Me, Myself and Mommy

If it were not for the fact that I have pictures of June and July, I would have no idea what I did during those two months. I wouldn’t have a clue. And, chances are, if I don’t have a picture of it, then I don’t remember it happening.

The first weekend in June, Moanna turned three and we celebrated with a fiesta. For a good two hours our semi-quiet home turned into a mad house, and it was fantastic. There were people in nearly every room in the house. At one point, all of the toys were out of the toy box and all of the kids were in the toy box. It is hard to believe that Moanna was a wee one just three years ago; she’s practically a teenager – the hand on her hips says it all.

After Moanna’s birthday, our entire life shifted into planning for our big move to Atlanta. If we were awake, we were in planning to move mode. Not executing the move just planning the move. It was exhausting, frustrating, emotional.

At the end of June, Steve and I went down to Atlanta for a week while Moanna headed back up to Maryland for another week with Steve’s parents. I must say that I was very jealous of Moanna. She was having a grand old time in Maryland while Steve and I were house hunting and having leasing battles. I won’t get into the drama that unfolded on that trip just yet, it will come in an upcoming chapter of “The Move.” Hold  onto your hats because believe me it’s going to be a juicy story.

We were able to wedge some fun into our trip to Atlanta when we were not sniffing out (literally -sniffing out) houses. One day, we went to the famous Georgia Aquarium. We played there for several hours with aninonamies, penguins, jelly fish and the like. We laid in front of the giant tank for along time. Even with all of the little monkeys running around, it was peaceful to lay there and watch the fish.

When we returned from Georgia, we met up with one of Steve’s work friends and her family for a day at Luray Caverns. I had been to Luray Caverns when I was much younger. Back then they had tour guides to walk your through the underground maze. Now they have this recorded tour that you listen to through head phones. They had two tours you could listen to. One for the adults, and one for the little kids. I listened to the little kids’ version so that I could keep up with Moanna’s adventure. She loved finding the stuff in the scavenger hunt mystery. She is still talking about “The Singing Rock” and “Friendly Ghost.”

We spent the Forth of July working at the local 4th of July celebration. Lexington is always a great place to be for the 4th. There is a big hot air balloon rally and fireworks; people from all over the area and beyond come to VMI to celebrate this patriotic day. I come for the food.

Following the 4th of July, we continued to push forward with our moving plans. It was hard to accomplish much of anything because we still had roles to maintain in our current lives in Virginia that were keeping us busy, but we were also up to our necks in figuring out what life would be like in Georgia.

During my last week of work, my coworkers threw me a surprise going away party. I was shocked. Surprised isn’t’ the right word. I was surprised, but I was shocked that they pulled the whole thing off because not much gets past me – that I know of. It was very bitter-sweet. To be honest with you, I had no idea that I cared about my job or the people I worked with that much. I knew that I really liked my job, but the last week was much harder than anticipated.

Because things were not crazy enough, Steve decided that we needed to take a last minute family vacation to the beach the day after I left my job. Don’t get me started. When he pitched the idea of going to the beach for the weekend, I told him he was out of his mind. We had 500 other things to do and our house was no where near ready to load onto a moving truck. His response to my chicken dance was, “We work better under pressure. We are going to the beach!” And, so we did.

I admit, it was a nice intermission. I spent most of the weekend on our beach front balcony in my t-shirt and underwear watching the rhythm of the ocean. Both mornings, we woke up to the run rise just after 6:00AM. We spent the mornings playing in the sand and swimming in the pool. The ocean was flipping freezing so only my toes touched the water. We napped in the afternoons and went out to yummy dinner in the evening. When were doing none of the above, I was on the balcony in my t-shirt and underwear. Why? Because that’s what you do at the beach. Moanna spent a lot time on the balcony too, but she was butt-booty naked.

The moment we got home, the vacation was over (actually it was over in the car when Steve forced me to write down our to-do list) and we frantically started throwing things in boxes. Our organized method of going through everything and weeding out the excess was out the window. Our “we work better under pressure method” was throw a bunch of crap in a box, pad it with some bubble wrap, tape it up and pray that nothing breaks. We did this for what felt like an eternity. In reality, it was three days.

