I then got to work on CootieGirl’s room – the first coat of paint is done to cover up the mural. I’ll put on a second coat after lunch over the entire wall to get a uniform blue on that wall. If I have enough paint left, I may do a second wall – I’m not sure about that one yet. Marmie tried to talk me into it last night. I’ll only do it if I think I have enough paint once I put on the 2nd coat this afternoon.

It is raining here today, so no pool and no laundry yardwork. As such, I’m also hoping to put the first coat of black paint on the cedar chest in the formal living room and get that project done early (rather than waiting for Thursday. My lunch got postponed to tomorrow so I’m hoping to get a lot of the indoor stuff done today if at all possible (heck, I may even go out and get the paint for Cootieboy’s room if I can decide which shade to use and paint the first coat in his room).

MONDAY:
1) Go to lunch with L-Train and Nic on Monday.
2) Paint over the mural in CG’s room - I’m doing a nice beachy blue color on that one wall. She has requested a beach theme in her room.
3) Mow the front and back lawns.
4) Go to the pool and relax in the sun while listening to my audiobooks.

TUESDAY:
5) Rearrange furniture in CG’s room.
6) Paint over the ocean blue wall in CB’s room and take down vinyl wall art – he’s had a Finding Nemo theme since we moved here three years ago. Time to do something else in there. He says he wants Indiana Jones.
7) Go to the pool and relax in the sun while listening to my audiobooks.

WEDNESDAY:
8 ) Shampoo all carpeting in the house
9) Go to the pool and relax in the sun while listening to my audiobooks (sense a pattern here?).
10) Go see Harry Potter with Denis.

THURSDAY:
11) Do some outside yard work – getting up old wood mulch, and the rubber mulch.
12) Paint cedar chest. It’s off-white right now and is covered in marker ink since the kids tend to color on it. I’m painting it black. No visible marker ink then!!
13) Go to the pool and relax in the sun while listening to my audiobooks (sense a pattern here?).

Then on Friday afternoon I’ll leave for Virginia to pick up the kids, while Denis enjoys a couple days of solitude again. I’m actually half-tempted to wait and drive up on Saturday rather than Friday, so that I have one more day to do anything else that needs doing before the kids get home.

PROS:

• It’s cheap to get certified. Only $700 and 143 hours of study (which includes active time in an ambulance).
• The hours would be decent. I found a newstory about our local EMTs that says the shifts are usually 24/48 – meaning you work 24 hours straight and get two days off.
• Working 24/48 would allow time for freelancing. I like the idea of still being able to do some freelancing when I’m not working the EMT job.
• I’d be home with the kids. 2-3 times a week (depending on the timing) I wouldn’t get to see the kids, but 4-5 days a week I’d be home. An example: Work 24 hours Sunday. Off Monday & Tuesday. Work 24 hrs Wednesday. Off Thursday & Friday. Work 24 hrs Saturday. Off Sunday & Monday. Etc. The kids would only be in after school care a couple times a week.
• Additional education. To move from an EMT-Basic to an EMT-Intermediate is $300 in course fees and less class time – but jump in pay for additional certification.
• Could lead to other things. Being an EMT may lead to other things – even possibly a full paramedic if I find I have a passion for it.

CONS:

• The hours may be rough. Sure, 24/48 sounds good now – but will I like it once I’m actually doing it?
• Initial pay is low. The initial pay will be low to start.
• Let’s face it – it’s a depressing job. Car wrecks and suicides. Old people having strokes and toddlers drowning in pools. Can I handle that?

Do you have any other pros/cons that you can add to the list?

When I was in high school, one of my spiritual gifts was mercy. Is it possible that I still have that gift? And could this be my way of using it?

Lots to think about. Classes start August 5-6, so I have about a month to decide if I want to give it a try. There’s a cop and a firefighter at my church – I’m going to speak to them about it and find out as much as I can from them – including actual job prospects were I to do it. I’d hate to spend the $700 and get certified only to find there aren’t any jobs after all.

He took me up on the offer and she arrived last night. It’s a 7-year-old black labrador. Cooper (who isn’t a small dog) looks small next to Kahli!! *lol* But Kahli is a sweet dog and was even gentle when the cats came out to see what was going on (Mini, our most skittish cat, was the first to meet Kahli and Kahli was VERY sweet and instinctively knew not to pounce on the cat but approach slowly and let Mini take charge of the sniffing).

Kahli was nervous the first hour she was here – constantly pacing and panting and drinking water and inspecting. But finally she jumped up on the sofa next to me and laid down (still getting up whenever I got up though). Even though I invited her upstairs to sleep with us in our room, she stayed downstairs all night. And this morning she bounded up the stairs to greet me. I fed her some breakfast and she is now contentedly sleeping at my feet here in the office. No pacing. No panting. It’s like she’s always been here.

“Mama, where did I stop before?”

I flipped forward in the book by about 60 pages to where we last did a lesson. He immediately started reading the words – barely struggling. It had been so long since we read in the book that I figured we’d need to go back 4-5 lessons to remind him of things, but no – he picked right up where we left off, reading words like “started” and “leave” and “very” and “near” with only slight hesitation as he correctly sounded out the words.

He’s gonna kill it in kindergarten. Seriously – he’s going to be so far ahead of his school chums that he may end up being REALLY bored during the reading part of class.

The girl wore her new swimsuit to the pool – it’s very cute. Her brother had three suits to her one, and her one was getting very worn out since we’ve been going to the pool so much this summer. So now she has two and it’ll help them last a bit longer this way.

In other news, starting Wednesday night we’ll have a visitor at the house – a black laborador retriever. A couple from our small group at church are doing the family vaca thing and I figured since I’m home all day every day we could watch her for them. So Cooper The Dog will have some company to play with Wednesday – Tuesday!

Did some grocery shopping today. Had a nice haul (picture to come). In the end I spent $34 and saved $64. My best sale was getting 10 candy bars for $1. They are on sale for B2G3F this week, but I also had three coupons to get FREE ones. So I bought ten – six came free with the deal, then 3 were free with my coupons. So I only paid for one. Nice!

The rest of the week will be a fun week for the kids before they go to camp. Tomorrow we’re hitting up the free movies at the local theater (either “Horton Hears A Who” or “Journey To The Center Of The Earth” – both of which the kids have seen and liked). Wednesday I think I’ll be taking them bowling (they get free games all summer). Thursday I don’t know yet what I’ll be doing with them – maybe Discovery Place in Charlotte or the Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville. Mix in some pool time, and they’ll have a blast this week in advance of Camp Marmie next week in Virginia.

As for freelancing, I’m still in the middle of a project and have been told to expect more edits to one part of the project, but have yet to receive them. So I’m just kind of planning my week and will fit in the freelancing around my plans. It’s a long-term project through the end of the month, so it’s not like the stuff I get will be particularly time-sensitive.

Got a free RedBox rental code today (good ’til midnight tonight if you want to go rent something really quick): 4J7LF6. I wanted to rent fluff (”Paul Blart: Mall Cop” anyone?) but all the fluff was already checked out, so I got “Gran Turino” instead. I like Clint Eastwood and have heard good things about this movie.