Not in my backyard, utensils! Go back to China!
Well, 2008 certainly ended differently than I expected it to.
First of all, Seattle got positively dumped on with snow. On December 15th and 16th Chris was home sick, then made it to work on the 17th. Oh the 18th, we started getting lots and lots of snow, and he couldn't get to work. He worked from home Thursday and Friday, as we watched eight inches of snow fall and contemplated the fact that the road outside of our neighborhood was closed (probably to prevent people from sliding down the hill and ending up in a lake).
We also got news that a dear aunt of mine had died very suddenly. From what I understand, she had not been doing well and went in for exploratory surgery. During the surgery they discovered that she had ovarian cancer, and that it had spread throughout her body . . . and she didn't make it through the night. I still haven't really wrapped my mind around the idea that she's gone.
The service was Saturday the 20th in Tillamook. Chris and I talked a lot about whether we should (and could) go. We had already been planning on driving down Tuesday or Wednesday, but the roads were terrible. His parents were in Atlanta for Christmas, so we were going to be spending the holiday with my parents. We suggested they drive up here instead, since they had a vehicle much more able to handle the snow, and they didn't want to--they'd already planned quite a lot of things in town, and were hosting both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner at their house. We asked my brother if he wanted to get together with us (he lives around here) in case we couldn't make it down to Mom and Dad's, and he was uninterested. So we faced the very real possibility of Tucker's first Christmas being with just the two of us, since no other family was accessible.
Ultimately, we decided to drive down on Saturday for the service. We left at 6:45am so we could take our time (it's generally a 4 1/2 hour drive) before the service at 2pm. Leaving our house, we had to drive around the Road Closed sign to make it to the highway.
There were no other cars on the road. That was good, because it meant we didn't have to avoid other cars making crazy mistakes, but it also made me wonder what the heck we were trying to do.
Very long story short(ish), we eventually made it to Tillamook at 5:30pm. Nearly 11 hours, and we missed the service. We chained up going over the summit, and had one chain break (and cause what looks like a lot of damage to the car--we'll find out just how much later) and the other one fall off. We detoured about 20 miles round trip to a Les Schwab to get new chains, and discovered that the ones we had were the wrong size. (I don't know why the wrong sized chains were in the trunk. But it's unfortunate that we didn't know that beforehand.) We eventually made it to my parents' house, exhausted. Luckily, Tuck was awesome during the drive. He loves car rides, and only got a teeny bit fussy once when he was hungry. If he had been screaming, that drive would have been completely miserable.
In retrospect, it looks like that was the only day we would have been able to travel at all. Tillamook was absolutely fine--not even snow on the roads--but all the roads leaving town were closed. So we stayed put for the week. We had a really nice Christmas Eve with Dad's family (those that were able to make it) and Christmas Day with an interesting selection of Mom's family and random others. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, even though Chris and I had to wing it for presents for each other, with really only one place to shop in town since we hadn't bought our gifts before leaving home. Still, I really really liked what I got from him, and I think he likes what I got for him, too.
That Saturday (the 27th), Mom and Dad hosted an open house for people to come meet Tucker. There was a really good turnout there, including a lot of people I haven't seen in ages like my 8th grade grammar teacher, my junior high math teacher, and my high school French teacher. Tucker spent his time charming people or napping, and generally being angelic. We had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the roads into town were still closed, so none of my friends my age were able to make it, but that's how it goes.
We drove home on Sunday, and met up with irish_eb and tuatha_danu (plus Brady) for lunch on the drive, since they couldn't make it for the open house. They met Tuck, and pretty much agreed that he's the most awesome baby ever.
When we got home, there was almost no snow still around. Chris was disappointed to never see how deep it got, but I didn't mind. Snow makes me nervous now that I'm no longer a kid and am financially responsible for problems it causes. On Monday and Tuesday I kept working on my job hunt, and decided to throw my search open wider. I'd been mainly focusing on local stuff, hoping to avoid relocating, but frankly there are a lot more options out there if we're up for moving. So I started looking elsewhere. Especially Atlanta, since Chris's brother and his family live there. We'd love to be closer to them.
On Wednesday I had an interview with a local (very big name in the med device industry) company for a contract position. I was trying to decide what I thought about that job when Chris called me to let me know he got laid off. Along with the two other newest artists in his company. Everyone else got pay cuts. On New Year's Eve.
