Spring Break

So Leah and I finally got a break from the monotonous gray that is Milwaukee in winter. I got a few days off for Leah's spring break, so we could head back to Holland and spend some time with family. We got home late Thursday night, so we could have an extra morning sleeping in at home. We spent most of Friday, Saturday and Tuesday helping my parents paint their living room and family room. They just got nice new hardwood floors and thought it would be a good idea to redecorate at the same time. Leah got to spend some of the time (while I was painting) shopping with her female fam. The rest of the weekend we enjoyed the great weather (sunny and 65 degrees) during the day, and enjoyed fires and movies at night.

We have also enjoyed the rest of Leah's spring break back here in Milwaukee. I had one thing on Wednesday, but nothing on Thursday, so we went up to Lake Winnebago for the day. We have been wanting to get up there for awhile, because we thought there would be some things to do (we were expecting something Traverse City-ish), but it was pretty sticky, as in "in the Sticks." We probably won't be going back there any time soon. On Friday, I was at a middle school about an hour away doing "mineral mania" 4 times in a row. It was fun and it gave me a pretty good idea of what it would be like to be a middle school science teacher, something that I am thinking of persuing later. That night, we went to one of the many local microbrews in town to celebrate what I will explain in the next paragraph.

I GOT A JOB! So the story begins last fall when I was looking for jobs. I found a list of native nurseries in the state on the Wisconsin DNR's website. I found one within driving distance and emailed them, asking if there was anything I could do, I even offered to volunteer. They said that I could check back in March, which I did. A few days after I sent them my resume, I got a call from Lied's, the company I contacted. They were wondering if I was interested in an interview, which of course I was. I went in the next week and it went very well. I learned a little more about the job I would be doing and they said that they would contact me soon. Last week I got a letter saying that I got the job!

Let me explain it a little more: I will be a landscape technician (one level up from entry) working on a fairly traditional residential landscaping crew. What is really exciting is that I will also be involved in many of the projects that involve native plants and green/organic gardening/landscaping. The idea is that by next year, the company wants an entirely "green" crew that I will be an integral part of. The other exciting part is that it is full time with benefits! This means that I will be learning how to snow plow next winter! I start April 6, weather permitting. It sounds like I can still do Mad Science birthday parties/super saturdays/special events on saturdays and weeknights.

Their website is: lieds.com if you want to check it out a little more. You can see that most of the stuff is hardscaping, but I will be doing more residential planting. I will keep posting on how everything is going.

Thanks for all of the prayers!