The Rest of My Life

Yes, for now this is another journal entry.  I'll add pics when I get to it, but I wanted to update our lives before we start a new chapter and this one becomes a distant memory, which tends to happen without even knowing it.

Right now my life is a very odd combo of very busy and blissfully quiet at the same time.  I've noticed the older I get, the happier I am to be alone with my tea and a book, rather than out on the town like I used to be.  At first I really fought against it, viewing it as a sign of me getting old and uninterested in fun.  But once I started to just embrace it as the person I'm becoming, I became much happier.  I figure as long as I don't become a cooped up weirdo, we're good.

I do have a small and absolutely wonderful group of friends.  A couple girls from my ward and I get together for playdates, lunches and nights out.  They are both foodies, so as you can imagine, our conversations are always very delicious in nature.  We also all serve together in YW, which makes my calling even that much more enjoyable.  I've also befriended a neighbor that lives next door to me.  We met through our kids who cannot get enough of each other, and since then our families have gotten together several times for dinners and outings.  They've been such a blessing to have near.

And because of them, I got a little job taking her son Myles every day after school.  It's a great deal for everyone because he gets to stay close to home, my kids have a buddy to play with everyday and I go about business just like I normally would, only with three kids instead of two.  It also grants me a bit of spending money so that I feel a bit more normal and able to treat myself and the kids now and then.

The kids are both happy and doing well in school.  I feel like Jayda has been able to apply herself a bit better and seems more interested in learning.  She has an amazing imagination and sense of creativity.  She is constantly turning our trash into something artistic and useful to her.  It drives me NUTS, but I do appreciate that she's always thinking outside the box.  Jayda is also taking a ballet class once a week.  I don't see this being something that she sticks with, she likes it, but is already talking about the things she'd rather do.  However, when she does go, she tries her best and always enjoys herself.  I love all the little moves she does during the week, she definitely loves to dance.

Skyler is an eager beaver in school, and if he doesn't come home with homework, he won't leave me alone until I give him one.  I think he's going to excel in academics, it's going to be a lot of fun to see how he does.  He's constantly cracking me up with his sense of humor.  He's so subtle, but so hilarious, you just have to really be paying attention.  Sometimes I feel like I'm hanging out with a cartoon character all day.  Skyler is in a soccer clinic right now.  Initially he was not interested AT ALL, but a little forceful persuasion got the job done and now he looks forward to it.  He is VERY inclined to follow the rules.  He hates it when people don't do what they're told, and he's very concerned with following them himself, so that alone has made him do well.  It's so fun to see him running around out there.

Glenn is busy busy busy.  Honestly, if I could trade lives with him, I don't think I would.  He works his @ss off.  Up at 5, home by 6 if we're lucky, and on call at least once a week.  It's been quite a bit more lately because of all the interviews the interns are going to.  Since we didn't match this year, Glenn has been interviewing again.  He's gotten six interviews, NJ, Philly, Detroit, W. VA, Boston and Loma Linda.  I was so relieved that he got six interviews, last year we got two, so it's been really nice to see the internship pay off.  I don't have a clue or preference to where we go, it would just be nice to match somewhere.  And more than that, no matter what happens, I am SO glad that this is the last time we have to deal with these interviews.  At least for now...

So there's our life in a nutshell, we're all doing well and are very happy.  I am crazy about my family and couldn't pick a better group of people to be on these adventures with.

Sandy

I'm WAAAY overdue for an update, life has been so crazy lately.  I hate to let the last few weeks go by without recording it, although I don't think it's a time I'll soon forget.

Sandy came by in all her glory a few weeks ago.  The day before she hit, Glenn took off to Loma Linda for an interview.  Honestly, neither of us thought much of the storm.  I think I got myself one crummy flashlight and an extra loaf of bread, you know, because that makes so much sense. 

