No work and no play makes Grace an anxious girl?

No, I do not have a job yet. It is now September and I do not have a job. Day after day I pray that this time I venture out to apply for a job I will get a call back for an interview. Day after day I hear nothing. This is the longest time I have been unemployed since I was 19 years old. I am going crazy! Not really, but I need a job.

Well, if I do not have a job how do I fill my time you ask? I am not only the cook, maid, and errand girl anymore. I am now a landscape architect! Well, maybe not an architect of our landscape, but I now mow and edge the "lawn" (I say "lawn" because we have weeds not grass). I have been working on our backyard as well trying to kill all the weeds. I started with weeds as high as mid thigh and in clusters as big as size 4 soccer balls. After a grounds crew did a poor job of dealing with the height of our "lawn" I have been tackling the large clusters of weeds. I have sprayed and watered just to have succeeded in turning a quarter of our backyard into a dust bowl and the other 3/4 are still thriving like champs.

I have also become the "get 'er done!" person when it comes to repairs to be made that should have been made before we moved in. Case in point, our microwave made a funny noise when a friend tried to heat up some left over pizza when he came to help us paint in June. We told our landlord about it at that time and I have had a working microwave for only ten days now. I know that might seem miniscule, but when your oven does not work either, how are we to eat? I am very thankful to now have a working oven for 2 days. I hate to be rude but it should have been working since we moved in over a month ago!

The best job I have aquired while being stuck at home is dog trainer. Since Jade was a puppy, both of us have been very involved in her up bringing. We have been so committed to her that she became our child. We discussed in depth how to discipline her, when to feed her, crate training her, leash training her, and so much more. We need to be on the same page so as to not send comflicting signals that might confuse her while understanding that she is not human. She was actually a pretty easy dog to train. She was house broken in one month and had all your basic commands down pat by two weeks. One thing we had to realize about her is that she will be a puppy for a long time and we could not let her roam the house unattended lest she chew up anything valuable or get into something that could be detrimental to her health. So, we bought her a play pin. It kept her confined without having to be stuck in her crate all day. I was a miracle worker for us and, even though she was very capable of jumping out of it, she loved it. However, when we moved to our new place, the play pin did not fit so well. I then took it upon myself to transition her to the kitchen. It took me and Jade one week to go from pin to kitchen with a babygate to just kitchen. It is so great to have her out of my living room! It is also better for her to finally be able to have full access to her water bowl and to be able to lie in her padded crate whenever she wants instead of on the hard wood floor. Now if I could just teach her how to fetch me a beer . . .

So, as you see I am not completely without things to keep me occupied, but we still have no income. I really, really need a job!