Good News

Thursday morning, I got an interesting phone call. I was getting ready to go to DSHS to apply for assistance when the phone rang. It was my eye doctor's office. The receptionist there (also the owner of the practice) asked me if I was still looking for work. I said yes and then she asked if I would be interested in learning to do her job. She mainly wants me for filing, billing (oh boy I get to deal with insurance companies), appointments and phones. I immediately said yes! I went into the office that day and started training and also worked all day Friday. I am loving it! This was exactly the kind of job I was was praying for!

Sometimes things just don't make sense

I applied for assitance yesterday at DSHS and was told that my family qualifies for food assistance based on our current income now that my hours have been reduced. What's really messed up is that even though we qualify for food assitance, we DON'T qualify for family medical assistance! Hell, if I can't afford to buy food, how the hell am I supposed to afford medical insurance? Luckily, we found out that since he is a registered member of a Federally recognized Indian tribe, he can go to the tribal dental clinic in another town about an hour's drive away and it won't cost us anything but the gas to get there. Hopefully they can take care of his abcessed tooth!

5-20-05

Boy this has been a week of ups and downs. The 2 kids are still missing after the deaths of their mother and brother. I worked my first week on my new schedule of two 13 hour days. My eldest lost his 2 front teeth on top within 3 days this week (we are calling him the "toothless wonder"). It has changed his appearance more than I ever thought it would. Today, I turned in some paperwork to have Dakota evaluated for his speech development. He is 3 and a half now but sounds like he's 2. If nothing else, they can give me some ideas to help him progress even if he doesn't get into the program at the school. CJ had his class play yesterday afternoon. The 1st graders put on a variation of Disney's Bambi. The baby has really been moving around alot the last few days making it hard to sleep sometimes but I would be more concerned if it wasn't. We are really hoping for a girl this time. We have picked out names for both a boy and a girl just in case. If it is another boy, his name will be Nathaniel Kennedy. If a girl, she will be Rhiannon Chumani. Rhiannon is Welsh for goddess and Chumani is a Sioux word for dew drop.


Please sign my guestbook. The link is at the bottom of the page under the Amber Alert ticker and above the site counter.

Still looking

Those 2 kids in Idaho are still missing but the police have contacted a "person of interest" (IMO that is only a euphemism for suspect so the cops can get away without calling them a suspect). Hopefully the kids are found safe. The people who were killed were the children's mother, 13 year old brother and a man described as the mother's boyfriend. All 3 were bound and murdered according to reports.

Missing Children

There are 2 kids missing from Coeur d'Alene, ID. They were discovered missing last night after 3 people were found dead in their home. http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewPoster&caseNum=1014751&orgPrefix=NCMC&searchLang=en_US

That is a poster from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Please print some out and hang them around. Let's bring these two kids home safely. My prayers are with them!

Some very rude people in cyberspace

While I have found that many people online are good people, there are many who are just plain cruel and disgusting. I have been told that some people on forums call this my place to whine. Maybe it is but to me it is more of a place to vent. This blog is not for someone else's sick perverse pleasure at my troubles but for me to keep my sanity and release my frustrations. To those who think otherwise, tough cookies! This is my blog not yours. You don't like what I write, don't visit.

On a side note, I have added the Amber Alert ticker at the bottom of the page. Please check it from time to time and help bring a missing child home.

Sometimes life sux!

I didn't get the job I wanted and was turned down by 2 other prospective employers. I am not working full time anymore thanks to my body's demands. I am now working only 26 hours a week but the downside there is that it is 13 hours a day on Tuesday and Wednesday. At least I won't be on my feet as much.

Because I was off work for 10 days, today's paycheck was extremely short. I was able to buy a few things we needed but not all since $100 doesn't go very far these days. Hubby gets paid next week but his check is already spoken for with the van payment and the utility bill. I think we will need to go to the DSHS office to get some assistance with food at least. Thank goodness Dakota and I are on WIC or we would be in an even worse position!

Update

I went around today looking for work. My husband was off today so I took off by myself (felt like a mini-vacation!). I turned in resumes around Chewelah and Colville. One of the positions I was looking at was filled yesterday. I wasn't too upset over that one since it was only $7.35/hr and only 18 hours a week. On the good side is that I have an interview/orientation tomorrow morning at 8:30 am for a position where I call people to remind them of appointments and such. The job I really want is only 4 blocks from my house as a data entry clerk at a title company. I filled out an application today and attached a resume. I am looking forward to hearing from them. I really want to get away from the casino. I have been doing this for nearly 9 years and I am sick of it. The casino is not a career and cannot support my family.

A Little about Rianon

I am kinda new to this blogging thing but I post on forums all the time so I thought I would give this a shot.

I am a married 29 year old woman with 2.5 kids. I say 2.5 because I am expecting in late September of this year. We are hoping for a girl this time because we already have 2 boys. CJ is 7 and Dakota is 3. I have been married for 4 years.

I have not had an easy life. I was born to an unwed mother in 1976. My father denied me. I have not even met him once. My mother is a wonderful (if annoying sometime) woman. She gave me a strength that not many in my generation have. She married in 1982 and had my sister in 1983. The man she married was an abusive alcoholic. We got away from him in 1990. So for most of my life, it has been me and mom.

I was molested by an uncle when I was 5. He was convicted and is still listed as a Level III sex offender in the state of Washington. I was kidnapped and raped at the age of 14 after we had moved to a small town of less than 2000. I talked him out of worse and was able to give the police his description and license plate number. He was caught the next day.

After high school, I went straight to college. I took classes for 2 years only to find that I was bored and didn't know what I wanted in life. I quit school and went to work at a small Indian casino. I started out in the deli. One day, one of the bosses asked me if I had ever thought about dealing cards. I said no but I was willing to try it. I became a blackjack dealer in August of 1996.

I had my first child on my 22nd birthday (happy birthday huh?). I left his father when I was 3 months pregnant with him. It was for my safety as well as the safety of my baby. CJ's father has never seen him. I do send pictures to the family of the father but he has made no attempt at contact.

When CJ was 2, I moved 500 miles to the Oregon coast to build a new life for myself and my son. I was a 24 year old single mother in a town where I knew absolutely nobody. I went to work in the casino there as a dealer again. I loved it. I found a good babysitter who still finds time to write and come visit even though we moved back to Eastern Washington. It was at that casino that I met my husband. He was a pit boss (table games supervisor). He may not be much to look at but there was just something about him. A friend of his kinda pushed us together. He never asked me out though. I finally took the initiative and asked him to join me for a drink after work at a local karaoke bar. The rest, as they say, is history. We were married on March 25, 2001.

In November of 2001, we moved back to Eastern Washington. I didn't like my doctors down in Oregon so we moved back. Dakota was born December 15. I worked wherever I could after Kota was born. I worked at a telemarketing firm 65 miles away and then at the local McDonalds. I was offered a position at the casino I had originally worked for. They wanted me to come back to work as a manager. I took the job without hesitation.

Fast forward nearly 3 years.....
I am pregnant again with my third (and last) child. I am looking for other work that is will allow me to sit more often like a receptionist or data entry person. CJ, who is in first grade now, has been diagnosed with ADHD and is on medication that seems to be helping. Dakota is a typical 3 year old....a pain in the butt (just kidding). I would just be happy if we can get him potty trained. I am off work for this week, at least, because of an infection that is causing some complications to my pregnancy. Hopefully I can find something else soon.