My Life

I think this is the most boring time in my life. I never thought before that I could stay at home all day long. But I think that because the weather is so hot and I have to carry my weight around I would prefer to stay home. I should enjoy this time of my life staying home before the baby comes and do nothing, but this is not me at all. It is funny that now I love to spend time with Andy so much because I have no one around me. I wait for him everyday like a home maker. It is strange but I will try to make it positive and fun. I think I will have more things to do after I know whether we are having a boy or girl. Yes, I am getting BIG. Kristin wants to see my belly … but too bad! We tried taking pictures a couple of times, but the pictures didn’t come out very good. I think you will have to wait and see me on Thanksgiving if we are going back home. Now I am about 4 1/2 months. Every time I look at my belly, I can’t believe that my belly can grow this BIG. I am getting nervous about how big I will become. I can’t wear any of my clothes except maternity clothes. Most of the time each day I spend looking at my baby clothes and window shopping in the Internet. This is what I do before my job starts.

I went to PF Chang’s and I felt like I was at home. Everything looked the same and I could explain everything to my friends. They were impressed. Actually, it makes me miss Milwaukee more . I can’t explaine how much I miss Josh, ***Ty****, Sam, Abbi, Taylor, and the McDonald kids.

Start to School

Another milestone has finally arrived.  Tomorrow are the first two classes that I will be teaching at JSU.  I am fortunate to only be teaching two classes this semester, and they are both on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I am ready to go now and I am excited as well.  As for Jet, she is still waiting to hear back from Colonial Bank to find out when she will be starting there.  To give you an update there, last week she accepted the offer and met with the HR people.  She also had her drug test taken.  She was told that she would hear back sometime this week when she will be starting, so she is a bit anxious while she is waiting.

Yesterday Jet spent the day with one of the faculty member’s wife and daughter (they are from the Philippians).  They had lunch at P.F. Chang’s in Birmingham and visited the Summit mall there too.  Afterwards, they stopped back at our house and Jet made Papaya salad and grilled some beef with sticky rice for them.  She had a great time.

I have started looking into Talladega tickets for when Dad arrives in October.  There are 3 races that weekend, an ARCA race on Friday, the first truck race at Talladega on Saturday, and the Cup race on Sunday.  There are nogood seats available for the Cup race from the Talladega website, so I have been keeping one eye on eBay the past day or so to see if any good deals are available.

Atlanta Footy

I played my first match with the Atlanta Kookaburras, the Australian football team that is closest to Alabama.  They play in the same league as the Milwaukee Bombers – in fact, they traveled to Milwaukee two weeks ago and lost to Milwaukee by about a 100 points.  Needless to say, the team in Atlanta is not as good as the team in Milwaukee.  Incidentally, the opponents of Atlanta were the Nashville Kangaroos, who were the last team that I played against with Milwaukee in July.  Milwaukee won that match by 80 points.  Nashville was expected to be a much better team than Atlanta, but Atlanta led by about 20 points (50 to 30) going into the final quarter.  Atlanta did not play well in the final quarter and lost the match by 11, 72 – 61.  I played a few minutes in the game, for which I was grateful, but did not play an extended period of time since the Atlanta coach did not know me that well.

I have included a picture that Jet took of me before the game.  The first thing Jet said when I put on the Atlanta uniform was, “Great!  Green Bay Packer colors.”  She could not have said it any better.

Job Offer!

About 24 hours after Jet’s interview with Colonial Bank in Pell City, she got an offer for the Branch Sales Supervisor position.  Factoring in the cost of living adjustment, the offer that she received is similar to the base pay that Jet was getting in Milwaukee at Chase.  The major difference is that this is a vertical move for her to a management/supervisor position that takes advantage of her graduate degree.  This is obviously great news for us, but the thing we are thinking about now is what we will do when the baby arrives in January.  If Jet decides to accept the offer, she will have to take the mandatory drug test and background screening, and would start her first day of work in about 2 weeks.

