The light at the end of the tunnel

What a week in the life of the Winns. Last Sunday Jarom and Alixa went to their old ward to say goodbye to their friends and had a wonderful dinner with the Zufelts, who they will miss now that we are leaving. Monday was spent closing cable accounts, returning library books, packing up clothes and assorted other stuffs, and generally getting ready for about 6 weeks on the road. Monday night Jarom had to go to campus for his final squared. On Tuesday morning we all got up and headed out early so that Jarom could be at school by 8am to present his master's project. He left Alixa and I in the car to sleep, and was back by about 8:10. It turns out that he had misread the email that gave the presentation schedule and he wasn't supposed to present until 10am, which would explain why there wasn't anybody there yet. Unfortunately, Jarom had an interview for a job in Richmond at 3pm, and Richmond is 6-7 hours away. An executive decision was made, and we left. Jarom called his professor from the road, and he was very understanding and accomodating, and it shouldn't prevent him from getting a diploma.

The drive went smoothly, and at about 3:00 Jarom once again left Lix and I in the car and headed in to try and get a job. The interview went well, and he was offered the position of Prelude ADT Support Application Coordinator for Bon Secours Hospital System, Inc. The job title is pretty self-explanatory, but I have been surprised in the past by the level of intelligence among my readers, so I will go into further detail. Jarom will be helping to change the hospital's patient care system from a paper based model to an electronic model. In truth, I can't tell you much more than that because Jarom doesn't really know anything else. The whole process has been very accelerated. Jarom will actually start tomorrow by heading to Madison Wisconsin, where the predicted low on Tuesday is -7 degrees, for a week of training. But he is very excited to be starting a professional career, and the company is great and there are lots of perks like vacation days and relocation assistance and a salary, none of which he has ever had before.

After getting the job, we continued on up to Delaware to reunite with Jenna, who had been hanging out with Grandma for the last ten days. It was late when we arrived, but we woke Jenna up and she seemed very happy to see her parents, much to Alixa's surprise. The next two days were spent faxing employment contracts back and forth and getting to see all the new tricks Jenna had learned, like only drinking warm bottles and pooping up her back. By Friday it was time to head towards Cleveland, where we would settle down until after Christmas. It has been a bunch of years since the entire Hegewald clan has been together, but everyone will be in Ohio in another week. Jenna got a new, improved jumper so that she can demonstrate her skills to Mimi and Opa, who are appropriately doting as first time grandparents should be. Jenna is getting chunkier by the day, and is starting to turn into a real person. She talks a lot, mimics people, grabs things, rolls around, and is generally curious about everything that is going on around her. She will be six months on Christmas, and Alixa is very sad because she misses her little baby girl. This is bad news for Jarom, as she will undoubtedly begin asking for another baby, especially since he now has a job. Jarom is content with just the one for now, and is very sad that his new job will take away the days that he got to spend alone with Jenna, but I guess those are the tradeoffs that you have to make if you want to have any money.

The next few weeks will be good ones for us. We will be in Cleveland until the new year, and then we will go back to Delaware to join Grandma and Grandpa for a trip to the Cayman Islands. I say we, but I really mean everyone except me, not that I'm bitter about being left out or anything. I guess the trip is to celebrate Jarom finally finishing school, and they are extremely excited about it. Then Jarom is off to Madison for a second training week and then we will move down to Richmond about January 15. The company has some apartments there that we will be living in until Lix is able to find a house that she likes. So in general, a lot of big changes going on here, but all very positive ones, and we are very excited about them.