Welcome to 2011!

Hello New Year!  So good to see you!

Not that 2010 was all bad, but it was definitely over shadowed by two largely unpleasant events:

• The February passing of my mother-in-law at the tender age of 69.
• Being unemployed for about six months, from April to October.

Now every time we see pictures or video of Mom, it reminds us of her absense.  It reminds us how wonderful a person she was, despite her flaws (like everyone has).  Her faith and her love are now more recongnizable than ever.  Old pictures of a beautiful young bride, new pictures of a proud grandma with the current latest grandbaby held gently, but confidently in her arms.  A husband bereft of his love in life, a family saddened with her loss, yet happy for her release from the recent past and the downward slide of mortality.  She is loved and missed.

A month after the funeral for Mom, I and my entire group at work received word we would be layed off and that we had a couple of weeks left.  They could have been a lot worse about it.  At least we got to finish our week out and have a final party, got a final paycheck and remained employees for another two weeks in which we could finish using our Flex Spending Plan money, go to the doctor/dentist/whatever and turn in any paper work we needed to be ready for being unemployed.

I really liked receiving severance and PTO paid out.  We were able to cut back and use that and finally some Unemployment Insurance to make it through without feeling desperate.  Having a decent savings on hand was also very beneficial. 

All the same, six months without employment was definitely not the best of times and something I hope to not repeat, ever.

And that is just our family!  We had so many friends and neighbors that went through similar issues.  A good friend went through almost the exact same thing, losing a mother-in-law and then losing a job.  Other friends went through dealing with cancer in loved ones and many other strains this year.

What helps me look back on the year with some optimism:
We learned some new things about Mom and many recently degraded attitudes were changed as pressures were relieved and eyes opened.  It was great to see what came out of some of the family as we pulled together in remembering and honoring her.

This was the first summer I've had off in about twenty years.  While I would love to have done it my way and spent the time traveling and visiting places and people, it just didn't happen that way.  Instead we filled the time between job hunting with other activities. 

• There was lots of Dad and kids playing video games together.
• Mom and Dad walking the kids to and from school while it was in.
• A very low budget vacation trip to Lagoon, thanks to a friend who had some awesome discount tickets that enabled us to spend the day for just over the cost of one standard pass.
• A camping trip with family.
• Family games.
• Reading.
• Weekly temple attendance using some of the names Mom had prepared before she passed.  A definite highlight on this one!
• Gathering all my brothers together for the first time in about five years.
• And any number of other good events for friends and family, like new babies, new marriages, momentous birthdays and so forth.

And then there was the day when we finally accepted an offer and began a new job.  I won't go into the details, but what a feeling when that day came.

It is amazing what a relief it is to have a paycheck coming in regulary again and to know you can go to the store without worring about every little penny and how it will affect you and how long you'll have to worry about being on a shoe string budget.

So, while it wasn't all bad in 2010, it is a relief to have it behind us and be able to look forward in 2011.

Thank you to all who helped us through and supported and loved us during the hard times of 2010, who contributed to and provided the good times. 

We appreciate your kindness and caring and wish you the best in 2011 and onward!

Happy New Year!!!

Best. Day. Ever!

I took Thursday off work planning to do something fun with my family.  The plan was lunch and a movie.  Little did I know how the day would turn out.

First things first, I'm taking a day off to play with my family, so we are already off to good start.

I opened the day with cleaning all the lovely snow off our sidewalks and driveway.  Then I had to practically break into our truck because of all the wet snow from yesterday that had oozed into the doors and frozen.  (One door still won't open. Hoping it will next time it warms up a bit.)  I decided to take the truck around the block to warm it up a bit and figured I'd go check the church walks since we still have snow duty this week.  Of course, our Elder's Quorum president (who has the week off) is there shoveling away.  I can't just leave him there by himself so I park the truck and start shoveling with him.  I quickly realize the east side of the church is drowning in drifting snow so I head out back to get the snow blower because I can't stand shoveling deep, heavy snow.  It's one of those good sized ones with the big auger and six forward speeds. 

Needless to say it turned into more fun than work at that point, and I only got dusted in the face by the snow spray a couple of times.  Hehe.  Not bad for my first time really using the beast.  What I didn't realize until we were almost done is that my dear wife had kind of been freaking out at some point because she realized I had left and she didn't know where I was and I wasn't answering my phone (repeatedly, apparently) because I hadn't heard or felt it while chugging around with the snow blower.  Of course I hadn't told her I was leaving because she was in the garage running on her treadmill, I wasn't going to traipse through the house all snowy and besides, I was only going around the block to warm the truck up a little.  I hadn't planned on stopping at the church, just driving by to see what the damage was.

And that was how the morning ended.

After getting showered and ready, we loaded into the car and headed to lunch for some haute cuisine at one of the kids favorite joints, the local Arby's. You can almost smell the curly fries from here.  Sniiffff.  Since we were at the shopping center we ran a couple of quick errands, which included picking up some more discounted Christmas M&M's of which you can never have enough at our house.

Finally, we were off to the movie.  We arrived at a perfect time to get settled in and not have to watch too many of the monotonous pre-ads, but still get things taken care of and get ready for the show.  We had decided to take the kids to see Tangled.

Wow, that turned out to be a lot of fun!  The story was fun and the graphics were crisp and clear.  We all enjoyed the movie a lot.  Digital theatres are the only way to go.

That was the end of the afternoon and the extent of our plans for the day.  But wait, that's not all.  This day wasn't done with us yet!

Arriving home found us ready to figure out dinner, but with no particular plans.  Yvonne decided to make a big pot of vegetable soup for her and after some hemming and hawing, I decided I felt like some Bourbon Chicken.  This is a bit like a sweet and sour chicken, but even better.

It turned out something like this, only mine was darker and richer looking.  I also only used half the chicken and made the full amount of sauce 'cause I like my with lots of sauce for the rice and we didn't need two pounds of chicken.  Talk about hitting the spot. Our son really enjoyed it, which was an added bonus.

So, once again our bellies were full and spirits continued to run high.  Now, what to do with our evening..., oh yeah, what else?  It's time to enjoy some Lego Rock Band!  Yeah, Santa!

And with the completion of several music sets while on tour, it was finally time to ready the kiddos for bedtime.  Enter the bedtime ritual. 

After which Yvonne curled up with her latest book, I plopped down for some more Final Fantasy XIII play time and in the words of Rapunzel, it was the...

Best. Day. Ever!!!