The other big news is that we are considering coming back to visit Milwaukee at around Thanksgiving.  Still early in planning, however, so don’t count on us making it just yet.

Since we haven’t been seeing any comments to our posts, Jet and I were wondering if anyone was still reading our blog.  Are we too boring?  Got nothing to say?  We always look forward to reading your comments, no matter how brief they might be.

Another Abigal?

We had our get-together today and it was a great success!  Jet made spring rolls, pud-see-ew, and mussaman curry … and everyone loved it (of course) and I made my cheesecake.  Jet had a good time talking with some potential new friends and enjoyed spending time with a faculty member’s new baby, Andrea.  The strange thing is that she has an uncanny resemblance to Abigal!  Abby, Andrea … I have included a picture of the two below; can you see the similarities?

Tomorrow Jet has her interview.  I have been helping her prepare for some potential questions that she might get, but she really doesn’t need the practice.  She is just a natural in interviews.  All this week I will be at school working on my final preparations for the two classes that I teach this fall.  My orientation is on Friday, and my first day of class is on Thursday, August 31.

 

Job Interview Scheduled!

Turns out that Jet’s contact with Colonial Bank in Anniston came through for her and Jet now has an interview scheduled for a Branch Sales Supervisor position on Monday at 9:00am in Pell City, which is about halfway from our house and Birmingham (25 minute drive).  So far Jet has received this great bit of news with caution and reserve, although I don’t think she has to worry about anything since she exceeds all of the qualifications for the position and she always does well in face-to-face interviews.  Hopefully we will have some exciting news to report early next week!

Yesterday morning (Friday) we woke up at 3:45am so that we could be the first in line at the Birmingham DMV for Jet’s drivers license.  If you recall, since Jet is a foreign national (has a green card, not citizenship), she has to go to Birmingham to get an Alabama driver’s license.  I am not sure if any Department of Motor Vehicle is more backwards than Alabama’s.  They run on a first-come, first-serve basis and there are no appointments made for behind-the-wheel drivers tests, written tests, etc.  You just arrive as early as you can, take a number in line, and wait for hours until your number is called.  Jet traveled to Birmingham last week with her Mom to take care of this, and arrived at 10:30am, but apparently this was too late since they had already had too long of a queue for that day.  They are open until 5:00pm.  They told her to go home and return back another day before 6:00am.  They open at 8:00am.  I had a similar experience when I went to get my Alabama drivers license in Jacksonville in that I arrived at 6:30am so that I could be first in line.  Lucky that I did since by 8:00am when they opened, there was over 50 people already in line.  Getting back to yesterday, we left our house at 4:40am and arrived at the DMV in Birmingham at 5:30am … and we were still not the first in line!  We were fifth!  While waiting in line, we met two Vietnamese students that go to school in nearby Gadsden, so it gave us a chance to make some potential new friends.  By the time that the DMV opened at 8:00am, there was nearly 100 people in line.  Everything went smooth for Jet and she had a good picture taken, so I suppose it was a successful trip.  By the time that we left at 8:30am, the DMV had already put up signs around the building that they were taking no more people for the day and for them to return another day.  Remember, they close at 5:00pm.  Totally backwards.

On Sunday after church, we have invited two faculty members and their families to our house for Thai food.  I am very excited about this because it will be our first chance to host people in our new home and utilize our large kitchen for cooking.  I am also looking forward to this because the spouses of those faculty members are really looking forward to meeting Jet and to becoming fast friends with her.  Hopefully this will make things much more interesting and welcoming for Jet now that her Mom is back in Thailand.

One last item to note … I had a celebrity sighting at the Atlanta airport on Wednesday morning when we dropped off Jet’s Mom.  As we were walking around the airport to get to the United check-in desk, we were passing through a security check-point.  Low and behold, standing right in front of us in the short line was none other than the Reverend Al Sharpton.  I was reminded by this encounter today when I saw this story in the news.  I guess I now know where he was traveling.

