Randy started work today doing the safety training. He officially starts his position tomorrow and will be working from 6am-10am M-F at first and then once he’s proven he will actually work and show up they will bump him up to 40 hours with his hours from 6am until 2pm. I love that it’s a first shift job and NO WEEKENDS = YAY. He can get mandated to do overtime on weekdays but we’re OK with that. He’s also starting a few dollars above minimum wage, which we are VERY excited about considering he’s been trying to get a job since October.

Now I suppose I should go to bed since he’s already there and I get to play taxi in the morning. Luckily, I get to go back to bed after though. Sleep = awesomesauce.

I also had the condition that once he got a job we would go get the blazer. We worked out a deal with my mom to trade her our 2 door sunfire for her 4 door blazer (the transmission went out in it a few months back) so we can have a vehicle that is more ideal for a family. I hate the tiny trunk, the lack of space and hello, 2 door =/ carseats. She was going to give the blazer to my 20 year old brother after he got a job under the stipulation that he had to pay to get it fixed, but he’d rather have a car that requires no work. The car also only has 109,000 on it, the blazer has over 200,000. I don’t blame him and I’ve been itching to get rid of this car since the day I got it. As far as I know, it’ll be used by both my brother and sister to get to/from work or wherever since my dad has the primary vehicle in the house from about 5pm every day until roughly 8am. It makes it difficult to work around that schedule.

Tomorrow’s plans include going to the zoo and Randy’s going to work some more on getting the junk transmission out of the blazer. He’s been wanting to work on that for as long as I can remember. Such a gear head. We save so much money since he does all the mechanical work on our vehicle. He doesn’t want to do it as a profession though because it’ll take the fun out of his passion. I see where he’s coming from.

We managed to find a trailer park where they were understanding of our situation (moving closer to parents, job seeking here, parole, etc) and they agreed to give us a shot. I think offering the security and first month’s rent the next day certainly helped that too.

My MIL even stayed at our house before we moved for 3 days to help organize/pack because Randy is horrible at organization and I’m 19 weeks pregnant right now and can’t exactly be helping to lift anything heavy. Luckily I like my in-laws. ^_^

We live about 5 minutes from Randy’s parents and about 10 from mine in the back of the community. We have a pond off to the left of us and the creek runs directly behind us. It’s $700/month for 2 bedroom but it includes everything (propane, electric, water, garbage) and is perfect for our family of 3 and will accommodate our expansion in September as well. I’m glad I never got rid of my apartment sized washer/dryer because I hate laundromats. Oh, we also have a really large shed for storage.

Otherwise Randy is continuing on his job search and I have 3 weeks left of the semester. I’m trying to keep my work load balanced so I don’t get overwhelmed trying to finish all the papers/projects. 2 classes are completely done so far and 1 other one has some light work left. I have a final still for psych, need to work with my group to write a suppression motion for criminal procedure and have a final paper for English to write too. Bah. Baby steps baby steps.

Next weekend we’re going to the pond for a family picnic with the in-laws. Fun times indeed.

I’m so glad to have a husband that realizes parenting is a joint responsibility. Gracie is being overly cute and asking “are you OK?” every time I whimper or whine in pain too.

I also had my 17 week appointment today and that frustrated me even more because I think my doctor was in a rush. I briefly heard the nurse mention to him something about being at the hospital at 3:30 (my appt was 2:30 and we weren’t even seen until like 3:15). He did a quick scan and said the spine looks good but the butt is down. My fluid levels are good and my BP is excellent. All the tests I got (hep B, C, etc) came back negative as I knew they would. He didn’t do the 3D or 4D or even measure the baby like he usually does and it just seemed like he was pushing to get us out the door. Needless to say, we didn’t find out the sex and he didn’t even attempt to see. Hopefully my next appointment won’t leave me feeling so UGH.

Still no news on the job or moving front except for the fact that we have to be out by April 30th since we put our notice in during the middle of March. BAH. I think an early bedtime will be in order.

His back pain has been getting progressively worse for the past 3 days and we were hoping to hold out until his insurance kicked in before going to the doctor but when he was near tears last night and had to crawl up the stairs, we knew enough was enough. He’s no stranger to pain either. He’s had a car fall on and break both of his feet and he didn’t go to the doctor for 2 days as he fought off the pain, so I knew it was serious. We had to go to the ER 1.5 hours away because that’s where both my mom and my MIL live and I wasn’t taking Gracie to sit there. Anyways, the best they could do was to give him a shot of Toradol and a Flexeril for immediate relief, 3 hydrocodone for the next day and a prescription for 20 Flexeril to last him until he gets into the doctor. He called the doctor today and the soonest they can see him is April 9th, so this should be a FUN week and a half. They think it’s either a disc or a nerve issue, which requires an MRI to identify. It’s also risky for him to be taking medications like these, being an addict and all.