We ended the month of July in a very special way. On July 30th Steve and I went to the DC Temple with several very dear friends of ours to get our Endowments and to be Sealed. As with most things in our life, it was nothing short of an adventure. The original plan was to do the Endowments on the 29th and be Sealed on the 30th. We wanted to space them out to keep from getting overwhelmed. Well, that didn’t happen. A massive storm blew through the DC area the prior Sunday knocking out power all over the place for several days. When we heard about the power outage on Tuesday, we created four or five backup plans in place because there was no telling what might happen. On one hand we were upset that our plans were being tossed around, but on the other hand we were grateful that the power outrage gave us a reason to think about our trip to the temple. Because of everything going on (the packing, the leases, the packing, the saying goodbye, the packing) our trip to the temple had become just a day on the calendar almost. Outside of our weekly temple prep class, we had no time to focus on the temple and what it meant for our family. This “disaster” gave us that opportunity. On top of having to go with plan D or E, Moanna managed to throw up several times that day on the way to the temple and at the temple. Not five minutes after our Sealing was complete the power in the temple shut off again. Thank you Lord for not letting us get on the elevator before that happened.

June and July were emotional months. They were down right overwhelming. In the greater picture of the world, our experiences and obstacles are no big deal. However, to us they were life changing. As a family we had to face a lot of new things. Things that we had little to no experience in. Things that we knew were going to be difficult proved to be much more difficult than anticipated. Things that were sweet were much more meaningful and sweeter than we expected. So to sum it up, we grew. A lot.

May was a century ago, at least that’s what it feels like. This summer is flying buy and I am struggling to keep up. I know the last time I wrote a Reflections post, I said I wouldn’t dare let so much time go by before looking back. But, here we are again, a month late and a dollar short, because life happens.

Please note: the following events and thoughts about May are not in chronological order because quite frankly, I can’t remember when all of this happened.

Now that I think about it, I spent a lot of May home alone. Moanna was in Maryland having the time of her life (really it’s amazing that the child is willing to come home with how much fun Steve’s parents pack in during her visits), Steve was traveling around the country for work and I was at home like some lonely chump. I’m kidding, it was nice to have some personal time and to have an empty house to complete a few projects around the house. This project in particular was torturous .

I did take advantage of my time alone to go on an adventure with my friend Beth. We gave into our unhealthy obsession with The Pioneer Woman and took an epic road-trip to her book signing. It was a very long two days, but it was vital to my survival. I was in desperate need of a break, an adventure, quality time with mother nature and most importantly girl time. Beth took some amazing photographs of our trip which you can take a gander at here.

Late one evening when I was home alone I got a phone call from my Dad. I won’t recount the entire story (you can read that here), but he was calling to tell me that he was at Duke waiting for final confirmation that they had found a liver for him. It was a nerve wracking night, and I had no one to talk to but God, so I literally prayed until I fell asleep and was praying still when I woke up. The transplant was a success, and with the exception of a few lingering infections that had been hiding in his body from his previous liver transplant, this recovery has been a million times smoother than the last one.

Because I am famous for this as soon as life and work slowed down a smidgen I got sick. This has been a chronic problem my entire life. I am able to get through the busy spurts of life, and when I finally get a chance to slow down and relax (you know enjoy life a bit) I get knocked over the head illness. This particular time was rough. I was probably sick for more than three weeks. I would feel crappy for a few days, rest a bit, feel better and think I was healed, get sicker. I went through this cycle two or three times before I finally gave in and accepted being sick – very sick with bizarre symptoms. After blood tests coming back negative for the zillions of things I was tested for, I’m going to toss it up as a strange virus because if one more doctor/specialist looks at me and says, “Sounds like you were really sick, but you look fine now. Unless your symptoms come back, there really isn’t anything I can do for you.” I’m going to hit them over the head like a whack-a-mole. I’m used to odd sicknesses and symptoms taking over my body, but I’m getting really tired of paying doctors to say, “Eh, I don’t know what to tell you.”

Somewhere in the middle of my illness, Steve and I celebrated our anniversary. On the day of our actual anniversary, Steve was out of town, so we planned on celebrating as soon as he got back. When he got back from his trip, I was plagued with a fever and swollen glands, so Steve cooked me dinner and we rain checked our date. A few days later (when I thought I was feeling better), we celebrated with a nice dinner and movie.