So. He's got two more weeks until his last day (if he wants to work them), presumably so he can finish up any projects he's working on. The company has also told them they can use that time for anything they need--going to interviews, working on their portfolios, using company resources, whatever. I guess they feel bad. But yeah . . . on New Years Eve we discovered neither of us have a job. And we just bought a house and had a baby. So.
We're trying to figure out what to do now. We've talked about a lot of options. The main things keeping us here were our families, our church, and his job. But Chris's dad just got laid off, too (did I mention that?) so they're considering moving to Alberta, Chris no longer has a job after the 15th, and my parents frankly would visit us wherever we ended up. They're used to me randomly moving across the country. So that leaves our church as a reason to stay.
We love our friends, and that of course is part of it, but really, we'll keep up with them anyway. Yay for Facebook and the like. I'm not really concerned about that. Really, it's the church. We are passionate about Overlake. We love the community, we love the atmosphere, we love the mission. We think the church is doing amazing things right now, and we want to be a part of it. We feel blessed to go to a megachurch and be able to call both the lead pastor and the worship leader personal friends. We realize that if we move, we won't be able to find another church like Overlake. We will probably be able to find another church we love, another one we can feel passionate about--but it would be really hard to leave. So that's a big consideration.
We went to a party on New Years Eve, and one friend of ours toasted to "Screw you 2008! You destroyed our 401Ks!" It's been an interesting year. We had our baby, the most wonderful little boy I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. We bought a house, one that we might end up selling if we move. (Luckily, we're not upside-down in our mortgage--the housing prices in this area haven't fallen as much as stopped their meteoric rise.) Our IRAs and 401k have taken a beating. We've both been laid off. We have no idea what's going to happen next. But we're in this together.
Our church just started a series called 2009: The Year of Living Dangerously. It's all about trusting God completely when times are uncertain. Timely, no?
One of the songs we sang today had the lyrics "Move me where You want to . . . here I am, Lord, move me." Chris's parents were with us at church on their way home from Atlanta, and my father-in-law turned to me during that part and said, "Do you mean that?"
"Yep. He's in control. I'm just along for the ride."
First of all, Seattle got positively dumped on with snow. On December 15th and 16th Chris was home sick, then made it to work on the 17th. Oh the 18th, we started getting lots and lots of snow, and he couldn't get to work. He worked from home Thursday and Friday, as we watched eight inches of snow fall and contemplated the fact that the road outside of our neighborhood was closed (probably to prevent people from sliding down the hill and ending up in a lake).
We also got news that a dear aunt of mine had died very suddenly. From what I understand, she had not been doing well and went in for exploratory surgery. During the surgery they discovered that she had ovarian cancer, and that it had spread throughout her body . . . and she didn't make it through the night. I still haven't really wrapped my mind around the idea that she's gone.
The service was Saturday the 20th in Tillamook. Chris and I talked a lot about whether we should (and could) go. We had already been planning on driving down Tuesday or Wednesday, but the roads were terrible. His parents were in Atlanta for Christmas, so we were going to be spending the holiday with my parents. We suggested they drive up here instead, since they had a vehicle much more able to handle the snow, and they didn't want to--they'd already planned quite a lot of things in town, and were hosting both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner at their house. We asked my brother if he wanted to get together with us (he lives around here) in case we couldn't make it down to Mom and Dad's, and he was uninterested. So we faced the very real possibility of Tucker's first Christmas being with just the two of us, since no other family was accessible.
Ultimately, we decided to drive down on Saturday for the service. We left at 6:45am so we could take our time (it's generally a 4 1/2 hour drive) before the service at 2pm. Leaving our house, we had to drive around the Road Closed sign to make it to the highway.
There were no other cars on the road. That was good, because it meant we didn't have to avoid other cars making crazy mistakes, but it also made me wonder what the heck we were trying to do.
Very long story short(ish), we eventually made it to Tillamook at 5:30pm. Nearly 11 hours, and we missed the service. We chained up going over the summit, and had one chain break (and cause what looks like a lot of damage to the car--we'll find out just how much later) and the other one fall off. We detoured about 20 miles round trip to a Les Schwab to get new chains, and discovered that the ones we had were the wrong size. (I don't know why the wrong sized chains were in the trunk. But it's unfortunate that we didn't know that beforehand.) We eventually made it to my parents' house, exhausted. Luckily, Tuck was awesome during the drive. He loves car rides, and only got a teeny bit fussy once when he was hungry. If he had been screaming, that drive would have been completely miserable.
