Shane's small update

Hello everyone. Jessica pretty much summed it all up in her post below but I just wanted to add a bit. The two job interviews that I have tomorrow are entry level; however, the starting pay is just a few thousand less than what I ended up making with Spinellis after 8 years with them! So not all that bad. But as Jessica pointed out it is simply temporary, on my part, until the Subway franchise gets closer to reality. I have applied for the franchise and have heard back from them that they are sending me their Offering Circular and that I should receive it in about a week from now, that is the next step in the ownership process so I am excited about that.

We like this blog and intend to continue to update it. Especially when little Oliver joins us :)

Oops!

We kind of left everyone on the edge of their seats about our situation and haven't updated since! We are back in beautiful New Hampshire. We arrived back 330am Thursday morning after our flight was delayed for 4 1/2 hours! But we made it home in one piece, and thats all we cared about. For me (Jessica), its just a waiting game now. I'm in the home stretch of the pregnancy,so everyday feels like an eternity! I'm 35 weeks, so I have 5 weeks to go. It feels like I've been pregnant for about 3 years and these last 5 weeks feel like ANOTHER 3 years! Its good to be back home, though, and not worry about the medical aspects of having a baby abroad. I'll have my own midwife and I'll be able to understand what the people at the hospital are saying to me:) Our childbirth classes start October 6, so I'm excited for those, I squeezed in just in time, I will be 39 weeks for the last class! Theres a chance I might be going to it with a baby! It will be a good chance to make friends with some other new moms in the area.
Shane has two job interviews tomorrow which is very exciting. Both are low skill, customer service/sales positions, but we just need something to hold us over until we know more about Subway and it gets up and running. If all goes well, by tomorrow night he will have a job in Concord!
Thank you everyone for all of your support during this crazy time in our lives...but at least it makes for some good reading!

Has it really been a whole year already!

Ahhhh what life throws at you sometimes. After a closer inspection it appears that we do not have the finances that we need to be comfortable for the year and beyond here in Scotland. After much prayer, talking, and council it has lead to and abrupt turn-around. Jessica and I will be heading back home to the States tomorrow.

See you a lot sooner rather than later...

Goodbye wee Scot.

More Subway

What Shane didn't bring up was the circumstances of his hiring. When we went into Subway for him to apply, 3 people handed in their CV's to the manager. Shane went up to the manager and said he'd like to talk to her about the job. She said that if he had time right then, she would talk to him. She was too busy, so she scheduled another time, was sick, so scheduled another time. At that talk she basically described the job to Shane as if he had it. She signed him up to do unpaid training the next day, and when she checked on him while he was doing his training said to him "I knew you were going to work out!" While he trained, several other people handed in resumes. He starts his regular shifts tomorrow. We are incredibly blessed that this process went so quickly and in Shane's favor. This can only be attributed to the amount of prayers said by ourselves and our friends and family about the need for this job. We want to thank everyone for their support during this trying time. This job has shown us that Heavenly Father still keeps us in his thoughts and does listen to our prayers!

Job update and gass prices fun

Well, I got the job. That was some easy stuff. Worked the 5 hours (unpaid training) last night. It went smooth. I have eaten at Subway so many times before that I didn't really even need them to show me what to do with the sub making. They kept asking me, "Are you sure you have never worked at a Subway before?" LOL.

Thank you all for the well-wishings. It is comforting. One of the biggest challenges that Jessican and I have faced is being away from our social support structure (i.e. our friends and family).

And now for the fun of it I took a picture of gas prices over here in Scotland - you think you have it bad?

This picture was taken near our flat, probably a 3 or 4 minute walk. That is 90.9p (p = pence which is like our cents.) a liter!

Lets do some quick math. 1 US gallon = about 3.8 liters. lets mulitply 90.9p by 3.8 and you come up with £3.45 a gallon roughly. So then now lets convert that into USD per gallon at the conversion rate of 1USD = 2.05BP and you get about $7.00 a gallon.

$7.00 A GALLON!!!

My classes + a part time job??

Well I got the seminar calendar and I was surprised to see when my classes meet. For the most part I only have ONE class a week and they don't actually start until October 1st:

Mon 1 Oct: 2-4pm
Fri 5 Oct: 9-11am
Fri 12 Oct: 2-4pm
Fri 19 Oct: 2-4pm
Fri 26 Oct: 2-4pm
Fri 2 Nov: 2-4pm
Fri 9 Nov: 2-4pm
Fri 16 Nov: 2-4pm
Fri 23 Nov: 2-4pm
Fri 30 Nov: 2-4pm
Fri 7 Dec: 2-4pm
Wed 12 Dec: 1pm
Fri 14 Dec: 2-4pm

This for a price tag of $17,000 tuition and $14,000 room and board :)

Well, I have been assured that I will be very VERY busy with school work while not in classes.

In addition, I may have landed a part time job working for Subway. Today I go in for a 5 hour (3pm-8pm) Unpaid training session. After that they will decide if they will hire me on. The pay is minimum wage at £5.35/hour. Which doesn't seem much until you convert that over to the USD in which case I am making $11.oo/hour.

Well, It will cover groceries anyway. If I get hired on I will be working 20 hours a week (The max that I am allowed under the student Visa) and I will be working day shifts. Although I was warned that I may have to do an occasional night shift if someone becomes ill or goes on vacation. Didn't seem bad until I learned that this Subway is open until 4:00am!!

Jessica and the new Pram (stroller for all you Americans)

Here is Jessica modeling off our new pram that we picked up today. Mom - we got the one that you liked best :)

Look its for twins!!