We stayed at my MIL’s house and today when we got home there was a notice on our door to give us 24 hour notice that the apartment is being shown at both 12:30 and 1:30 on Saturday. BLAH. This means I have to bust my ass tomorrow making the house look presentable. I was hoping to avoid that intense deep cleaning until we had to move. I think the biggest thing I need to do is shampoo the living room carpet though. We have until May 1st to find a place. Still no news on the job front though. :-\ Boo. Randy is calling Kraft back on Monday to do yet another follow up. Maybe persistence will pay off eventually.

On the job front, Randy FINALLY got through to the hiring manager at Kraft and he said he’ll look at his app. It took him leaving 3 different voice mails and today was his 5th call. I guess they’re doing interviews starting on the 1st so *fingers crossed*

We also put in our notice for this apartment because our lease expires May 1st. We like the place, the amazingly big fenced in yard and our landlords are amazing, but we’re about 1.5 hours from our families and we are driving to visit 2-3 times a week and it’s costing approximately $25 in gas each time. With the new baby coming in September and summer coming up, we like to be able to socialize and do things with our families and it’s just too far. Now next month we’ll be searching for a place in that direction and hopefully get everything situated with the job. It’ll knock quite a few points off my stress load too.

Let’s get right to the point here. Someone who has a felony conviction is likely to get their application thrown in the garbage or passed over without a chance to explain the circumstances. I have a huge problem with this.

All felonies are not created equal. A class A felony (murder) is not on the same level as a class B, C, D or E felony. E is the lowest and what Randy was convicted of (DWI). One carries a penalty of life imprisonment while the subsequent letters mean lighter sentences. Randy’s maximum was 1-3 years. He served 15 months of it in prison and the rest is on parole. He also received a total of about $3,000 in fines when all is said and done.

Now, I would like to know WHY this should impact whether he can get hired or not. A DWI does not determine whether he can work fast food or even sweep floors for a janitorial position. (Minimum wage jobs). The applications for these jobs always have this question as well and some companies do not hire felons whatsoever. I know Wal-Mart doesn’t because my friend was a hiring manager there and felon applications go to the trash.

He completed his time. He’s paying his fines. He has also lost other “rights” such as the inability to get licenses for certain professions, cannot possess or own a firearm (even though the crime was in no way violent), can’t sit on a jury and cannot vote. It’s part of being a convicted felon.

I can see how a lot of convicted felons end up back in prison, especially those that are involved in theft or drug dealing. Unless you know a family member or friend in high places it is fucking HARD to find a job with that label. It will follow him for the rest of his life.

How do we expect people coming out of prison or jail to become productive members of society when they aren’t given a chance in the first place?

Our lease expires May 1st and we haven’t talked to the landlords about renewing and we’ve decided that we don’t want to. Don’t get me wrong. I love the area we are in and my 3 bedroom full basement with W/D hookup and fenced in backyard half house is awesome, but at the same time Randy and I cannot deny that our parents are our best friends. He talks to his parents at least once a day and I usually do too and we are excluded out here. I also want to be back there because I don’t want to find a new OBGYN. I love the doctor who delivered Gracie.

We’re going to try to get into the trailer park where my parents bought theirs last year. They have a nice 3 BD/2BA and the one we’re looking at is 3BD/1.5 BA. I’ve emailed the company and discussed down payment/financing/etc. Then I went to school and applied for a loan on top of the grants that I have (TAP/PELL) and found out today I was approved for the request. So we’ve decided we are going to give our notice to our landlords next month (60 days, we only have to give 45) and get the process going to move. We think we will be much happier going back to the area.

Randy also re-applied to his old job and will hopefully be eligible for re-hire. It also works with our moving plans because my dad works there and they can car pool (45 minutes one way from where my parents live, one hour from here) and we know that his felony convictions of DWI and grand larceny won’t disqualify him from being hired like 99% of other places he looks. (No joke) They also start you at $9/hr and my dad has only been there a year and a half and is grossing over $1,000/week right now with lots of overtime (1.5 and double time, oh yes). Oh, and also gives things like paid holidays, vacation, personal days and holiday bonuses. I’m just a tad bit excited about having a bit more financial security than I have doing freelance writing for pennies.

Next step is to determine what needs to be done to transfer parole to the other county. Baby steps baby steps baby steps.