Memorial Day was a great day. I was still far from par, but we got up early that morning (earlier than we normally would on a day off) and to have brunch with some friends. I’m not usually a breakfast person, but oh my, you have no idea how much I enjoyed the food that our friends cooked for us. After breakfast, we loaded up our cars went to the Parkway for a “hike.” We had three toddlers, one munchkin in a back pack and one pregnant chicky in the mix, so it was more like a walk with a few leaves and sticks to step over. It was a lovely morning, followed by a fantastic nap.

Last and certainly not least, early slash mid-May-ish we announced (announced is not at all the right word, but just go with it) a major change in our lives. We excitedly-regrettably-happily-hesitantly made it known that Steve had been promoted with his company and as a result, we would be relocating to Atlanta, Georgia. In addition to a change of address, this move is going to completely change our lives. You can trust that you will continue to hear much more about this relocation process in the coming days, weeks and months as we move and adjust to life in the big city.

It seems like I should have gotten a speeding ticket for how fast I raced through May. I don’t know how it happened, but it was like May came and I was suddenly on the Autobahn driving 110mph. My engine is still panting from how hard and fast I pushed through May.

I feel about as small as a paper clip right now. How could I have let two months go by without taking time, even a short minute, to reflect on recent events in our lives? I should have to write “I will take time to reflect” on the chalkboard 1000 times. Maybe that would teach me a lesson or two.

I do have a few excuses, lame as they may be, for not taking time sooner to reflect on April and March, especially March. Poor March you did not deserve to be tossed to the side. I was not able to take time before now to reflect on the past two months because as soon as March began my life went from zero to sixty in less than five seconds. I know busy is not an excuse because we’re all busy beyond reason, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

If you do not work in a college atmosphere, I’ll let you in on a little secret. From the time Winter Break begins until Spring Break ends, colleges hibernate. Other than classes and other formalities very little happens; everyone is trying to keep warm and survive the winter months. As soon as Spring Break ends, college campuses wake up from their slumber and go crazy. There are dedications, celebrations, reunions, awards, conferences, guest speakers. The list of activities that must be jammed in before graduation is unimaginable.

To say that I have spent the majority of my life at work during March and April would be an understatement. Thankfully, we survived, and if I do say so myself, we did an awfully good job. As much as I enjoyed the craze and the drama of watching event after event come together, I’m exhausted and ready to put my feet up.

Because timing tends to be divine, Steve’s travel schedule was minimal while I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. He was able to keep our house in working order, Moanna fed and entertained, and somehow he managed to keep me alive. I have no idea what we would have done if Steve were globe trotting.

Other than pure exhaustion, there are just a few things that I remember about March and April; I’ll do my best.

March brought Spring with her, and for that I am unimaginably grateful. I wasn’t going to make it much longer if something didn’t bloom or turn green when it did. The warm weather and first signs of Spring brought me back to life. I am a completely different person when the weather is sunshiny and warm. If the busy season at work was in the dead of winter I’d never make it out alive.

I went to Atlanta for a leadership training class. It was nice to get away from Virginia for a few days and learn new things. I know, nerd alert. I can’t help it, I love learning. It’s also nice to come home to a hotel room for a few days. You can’t stress about not getting house work done because it’s seven hours away.

Steve and I became Uncle and Auntie! Steve’s brother Joey had a baby girl named Alexis, more than eight healthy pounds of pinchable baby love. They live all of the way on the other side of the  country in Washington, so we’ve only met the sweet-pea via photos. As soon as they emailed us photos, we sat Moanna down and tried our best to explain to Moanna that she had a cousin. Geneolgy is a complicated thing for anyone to understand, but Mo understands that Baby Alexis is a very special baby.

Towards the end of March, my Dad was re-listed for his second liver transplant. It took a lot of work for the state of Tennessee and the board that accepts transplant patients to have him listed this time. A lot of complications made it challenging at times, but those complications are what ultimately made it possible for him to be re-listed. If you want to learn more about this journey and how you can help, please read his story here.

We spent Easeter Weekend in Maryland. It was a necessary intermission for us. We had a great time relaxing with Steve’s side of the family. We spent the time relaxing and enjoying each other’s company, and naturally, we ate way too much. I’m still full from all the food we ate.

Moanna had a great Easter this year. She was finally old enough to hunt for eggs. It was great watching her go from searching and serious to delighted when she found an egg and then back to serious. She also got a huge kick out of all of the goodies that the Easter Bunny so cleverly hid inside of her eggs. She thought it was the coolest thing ever. “The Easter Bunny gave me MORE candy!?” We’ll be eating all of that candy until way past Halloween and well into next year.

