Day 9

Still sick. I went to the Instacare today and came away with some prescriptions, which I hope will help.

Feeling miserable... but hoping that soon it will be just a memory.

Isn't it ironic, don't you think

Did I really write "So help me if we pick up the flu before the vaccine kicks in..."?

Those little nasty viruses must have just giggled as they silently prepared their invasion, drawn to the challenge.

Luckily, nobody in the family has had it so far but me, but I have been sick as a dog. In fact, it started probably right as I was writing those fateful words. Monday I thought I was starting to get better when BAM! No Way Jose! Tuesday morning, a whimpering, beaten mess, I called my parents for help. There is something about family! I have wonderful friends who brought dinner, offered to watch kids (which I have refused... the kids have been playing super well and I don't want to be responsible for passing this bugger along). But family will not only feed you, but bring you into their home, with all your germs and everything. Thank you Mom and Dad. You seriously saved me. I stayed with them until Rob got home from his conferences today, and then we will return tomorrow as he heads out for New Zealand.

So while I was sick at home, Rob was also dealing with his share of difficulties. He was busy all Sun & Monday at a huge neuroscience conference. Then when he rushed to the airport to head over to Michigan, he found that they had accidently booked his flight for next week! The only thing to do was to rent a car, leaving at midnight, and drive 5 hours to Ann Arbor. There, he slept 2 hours and headed out to a big conference in Ann Arbor. Then, on the flight home, he sat on the runway for almost an hour in Denver because the gate was unavailable due to mechanical delays. So that meant that he missed his flight home by 4 minutes! He was able to get a hotel, and 6 hours later, he was up again in the cold air trying to catch a flight standby. Bless him.

This also meant that our closing on our home was delayed AGAIN (that was the 3rd time... the other 2 times were the seller's fault). All's well that ends well. And I hope that this is going to end well. At least Rob made it home and the closing happened and we are no longer home owners. So here we go on to the next adventure.

Oh, and isn't it great that I'm not going to New Zealand tomorrow?

Committed

After about half an hour standing in a long line, you can't leave. You are committed. Walking away would mean that you just wasted half an hour. Never mind that there is another 2 hours of waiting in front of you. You just can't do it.

Well, we are now immunized for the H1N1. After standing in a line that wrapped around the Bountiful Event's Center 1 and 1/2 times for 2 and 1/2 hours, we got it. So help me if we pick up the flu before the vaccine kicks in.

Tonight I got to go to the Witches Night Out at Gardiner Village with my mom, Celeste, and her friend. Always fun... chalk full of hundreds of women, all dressed up like witches. Shopping, dancing, eating, talking. All the stuff we do so well. It was so much fun. So we couldn't figure out why some women would get dressed all skanky to go to an almost all women event (there is the occaisional guy, but you know that he is TOO attached if he is following his girl around here), which is outside in October. The weather ended up being lovely... but I was still wearing a jacket and long-sleeve shirt.

Rob left today for Chicago. Bless his heart, he got home last night at 3am, which I guess isn't really abnormal, but can I mention once more how excited we are to graduate? He was happy that he did get this big paper submitted in time. Now he is off to a conference in Chicago, and then goes straight to Ann Arbor, for another big conference. Then he is home for 1 and 1/2 days before heading out for another conference in New Zealand. I think that he will start working full-time after he gets back. Oh, our closing on the house got pushed back to next week. Which reminds me, Friday, when we were supposed to be closing on our home (but some of the buyer's paperwork didn't get done in time), we had a great time at Chuckey Cheese, or "Chunky Cheese" as my kids call it. It was fun celebrating Alex's birthday with Grandma and Grandpa Franklin, and the cousins love playing together. This is why I live in Utah, so we can do stuff like this.

Anyway, a bunch of random events and thoughts. So after you started reading this email, and then it became a long-winded calendar, did you feel compelled to keep reading, even though you were bored? Just to finish? Okay, I need to go to bed now.

Eat it up

My mother-in-law loves tomatoes. So much, that there is family folklore of a time when she ran out of apples, and decided to put tomatoes in her husband's lunch instead. After that, he refused to eat tomatoes.

One thing that we have really tried to do is raise our children to eat healthy foods. I try to always have lots of fresh fruit. When they wouldn't eat spinach, Rob showed them Popeye movies, and now they will eat their spinach salads (with my son growling, "Look how strong I am!"). Last night I made sliced tomatoes sprinkled with mozarella cheese and balsamic vinegar. They had to at least try it, but I figured my husband and I would enjoy the rest. Well, they not only tried it, they LOVED it! I had to cut up another tomato just for Rob and I. For lunch, they wanted tomatoes with the cheese and "spicy sauce" again. Whoohoo! I am seriously so excited about this.