In retrospect, it looks like that was the only day we would have been able to travel at all. Tillamook was absolutely fine--not even snow on the roads--but all the roads leaving town were closed. So we stayed put for the week. We had a really nice Christmas Eve with Dad's family (those that were able to make it) and Christmas Day with an interesting selection of Mom's family and random others. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, even though Chris and I had to wing it for presents for each other, with really only one place to shop in town since we hadn't bought our gifts before leaving home. Still, I really really liked what I got from him, and I think he likes what I got for him, too.
That Saturday (the 27th), Mom and Dad hosted an open house for people to come meet Tucker. There was a really good turnout there, including a lot of people I haven't seen in ages like my 8th grade grammar teacher, my junior high math teacher, and my high school French teacher. Tucker spent his time charming people or napping, and generally being angelic. We had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the roads into town were still closed, so none of my friends my age were able to make it, but that's how it goes.
We drove home on Sunday, and met up with irish_eb and tuatha_danu (plus Brady) for lunch on the drive, since they couldn't make it for the open house. They met Tuck, and pretty much agreed that he's the most awesome baby ever.
When we got home, there was almost no snow still around. Chris was disappointed to never see how deep it got, but I didn't mind. Snow makes me nervous now that I'm no longer a kid and am financially responsible for problems it causes. On Monday and Tuesday I kept working on my job hunt, and decided to throw my search open wider. I'd been mainly focusing on local stuff, hoping to avoid relocating, but frankly there are a lot more options out there if we're up for moving. So I started looking elsewhere. Especially Atlanta, since Chris's brother and his family live there. We'd love to be closer to them.
On Wednesday I had an interview with a local (very big name in the med device industry) company for a contract position. I was trying to decide what I thought about that job when Chris called me to let me know he got laid off. Along with the two other newest artists in his company. Everyone else got pay cuts. On New Year's Eve.
So. He's got two more weeks until his last day (if he wants to work them), presumably so he can finish up any projects he's working on. The company has also told them they can use that time for anything they need--going to interviews, working on their portfolios, using company resources, whatever. I guess they feel bad. But yeah . . . on New Years Eve we discovered neither of us have a job. And we just bought a house and had a baby. So.
We're trying to figure out what to do now. We've talked about a lot of options. The main things keeping us here were our families, our church, and his job. But Chris's dad just got laid off, too (did I mention that?) so they're considering moving to Alberta, Chris no longer has a job after the 15th, and my parents frankly would visit us wherever we ended up. They're used to me randomly moving across the country. So that leaves our church as a reason to stay.
We love our friends, and that of course is part of it, but really, we'll keep up with them anyway. Yay for Facebook and the like. I'm not really concerned about that. Really, it's the church. We are passionate about Overlake. We love the community, we love the atmosphere, we love the mission. We think the church is doing amazing things right now, and we want to be a part of it. We feel blessed to go to a megachurch and be able to call both the lead pastor and the worship leader personal friends. We realize that if we move, we won't be able to find another church like Overlake. We will probably be able to find another church we love, another one we can feel passionate about--but it would be really hard to leave. So that's a big consideration.
We went to a party on New Years Eve, and one friend of ours toasted to "Screw you 2008! You destroyed our 401Ks!" It's been an interesting year. We had our baby, the most wonderful little boy I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. We bought a house, one that we might end up selling if we move. (Luckily, we're not upside-down in our mortgage--the housing prices in this area haven't fallen as much as stopped their meteoric rise.) Our IRAs and 401k have taken a beating. We've both been laid off. We have no idea what's going to happen next. But we're in this together.
Our church just started a series called 2009: The Year of Living Dangerously. It's all about trusting God completely when times are uncertain. Timely, no?
One of the songs we sang today had the lyrics "Move me where You want to . . . here I am, Lord, move me." Chris's parents were with us at church on their way home from Atlanta, and my father-in-law turned to me during that part and said, "Do you mean that?"
"Yep. He's in control. I'm just along for the ride."