A Man of Leisure

As Amy mentioned in her post last month, I lost my job recently. (On June 17th, to be exact. Happy Birthday to me!!!) It wasn't how we were planning on spending the summer, but it has turned out to be pretty great. It has been like a summer vacation! Sure there is that stress caused by watching your bank account get smaller and smaller. But we can handle that, as long as I get a job before the numbers reach $0. (It is like having your life be a game of Mountain Climber on The Price is Right.) We have tried to spend the summer having fun and doing as many free and nearly free things we can (more on that later.)

Being unemployed is a funny thing. I sort of felt like that I would spend the time being more awesome - like I would work out EVERY DAY and I would finally get that novel written that I wrote 4 pages of 3 years ago and then got stuck. But somehow, having nothing to do makes it really easy to do nothing. I did have a few good weeks of really regular work outs. But the novel is still on page 4. And clearly I haven't spent any time working on this blog. Here are some of my observations about being unemployed:

1. When I do manage to go to the gym, it is usually at about 8:30am - 9:00am. Hey, no point in getting up early if you have a whole empty day in front of you! This is the geriatric hour at the Hawthorne Farm Athletic Club. Everyone there is 104 years old. And the funny thing about 104 year olds is that they like to have extended naked conversations in the locker room. I am all for catching up with a friend you run into at the gym, but put some pants on. They also like to watch Fox News on the locker room TV IN THE NAKED! That combines two of my least favorite things on earth: Bill O'Reilly and old naked men. It would only be worse if Bill was naked.

2. When you are unemployed, every email that chirps in your in-box and every phone call that rings causes your heart to race. You assume that the email is of course from a super awesome company who saw your resume and wants to pay you twice what you made at your last position. Every phone call you suspect will be the unemployment department calling to tell you that they are sorry that they have made it so confusing and impossible to apply for unemployment and to make it up to you they will be covering all of your living expenses for a year.  But 9 times out of 10 that email is the Walgreens weekly add (why did we sign up for that?) And the phone call is the library telling you you have an overdue book.

3. You try and find every free event you can. Luckily, we have a lot. You can check out passes from the library to most of the local museums. The school district offers free lunch every day (EVERY DAY!) in the park. Part of me thinks, "We shouldn't eat the free lunch - it is to help out the poor people." Then I remember, we ARE the poor people. And sometimes it is free to just stay home and let the kids play wii all day.

Here is how we have filled up our summer:

Sitting in giant rocking chairs at some (free!) children's museum in Salem, Oregon.

Climbing around the "giant erector set" at the same children's museum. Really, children's museum? Giant Erector Set? I know that is what we called them in 1943, but those were simpler times. Climbing erector sets = free!

Trying to get trapped inside bubbles at the museum. (Bubbles = free!!)

Forcing the kids to pick raspberries at Smith Berry Barn. While this is not technically free (you do have to pay for the berries you take home) you can eat your weight in berries as you pick. Unweighed berries = FREE and DELICIOUS!!

Feeding clover to the goats at the berry barn. Did you know goats look like strange animals from another planet. Their pupils are horizontal rectangles. Since when is that something we allow on Earth. Also, free!

That's a lot of berries my hot wife is holding! And no, they were not free. But they were worth it!

Apparently, we do a lot of bowling. There is a place by us where you can go online and get coupons for free bowling once per day. You just have to pay for the shoes. The kids love it. There is air conditioning. And it is a great way to kill an afternoon.

Also, they sell french fries there. Sold.

Every year, we like to ride the train to celebrate the annual, celebratory, "Celebrate Hillsboro" celebration. It's a big street fair/ farmer's market with face painting, bouncy houses, etc. It's fun and, say it with me, free.

The boys have never wanted to get their faces panted, but Lila is game for anything. She showed them how it was done with a butterfly and they followed up with some manly face-painting like dinosaurs and rockets. 

We had a fun afternoon and came home with a lot of free swag. Nice.

Also, here is a kinda cool picture of Jonah playing flag football. It wasn't free, but we paid for it while I still had a job, so there's that.

So the summer is wrapping up...and we are hoping that soon the fun and fancy free times will end and I will have a job. It has certainly been fun while it lasted. We just hope it doesn't last much longer.

Ups and Downs

A few significant things have happened in our lives in the past couple of months.  And if I could choose a theme to tie together all of these events, it would be:  Family is EVERYTHING.  We talked a lot about the Proclamation on the family today at church, and it just furthered the gratitude I have for my family, and for my husband's family, and for those challenging, beautiful kids we get to call our own.

