New Opportunities for Erica

I have been asked to interview for the Human Resources Manager position at Mid-Columbia Children Council (a Head Start program that serves three Oregon counties and two Washington counties in the area of early childhood education). My interview is this Friday at 10 am. Please pray that I have wisdom and poise in answering questions. Paul is helping me prepare for the interview.

Also, please pray for the best outcome. With the current state of the economy, it could be a risk to switch jobs. However, the Head Start progam has proven to be a long standing social program. Under Obama, who claims to be in support of early education programs, it may continue to thrive. I am assuming it receives funding from two state programs in addition to the federal monies, which could be a good sign at its stability. These will have to be questions I ask the interview panel on Friday.

The difference in this new position from what I do now as an HR Assistant is that I will actually have a hand at directing policy and the direction of HR programs. Currently, my role is to implement the programs determined by my boss. The new position is the only HR staff person for the entire five-county program, and therefore, I would be the boss (underneath the Executive Director of course). The new position will allow me greater responsibility that will no doubt be helpful to me in my future career in Human Resources. It will be of high enough level so that I can begin moving towards my professional certification in the field (kind of like recieving a nursing license). In addition, at Head Start I will be around an atmosphere of learning, a subject of high importance to me since I am a book worm and self proclaimed nerd at heart.

I have this overwhelming feeling that this opportunity is happening for a reason. Sometimes when things fall into place you have to let them land where they will - I am trying to allow myself to truely belive this. Please pray that doors will be opened that need me to walk through them, and to make it clear if the door is bolted shut.

It is always difficult to leave a position you enjoy and I have never been good at feeling like I am letting someone down. But I have to realize that I must do what is best for me and believe that my current organization got along without me before and will continue to survive without me in the future. I realize I may be getting WAY ahead of myself, as I don't know the competition I am up against for this job. But - the planner in me can't help but consider all options at the forefront. Wish me luck (or not, if that is the way it is supposed to go!)

I’ve been converted…

I am hooked on camping! I don’t mean the sort where you lug everything on your back and you have to hike out with everything you bring in, but more like the subdivision variety -- where you may get noisy neighbors from time to time, but a hot shower is never more than a short walk away. Maybe later I can graduate to the wilderness for more than an overnight stay.

Paul and I recently got back from a camping trip down the Oregon coast. We had a blast together – we rode our bikes, explored small coast cities (although not as much as I would have liked), played cards by the campfire and made camp coffee every morning. I think the thing Paul and I enjoyed the most was setting up and tearing down camp. By the end of our trip we had it down to a science – each with our own tasks to perform. Our campsite served as our home away from home.

Each night we played cards until the sun went down; I was victorious at Gin Rummy but Paul snaked me at Speed & Yhatzee (don’t tell him but I let him win). Paul usually retired to bed early and I read by the light of my headlamp until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. If I woke up in the middle of the night, I hoped it was almost time to get up so we could make coffee. Something about coffee made in a French Press over a camp stove makes my heart go pitter patter (especially with Cinnamon Bun creamer – yum!) As the end of the week approached, I was dreading having to return to a routine work week; I did NOT want to go home.

When we returned home Friday we didn’t quite jump back to our normal routines and we had a short stay from Mike and Lori until Monday. The rest of the weekend we attended a triathlon, a luncheon, a rocket party (quite amazing) and hiked at Lost Lake – I also enlisted Lori’s green thumb for some gardening advice. As I was still in the camping spirit I fell in love with Lost Lake, a small lake 20 miles from my doorstep complete with lake view campsites. If only we had discovered it earlier…we could have been camping there all summer. I guess there’s always next year!

Below is a slideshow of our vacation; if you click on it you will be able to see it larger and you can read the captions.

Green Thumb

WARNING after reading this you could feel…

…jealousy, feelings of being less than or not worthy of. Or you might be pondering, “How do they do that? I wish my garden looked half as good.” Insert any cliché that pertains to people being jealous of THE GARDEN OF JONES.

This is Erica & my second attempt at tending to a garden. The first was in California; that garden did a great job of feeding all the deer in the neighborhood. Since then I have been determined to try gardening again. Earlier this spring I went to the rental center, rented a rototiller and cleared a small patch of dirt for the garden.

As a result of the Master Gardener course Erica took last winter, we had some great resources about what to plant in our area. I also asked the locals what to plant and, more importantly, when to plant. After gathering all this info we planted our garden over the course of a few weeks.

So far we have enjoyed the following: lettuce, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes (Roma & cherry), eggplants, peppers (hot and bell) and zucchini.

Next year - watch out folks! After our first Pacific Northwest gardening season behind us, we are going to pull out all the tricks from up our sleeves. We are even thinking about starting a booth at the local farmers market…