Sunday 21 February 2010

All that matters

Round 11: Winter 2016


Rianna Midlock is 46, Anthony is 42, Emily is 8, Sara is 7 and Jesse is 3.
(Ryland and Jackie are 65, Quinn is 40, Denise is 30 and Zach and Dawn are 12 .)


Narrated by Rianna Midlock

Anthony has been feeling quite discontent with his job lately. He says that it feels like he's not getting anywhere. He's stuck in the studio all the time.

He doesn't know what he really wants to do. I'd hire him as a teacher for the school immediately but he doesn't have a college degree and he's not really interested in getting one. That rules out a career in journalism as well.

"I'm too old to start studying now and we need the income of two people to get rid of that mortgage" he says.

I have to say that I wouldn't mind if Anthony got a new job. We don't get to spend much time together since he works in the evenings and late into the night. Sometimes I try to stay awake and wait for him to come home but most of the times I end up falling asleep on the couch.

Anthony doesn't get much sleep since he has to get up quite early in the morning to look after Jesse. He says he enjoys spending time with Jesse but he's usually very tired.

Jesse takes a nap in the afternoon and Anthony usually tries to get some sleep too. I play with the girls outside so that they won't wake him up.

Denise came over the other day. I wanted to talk to her about the donations that the school received last year. She's a member of the City Council and she's good at giving advice.

There aren't any teachers available in Wellington at the moment but I got an idea which still needs to be approved by the city council. Quinn Hayes is currently completing his college degree via a correspondence course with Brixton University and I think he would be a good addition to the staff at AES. I don't think his criminal past will be a real issue as he has obviously reformed and left it behind.

Quinn said he would love to work in the school and Denise thought it was a good idea too. She promised to back me up in the city council.

I could see a glimmer in Denise's eyes when she was playing with Jesse in the living room.

"Starting to get a baby fever?" I asked. She just smiled and shaked her head but I got a feeling that she and Ben might eventually try for another child at some point.

Anthony had a few evenings off work so we went to visit mom and dad. When Dawn heard that Anthony is thinking about finding a new job she suggested that he should start making jewellery.

"That way I could try out whatever you create - for free of course" she said, winking her eye.

Anthony said that he's actually thought about joining the police force. It was a childhood dream of his to become a cop but he's been thinking about it a lot lately. Mom and dad thought it was a great idea and I agreed.

I noticed that mom kept staring at Jesse as he played with the old xylophone toy.

"They grow up so fast" she said and smiled.

We didn't see much of the girls during the visit. They headed out to the pool immediately. Zach followed them and promised he would keep an eye on them.

Anthony did join the police force the next day. He's a patrol officer and works the nights so there's not much change to our schedules. I have to admit I'm a bit worried about the idea of him out there but he does look hot in his uniform.

We've been able to pay back some of our mortgage although there's still a long road to go before we're debt-free. We're not spending all our money on mortgage payments since we still need a lot of stuff for the house. The kids love the new chess table.

Anthony was promoted to Vice Squad quite quickly. He now has to work weekends so it's just me and the girls at breakfast. I think we need to pay more attention to the girls' table manners, especially Emily seems to have some pretty disgusting habits!

I try to get the girls to participate in running the household now that they're old enough to help. Sara cleaned the table after we had eaten while I taught Emily how to clean the toilet.

Jesse went for a nap in the afternoon as usual so the girls and I went outside to work on the garden. We hadn't even raked the leaves yet so there was plenty of work for the three of us. I let the girls get back inside after a while and continued in the front yard.

I can't believe our little guy is already 3. The toddler years will soon be over and I feel a bit sad about it.

Anthony says he has nothing against another child but I think we're done. I'm already 46 and as much as I love our kids I feel like I can't go over the whole circus again.

Notes:
  • Title from "All that matters" by Mark Knopfler
  • Rianna and Anthony won't have another kid unless they have an oops baby. Anthony rolls the baby want from time to time but Rianna hasn't rolled it after Jesse was born.
  • Anthony got the sudden change of life plans in ROS this round. I tried to think what career would suit him and law enforcement came to my mind first so that's it.

8 comments:

  1. I love that Rianna is making the girls do chores around the house. Some of my families have a butler, while others simply put the kids to work. If Quinn joins the school, what would he teach?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Only one of my families has a butler, Burrows-Harris household since they're pretty loaded.

    I think Quinn would teach grades 1-3 so that would leave the pre-schoolers for Patsy and Rianna would teach grades 4-6.

    ReplyDelete
  3. So will Quinn be hired after he finishes his studies or are you going to have him work as a student teacher?

    I've been thinking of that lately, because I'm planning on having Finn work at my primary school next year (he'll be a senior next year) as a student - he won't teach, he'll just be observing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think I might let Quinn teach even before he has finished his studies. It's quite common in Finland for student teachers to teach classes since there aren't enough qualified teachers here especially in small towns.

    Even people without a college degree can work as substitute teachers in Finland. My cousin's wife worked as a teacher for 3 years and she only has a lower degree in computers! It sounds crazy but it's true.

    I love the idea of Finn being a student teacher. So he'll go on the education career after he graduates?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Finn's LTW is to be the Education Minister, so after graduation, he'll heading into the education career. I'm really excited for him to start working as a student teacher - I'll have him at the primary school in the next update.

    In this state, they are pretty strict about teaching. You must have a teaching degree, although the Catholic schools will hire student teachers as substitutes in their final year. Until they actually graduate though, they won't get a permanent position.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think they're bending the rules in Finland quite far which I don't see as a good thing. And to make matters worse, the group sizes have increased since the worldwide financial crisis.

    Finn will make a great teacher :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I think law enforcement suits Anthony perfectly. One of my couples is a teacher/police officer combo, I think the type of people who choose these careers compliment each other.

    I really liked the picture of them outside raking up the leaves and getting chores done. This is such a cute family.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I adore this family. Not much happens to them but I enjoy playing them anyway.

    At first I was irritated about ROS making Anthony change careers but it turned out well in the end.

    ReplyDelete