Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work I go......

I haven't gotten the offical word yet, but when I went in for my second interview with the company I was talking about in my last post, it turned out that out of all the candidates that had applied and interviewed for the position (at least 30 or 40, probably more) it was down to five of us who had done really well on the tests the previous day. There was one person from my group, and the other three people were women I didn't recognize. We went in a conference room first and went over some of the job duties and perks - and boy, does this job have awesome perks! Aside from the basics of things like an IRA, medical coverage after six months, and paid time off, they also offer a paid gym membership (which you HAVE to use twice a week for it to be paid for, so sweet!) AND an annual all expenses paid company vacation - the last one was in Vegas. =) After that, we went back to the computers for more tests. For the first one we were given a document that had pictures and descriptions of the products that this company uses and we had to make a flyer from scratch advertising whatever products we wanted in whatever way we wanted. When we were done, the person in charge of the "orientation", as they called it, went around grading each of us and taking notes in our files. Next she had us write a description of our last job as if we were writing a Craigslist posting. I decided to go out on a limb and show off my personality by writing a funny ad about being a stay-at-home mom. I was the last one to be "graded" on this, and was thrilled that after the woman in charge had gone around straight-faced to everyone else's computer, taking notes and making generic comments, she laughed out loud and mine and said it was hilarious and she loved it! =) She even had one of the other women in the office read it AND bragged about it to the owner that we met during our exit interviews. After that we were given a short stack of papers with information about their company and had about five minutes to go over them, and then she asked us questions about it and said that our group caught onto the information better than any other interview group ever had. We were also the first group to have every single person heed literally the ONLY instruction for the flyer - don't put the prices in the ad. (How difficult is that?? People just don't take the time to read directions.) We sat around for a little while after that and chatted while we waited for the owner to come and do our exit interviews. When I went in for mine, she had already told him that I was funny, which is awesome. Definitely helps when half your face doesn't work and you can make fun of yourself. lol Again, I got a call on the way home from the interview and said that they had narrowed it down to me and one other girl - after all those people! Feels pretty good. =) Before they make their decision, we're each doing a full day of work, paid of course (yay! lol). I was supposed to go in and do mine today, but I got a call yesterday that the manager I'll be working with is really sick, so I'm going in from 9-5 on Thursday. I can't wait! I don't relish the idea of being away from London and not home when Faith gets home, but London loves daycare and Faith is just fine with her older brother and sisters when I'm not here, so I'm not worried about them, which is great and will leave me totally free to focus on work and keep showing them why they want to hire me. =) Of course I REALLY hope they choose me (and they may choose both of us, because it turns out they might have two immediate openings) but it is such a great feeling to have gone through two days and countless tests and to know that I aced the tests AND they loved my personality. It's been awhile since I've had the opportunity to feel any sense of professional accomplishment, and while I'm still not quite there, I've been hired for the one job that still doesn't start for a few weeks AND am being considered for this other one, so together they would just be perfect. Wish me luck! Or better yet, pray! =) Hopefully this means, as I said the other day, that we are on the upswing of this streak of bad luck. Although it will still be a while before my face returns to normal. Ugh. Again, a good sense of humor is a real bonus for this kind of situation. lol I need to get some things done around the house after spending most of the day thus far continuing the job hunt (can't stop until it's official!) but I'll leave you (in separate posts, since apparently Blogger is having a terrible time uploading all of them at the same time) with this adorable video of Clancy barking at a mouse trap and a few cute pics - a couple were taken at Faith's kindergarten celebration yet - I swear those things are designed to make you cry and mourn over how quickly your kids grow up. One is far away, but it's of Faith hugging her teacher, who is so awesome. The one of me I uploaded to Facebook the other day with the caption "New shades, new clothes, new jewelry.....now if only my face was capable of producing any other expression....." and the other ones are just cute and random. =) Hope you like!