An offer worth waiting for

For the last several months, Yvonne has worked part-time for a local company here in Frederick.

When she got the job, it looked great. In fact, it was exactly what she was looking for: three days a week, 20 hours total, during hours while the kids are in school, at the salary she requested.

Perfect, right?

Hardly.

Without going into details, it’s been awful, save for a co-worker or two. The paychecks were nice, but she dreaded every day of work. And on her off-days, she dreaded the next-days because she’d have to go to work. Jason kept telling her to quit, that we’d work it out, but she felt like she needed to get a better offer first, so she kept looking.

She’s had some good prospects, and she’s applied for a lot of positions. But the sour job market has turned her search into a form of lottery. In several cases she’s gone head-to-head with 65 candidates, or more. Doing the math, even if only a quarter of candidates were qualified, she was one of 16. And if only a quarter of those were highly qualified, she was one of four. Then, Jason told her, it comes down to hair color, first letter of your name, or some other intangible you can’t control.

Finally, however, after months of searching, several interviews, and dozens of applications, a great opportunity came up. Actually, Jason sent her the position by e-mail:

Job Posting: Executive Assistant
Hiring date: Immediate

Executive Assistant position with private local firm that consults and conducts work in various industries, including engineering, construction, agriculture, transportation, and cleanup.

A small, family-owned business, the two-decade-old firm is newly franchised in Maryland. Conducts work locally and in various locations across the U.S. Successful applicant will find a warm, sometimes challenging, but always rewarding family atmosphere.

Position reports directly to senior partner and provides planning, scheduling, bookkeeping, delivery, and administrative activities for entire staff.

Flexible hours. Work from home encouraged.

Generous compensation and benefits package, including paid vacations and health, dental, vision, and life insurance benefits. Retirement plan includes 401(k) and other savings paid by employer. Housing, automobile, and clothing allowances included.

Successful applicant will be equal with senior partner in the operation, participating in near-term decisions and long-term strategies. Hiring decision will be based on candidate’s skills, experience, overall potential happiness, and commitment to the long-term.

Firm is an equal opportunity employer, but for this position will discriminate based on appearance and affection. Harassment is possible and likely.

No resume necessary. Contact the senior partner with questions or to indicate your acceptance.

It was the better offer she’d been waiting for. She jumped at it, walking out of the job that caused so much angst to become a stay-at-home mom. (Why is Jason the “senior partner”? Simple: he’s older.)

She no longer dreads work. Let’s just say it’s the perfect job for her.

Simplot weekend

Each year has a few dates that are untouchable: Christmas, wedding anniversaries, graduation dates, etc.

In our house, the weekend of the third Saturday in February – Simplot Games weekend – is etched in granite every year. The Games are the nation’s premier national high school indoor track and field event, and its been at Idaho State University’s Holt Arena since 1979.

Jason has volunteered on the Games’ media team for the last 13 years – and he’s been the media team director for the last 10. He enjoys being around the high school athletes, working in sports, and doing what he calls “pure” public relations: lots of good news stories with interesting angles; short review cycles (meaning his stuff gets printed); and opportunities to try new things (like blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter, and so on). Plus, he gets to reunite with a wonderful group of people every year.

For the last several years, it has been a family affair for us. We drove to Pocatello together, and all the kids old enough to volunteer went and helped at the Games. Last year Melissa worked with Jason’s team, Colin helped athletes with their gear, and Carson was a results runner.

This year, alas, it’s simply too far to drive, so we created the new “Jason plus one” rule. He’ll go every year, and take one of the kids with him.

This year, for her last year of high school (criminy!), it was Melissa’s turn. She and Jason flew on Wednesday – and with all the snow we’ve had, they were happy they were able to leave without delay. They got there early enough (thanks to Yvonne driving them to the airport at 4:45 a.m.!) to spend the afternoon and evening with Yvonne’s parents and brothers.

Thursday morning Melissa and Jason toured Idaho State as her official campus visit – and Friday Melissa toured the BYU-Idaho campus with her grandma and aunt. She enjoyed the visits to the two schools she wants to attend – she’s been accepted at both, so now all she has to do is choose. (They told her she needs to decide by June, so we’re guessing we’ll have a decision in…June).

The Games were great, as usual. Jason had a great team again this year, including his friends Amanda (her ninth year on the team) and Kyle (his fifth) and three college interns. And Melissa, who was there for her fifth Games. That experience came in handy when she coordinated athlete interviews during finals on Saturday. (To the amazement of the camera team there doing a live webcast, Melissa delivered each of the dozens of athletes – mostly event winners – that the crew wanted to interview. Jason told them this wasn’t her first rodeo.)

The flight home Sunday was long (another 6 a.m. flight), but we enjoyed getting back together as a family that night, with everyone meeting at the airport and grabbing some Potbelly subs for the ride home.

So next year, same weekend, we’ll be there: Jason, Melissa (she’ll be within a short drive from whichever school she chooses), and, uh, well, we’ll figure that one out next year…

Two Levi-isms

Levi has always had an entertaining view of the world. His age (five years old), his personality, his expressions, and his enthusiasm for saying what he’s feeling add up to some interesting insights. We call those Levi-isms. Here are two recent ones:

Levi-ism #1
Levi was looking pretty glum the other day, so Yvonne asked him what was wrong. He said, “I never got to play tee-ball.”

Yvonne assured him that he was going to get to play tee-ball. In fact, we’ve already signed him up and we’re just waiting for spring weather to melt the snow. Levi was relieved.

“You’ll be playing baseball in a month,” Yvonne said.

Levi’s face suddenly got serious as he realized how soon tee-ball will start.

“Oh crud,” he said. “I’ve got to get training!”


Levi-ism #2
At church yesterday, Levi was sitting on Jason’s lap quietly playing a game of dots.

Levi’s concentration on the dots game was broken by the opening chords of a piano solo. Upon hearing the notes, Levi bolted upright, smiled broadly, and said, “Sweet! This is from Wayne ’s World!”

That’s right. After hearing a few chords, he thought the musical number was going to be a rendition of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. That would have been a sacrament meeting to remember.