In the Life of Smikel: Memorial Day Weekend

Guess who called me last week? Casey Crowley! (A best friend from NC). She saw on Mom's facebook page that the formerly Mischinski daughters were all pregnant and she could hardly believe it. It was wonderful catching up with her, when I talk to her it's like we've never been apart. She's saving up this year to go on another service trip to South Africa, is an aunt as of last week, is looking to leave her teaching job and start something new, and she and her boyfriend are getting quite serious (if you catch my meaning).

To illustrate how far Casey and I go back: a picture of us at a 4-H event. Nevermind that my face is pudgy and we're coloring.

Tuesday we finally made it to Theology on Tap, a Catholic faith group for young adults. It was a blast! We have a really youthful, enthusiastic priest at St. Mary's who has a great knowledge of Catholic teachings and a wonderful sense of humor. There were probably 25 young people there, none were married. Still it was a great opportunity to meet people our age from several parishes around (and for Mike to enjoy some good brews). Father gave our baby the prenatal blessing. =)

I had a wonderful birthday. I managed to stretch it out over three days since I couldn't really celebrate it on my actual birthday (I worked from 4:00PM-9:00PM). Mike got me Chinese take-out (one of my favorite treats) for dinner on Thursday and Chrissy called me. On Friday Dad took me out to lunch at a favorite local restaurant where I got a great breakfast sandwich. I got cards from the Colliers, Mom and Dad, and Gammy (thank you all!) and a package from Chrissy, a few from Mom and a few from Kelly. They all picked out beautiful maternity shirts for me, many of which I can wear to my new part-time job.

Me and Dad at the Energy Station

My work (three stores down from New York & Co.)

Saturday we visited Mom and Dad and had dinner (Mike smoked a rack of ribs) and eclair, my traditional birthday dessert. Sunday we cleaned our apartment and had Kelly and Sean for dinner (spaghetti :D). We all went for a walk after dinner then Kelly and I sat and talked while Mike and Sean played guitar. Monday we all were at Mom and Dad's where we spent the day...

Interviews. The two phone interviews with the Harrisburg Co. went okay. The second interviewer wasn't very good, he seemed disinterested and just went through the motions of asking a list of questions. I ended up not getting that job. But I did get the other mechanical sales engineer job in west Philly that I interviewed for, which I accepted. :) So I officially have a full-time position! YAY!

I may have picked up a student to tutor in calculus over the summer. It isn't official, I am going to meet with the young man and his mother soon and see if we can make it work. She wants a structured program that goes through a whole textbook and for us to meet three times per week.

Memorial Day we spent with Mom, Dad, Kelly, Sean, Janet and Jack.