Life is getting better.

This blog is going to be all writing, no pictures, since I don't know where the camera is, so if it's too long, don't read. :P So here we go:

There is some pretty good things going on at the moment. Funny how it all happens at the same time.

Not all is perfect though, so lets get that out of the way first. Our cats have caused us a lot of worry lately and the situation may be getting worse.The thing is, the newest addition, Pulla, who were are not sure if it's a girl or a boy, is getting rounder and rounder all of sudden. We are not sure if it's just fat (the cat may try to own up to it's name), or something else... We will find out soon enough. Anybody want kittens? ;)

The other cause of worry is Sammy, who has decided that he wants to be an outside cat too. We tried letting him out one day and he immediately took off and left our yard and disappeared for hours. We looked for him all day, and finally found him way after it got dark. He followed us home looking very confused but happy to see us. Since he had never been outside (the time we've had him), he couldn't tell which one was our house.

We decided it was better to keep him in but about a week later we woke up to find he was gone. The wind, or him, had knocked out one of the loose window screens in our laundry room and Sammy somehow crammed through it and got out. He was gone for two full days until Chris found him close to the house and forced him in (and fixed the window). Well, Sammy wasn't happy inside, and this weekend I decided to just let him out again if that makes him happy. He seems to have learned his lesson, and is actually staying in our yard now, and when I'm out there he keeps on running to me and hangs out with me when I'm gardening. He even comes back inside every now and then to eat and sleep. So things are getting better with him, it's just that now that he is really happy being an outside cat, I don't think we can take him with us to Finland when it will be time to go, and I don't quite know what to do with him.

Neko is the only one of our cats, that doesn't cause us that much worry at the moment. She is definitely an inside cat and happy as one. The only aggravation she causes us is all the hairballs that she loves to puke out after eating a full bowl of food. :P The other two.. hopefully time will give us some solutions.

Anyway, off to the good things going on.

First of all, work is going good. I am constantly improving my numbers. We are being rated in several different categories every month, and I just found out my results for the month of January. I was rated a 4.6 out of 5, and my supervisor said that was the highest rating in our whole department, that means the highest of  more or less 200 people.  The goal they want us to meet is a 3, and most people seem to struggle with just that. The job is full of multitasking and the requirements are very strict, that's why I was even surprised I did so good. I don't mean to be smug, I am just proud of being successful. Three years ago I took my first job in this country working in McDonald's when no other place even gave me an interview because I didn't have any work experience in the US, and now I'm working in a place where you had to pass three to four interviews and all kinds of testing to even get hired.

The other good news is that  I might be getting a better schedule soon. I will probably find out next week, and I have my fingers crossed for a Monday through Friday day shift. I have enjoyed having a three day weekend from Thursday till Saturday, but the four days I work, I literally don't do anything else. I'm at my workplace a minimum of 10.5 hours each of those days, then when you add the 30 minutes getting there and 30 to get back home, and the three out of four days when I get stuck on the phone after my shift is over, I am easily using 12 hours of the day getting to and being at work.The people who know me,  also know that I need my sleep every night. So work and sleep it is. Plus, I've being doing the night shift, going in 11am and leaving after 9:30pm, and I am not a night person. If nothing else, I am hoping to get a shift where I get to go to work early in the morning so I can get out sooner as well.

Work is looking good for Chris too. He just got hired at Busch Gardens yesterday. For those of you who don't know, it's an amusement park in Tampa. He will be working in the admissions selling tickets etc. I am so happy and proud of him, he's been sending a ton of applications in the last few months, but most places have either told him that he's under qualified or, ironically, over qualified. He left the small office he worked at (because of personal reasons) thinking he would find something really fast but the reality really hit him fast when it wasn't as easy to get a job like it had been for him in the past. So we are both super excited for him, it will be something fun to do for the next few months before we leave.

The last great thing is, that my interview letter is on it's way to me in the mail right now. That is for the citizenship. I checked my status online yesterday and read that they sent out the invitation for the interview yesterday. As far as I understand, the interview is usually a month from the letter, and then they may either do my oath the same day, or up to another month from then. So my application seems to be moving faster than average and I might become a citizen already next month or the one after that! Whoo!! We won't be ready to move that soon but it will be so nice to get that whole thing taken care of so we can concentrate in everything else going on.

That's it for now. Some pretty good stuff like said! Our friends Jess and Leo and their 3-year-old daughter Savannah will be coming over with Chris's little sister Mackenzie later today, so should be a fun day!