Gabrielle's Life and Writings

Gabrielle Lawson, writer of Fanfiction. I will use this space to keep a journal about my writing, the progress I'm making, stories I'm working on, writer's blocks I'm having, our adoption process and progress and just life in general.

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Location: Missouri, United States

I'm multifaceted and highly educated. I have a BA in History and an MA in Museum Studies. But I couldn't make a living in a museum, so my hobby--computers--became my living. I'm now a charter member Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician. I aspire to be a professional writer and/or poet. I am a Christian and have been living by His grace for the last four years or so, despite the MegaStress and now the GigaStress. He keeps me going, and displays His glory still, in my life.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Things are looking up!

The storm got a bit worse at the end, but it's clearing now. I got a job early in November. November 9th, to be exact, and started on the 13th. It was harder financially then as we had to go three weeks before I got a paycheck and unemployment payments would stop. But I got my first paycheck on November 30th and we'll be getting better from here.

I had applied to dozens of jobs. I had lots of interviews and quite a few second interviews. But no offers. I convinced two others (my sister and my mother-in-law) to sign up with my work-at-home business. (Really, it's a great way to earn extra money with a great store and NO SELLING). http://www.workathomeunited.com/gllp or http://www.livetotalwellness.com/gllp. I worked at Worlds of Fun (our local theme park) during the end of September and thru October, scaring visitors to one of the haunted zones called Dominion of Doom. It was fun, and it was a paycheck.

Finally, I had a sure thing. I spot with H&R Block to start on the 12th. It wouldn't pay as much as before. It was a contract until April with potential for perm.

But on November 8th, I got a call from Exceed Corporation, a guy working for the Department of Labor. They needed another person on their Kansas City team. We talked for awhile, and I told him that, if, hypothetically, they were going to hire me, they'd need to do so quickly as I'd start with H&R Block on Monday. I got the offer letter e-mailed to me on the 9th!

And it's a great job! Tech support for the Department of Labor through Exceed Corporation. The job is fairly low stress, in a great building (except for parking so I'm taking the bus from a Park & Ride) just behind Union Station. The people are nice and the view is great. I will make more money than before, paid vacation at the level I had earned at the job I meant to leave, and even better medical/dental insurance for me and my family.

The hard part was right after taking the job. I had to stop applying for unemployment benefits and yet wouldn't get a pay check for 3 weeks. It got stark. We had to take money from savings and use a credit card. But not as much as we planned. A family from church gave us a huge turkey and other food, and then Rob's company gave him a bushel-basket full of turkey and other food. So we didn't have to buy groceries that last week. We got tired of turkey, though.

And the great thing is that through the period of unemployment we lived. We found that we could make it on less. If I use October as the guide for a year (I had the Worlds of Fun job for about $100/week and unemployment), we were able to pay all our bills and get gas and groceries on $6000 less than what I'm making now. No frills, but we made it. So if we try to live on $3000 less than what I'm making, we'll be able to have some frills and still save a lot more money for our adoption. And that's not counting Rob's job. We'll save a lot for the adoption and pay down some of our debts!

The month of December will be a bit of a catch-up (and we accidentally paid our truck payment twice so we're hurting until that money comes back into our account), but January should start the turnaround when we live below our means.

God is good! And He can turn a bad thing into a good thing.




    Status of Stories
  • Posted chapter 11 of Secret Penname's story in early November. Working on 12
  • Everything else is left where it was.