A New (Work)Day

The past few weeks have been a pretty big life change for the Winns. After a great vacation to Grand Cayman, Jarom flew off to Wisconsin for a second week of training for his new job. While he was away, Alixa hosted a baby shower for a non-acquaintance with Jamie because Grandma decided to fly off to Denver on short notice and forgot about her prior commitments. She also made all sorts of preparations for the big move down to Richmond, which took place on Saturday after Jarom returned. We drove the four hours south caravan style, with Lix piloting the Camry and Jarom driving the newest addition to the fleet, Grandma’s old Infiniti. Best Christmas present ever. Jenna decided to be a terrible passenger, screaming her head off non-stop between Delaware and DC before finally running out of gas and falling asleep. Upon arriving in Richmond, Nate came over and helped unload the cars, after which they went by his house to eat dinner with Kenz and see Kenna. It quickly became apparent just how nice it would be to have some family already living in the area, as they gave us all sorts of hints about stuff we would need and want.

Sunday morning meant a new ward, and one of the first things that Jarom noticed when he sat down was his old roommate Joel sitting up near the front of the chapel. Joel is an interesting character, and there will undoubtedly be more about him in upcoming posts. Sunday evening the Winns went over to the Winns for dinner and to meet a couple of Jarom’s new coworkers, Jeff and Gina. The food was good and everyone enjoyed the differences between Jenna and Kenna. Jenna sat in the middle of the rug and amassed toys while Kenna scooted around backwards.

Jenna and her treasure trove

January 18 was day 1 at Bon Secours, and through nearly two weeks it has been pretty good. Most of his days are spent meeting new people and nodding his head while pretending to understand what people are talking about, even though he really has no clue. But the people he works with are great, and they seem to enjoy their job, so he is confident that he will too once he figures it out. For now he isn’t really allowed to do much other than study for his certification test, which he will take next Tuesday. It is sort of like the bar exam in that he can’t really start doing his job until he passes it, only it is about 1,000 times easier. He has also enjoyed immersing himself in the corporate culture, which is everything that Dilbert says it is. Long, boring meetings with too many people trying to talk over the top of each other, water cooler gossip and backbiting between departments, and telling the boss that his tie is really sharp looking even though deep down you think it is ugly. Good times. But he likes it, and they have started depositing money in his bank account every other week, so no complaints.

Jenna is a shellfish and isn't quite ready to share her stuff with a younger sibling,so she helpfully reminds her parents to be careful

After one week in Richmond, Lix and Jarom grabbed Jenna and left me to watch the apartment while they drove to Knoxville to move all of our stuff. They got to hang out with some friends, maybe for the last time, and the weather was so nice that Jarom got to go play a round of golf on Saturday morning in his shorts. On Sunday Jarom left the girls and drove back so that he could be at work on Monday morning. That left Alixa in charge of the move, which she called “the worst day of my life.” It involved 8 hours, one baby, and no bed to take a nap in. She became progressively more upset with Jarom for not being there as the day went on, but did a great job taking care of everything. She flew back with Jenna on Tuesday, another very long day, and was quite the grumpopotamus when Jarom got home from a late meeting at about 8:30. Fortunately, that phase is now over and she can spend the bulk of her time looking for a more permanent residence. This is the most exciting thing that Alixa can imagine doing. For the last 5 years she has been preparing for this experience by watching between 1 and 2 hours of House Hunters per day, and all that research will hopefully pay off when she finds the perfect starter home for us to live in. She has already gotten to work with a realtor here and can’t contain her enthusiasm.

Finally, if anyone is interested in a trailer that is in need of some repairs and can swing by Lakeside, California, Jarom is selling one for $400. Or at least Jarom is fielding the calls since Paul decided to list his number as the contact info. For what seems to be a pretty dumpy item, it sure has gotten a lot of attention.