So here is my trick: I usually don't let them snack within 2 hours of dinner. Hungry kids are a lot more willing to try new things. That, and they have gone to bed hungry before when they chose not to eat.

Being led

I feel like I need to go back and say something about the General Conference that happened a few weeks ago. Of course it was fabulous, it always is. I always feel this strong yearning to be nourished and filled on conference weekend. A real hunger for spirituality. One benefit of having such a smart husband is that, thanks to the TIVO that he built, I can watch different talks again.

It started with a bang. Elder Richard Scott struck such a chord with me. As Rob and I have been trying to figure out what we are going to do about jobs and homes, we have really sought for Heaven's guidance. When Elder Scott started by saying, "What can you do to enhance your capacity to be led to correct decisions in your life?" I felt like it was a talk prepared for me. We have felt very guided many times this year. I really need to write about Rob's job some time, but that would take too long for now. We wouldn't have even considered selling our house this summer if we hadn't received divine guidance. We have been so guided up to this point, but we have also felt like now we are standing in the dark... taking steps that we are not quite sure where. Elder Scott told an important story... after receiving personal guidance, he made sure to thank God and ask if there was anything else. Then more inspiration came. That really struck me. I have appreciated the Heavenly direction so much. Peace has come as I have followed it. But I needed to tell my Heavenly Father how thankful I was for his guidance.

That is something that I love the most about my religion. The most central difference of the LDS church between any other religion is our belief in modern day revelation. It began with Joseph Smith's vision of God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. But it did not end there... in fact, the point of the church is that each individual receives their own revelation, or "testimony", from God of what is true. This is not usually a vision, though I do know people who have had visions. I personally usually have a certain feeling... a feeling of peaceful conviction, that guides me to know what is right and true. Whenever I have followed that feeling: from deciding to be a nurse, choosing to be baptised, getting married, even deciding to sell my house, etc. etc. I have NEVER regretted it. Even when it didn't seem like the best choice logically, it has always turned out for the best when I followed the Lord's guidance.

Last Sunday, Rob and I fasted and prayed to know what we should do about a house. From having no idea on Sunday, 3 days later, I feel excited and guided. So this is our plan: We close on our house tomorrow. We can stay in our home until Nov. 15. Rob has found a small 2 bedroom apartment on the ground floor of family housing up at the U of U, and we should be starting to move in there on Nov. 9 and may stay there a few months with our stuff in storage. Today we put an offer on a house. It is actually not even on the market right now, so we will see if the bank accepts our offer. The house is one we looked at over a month ago. We had looked at a lot of houses and were driving around. There is a home across the street that is for sale, and so we stopped to look at a flyer. Glancing across the street, we noticed a house that had the little sign in the front window that indicated that is was empty. I found a door out back that was unlocked and we toured the home (a neighbor walking by joined us). The house had been gutted, probably by the owner before foreclosure. No carpet. No sinks. No toilets, tubs, cabinets. No doors. The kitchen was actually just floor and walls. Everything had been taken out. But we loved the floor plan. We loved it so much, we couldn't sleep for 2 days. Like I said, that was over a month ago. We figured the house needed over $100K of work, we didn't think we could afford it, and we didn't even know who owned the house, so we kept looking at other houses. Since then, we found out what bank owns it, got in contact with an affiliated realtor, talked with neighbors about the neighborhood, and yesterday put together a contract. We won't even find out about it for several weeks. But that's okay. We are following where we feel lead, but I feel really good that even if it doesn't work out with this house, it will be okay. I hope it does work out, though.

Anyway, that's our story. So far. I am so thankful for revelation that continues to lead me and my family on this wild ride we call life.

change of heart

I had a little breakdown this morning. My husband got home at 5:30 this morning from work (that's 5:30 AM), the night before was 11:30, the night before 2:30 am. Then he is up early and off to work again. This is our every day.

I am so sick of this. GRRRR!!!!! We are on year 8. That's 8 years of this PhD thing. Did I mention how ready I am to move on? It seems that to keep my mental health, I need to have a small breakdown about this every so often.

I worked tonight, and one interesting thing is that as a nurse, you are allowed to see into other's greatest trials without actually being a part of their inner life. I had one of those patients tonight. I got to hear what the family is going through right now. And I'll take the 8th year of grad school. Thank you very much.

There goes my 72 hour kit

I had a nice supply in my car... food, jackets, kids toys, even extra shoes. All gone.

But no worries, by the end of the week, it will all be back and you will not even be able to tell I cleaned my car.