Thursday brain dump

I have had A LOT on my mind lately. I have thought of blogging some of it, but some of it is frustrating and hard to write about alone, so I'll just briefly unload things so I don't dwell too much on the areas of frustration!

•  Have I mentioned we are looking for a job???  Over a year ago we sat down and developed a list of potential places that we would eventually like to live that have Forest Service Offices.  We started keeping an eye out for a job in any of those towns.  I really thought we wouldn't see anything for a while, but right away there was a job in Rifle, CO.  We applied... they hired someone from within their own office.  Then a job in Grand Junction, CO came open and we applied.  They hired a guy who took a grade demotion for the job.  Then there was job in Newcastle, WY.  We applied... they said they received 12 highly qualified applications, six of which were at the level of the job looking to lateral into it which is what my husband is doing, they hired someone else.  Then a job came open in WY which is in a town about 20ish miles from Brandi, but I don't want to disclose her location.  We GOT AN INTERVIEW!!!  BUT, then the dear Forest Service implements a (supposedly) 30 day hiring pause due to Congressional budget constraint concerns.  We got confirmation that this job was effected by it.  So we waited, and waited.  In the mean time a job opened up in Canon City, CO with the NRCS, we applied... were not selected.  Did I mention we were still waiting on the job in WY?  Then a BLM job came open in CO, in a very sweet location to remain undisclosed for the time being.  We applied and GOT AN INTERVIEW!  That was two weeks ago and they told Dustin they hoped to have the announcements made by mid-September.  Yes I did say announcementS, one guy retired and another moved on so they are hiring TWO positions.  In the mean time the Forest Service is still in their hiring pause with no end in site, but we did hear back from the District Ranger that they (upper level Forest Service) discovered there was an error with the computer hiring program and that while everything was actually fine with the WY job, because there were errors in the way other similar jobs that were posted that they were going to scrap all jobs announced during that time and start from scratch.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  My husband may have actually been selected for that job, yes-they said they already made the decision and sent it in where it got held up, but we will never know, and it doesn't matter because they are starting over, UGH!!!  And as far as I know the hiring pause is still in effect anyway, thank you very much Tea Party (insert sarcasm in case you weren't able to detect it from my comment)!  So by the end of next week we should know about the CO BLM job, and in the mean time we are on pins and needles!
• Ok, so that first bullet was a dousy, but I'm not going to shorten it or edit it.  If you made it through the whole thing you deserve an award! You now see why it's taken me a while to be able to write about it.
• Our house is on the market with a Realtor.  My husband had a co-worker ask about seeing it, so it is our first hit.  The market is usually slow here during good times, and we all know our economy is in the crapper, so who knows how long it will take to sell, or if we will lose our tails on it.  On one hand I want it to sell soon so can buy a house when we move, but on the other hand, until we move I don't want to sell it because I don't want to deal with renting here again. 
• I think everyone I know and their cousin is preggers.  There are going to be so many babies in my life soon!  Let's see- two of my sorority alumni sisters are expecting, one with twin boy and girl who has a scheduled delivery date of Oct. 5 unless she goes into labor sooner, one just found out she is having a boy this morning and is due in January, my friend Brandi is expecting and due sometime next spring, two of my husband's co-workers- one mystery baby due any day and one just newly pregnant by IVF, my husband's fraternity roommate and his wife are expecting and due next spring after they lost their 7 week old preemie son last year, and several ladies I met through WebMD pregnancy/parenting boards are expecting again.  One of the WebMD lady's oldest son is just a month or two older than Austin and she is about 29 weeks along with her third son, good gravy she is a good Mom!  I just hope to join them very soon, but that is on hold pending the outcome of bullet #1, but seriously if one more person announces a pregnancy my head may explode, LOL!  I ordered gifts for the sorority girls yesterday and they are SO CUTE!  I almost ordered a fourth one to hang on for our next, but I did not since I don't want to jinx our efforts.  I don't know if either check my blog so I'm keeping it a secret.
• We are trying to figure out what to do to celebrate our anniversary which is October 1.  Again it's all riding on bullet #1.  If we don't get the job we want to go to San Diego.  If we do get the job we will go to CO to do some house hunting and maybe, just maybe we will recruit a family member to take Austin for the night so we can have some alone time.  Dustin asked what I want for a gift and I said if we don't get the job I would like a Canon SLR camera, but that it would have to be my anniversary, birthday and Christmas gift and he thought it was a great idea.
• I'm excited that I have been so into blogging lately.  I have posted more blogs so far this year than I did all of last year.  The 21 day summer challenge really helped bump up my number.
• I went to TRX this morning, go me!!!  I would love to lose 5lbs by my birthday next month.  I am trying to avoid going to the convenience store at work and loading up on junk snack food.  I bought rice cakes and mixed nuts to munch on at my desk and am trying really hard to avoid soda, but oh how I love my Mountain Dew!