More Pictures …

Here are some more pictures from the final days that Jet’s Mom was here with us.  Included are pictures from Noccalula Falls in Gadsden (40 minutes from our home).  Unfortunately during this time of year, the Falls is more like a Trickle.  However, we were told that the peak time to see the Falls is in the winter, as can be seen here.  The park was very nice because it had the Falls (which has a nice story behind its name), a mini-golf course, a train-ride that takes you through the entire park, a mini-zoo, a botanical garden, and several buildings from the 1800’s.

Also included are pictures from our visit to Atlanta when we took Jet’s Mom to the airport to return home.  Her flight left on Wednesday morning at 7:30am, so we arrived a day early, did some sightseeing, and stayed in a hotel close the airport (Howard Johnson) so that we would not have a problem with Jet’s Mom missing her flight.  When we first arrived in Atlanta on Tuesday, we visited Stone Mountain Park, which is a modest theme park that features monuments to the Confederacyfrom the Civil War.  As we were about to take the Sky-ride up to the top of the mountain, however, they closed the ride due to an approaching thunderstorm.  Next we visited underground Atlanta and the World of Coke.  The pictures that we took made the visit worth it, but both places were disappointing.  I guess I did not really know what to expect, however.  At the World of Coke, they had a lot of Coke memorabilia and the free Coke at the end of the tour.  Thinking that I wanted to get my money’s worth, I decided to drink as much Coke and other soda from around the world as I could.  After about a dozen cups of soda, I started to get a bit of a headache and stomach-ache, perhaps because I haven’t drinken much soda lately and was not used to the sugar-rush and also because I hadn’t had anything to eat yet … a bad combination.  After our tour of downtown Atlanta, we checked into our hotel and then did some shopping.  After our long day, we went to eat at a Thai restaurant nearby our hotel.  I found it funny that it was the first Thai restaurant that we visited during Jet’s Mom entire stay with us, and that it happened on her last night with us.  Jet absolutely loved the food and believed that it was very authentic.  She plans to visit there to eat again if we happen to be in that area in the future.

In a previous post, Jet wrote about how she misses her Mom.  She was very good when she said goodbye at the airport, but it got difficult once we started to drive home and she realized that she did not have her Mom with her to talk to and joke around with.  She will be missed, but we are very happy that Jet’s Mom had such a good time with us.  We look forward to the next time she visits again … perhaps around New Year’s Day.

                

New Beginings

My Mom left today and I feel very sad.  After we came back home to Alabama after dropping her off at the airport in Atlanta, I could not stop crying for a while.  She has been such a good mother and even better friend for me during her visit.  She cooked and prepared food for me for (at least) three meals a day.  In addition, she prepared all of my favorite dishes and always sliced my fruit for me to eat (the way I like it!).  I miss her dearly.  My Mom was always concerned about what food I could eat so that the baby could get healthy food.  When we went shopping to get baby clothes, she didn’t like the fact that she could only buy yellow and green.  She really wants to know the gender of the baby so that she can buy lots of clothes in Thailand.  She bought me a bassinet from Baby’s R’ Us, but Andy didn’t like the fact that we could only use it for a couple of months.  We are planning to return it for something that can be more functional for us.  We will know the gender of the baby on September 7th, my first doctor visit in Alabama!

Our new house is too big for for me.  I miss Milwaukee so much and I don’t know how long it will take for me to get used to life down here.  I really miss working and I do not look forward to the possibility of staying home by myself.  I am looking for a job, but nothing has turned out yet.  Andy told me to be patient, but I don’t want to wait and would be willing to take any job offered so that I can make new friends.  I don’t want to think about being alone too much.  I wish that I could go out with my friends or visit my nieces and nephews.  It is only a 12 hour drive, but it seems so far since I will only see you around twice a year. :(

More about my pregnancy, there is no more morning sickness for me.  I think that the baby has grown a lot during the time my Mom visited and I have put on a lot of weight.  Now I am about 127 pounds … I think I gained a little too much.  I do not eat any junk food, but I have to eat a big meal otherwise I will be hungry again.  It will take some adjustment now that my Mom is gone and is not there to cook for me.

