Cold...

Aren't you all happy that Winter is FINALLY here?! BTW, that's all Fahrenheit (0F= -18C)... wahoo!

8 months old!

Jacen now weighs a bit over 24 lbs and is 29 inches long. Over the last month, he began developing an uncontrollable urge to scream at the top of his lungs. He must love listening to his own scream because he does it all the time. I'm not really sure how to get him to stop, especially during Sacrament Meeting. It's so embarrassing! But I let him scream all he wants at home and he loves it. He also started to scoot himself around our house just a couple of days ago. It's not really crawling, but it's a "backwards sliding movement". I don't know how he learned that, but hey, at least he's moving around! And he takes his toys with him wherever he goes, it's quite funny to watch! Another thing is that he finally began to grow some hair, enough for me to gel it and put it in a mohawk. Cute, eh?

I can't believe my baby is that old already. I miss the old days when he slept all the time. It's getting harder and harder every week to keep him down for his naps so I can sleep when I get home from work in the mornings. I really have no idea how people can do this more than once- and I mean "do this" as in have more than just one child. They're so cute, but they're hard work!

Annual Christmas Newsletter 2008

This year has been filled with many trials, but with huge blessings as well. We are so grateful for all of it, because not only have we learned from everything, but because we have grown stronger!
In January of this year, we began looking for a house to buy, which we did find and bought in February. We love our little place. It's just the right size for the three of us and it's a great investment for our future. We were nervous about the move because I couldn't lift a single box, but many of our friends and family came to help us with the move. Thank you for all those who helped us back during that stressful time!
Then on my due date, April 10th, we had our handsome baby boy! Despite contracting since 33 weeks of pregnancy, he showed up when we told him to. He is such a huge blessing in our lives. His presence has taught us how to be patient and selfless. Those were the greatest lessons we could've learned.
With the delivery, more trials came our way. We're not really sure how we got through those first three weeks postpartum, but we made it! My dad came all the way from Brazil and stayed with us for two of those three weeks, and we enjoyed his company quite a bit, even though it was full of daily visits back to the hospital, and me going through finals and dealing with high fevers from medical complications at the same time. It was a very challenging time for all of us. We had to humble ourselves enough to care a little less about our own well-being, and start focusing more on our newborn baby. We learned a lot from it!
Elijah then started school in the summer. He is going to Florida Tech for a Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice, which is a degree no schools in Utah offer. What a great experience this has been for him! It's so exciting to see him studying, and doing it because he wants to, not because he needs to keep his grades barely above the required to play soccer. He's doing so well, and is ahead on his timeline, which means he'll be done in about 2 1/2 years. Then he's hoping to work as a cop for a few years until he can start working for the FBI, or some other federal law enforcement agency.
I, on the other hand, went back to work full-time when Jacen was four weeks old, and decided to put school on hold until the Spring. It's been such a fun experience to stay with Jacen during the day while Elijah's at work. Doing nights has been great and works awesome with taking care of Jacen. I transferred from Intermountain Medical Center Maternity and Labor & Delivery to LDS Hospital W4 and Special Care Nursery in July. I love my work!
Jacen has grown from a 8lb 12oz baby to an astounding 23 lb baby! He loves food. He's never been picky about how it comes out, as long as there's food in there! He also loves to sit up and pull all his toys out of the toy box and chew on them for a couple minutes before reaching for the next one. He's a great bouncer and loves to bounce all the time. I think we got ourselves a Tigger! He's slept through the night since he was eight weeks old, and has been ever since. He's such a happy baby, we got spoiled!
Heavenly Father has blessed us so much this year. I'm also grateful for everything our friends and family have done for us. I don't think we could've made it this far if it wasn't for everyone's help and generosity. Thank you so much!
We hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!
Love,
The Caswells

Shrek baby

Tonight we watched Shrek the Halls, and we actually hadn't seen the Shrek movies since Jacen was born... well, as we were watching it, Elijah blurrs our "Jacen looks just like the Shrek babies". I burst out laughing because it's true! Jacen's cheeks and head shape is just like the Shrek babies! And his ears stick out too (just a little). Don't you think?!

Suspension of 401(k) matching by IHC

So on Facebook I was looking at this group of "IHC & the missing 401k funds". IHC decided to suspend all of the 401(k) matching for next year. I know that in my department people are furious. I love my work because of the people that I work with, and the kind of work that I do, but, I'll throw this out on the table and say (and not be ashamed of it): IHC is not a great company to work for. We get the worst pay of all the hospital chains around the state. I honestly believe we give the greatest care to our patients, compared to other hospitals, but upper management does not treat their employees well enough. They got rid of our summer gifts. When I first started with them, we got gift cards for a night at the movies and $25 for Olive Garden. Our Christmas bonus was $400- now it's going to be $250. We probably won't get much of a raise either. What's up with that?! Someone on that group on Facebook couldn't have put it better:
Get rid of the fancy, multi-colored benefits brochure designed to convince me that my mediocre benefits are really, really, cool. Get rid of the fancy, multi-colored year-end State of IHC mailing. Get rid of the television & radio ads. (If a 14 story, new and shiny building on State St ain't enough then just forget it. Get rid of all the bells and whistles that make upper management feel like they're doing a marvelous job. $$$ is where the rubber meets the road. Give me back my 401K match. Give me more that "a modest" raise. Give me cheaper, better insurance. Give me a break.
IHC's insurance program is a joke. I pay more than one of my friends that has the exact same benefits from Select Health, and she gets the benefits from her husband's work. Are you kidding me?!?!?! Next year I'll be paying $220/month on insurance. This is insane!!!! we should be getting a discount on their insurance because we work for them, not the other way around! I know a lot of people are quitting, and I don't blame them. Instead of focusing so much on advertising and doing all this fancy crap, they need to focus on keeping their employees happy.
I'm sorry that was a bit of a venting blog, but seriously, I'm not happy!!!!