I wanna know what fatigue is...

I want Will to show me...

When I had early morning seminary plus as many high school extra-curricular activities as possible, I thought that I knew what fatigue is. I used to fall asleep on the subway or the hard living room floor. I had a real talent.

Will did not feel like his dad was putting in maximum effort here and booed his father

Then I went on a mission to Finland. When I got there it was always dark and I could not understand anything that people were saying. My first month I would pass out at lunch time and as soon as we got home or when we spoke to someone in Finnish for more than 15 minutes (which was frequently).

Big Willy Style- pimping things out in his new swing (suggested by Aunt Carly). He likes the open chest.
He says it's for the ladies. It's like the Costanza photo shoot. Very tastefully done.

I came home from my mission and fatigued myself by making stupid decisions and wasting time. I was not as fatigued then, just dumb.

Will is shocked by how candid and open that last sentence was...or has gas.

But now my child has taken my fatigue to levels I did not know were possible. And I say this knowing full well that Carrie has to be even more tired, and for that I adore her. Getting sleep each night in 1 to 1.5 hour chunks with screaming baby/feeding/dirty diaper labor intervals in-between is not restful.

Your making ME out to be the bad guy here?

Much has happened since our last blog post. After a fun Christmas with the Cranes we briefly returned to Springfield for Will's circumcision and to pack our stuff so that we could move back up to Kansas City.

Aunt Emily delights the wee bairn

To add a move on top of a new child is not a plan I would wish on my worst enemy, but we were able to push through due to fabulous help from family and friends. Jill and Laurence's help made it even more clear how living close to family in Kansas City was going to be great.

Seemstress Aunt Jill made the onesie with the emblazened Crane family brand

Other Springfield friends were very giving with their time, and made it harder to say good bye. Bobby Moser deserves the Purple Heart of super movers for his early arrival, high energy, and his hours of hard labor. In the state we were in there was no way we would have been able to pull off our move without the help of loved ones.

Will rocking the high fashion

After staying the night at the Cranes we moved into our place the next day with the help of our new ward elders quorum. As you can tell from the assorted pictures we still are not totally unpacked and settled as we have not had much time, but Carrie has done a good job to unpack when she can. I can not say the same about me.

I started my job on Monday. I get to leave each day in the morning and come home in the afternoon. Carrie has been working this feeding/sleeping schedule now for a solid week alone, and she deserves many gold stars. My new job with OPM has been wonderful, and I love the people I work with. Though, for those of you who do not know, I work with 5 former MSU I/O Masters students who I went to school with.

Somebody gets their photogeneity from their mom

There are only around 20 people in the office, which means that I feel fairly comfortable asking questions of people around me because I know them pretty well. The hardest parts of the job have been:

1. The commute- The drive to and from work can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 75 minutes depending on the traffic and weather. This week we have experienced especially nasty winter weather, which makes the roads pretty treacherous and the driving slow. I listen to NPR and call Carrie to pass the time. I feel like I am missing out on time at home when I could be helping Carrie relax and taking my turn with Will.
2. The training- he spent the last two days in a dimly lit room learning the intricacies of our work. Our trainer was competent and for the most part the material pertinent, but the chairs were too comfortable and the lights too low for a new father not to struggle with droopy eyelid syndrome.
3. My name- Even the government struggles to get my name straight. My email and login for work has been messed up because someone along the administrative trail entered my 3 first names in the wrong order, Anthony "John" Thomas. This means that while everyone else communicates via email, I have to bother others to find out what is going on. It's more funny than anything else.

Will gives Mom a knowing glare

I think I should also give a bit of my job description and what OPM does. OPM stands for Office of Personnel Management. The whole Office has the responsibility to make sure that government agencies obey federal hiring laws. There are three branches within OPM- one that interprets and analyzes the results of the rules, one that enforces the rules and audits, and the last one (mine) where we consult and work with all branches of the government to get them compliant. Clients like the Department of Defense, the FDA, the Naitonal Park Service, etc., use our expertise to do initial applicant screening that make it much much easier for them to work within the government's EEO and veteran prefence rules. Our office's revenue is based on a fee-for-service model, so we are not part of congressional line-item funding. We are a bit more like a private company that must produce in order to keep our organization afloat. Our bread and butter is doing applicant screening for branches so that they avoid breaking the law and costly law suits. For those of you thinking that I will be a good person to know to get a federal job, I sadly am not. But I will be able to give you some useful pointers about your interview, application, etc.

Of course with this post there are many pictures of Will and his adoring fans. They will have little to nothing to do with the post, but for many of our readers they will be the best part.