The Easter Bunny left us a charcoal grill. I think it’s safe to say that Steve had never really grilled in his life prior to now. It’s dinner and a show. Our first few attempts were not unsuccessful but they were not home runs eeither. Steve is starting to get the hang of it, and he is on his way to becoming a barbecue pro.

In April we were able to take our first summer evening walk of the year. We got out the wagon and pulled Moanna to the park. I was sure she would be really upset when it got dark otuside and we had to go home, but she was happy to race us home for a treat before bed. After pulling Moanna to the park in the wagon and then racing her home, I was made well aware of how out-of-shape winter had made me. I do a lot of running around at work, but I can’t tell you the last time I exercised. It’s a good thing I can take evening walks again.

Towards the end of April, Moanna ventured back to Maryland for a vacation. I was still working a crazy schedule and Steve’s travel schedule was picking up. We all agreed that it would be best for Moanna to go have some fun with her grandparents until graduation. She’s been quite the busy bee since she’s been gone, gymnastics, fishing, shopping, camping. Who needs summer camp when you have your own private summer program with Grandma and Grandpa?

The last day of April was a really nice end to the crazed month for me. With Moanna and Steve off on their own adventures, I was left to fend for myself. Before walking into work, I sat in my car to appreciate the weather and witnessed one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. I had no idea that trees gave off little puffs of pollen! The girls I work with and I went out to lunch which is something we never do. We found a local place with a nice patio so we could eat outside and enjoy the day. When I got home from work, I took a nap and spent the rest of the evening catching up on my DVRed shows. It was refreshing to end such a hectic month so quietly.

I can’t believe that March and April are already gone. It still hangs me up that we are almost half way through 2010. We were very busy the past two months, but in some ways it feels like we accomplished very little. We had to go into survival mode, and that’s OK once in awhile. We made it, and I can confidentially say we did a much better job this year at staying sane than we did last year.

I am so thankful May is here and that work has calmed down a great deal. I am ready to spend time with my family and putting this house back together. It’s time to recenter and slow down for a bit.

February is notorious for being my least favorite month out of the year. It’s only 28 days long, but those 28 days drag on forever. It’s kind of like how it always gets really dark and cold just before dawn breaks. This February was no different. It wasn’t particularly horrible, but it was really hard to get through.

February began very snowy and very cold. It was painfully white and bleak,not exciting and inviting like the first snow storm of the season. Moanna wasn’t even interested in going outside to play. She and I suffered from cabin fever while Steve was snowed in in Norther Virgina.

Steve spent more days out of town in the month of February than he spent at home. He spent a full week in Miami and several other weekends away for work. I did not handle it gracefully at all. He plays a very active role in taking care of Moanna and helping care for the house. I am very blessed and spoiled, so when he wasn’t here to take over when I needed some time on the bench I lost it. I had to constantly remind myself that this was a transition period and that we were making the best decision for our family in the long run.

From afar, Steve did his best to help with Moanna over the phone. When I just couldn’t take it anymore he would talk to her and mediate our arguments over the phone. He also sang to her every night at bed time.

Steve was out of town for Valentine’s Day which was more than fine with me. I hate the holiday. He did have the audacity to send me a card in the mail. I think he forgot who he was dealing with for a minute. Despite my hate for the holiday, I did dress Moanna up in pink for church and celebrated the holiday with her.

Thankfully, my work load was fairly light in February (relatively speaking). We were really blessed that when Steve was out of town I was able to have a “normal” schedule. It made juggling Moanna and her needs easier than it could have been if I were slammed at work. I’m not sure what we’re going to do when things get really busy for me at work at the end of March and the month of April. It’s going to be a death defying feat to stay sane.

Because of our crazy schedules, we are home just long enough to tear the place apart. To help keep the house in working order we hired someone to clean the house every two weeks. It is money well spent. It forces us to pick up after ourselves so the housekeeper can come in and do her job. It’s nice knowing that we do not have to spend all of our time at home cleaning; we can now spend some of that down time relaxing.

As if the weather and Steve’s heavy travel schedule were not enough to make February epic, we found out that Steve has Celiac Disease. Essentially it is an allergy to gluten. It has been a life changing adjustment for Steve. He’s no longer able to eat some of his favorite foods unless it is modified to be gluten free. It has changed the way we shop for food, cook and where we can go out to eat. I will elaborate on this new development in a later post.

