Hunger Games

Daniel's Shirt

My shirt

New one of a kind art

Daniel won a tv last week and we decided on some things that we wanted to buy instead. We had bought some fabric in Utah while visiting for December. With some of the money we bought 3 frames to create art work for over the bed. 

Pictures always turn up differently than real life, but I am very happy how they turned out. We also bought some natural florals and I painted a vase that the previous home owners left. This goes on our dresser.

We also got Daniel a new PS3 game so he had something to show for his awards. We still plan on buying some wood to recreate a piece we saw in a store. 

Unexpected Twist

This week didn't start out the best, on Tuesday I was let go from my job. I had been getting restless and didn't like my job and was basically going only because I had to. Well I was really upset driving home on Tuesday and felt super bad and didn't want Daniel to worry about finances and stuff. When I got home Daniel told me that he had called a dealership to sell his truck to and said that it was at least an option. I promised him I would look for a job and get one by the end of the week. The following day I had to go back in for one more hour to finish scanning a file, after that I decided to hand out my resume at some nearby,locally owned stores and see if I could get something temporary. On the second place I went into (a bridal boutique) at first she said she wasn't hiring anyone, but then we sat down and she interviewed me and showed me around her shop. She asked me if I would be interested in just helping out on Saturdays when they are the busiest and just doing odds and ends. I said I would love to do that. She told me that she would pray about it and call me at the end of the week. That same day the Cedar Hill recreation center responded to the resume I had sent in a week ago for the assistant manager position. It is a part time position, but I was happy to have any job until the end of the summer. Saturday came around and Daniel and I said that we would go out to the Dodge dealership and see what they could do for us about selling it to them and how much we needed to pay if we needed to at all. We also decided that we would go talk to WIC and try to get onto food stamps and any kind of government assistance we could in case it was longer than 2 weeks that I was without a job. We got to the WIC information place and they were closed for lunch and would open again in an hour. So we decided to head over to the dealership first. When we got there we talked to a guy named Shaun. He had helped Daniel and his family to buy all their cars now and before. He asked us what was going on and Daniel said "well my wife just lost her job so we were wondering what our options would be. Right now I am driving a work truck so my truck is definitely a luxury and we need to cut back on our luxuries." And Shaun said "Well why doesn't she come work for me?" We were totally in shock this was not what we were expecting. We asked who we would need to talk to and he said "Me. I'm the General Manager. Can you be here on Monday?" We asked him about salary and he had me fill out an application.
It is amazing the way the Lord works. I was sure I was not going to be able to find a job for some time since I had been looking for other work the whole time I was employed. In the same week of being fired I had the opportunity to work at three places. I am excited for the new opportunity to be selling new cars and hope that I will be decent at it.

Above and Beyond!

Today at Daniel's job they had a "retreat". I would call it more of a training since they didn't go anywhere and they were mostly just listening to speeches. However, they did do awards. Daniel was given an "Atta Boy" award. This is received by techs and managers who have gotten calls from customers through the office saying how much they loved the service they received and that they really appreciate all the company does... and so on. Next he got the "Above and Beyond" which is a national award in his company. His company is part of a company that is based in Phoenix, but they are owned by a company that is based in Maryland. So this is a very cool award and no one has gotten it here. He got this award for adding recycling to the company. When he was just a tech they had 2 big, acid covered dumpsters and were paying way too much not to mention all the things that could be recycled were just getting thrown into the landfill. By adding recycling he cut annual waste cost by 20%. This may not be a huge thing to some, but he added this improvement in the first 2 months that he was hired as Regional Manager. This is the letter that his General Manager, Ryan, sent to nominate him for this award:

2011 Above & Beyond Award.  Nomination:  Daniel Schneyder, Regional Manager.  Daniel came back to the pool business after finishing a degree in Spanish.  As a residential route tech, he grew his assigned route by 80%, from the smallest revenue to the largest.  When he was promoted, we had to split it because no other person could handle the workload he had been doing week after week.  This was done without focused advertising, just word of mouth and effective customer communication.  As manager in charge of all residential service, he hit the ground running.  He pro-actively contacts customers to get issues resolved, equipment repaired, and parts replaced.  He effectively teaches and trains techs, strengthening their weaknesses, meeting them poolside as needed.  He recently decided to broaden his scope of pool service by “diving in” head first to commercial service.  He rode with the commercial manager, two techs, and then filled in proficiently when vacation schedule offered an opportunity.  He has worked hard to learn CAIS, and is broadening his expertise to include payroll, advertising, and helping with our IT networking needs.  Daniel saw an issue with our weekly trash removal.  We were throwing away large amounts of recyclable material.  He contacted the disposal company, changed our agreement and service, added a recycle bin, and now we pay 20% less each month for being greener.  If there is a problem, Daniel will asses it, resolve it, then tell me about it.  It’s wonderful to have his initiative as part of our team.

Besides having the awards and listening to some presentations, they also had lunch and did some role playing to help the techs when they get into tight situations, like how to control the situation and help the customer understand their role in keeping their pool nice. But aside from this the main reason they were all really interested in going was because they were doing "door prizes" or a raffle. They gave away a $25 gift card to Chili's, a $25 gift card to Best Buy, a GPS, a Kindle Fire, and a 40" TV. After all but the TV were given away Daniel thought his odds of being drawn were slim, which he was totally fine with, but then his number was drawn and he won the TV!
Since we don't need another TV, we plan to take it back to Best Buy and investing it back into some craft projects for me to spruce up the house.

I am proud of Daniel for doing all that he can in his job and trying to go above and beyond in every aspect of  it. I know that he doesn't like being rained on or the heat of this cruel Texas sun, but he does it every day and for the most part enjoys it.

Blood Test Results

At the end of January I had my blood taken so they could do the Counsyl test. When I first met with the doctor the following week he said that all my blood work had come back and that I was fine and nothing had shown up, so when they told me that the Counsyl test had come back with a positive on one of the diseases as a carrier I was totally shocked. With the Counsyl test they test for 13 diseases and 163 variants. All the diseases must have both people must be carriers for your child to have a 1 in 4 chance of getting the disease and then if both do not carry the same disease the child could just be a carrier in turn. Luckily, I am only a carrier of 1 disease, Spinal Muscular Atrophy. When they told us the whole staff was not sure what it was and had to rely on the paperwork we received from Counsyl. So we decided to have Daniel tested and are waiting for the results.
SMA has a range of types 0-4 the higher the less it affects the person. Daniel and I are being optimistic and aren't looking too much at the symptoms until we know for sure that it is a real chance of our baby having this.

Guest Bed

In preparation for the baby, Daniel and I decided to take advantage of a sale at a mattress store. We have been looking for a guest bed since we moved in and have laid on the cheapest mattresses there are. The problem is usually they only have a one year warranty(because even the factory doesn't have faith in it) and they all have the same problem they are springy and not comfortable. We were firm on our budget and last friday we went out to Irving and bought this mattress.

It is very comfortable and we are hoping to make a headboard next. We aren't sure if we will keep it this quilt or use my brown comforter set. We are excited for our next visitor as far was we know it will be the Dow's in August.