It's a beautiful, breezy sunshiny day - perfect weather on my Birthday Dinner Day!  It'll be me, Mom, Dad, my brother and sister, and my grandma eating out at one of my favorite little diners, The Rainbow Cafe.  I'm so excited.  It's such a nice, genuine diner that's been there forever and their food really feels like you're being served in someone's home.  Especially the breakfast, which I may end up ordering tonight.  Mmmm, their breakfast is the best.  Everything tastes so homemade.  Even though my birthday isn't until the 24th, we're doing the special dinner earlier to fit everyone's schedules, plus the fact that I won't be here on my actual birthday.  I'll be moving back to Bellingham on the 21st, and classes start on my actual birthday.  It'll be nice, though, to pre-celebrate my birthday today with everyone.  I'm really excited!



Another reason to be happy about today is some news we received first thing this morning: MOM GOT THE JOB!!!!  In case you don't remember me discussing it in this blog post, Mom applied for a mail and delivery job at this law firm in Seattle and it sounded like the perfect job for her.  She wanted this job so badly and kept thinking how great it would be if she got this job, but then would catch herself and stop from getting too excited so she wouldn't be so let down in case she didn't end up getting it.  But it was hard not to get excited about it.  This job really did seem like a dream that came out of nowhere: good pay, right in the middle of Seattle in a gorgeous tall building, being able to take the train every day...  And the more positive the people at this workplace acted towards her, the better the prospects seemed and the more hopeful we all grew.  Everyone was almost positive that Mom would get this job, but there was still that sliver of uncertainty.

Well, around 10 this morning someone from the company left a message on the machine.  As soon as I heard it, I called Mom down to let her know and she quickly took the phone upstairs to call them back.  I hung around downstairs for a little bit to give her privacy, but after awhile I couldn't resist going upstairs to eavesdrop.  From what I could hear through the crack in the door of my sister's room where Mom had hidden away, it sounded like she had gotten the job and was discussing details with the woman over the phone.  I heard Dad come out of his room and I didn't want to look like I was obviously eavesdropping, so I pretended to be looking through the things I had packed for college in my brother's old room.  I had no reason to disguise my eavesdropping, though, because Dad came right up to the door and mouthed to me, Is it about the job?  I mouthed It's about the job.  He mouthed back, Did she get it?  and I mouthed I think so! and together we both listened in through the door in anticipation.  After Mom finally thanked the woman on the other end of the phone and hung up, she came out to me and Dad, who were both dying to hear the news.  When she told us she got the job, we exploded in cheers and started clapping and hugging her.  We were almost more excited than she was!  Haha, but what can we say?  We're her support team, it's part of our job!

I am SO happy for.  After months of slaving on the computer, searching and applying for jobs, never giving up, Mom finally got a great job... and perfect timing, too, with summer coming to an end and her unemployment almost up.  Everything turned out for the best in the end, and tonight we'll have two things to celebrate :)

x Danielle