picking on your little brothers and sisters. Well, as you all know, the picked on one usually gets you back sooner or later.

(P.S. you have to pause the music on our blog to hear the video clearly)

Another Fun Card

Here is another card I did for sketch #18 but I only enterd one in the contest for last week. I love the "little people" and have found lots of creative ways to use them in my projects!

Fun New Card

So, one of my friends got me started on this web-site http://2sketches4you.blogspot.com/ that is really cool. They do weekly contests and I thougth I would give it a try. Here is my card for

#18 sketch ~Sarah Jane

Another update about Jon's job search

I have some very exciting news! Although I don't have a new job yet, within the past two days I have set up three interviews!!!! I have two on Friday in the Seattle area, one of which is just around the corner from the Seattle Temple and one the following Tuesday again up in the Seattle area. These are entry-level Marketing and Advertising jobs that require no experience just the right personality. We are really excited. To get to these interviews you might think that I would take time off from the job I currently have, well think again I am quitting tomorrow (Jan. 21)!! The company I work for, Terminix Pest Control from what I've heard doesn't give you your two weeks when you give them notice, they just have you quit then. so I'll be letting them know tomorrow and then I can devote all my time to finding a new job. It hasn't been easy to set up interviews while having a job, I've had a couple interviews I have had to cancel because I wasn't able to make it to them because of work.
Yesterday after a lot of thinking and prayers and even a blessing from our neighbor, Sarah and I decided this was the right step to take, even though I don't have a secure job to move into yet. We both have felt that even though it is scary to quit a job and all the possible implications from that monetarily, we are supposed to take this leaf of faith and that things will all work out. If we didn't have the gospel I think we would be a mess. We have felt that Heavenly Father is guiding us and that it is our time to step into the darkness having faith that He will be there and lead us to safety.
We love you all and thank you for your prayers and thoughts. Look forward to hopefully the final "update on Jon's job search" early next week.

Update on Jon's job search

So since graduating from WSU in December I have applied for a good, I'd say at least 20 jobs if not more. I have only heard back from three. One is a job in Pittsburgh, PA. Yeah I'm serious. It is with a marketing and advertising company offering entry-level positions with training. I applied for it cuz I thought, why not? I got a call about it, they want to meet with me but we are trying to figure out how that would work. It doesn't pay to much so we are having to decide if it is worth uprooting our family to go across the country, leaving all our family behind for a potentially low paying job. We'll see what happens. The other two are Financial Advisor positions one with Edward Jones and another company. I'm pretty interested in Finanical Planning so we'll see what happens there I have a phone interview on Monday (19th). I have just recently applied for a bunch of Marketing entry level positions in San Diego with a few different companies. So a lot of applying and waiting. I can not wait to start a new job and move on from my current job.

Give me your thoughts :)

SO, for all those people out there who check our blog and like paper crafting I want to know what you think. I am a novice card maker but hoping to aspire to more so I am posting some pictures of a few cards I have made in hopes you will give me your feed back. Some of them are not completely finished yet but the ideas are there. If you have anything to say...such as if you like/don't like them or would change the layout of the card or any other thoughts, send them my way.

This one is not complete, it needs a lot more embellishing or something...but it is suppose to be a birthday card.Valentines is just around the corner and I am getting a jump start on the holiday. I like the concept of the "Love Monkey" but Jon tells me the colors are not quite right, what would you do differently?This is one of the first ones I put together and I like it as a prototype and will probably stick with this idea...maybe tweak it a little.

This is a baby card, I realize after that you can't tell if it is for a boy or girl because it has both pink and blue, I have yet to put the lettering on it but it will say something like "Baby" or "Congrats" or "Girl".

This is the latest one I have done and personally my favorite...okay, I admit I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning putting this together...hey, when you have kids...the only peace and quiet I get to my self usually happens at that time of the morning. The colors on this card are a pale lime green and a light faded gray which are really complimentary. What girl doesn't like shopping for shoes ?!

This is a large tag with a background of light pink and the frog is a faded green with pink spots and a pink tummy. Cute and simple (sorry, I don't know how to rotate the picture)

Thanks for your comments in advance

~Sarah

Family Pictures

When we spend the holidays with my family we all get family pictures. This is ours, enjoy!!
We also had a picture taken of Katelynn and James her cousin who lives in Rexburg, they're pretty cute together.

These last two were taken on the day I was suppossed to walk in graduation in Pullman wa , we weren;t able to get there because of the weather so along with some graduation pictures we took a few family pictures.

Here's a few pictures of Christmas. Katelynn has a cousin 10 days younger than her, James and they had the best time playing together. They didn't quite understand Santa yet but they still enjoyed opening all the presents.

Oh and how grandma loved spending time with her newest granddaughter, our Lauren. She is really growing fast. She's just now starting to talk a little more and make funny sounds and smile.Here's Sarah and Katelynn sliding down the driveway This year we spent Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Rogers in Puyallup Wa were we obviously had a white Christmas. Katelynn went up a few days early with my sister and brother-in-law and their little guy James to spend a few more days playing together and to give mom and dad a little break, boy it was nice but it didn't take long for us to miss her. After we opened presents we went sleding at a nearby subdivision that has'nt been built up yet and went down a big hill with a jump made at the bottom. I took Katelynn down on her first ride and being Daddy I wanted to go really fast so I pushed off hard and as we got going we tipped over and Katelynn did a faceplant in the snow and really scratched up her nose and cheek, there was even a little blood. Needless to say she didn't really want to go down after that.

Christmas was great and we all enjoyed spending time with family. Christ gave the greatest gifts of all, those that come from the Atonement, what else do we need?!

2009 is going to be another adventurous and great year for us. I'm all done with school and am now finding the perfect career, who knows were it will lead us, we have two growing, super cute kiddo's and my sister is expecting their second kid.

Happy New Year!!!