Victory at Jimmy Johns

Our kid did it!! He landed himself a job at this place.
It was cool the way it happened too. Brian asked me to take him by there at 2 yesterday because thats when the manager was going to be there. Jared had himself convinced he would walk in and walk out in 2 seconds since that is what had been happening at other places up to this point. But he walked in and 1 minute later he text me to say the manager was about to sit and chat with him. As a mom I felt disappointed because he could have been dressed better but thats just the type-A in me. Anyway, an hour later he came out smiling and said things went really well and he felt he'd connected with both managers. They told Jared to call them back if he hadn't heard anything by next Tuesday. I felt dejected by this but he vowed when he got home to continue to pursue other positions until something clicked.
We had barely walked in the door when the phone rang and Jared was shouting my name like a giddy school girl. "I GOT THE JOB!!!!"
He starts today as the mom in me groans, we've hit another milestone which makes us that much closer to saying good-bye and him starting his own life independent of us.
Well, after he pays all the medical bills. Thank God for stupid decisions that keep my kid close for a little longer. :0)

The Wall will Always Win!!!

Jared is desperately trying to find a job. The word desperate might not be part of that last sentence if it wasn't for this:


This all started May 29th 2010. After making an incorrect assumption (you know what they say when you assume right?) he got mad and punched the side of our house. Its half brick, half siding. He hit the siding. After receiving the call from my hubby I raced home and angrily ordered him in the car without opening the door for him I might add. Wincing in pain and trying to balance a bag of frozen peas on his hand he got in the car and I sped to the hospital. Not because it was really that big of an emergency but because I was so angry. Clearly, I was not resting in God but instead allowing myself to be controlled by the situation.

Once there we quickly learned it was indeed fractured and given a referral to see Ortho in a week. Being the impatient mom that I am I waited until Monday and called for an appointment. They got us in the next day. I can tell you right now, I was not prepared for what happened next. The doc explained he would need 3 pins to put Jared's hand back together because he had not only broken it in 3 places but had also dislocated it. Surgery was scheduled for the next day.

It went off without a hitch and a week later we were back to have the pins looked at and to have a hard cast put on.





Ok, so this is great. 4 weeks in a cast, the pins will come out then 2 more weeks in another cast and life will return to normal.

Oh, how wrong I was. The pins came out alright and infection set in.
We were at the lake with some friends and July 5th Jared was still complaining of some pain in his hand. We really didn't think anything of it, just that it was all part of the healing process. Then he said well I have this red streak running up my arm and I'm no doctor but even I know that is a sign of blood poisoning. We took him to the ER and they hooked him up to an IV antibiotic and sent us on our way.
The next day Brian and Jared had to drive 2 hours from the lake house to his Ortho Doc and then spent the rest of the day fighting with the insurance company and waiting to get an MRI. The doc told us that he needed the MRI to make sure the infection hadn't spread to his bones. When Brian called and told me that we all got together and prayed for God to do His thing. When they got back to us at the lake house Brian said they would call us with the results in the morning and if there was infection immediate surgery would be needed. I believed for nothing less than God's best which in my opinion was no infection and I had no doubt that was what we would hear when they called.
When they called and said to come in as soon as you can because we need to prep him for surgery my heart sank. I am proud to say I didn't lose it though. Although I had no idea it was about to get even worse.

During surgery prep the next morning they were explaining what the procedure would involve. They had found infection on both the fourth and fifth bones and literally would be going in to scrub those bones. We immediately began texting everyone we knew to pray. I was expectant that once he got in there it wouldn't be as bad as they originally thought. God is amazing. 30 minutes later they were done and said once they got in there they only saw infection on the fifth finger and had sent the biopsy off to microbiology. He explained it like this: the faster it grows the worse bug it is. Less than 24 hours later it had grown into a pretty nasty staph infection which now meant infectious disease had to be brought in. My head was spinning. All we wanted to do was go home. But that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. You see now that they knew what strain it was they determined it had to be treated with IV antibiotics. Which meant we had to wait until they got a pic/mid line in him and, since it was Friday there was no one to come home with us and show us how to administer all that we had to wait until Monday. UGH!!!

So, Monday came and went as did all the home health visits followed by trips to physical therapy and the infectious disease doc and here we are today. Stitches are all out and he is left with 2 really nasty looking scars and thousands in medical bills (which by the way we are making him pay hence the desperation for a job) which will forever remind him when you punch a wall the wall always wins.