The New Job

Pin It I haven’t been wanting to talk it up too much until everything was entirely set in stone - but for the past few months Spencer’s been in the process of getting a new job at Comcast. Spencer’s been searching for a job since the day he was laid off at Bank of America -- which was only about TWO YEARS AGO, when I was pregnant with Matthew. He found a “TEMPORARY” job at the bus company, which was (yes) the only company on the face of the planet that was hiring in this economy, but more importantly, gave him the opportunity to train for his CDL - something he’d been wanting to do for years. The word temporary has become a complete joke between the two of us since then… Because our idea of temporary was more along the lines of three to six months; enough time for him to receive all of the free CDL training and enough time to hold us over until he found a better job. Well, the economy had other ideas and I guess so did God. Fortunately, even though he was settling for a job that he was completely overqualified for, his time with First Student served us pretty well. Not long after he started, the company joined the Union, which came with frequent and regular pay raises. At times there was so much extra work that we were turning it down because we simply didn’t need any more extra money. With me working fifty hours a week and him making a per-hour pay that turned out to be nothing to scoff at, we were able to put sometimes as much as two-hundred dollars a week into the savings account alone. We weren’t exactly a modern-day success story yet, but we were certainly getting by with everything we needed.

In fact, after so long the problem became a fear of getting too comfortable. With the both of us having nights and weekends off together, plus him having every day off from work that Mary had off from school (including all of the long vacation breaks) we started to worry about what we’d do when he did find a more permanent job. We worried about how much more we’d have to pay for daycare even BEFORE the new baby arrived; how we’d manage all of the housework/errands without him being around so much to handle things that I couldn’t while I was working; if we’d be happy NEVER having a single day off together again; if we’d even be able afford the benefits a better job would offer… But, even with all of those fears in toe, he never even slowed down the search for something better. We were very aware of what small benefits there were to that job, but we knew that providing for the family was what was most important, and that we’d do what we could to weather the difficulties.

Then, as if by some miracle, it happened. He caught wind of a new position opening up for Comcast before it was even available or posted to the public. My boss, who luckily Spencer’s met and made a good impression on, kind of took Spencer under his wing and virtually bent over backward to keep the recruiting manager for the very best location on top of Spencer’s hiring process. He’s passed both of the tests so far and has been scheduled for an interview the week the position opens, which we were told would be in about two weeks. Because of the particular benefits of this job, he’ll not only be making more money with steadier hours, we’ll also be saving a lot of money in other areas too. Enough that I’ll actually be able to stay home after the birth of the baby for a stretch of time that I am so much more comfortable with than what we’d originally planned to settle for.

At the same time that all of this new-job-stuff started unfolding for Spencer, I was told that my time with the family that I’ve been working for, for the past two years will be up soon. The timing just all sort of fell into place. The youngest that I look after will be put into all-day-school in the fall, which is the same time that I’ll be expecting the baby and need to go on maternity leave anyway. ALSO, as if by clockwork, just about the time that Spencer will be done his seventeen weeks of training and be bumped up to his new, higher rate of pay.

We’ve decided that our plan will be for me to leave my job around Labor Day, exactly one month before the baby is due. We’ll take Mary and Matthew out of daycare, and I’ll be able to stay home with them and the new baby until Spring. And in the Spring I’ll FINALLY (FINALLY! FINALLY!!) get to go back to school part-time to finish my degree!


Of course, with Spencer’s accident having just happened, we have quite a different perspective on this than we might have had before. Though we would have been thankful to God for the many, many prayers that have been answered even beyond Spencer just making a little more money; the impeccable timing of everything has sparked a literal life-changing shift in our marriage. Spencer came so close to dying in that accident, that it almost doesn’t even make sense that he’s alive today. That SUV literally turned that blind corner coming right at him at what another witness described as over a hundred miles an hour. And because he was carrying a school bus full of children behind him, it wasn’t just a matter of him swerving himself to safety, he had to maneuver that whole fifty feet of bus out of the way of a what would have become a complete massacre. In the aftermath of the accident, we learned about the man driving behind Spencer’s bus; the man who did die. We learned that his name was Zach; that he was only a few years older than Spencer, that he and his wife were married ONE WEEK before Spencer and I last Spring. We learned that he had a (step) son and daughter too, and that his favorite things to do – just like Spencer – were hunt and fish. In fact, the last post made on his wife’s facebook page was about he and their son on a Turkey Hunting trip, which he’d just returned from.

Spencer’s asked God a hundred times over the past two years: Why can’t I just get out of this dead-end, temporary job? Is this what the rest of my life is really going to look like, after how hard I’ve worked to be better than this? The longer he stayed in that job, the scarier it became. The fact that he saved those children’s lives during his final few days at that job really makes it feel like he was meant to be there for those kids that day… and for us, too. That other man was just starting out his life: a brand new marriage, a brand new step-dad to young kids, and only a month away from receiving his MBA. It makes no sense that he was the one to die over Spencer – he was no more ready to be done with his life than we are, and we haven’t taken that lightly.

Spencer says, “It’s as if God planned it all out that way, as if to say: ‘I’m about to answer your prayers and make your life a whole lot better – It could have gone a much different way, so you better “God damned” appreciate it.”

A Hero

Pin It Friday afternoon I almost lost my husband in a fatal accident caused by a drunk driver. The article is available on Delaware Online under the headline: Middletown Man ID’d as Victim of Bear Crash – driver will be charged after hitting school bus.

