I’ve run down the stairs of my house hundreds of times without an incident.  I never thought there was any risk involved in doing so.  That all changed this morning when I was nearly to the bottom and suddenly felt my cranium crash against something very hard.  (My severely impaired vision without glasses probably didn’t help.)  That “something” was the ceiling above the staircase.  (See below)

Figure A:

In case it’s not clear, that dent there is the very corner where the ceiling meets the wall above.  I think they put some kind of metal at the corners to make a nice rounded effect.  There are two semi-ovalular (I possibly made that word up) cracks in the paint radiating out from there.  I left quite an impression. 

So, that hurt.  And it sucks about the damage.  But what’s worse… now I’m all paranoid about it!  Four or five times today, I have caught myself running down those stairs, suddenly remembered the tragedy of this morning, and freaked out trying to slow myself down and protect my head.  TWO of those times, I actually caused myself to slip and fall, hurting myself in otherwise.  (I’m not a klutz.  These are unreasonable circumstances.)

Anyway, yeah, now something that I’ve done hundreds of times and continue doing constantly out of habit has become a source of pain, fear, and frustration for me.  I hope this brightens up your day!

-Brad

Disney World 09

Are you surprised we went to Disney World last week?  We are!  It was very impromptu and we didn’t tell very many people since it sounds pretty weird, you know, “Brad was laid off a month ago so now we’re going to Disney World!”  especially when the economy has so many people struggling to find work.  But we did.  We booked the trip when Brad accepted a job offer and we were looking at a month and a half of essentially paid vacation, along with the fact that Brad’s parents would be there for part of the time we would be there, and it’s warm there.

We had a great time at Disney World!  We were concerned that Kyle wouldn’t do too well.  We thought he might be too young and a little intimidated.  Apparently a lot of kids act up at Disney World because of sensory overload and long days.  But Kyle did awesome!  He did get pretty tired.  When we got to the airport today coming home, Kyle asked me if we could go to Disney World tomorrow!  He was really cute!  Too bad he wont remember the trip when he’s older.  And thank goodness….Brad had a good time too, which is always questionable when it comes to spending large amounts of money on travel.

Oh!  and Brad and I put ourselves in a video game at Epcot.  Here’s the link if you want to check it out

I just added our Halloween pictures to the October 09 Picasa Album

October 09

I buckled down and finally made picassa albums for october, september, and yes…the wedding way back in June.  I’m ridiculous, I know.  For what it’s worth, my excuse, at least with California and the wedding, is that I wanted to post our claymation, “super strong”, we made at Zeum but it took forever to get it to work on my computer.

California 09

Super Strong

September 09

October 09

This is Kyle’s new “puppy”, Blue!  Kyle’s been the best owner, taking him for walks and to the park and swimming, feeding him breakfast and giving him naps.  I think this is my all time favorite pretend game of his, especially when he sticks his lego in my face and says, “how cute!”  and waits for me to cuddle it.

So Brad getting laid off has been kind of a non-trial.  I don’t know if Brad will ever call it a blessing since he loved his job so much but there is no doubt that we have been blessed in pretty much every other way!

By two weeks after Brad received notification of being laid off he had 2 job offers and another one coming.  He accepted an offer today with a higher salary (but worse benefits….that was kind of a given though) and he’ll start a new job on Dec. 1, the day after he’s officially done at Intuit!  So we have a month and a half to just spend together as a family- awesome!

Here’s Kyle in his ninja costume for halloween

Brad got laid off yesterday and I feel….well, cautiously optimistic…for now.

Intuit’s been really good to us.  I know Brad loved loved loved his boss and coworkers.  I know I loved loved loved the bonuses, the insurance, and the yearly snowmobiling trips/lunches on the company (Brad did too).  We always agreed when lists of the best companies to work for came out and Intuit was near the top.  They’ve left us with a pretty good severance package too.  What we’re looking at now is…

1. Great: Brad could get a job sometime in the next two months while he’s still on Intuit payroll and we could double our savings with his severance.  Yay!

2. Super Great: Brad could get a job sometime int he next two months while he’s still on Intuit payroll and we could double our savings with his severance….and then I could win $75,000 with the HGTV Great Fall Fix Up Sweepstakes.  Woot.

3.  Really Crappy:  Brad can’t find a job and we have enough savings and severance to last us sometime through next july or august (including COBRA and hospital bills for the baby…I think) and then we’re screwed.

4. Meh: Brad doesn’t get a job until around Feb, Mar and we’ve used the severance and we’re kind of just left where we were before.  (made better or worse by a pay increase/decrease in the new job and/or the need to move)

In any case, we’re sad, but we aren’t freaking out just yet.  Brad’s working on his references and resume already and trading recommendations on linkedIn with his coworkers.  I believe there are two jobs that are a perfect fit for him that he’ll try to get his stuff into by the end of the day (I hope).  and several other possibilities that he’ll be looking into.  I’m proud of him for being proactive.  And I’m looking forward to the extra time we get to spend together in the meantime.  My sister-in-law Tracy, can I just say has been awesome!  She has been so caring and looking for job possibilities on Brad’s behalf.  It makes me love her even more.

Looking back on life, there are some things I’m super thankful for along with a couple of regrets now that he’s laid off.  First of all, despite the fall in equity, I’m really thankful we bought this house in Lehi as opposed to the ones we were looking at in Provo and Orem.  It makes Brad’s commute to jobs all along the Wasatch more reasonable.  Second, I’m thankful I’m a weird early Christmas shopper.  All of our Christmas shopping with the exception of two gifts are bought and paid for.  A good Christmas for everyone without having to worry about our budget.  Third, I’m thankful for a great trip to park city with Karon where I got great deals on most of the things we need for Kyle this winter.  Fourth, I’m thankful we’re having a boy and already have almost everything we need for him.  Fifth, we’ve been really blessed recently because we’ve had several unforeseen expenses (a new tire, a trip to the Dr.  for Kyle splitting his lip)  that we were able to fit into our budget inexplicably without digging into our savings.   Sixth,  it’s a new fiscal year at Intuit and Brad’s still on payroll until the end of November which means we’re totally going to use the $350 fitness incentive before he leaves to buy ourselves exercise equipment or bikes, and we still have our Legacy Center membership from last fiscal year until May I think.  Seventh, when it came time to get new phones on Verizon, we never found any we liked better than our present ones which means we never renewed our two year contract and can pull out anytime without a penalty.  I really only have one regret and that’s the fact that I was feeling really prompted to get pregnant around Jan or Feb.  Brad and I talked it over and decided to stick to our original plan of May.  If I’d followed through on my prompting, we could be having the baby while still on our insurance without having to worry about COBRA just yet, or worse insurance from another company (goodbye $100 babies.   )  Lesson learned, hopefully.

The End.

I’m crazy.  And wrong.  We’re having a boy!

A super cute one!  And a hand sucker by the looks of it.

Kyle: Daddy, what’s that?

Me: That’s the idolatrous priest of Elkenah attempting to offer up Abraham as a sacrifice.

Kyle: Oh.