Monday, January 23, 2012

The New Digs (photos for Mom)



As You Enter...

To Your Left...Mark's Study

To Your Right...Formal Living Room and Ping Pong Arena



Once Upstairs...

The Loft...


The Master Bedroom...
 

Master Bath...


Emily's Room...

Other Part of Emily's Room...

Rachel's Room...

More of Rachel's Room...
Phoebe's Room...(best view, but smallest room)





Back Downstairs...
 




Best Room of All...Rosemary's Studio
Family Room...


 

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Snowing Sideways

It snows horizontally here in Illinois.  Unless, of course, you are horizontal yourself.  Then...you guessed it, it's vertical.  But no matter how you slice it, anytime you find yourself in a situation that requires you to combine geometry and meteorology the resulting result will always be the same...stay home.  Don't go outside, don't even think about going outside!  Just stay home and be warm.  We have already arranged for other people to go outside and be cold; like the mail carrier and the dead, so we just don't need anymore cold people.  Stay home, and be a bum...like me (if only I could grow a five o'clock shadow...then my slothfulness would be complete)  

But if you must go out, please, change out of your sweatspants or jammie pants!  This appears to be a real epidemic here in Chicagoland.  It's everywhere. I saw a grown man just the other day with batman jammie pants on at the hardware store.  He was buying an electrical outlet.  He not only drove himself to the Home Depot, but would soon return home to finesse the high risk task of working with electricity, so I must assume he was somewhat capable of dressing himself.

On another note, Mark's job has improved.  Someone in upper management noticed a severe lack of grins and chortles in the office and started asking questions like: "we make games for a living, shouldn't we be having more fun?"  Changes are being implemented and we feel that our prayers have been answered.  Praises, as always, to Heavenly Father.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

I Would Like to Buy a Vowel

Good news! I've identified the source of all dread! Wait...that's actually bad news, isn't it? Ok, well maybe it's not good news and maybe it's not the source of all dread but it is definitely the source of the dreadfully doomed feelings I was experiencing pre-move to Illinois (see "Merry Christmas" post, December 25th).

Turns out...Mark works for a dangerously caustic person. I won't mention his name, but what I will say is that it's only one vowel away from being "Satan".

Oh, the blogs I could blog about this guy!!! He is a real psychopath. Psychopathy (/saɪˈkɒpəθi/) is a personality disorder characterized primarily by a lack of empathy and remorse, shallow emotions, egocentricity, and deception. Let's just say... he's a real kitten-kicker.

I'm gonna go ahead and spin the wheel and say, if "Satan" were Pat Sajak, as soon as he could tell you were going to solve the puzzle, he would change the puzzle, and THEN if that wasn't bad enough, THEN he would openly belittle you in front of any audience available for not being able to solve it.

This is who (or what) my dear husband has to work with, not just eight hours a day, but 11-12 hours a day!!! Yeah, I know. Get the heck outta dodge. Easier said than done when you've just dramatically uprooted your entire family, signed on a new mortgage, and have a resume that you kinda care about.

My poor, poor husband. How I weep for him. How he weeps for himself. How I can barely stand to watch him suffer through this abuse, capital A B U S E.

Why we have to go through yet another excruciating trial so soon...I don't know. That is a question for another game show. But what I do know is that I can absolutely trust God and His plan for us.
"Nevertheless...thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain." 2 Nephi 2:2 He has never failed us and someday, we will see the purpose in this as we have seen in all the other adversities we've been called to pass through.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

New Year, New Home, New Post

Nine days ago I gave my two oldest children goodbye hugs. They were long, tender goodbye hugs and I may have cried a tear or two, but I don't remember. Ok...I cried my eyes OUT. I think Nick even leaked a little. Then we climbed into Grandpa's truck and amidst a few more sobs here and there, made our way to Salt Lake City international airport to leave Utah soil for the last time in a long time.

I was anxious to take my girls through security, as we all should be any time we participate in a government sponsored mandate that is completely unconstitutional. The TSA is the gateway drug for the loss of the rest of our liberties people....but that is another blog for another time. Let's just say, I was anxious.

But, as it turned out, the four of us made it through without so much as a beep from the metal detector. Big sigh of relief...until they scanned Emily's backpack. There she had packed the Christmas presents she had opened that morning; one big bottle of lotion plus one big package of pedicure products equals one big liquid no-no for air travel in the US of A.

Deflated, we began to calculate what our options were for this seemingly minor, albeit quite significant to a 13 year old, bump in the road. As my brain was in the middle of scramble mode and I had my dad on the phone to see if he had left the airport yet...the TSA agent came back with Emily's backpack and said that her supervisor thinks it would be ok to let these cosmetics go this time. Phew! And Merry Christmas to us! I still don't know if Emily realizes how lucky she was.

Our journey resumed. And easy it was. Phoebe's guitar case passed as a carry-on. A cute BYU co-ed engaged Rachel in in-flight conversation on the first plane. Frontier Airlines delivered their signature warm chocolate chip cookie as a snack, and no one got air sick. On the second plane, we discovered that when we paid for the upgraded ticket (an extra $25 to get two bags checked) we also got free TV service. And lest we forget...warm cookie number two.

With warm cookies in our tummy and mucho luggage in tow, five hours and two planes later we made our way through Chicago Midway Airport to pick up our rental car. And what to our wondering eyes did appear? Nothing. They over-booked their fleet and our reservation (plus those of the six people in front of me) was unfulfillable. No cars at Hertz at 10:30 PM Christmas night.

We were issued apologies and promises that other rental car companies still had cars available, which may have been true, but other rental car companies were closed and had already gone home. Budget/Avis was still open so I waited in line there for forty minutes with the rest of Hertz's jilted customers. Apparently forty minutes is just long enough to exhaust your fleet because when there was finally just one patron in front of me, he turned around to report to his wife: "They're out of cars."

I scrambled up to the desk. "You're out of cars???" Yes. They were. They had a van left...but I wouldn't want it. "Why wouldn't I want it? Is it unreliable?" No. Works just fine, it's just a twelve seater and would be difficult for someone like me to manage. Guess again Mr. Avis...haven't you ever heard of youth conference? Not only can I 'manage' it, but I can 'manage' it with only three hours of sleep and nine insanely sugar-punched teenage girls in the back all singing "All Star" at the top of their lungs while driving through Utah's canyon country.

So finally, at MIDNIGHT, all of our bags were loaded up and we were on our way home. Home? Yeah...home, kinda. I guess.

That's where we are now. Our new house, that we are slowly but surely making into a home. And with every box I upack, I absolutely cringe at that thought of having to move again, and yet... I know better...