Friday while Spencer was running his usual afternoon route, taking 28 kids from Gauger Middle School home, a speeding drunk driver in the opposite lane on the S bend of rt. 72 lost control of his SUV and came suddenly barreling into the oncoming traffic lane, directly toward Spencer’s school bus. With only seconds to react, Spencer saw that veering to the shoulder would have still resulted in a deadly impact, so (seeing that there was no immediate traffic behind the SUV) he had to steer the bus into the northbound lane to narrowly avoid a head-on-collision. The SUV slammed into the right back side of the bus, taking off the bus’ tire. The SUV then went on to flip and eventually land on a Ford F-250 pick-up, killing the 33-year-old man inside who was on his way home from work that day.

Because of Spencer’s quick action, he was able to save the lives of almost thirty children. Eight children were sent to the hospital for examination with complaints of minor injuries, but every one of them went home safely to very gracious parents that night. The same article that was on the site yesterday had nearly fifty comments, most of which were witnesses or family members of children involved in the accident who commended Spencer for his heroism; some accounting for the way that he was in-control of himself and the situation even immediately following the terrifying accident. For some reason though, the site encountered some problems and there is now the same article up under a revised title and with those previous comments removed. As I said in my own comment to the new article, it is only by the grace of God that it was my husband who was able to come home to his family Friday night. If Spencer’s reaction were to have been delayed for even a split second, he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that he and at least a few of those children would have lost their lives. This incident, as tragic as it was, could have easily had a much more devastating outcome.

Now that the name of the innocent man who was killed has been released, we plan to definitely send our condolences to his unfortunate family. Neither Spencer nor I can even begin to wrap our minds around what they must be experiencing this weekend. It’s an unreal experience to continue on with the rest of our weekend and the rest of our lives knowing how easily it could have been us coping with the loss of my husband and my children’s father… especially with baby Scarlett being due in just four short months. Going on to think about the thirty families that could have spent this weekend grieving over the loss of their children… is just too much to even swallow. We are grateful for our family in a whole new way today.

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A funny coincidence occured just a few days before this when my boss had me drop a few packages off at the Post Office for her. The woman at the counter next to me had a two-year-old son sitting on the counter, playing with the same metal toy school bus that Matthew carries everywhere he goes. I commented on how hooked to that same toy my own son is and we laughed about how both of our children would actually rather sleep with this school bus than with any soft teddy bear. I told her that to make it worse, my husband is a school bus driver - so Matthew's love of school busses goes pretty deep. She laughed out loud and expclaimed that if her husband were a school bus driver he would absolutely be thier son's hero!

I'm proud to say that mine is.

A Fun Week

Pin It

So many things have happened over the past week that it’s hard to decide where to start. A lot of these deserve their own posts in my opinion, but Lord knows I’d never get to all of them that way, so here’s a rundown and a few of the best pics from the weeks events until I can get around to better describing them.

Friday Spencer and I (and Matthew) celebrated our 1st Wedding Anniversary.
We went back to The Arsenal in Old New Castle, where we had our wedding reception. It was incredible the night of our wedding, and the most perfect way that we could find to celebrate an incredible first year of marriage. Matthew came with us, which may be a little unconventional, but was special to us. Our marriage came after his birth, so our getting married was as much a very special day for him as it was for us. Plus, on our actual wedding day, he wasn’t able to be with us because of a high fever, so we were happy to have him tag along on our Mommy-Daddy date. When we first arrived, the owner Astrid, the woman who coordinated our wedding reception recognized us right away and spent the entire evening catering to us personally. The bar was full and the band was loud, but we were able to have the candle-lit dining room where our reception was held all to ourselves. It was great to be able to tell her about what a great year it’s been and recall our whole beautiful wedding with her. She introduced us to the new wait staff and told everyone who served at our wedding or helped out that we were there for our anniversary, which really made it special. To top it off, she gave Matthew a free entrée, didn’t charge me for my drink, and gave us a good discount for what she did charge us for. When it was time to cut into the top of our wedding cake, she provided everything that we needed. And of course, Matthew helped us devour it – which was the best part of the night for all of us.

munchin' on the wedding cake

It was kind of sad to see it go

One year handsomer

Our date-night

Early Saturday morning was our 19 week ultrasound, where we found out the sex of our baby! A perfect Mother’s Day experience. I wrote about this experience in my other blog “Baby’s Story.” Everything relating to the new baby is in that blog and I’ll be updating it regularly now that I’m further along – so check it out.

Sunday was our actual Anniversary, which fell on Mother’s Day this year. It was, of course, wonderful. A pregnant mother’s day is always just that much more meaningful.

Tuesday we had our new carpet installed in our brand new bedroom! Since then, we’ve completely finished it. IT IS INSANELY AMAZING. I will definitely be blogging about this in more detail once I get pictures.

Wednesday, we got a family dog! This is much more of a big deal to me than I was expecting it to be. This animal blows me away on a daily basis. He has got to be the best dog I’ve ever come across in my life. Well-behaved, perfect energy level, house trained – he’s obedient beyond anything I ever imagined we’d be lucky enough to end up with. I expected that bringing even the best of dogs into this house was sure to be chaotic, but so far having him here has been a complete pleasure. He get’s his own post, too.

Thursday was Mary’s first recital where she played clarinet as well as sang in the chorus. She did a beautiful job. It was wonderful to see all of our hard work pay off. And believe me, we ALL put work into it! She was great.

Saturday was Mary’s school fair. Last year we weren’t able to take her because we were on our Honeymoon, so it was definitely cool to enjoy it this year. It was an absolute blast. There was a 50 ft. inflatable obstacle course, 25 ft. inflatable slide, moonbounces, pony rides, face paitning, spin art, clown for balloon animals, contests, prizes and treats. The weather was beautiful and I got a lot of great pictures of both kids.

It's a balloon AND a dog!?

Well that's just the best thing ever.

A stop to smooch

...Not entirely sure this was even safe, lol

but he braved this thing about five times.