The night of the hurricane, the wind shook my doors so loudly that you would have thought that aliens were trying to get in.  The power went out around 8pm and didn't come back on that night.  So we all went to bed really early, trying hard to ignore the wind and the flashes of exploding transformers around us.

I was shocked to wake up the next morning without power.  Already, I don't think I'd ever gone so long without it.  So we played along.  I put a bunch of my refrigerated stuff on my back porch and didn't dare open my deep freeze for fear of it thawing.  I had that thing chuck full of meats that I did NOT want to lose.  We did a lot of reading, playing and hanging out.  The kids did a lot better than I did.  With school canceled they were pretty thrilled to just occupy themselves while I waited anxiously for the power come back.  Glenn was suppose to come back that night, but there was no way, I had no idea when to expect him.

Day after day went by without power.  We did our best to pass the time, trips to the library and grocery store.  My deep freeze held on like a champ, you won't believe how long that thing can hold a freeze!  Of course, the cold weather helped, I'm sure.  It was surreal to know that you were going through something big, but get so little information about it.  Not having access to TV or internet, we really had no idea what was going on, or when we would get power.    I had to sit in my car if I wanted the news, something I didn't want to do because of the gas shortage and fear of running my battery out (which I managed to do anyway.)  I also had no idea how much worse it was for people in the NY area. I was shocked to find out after we returned to normal. 

Glenn did get back three days after the power outage, and picking him up turned out to be an interesting experience.  On the way I noticed that the far right hand lane was at a standstill and everyone seemed uncharacteristically pulled to the side.  I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out what everyone was doing.  The only thing I could see at all in the distance was a Sonic.  Surely things hadn't gotten THAT bad, had they.  Literally, about half a mile later I saw a gas station, and it all made sense.  These people were waiting in line for no less than four hours to fill their cars.  There were so few stations actually working and people weren't able to get to their jobs because of the shortage.  Luckily, my car had been filled before the storm, didn't plan it, but I sure will next time!

Going to the airport was a really nice break.  Once of the most exhausting parts of a power outage is the constant darkness.  I found a cozy spot at baggage claim and plugged EVERYTHING in.  I checked my email, let the kids watch a movie, and enjoyed electricity for a while.  It was nice to get Glenn back that night, but he was, of course, on call the very next day.

One HUGE blessing of the storm was that we still had hot water and use of our gas stove.  I can't even tell you how much that helped.  I had enough food in the house that we were mostly able to just eat up what we had, very little of our food went to waste.  Nothing is as healing as a warm meal.  Taking a hot shower at the end of a cold day really helped too.

Another huge blessing was how helpful the people in our lives were.  I was continuously texted and called throughout the week, people from in and out of town checking in on us.  I knew that if we were desperate enough, there were a lot of people that would quickly take us in.  It was a very comforting feeling.  I'll never forget the kindness of our friends and family.

Friday night, our spirit was starting to break.  Our car needed gas, but the thought of duking it out with a thousand angry New Jersey residents was an overwhelming though.  We were almost out of food, but didn't want to buy any, seeing as we had no idea when our fridge would work again, and we were SO sick of sitting in a dark house.  I called my precious cousin Tiff who informed me that Philly was up and running with gas stations and power.  That's all it took to make the trip over.  We got to see our cousins and friends while we were there, and then surprisingly, I got a text from my neighbor that the power was back on!!  We got the rest of what we needed and high tailed it home to take care of our apartment now that we had power. 

I threw almost nothing from my freezer out, most of my meat remained frozen solid, after six days!  It was shocking to see for the first time how dirty my house was.  You live at a completely different level with no power.  I did my best to keep things tidy, but without a vacuum, washer/dryer, and proper lighting, there are just things you can't take care of.  I was SO happy to scour from top to bottom and I'm pretty sure we kept the TV on the entire rest of the day. 

Like I said, what we went through was NOTHING like what so many other people went through, but we still had an experience that I don't think I'll ever forget.  And there are so many things that I'll never take for granted again.