Going Home

The time has finally arrived for Jet’s Mom to go back home.  Her flight leaves from Atlanta at 7:30am (6:30am Alabama time) and with the potential for longer security checkpoint lines as well as the hour drive from Oxford to Atlanta, we are planning to spend the day in Atlanta tomorrow and stay in a hotel close to the airport.  Hopefully we don’t sleep in!  We are planning to visit the International market again, visit Stone Mountain, do some shopping, and (if we have time) take a tour of the World of Coca-Cola.  It should be a bittersweet time for Jet and I as we share our final moments with her Mom before her trip back.  In fact, Jet has been pretty depressed the last few days, perhaps in part due to the pregnancy and the stress of finding a new job, but also because she will miss her Mom dearly.  Jet is just awful with goodbyes to her Mom too.  Hopefully Jet will be able to keep in mind all of the memories she shared with her Mom over the past month and also look forward to all of the exciting things to come in the coming days, weeks, and months.

We are just about settled in (finally!) our new home.  I finished hanging most of our pictures yesterday and putting away the last of my clothes.  I have been attending church in Jacksonville the past two weeks since it is the place where a few of the faculty members in my department attend and I have always wanted to attend regularly again, but never made the time for it.  In the upcoming days, Jet and I will have some of those faculty members over with their families for a mini-house-warming party.  Nothing too fancy, but it is something that will help us to prepare for hosting dinners for our new friends as well as the official house-warming party likely in a few weeks after the fall semester begins.

As I mentioned earlier, Jet has been a bit stressed looking for a job.  She has possibly an inside track on a good position at a bank in Pell City, which is about a half-hour from our house going towards Birmingham.  During our first visit to Alabama, Jet was able to speak briefly with a manager at Colonial Bank in Anniston, who was impressed with her credentials.  Although there are no positions available in Anniston (about 10 minutes from our house), there is in Pell City and she told Jet that she would try to help her get an interview for the position.  As for other opportunities, her good connections with Cheaha Bank did not help because they have no openings at this time.  Finally, there are a few bank teller positions available in Oxford which Jet might pursue if nothing comes through – with the hope that she would be able to advance upwards within those companies as those opportunities arise.

Andy Ciganek, Firefighter?

Just another average day in Oxford, Alabama.  I returned home from school at around 10:30am after printing out some resumes for Jet.  When I arrived, the cable guy was just finishing installing our new phone line and Internet service.  It wasn’t more than a few minutes when Buddy 1 stopped by to “help” with our garbage problem.  In our garage, we have been stacking empty boxes from moving as well as trash bags since our first garbage pickup will not happen until Monday.  Buddy 1 suggested that we just burn the boxes in the empty lot across the street, as it is something he does “all the time”.  Not thinking it through, I lugged the 20 or so empty boxes with him across the street and set them ablaze.  Buddy 1 mentioned that I should check on it in a few minutes just to make sure that it burned out.

About five minutes later, my jaw literally hit the floor when I looked out our front door.  The small fire we started was not out, but instead had turned into a raging blaze with flames shooting up nearly 30 feet!  Turns out the mound of unknown items a few feet from the fire we started was filled with old, dried grass clippings as well as discarded wood and razed trees, among other items.  Since the weather has been dry here lately (not much rain) and there was a brisk breeze blowing, it likely did not take much for the small fire to travel over to the sleeping tinder-box for ignition.  I ran over to Buddy 1’s house and he looked as shocked as I was.  After letting the flames calm down, we connected our garden hoses together and Buddy 1 sprayed the blaze with as much force as our house could give.  At the same time, I shoveled dirt on the flames and other hot-spots for about an hour.  When I was too tired to continue, we figured that it had no chance to spread and that it eventually would go out … but to check on it every so often to ensure it did.  I snapped the pictures below four hours after we stopped fighting the blaze.  It is about to rain now, so I am pretty confident that the fire will go out soon (I hope!).

Just another average day in Oxford, Alabama. 

By the way, our new home phone number in Alabama is 256-405-1188.