February and all of its misery reminded us to not take our time together as a family for granted. Steve and I have without question learned to appreciate each other more. We now have a better understanding of where the other person is coming from. We can appreciate the other one’s contributions to the family as well as their struggles in a way that we couldn’t before. Despite my hatred for February, I am grateful for the new perspective it has brought to our family.

Our family welcomed 2010 with big dreams, and a great desire to see where the year and decade will take us. January wasted no time in bringing us challenges and opportunities. After a few final relaxing days of our Holiday Break, we hit the ground running.

We spent New Year’s Day having a late Christmas with my family. We spent the evening playing with Evan’s new Wii, exchanging gifts and eating. Because we were burnt out on Holiday food, we had fish tacos, and Jai made homemade mango salsa. My Grandma gave us a painting of Steve, Mo and I on our wedding day. It takes a jack hammer to put nails in our walls, so it sits on top of a table propped against the wall.

After a final weekend of relaxing at home, I returned to work and Steve flew to Dallas, Texas for a business planning meeting. Since then, we have both been running hard with work. We’ve been so busy that we barely see each other, and Moanna is a long for the ride. Our hope is that pushing hard this year will pay off, and we will have more time together in the long run.

In January we released a new section of My, Myself and Mommy called Me, Myself and Money. In this section of the website, we are discussing personal finances, and everything it implies. By beginning this adventure, we have faced how much debt we have, set spending limits, and stopped eating out (minus one date a month) – all in the first month. The plan is to have our consumer debt (credit cards) paid off by the end of 2010. It’s going to be a crazy ride, but will be so worth it. I think I’m going to need a Dramamine.

On the evening of January 12th, my Mom called to tell us that there had been a catastrophic earthquake in Haiti. Our hearts immediately turned to Steve’s best friend, Andy, who is from Haiti. Much of our focus remained on Haiti throughout the month, and what we can do to help. We are working with Andy on long term projects that will help the people of Haiti now, and that will continue to help Haiti in the months and years to come.

The weekend of January 23rd, Steve and I went down to Charlotte, North Carolina (Moanna stayed in Virginia). Steve had a sales conference and awards banquet to attend. Some of Steve’s closest friends are the people he works with, so it was great to spend time with these people, and celebrate every one’s successes at the banquet. While Steve was in his sales meetings, I spent time with Erin, my maid-of-honor who lives just north of Charlotte. It was nice to decompress away from home for the weekend.

Moanna had a good January. She was busy with anything she could get into – cooking, climbing, dumping clothes out of baskets, playing in the snow, all kinds of toddler fun. She is really starting to grasp bigger ideas and concepts. I don’t have a good example for you which is a shame. She will say or do something, and Steve and  I will look at each other and say, “How does she know to do that?” Moanna sings her her ABC’s every night – minus J. Every time, she leaves out the J.

For about three days, three whole days, the ground was free from snow. Just as soon as the snow had finally melted from the December Blizzard, another snow storm came to town the last weekend in January. Steve was out of town for a trade show, leaving Moanna and I to fend for ourselves. It was a rough weekend. She and I drove each other crazy. I would clean a room up, she would tear it apart. She would want to watch a movie, I would want to take a nap. Don’t get me wrong, we had our fun in the snow and played around the house, but the cabin fever got to both us after awhile.

I can usually look back at a month and say “overall it was a good month” or “overall it was a challenging month.” For January, I can’t do that. The first month of 2010, a new decade, was all over the place. One day it was great, and we were spending time with family and friends, and we were dreaming big dreams for our future. The next day, we were aching for the people of Haiti and trying to make it through our ever growing to-do list without having an emotional breakdown. If January was a preview of what 2010 will bring, then boy, what a doozy.

With all of the ups and downs and running around, I had no time to really think and reflect about what I was doing and what was going on in my life. I felt robotic at times just trying to get through it all. In many ways I am thankful for the robotic behaviors I took on because it allowed to me to push through some sticky stuff without allowing the stress of it all to paralyze me. Every night I was able to push myself for a few minutes every night to complete at least one small project in the house. I am far from a fan of it, but sometimes auto pilot is what gets us through a bitter winter without loosing our sanity.