"So what's been going on?" you may ask.  Let's start at the beginning.  At the beginning of May, I called the Oregon Health & Science University, where Noel was on a waiting list for a comprehensive evaluation in their Autism Clinic.  I'd been told that, once I was able to be scheduled, it would still be a few more months -- probably July or August.  So I was surprised and grateful to hear that I would be able to take him in on May 31st.  Which is exactly what I did.  To say that my hopes were up for this appointment would be a laughable understatement.  We'd taken him to a Developmental Pediatrician, who hadn't impressed us, and we were so ready to get a diagnosis.  To make a long story short, he was evaluated for 5 hours by an occupational therapist, child psychologist, speech-language pathologist, and a developmental pediatrician.   And. . .we're kind of at the same place as we were when we started.  He's been officially diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and ADHD, with further therapy needed to determine if he is on the autism spectrum and/or has a language disorder.  His tests indicated that he was on the autism spectrum, but because he is so young and does not fit neatly into any category, they are hesitant to give him that diagnosis until they have more information.  One crucial thing that came from this evaluation was the speech-language pathologist's observation that Noel has a possible language disorder.  We'd never considered this, but thinking about it, it makes so much sense.  He has a very difficult time communicating, and oftentimes words don't seem to make sense to him.  Lately, he's developed a charming habit of saying, "WHAT?!?!?" really loud whenever he's not understanding you, which could be 12 times a minute.  So, we now need to figure out if there is a language disorder, and if it and the ADHD and anxiety are symptoms of Asperger's.  But really we're in a holding pattern, because. . .

When I arrived home from the appointment (which, incidentally, we'd been told would cost two to three thousand dollars and most likely would not be covered by insurance), Josh told me that he had been laid off. It's hard for me to see it as bad timing, though, since the fact that we were able to get an appointment before we lost our insurance was nothing short of a miracle.  And also because our insurance did in fact cover the appointment and ended up costing us less than $200. So yes, he lost his job, but I know, with a level of surety second only to what I felt on my wedding day, that Heavenly Father knew me and loved me and was going to take care of us.

Noel, on the way home from his appointment.

Which brings me to my family.  I have amazing parents.  I've always been grateful to them for the way that they raised me and the opportunities they provided me and, most importantly, the example that they are of a husband and wife who love each other and love their kids more than any other thing in the world.  So, when I talked to my mom that evening after one of the most intense days of my life, I broke down and sobbed, "How are we going to take care of our babies?" and my mom said, without a moment of hesitation, "I'll take care of the babies.  And I'll take care of you."  And I'll never, ever forget that.  I believe that, no matter how old you get or how many kids of your own that you have, you always need your mom.  Only my mom could say those words and bring me peace.  And I haven't sobbed since.

Whenever Josh brings up being unemployed, usually as a punchline to one of his jokes, and it brings an uncomfortable silence or a look of pity, I say, "Don't feel bad for us!  I haven't seen Josh this happy in a long time!"  Which is true.  He'd been truly, devastatingly unhappy for the better part of a year.  It was literally an answer to prayers.  Next time you ask God to help you be happy in your current employment or help you find a different path, don't think, as Josh did, that Apple is going to call and offer you your dream job.  And while it might involve a period of sacrifice and struggle, I really believe it's for the best.  I now remember what Josh was like before he became crippled by work pressure -- and that amount of unhappiness is no way to live a life.

So now we're on the job hunt.  And by we, I mean me.  Josh does the actual hard work, like the interviews and having the actual marketable skills and talents that will land a job, but my A-type personality has certainly come in handy when it comes to finding job openings.  I know that, in a few months, after this has all become much less quaint, the mood will probably take a bit of a downturn, but for now, I'm just grateful to have a husband who's a true partner.  And it helps that I love him and believe in him and find him great company, since we're certainly seeing a lot of each other these days.

So this is a little tribute to our families.  Our kids.  Each other.  Because all that other stuff really, truly doesn't matter.  

The boys in all their nerdy glory.

The prettiest cousins in the world.  P.S.  Is Merril sleeping?

Only Grandpa could explain the parts of this boat for an hour straight.

Grandpa gives the best raft rides (you know, if you're a boy who's terrified of boats).

On a boat ride with Uncle Rick.  He narrowly escaped with his life.  It's hard to stay in the boat when, instead of hanging on, you've got your hands over your ears.

On a ride with Cousin Jessica.  Lila only lasted about 30 seconds.  Noel loved it.  That child is an enigma.

Our classy and adorable group.

Jungle Jim's with BFF (and cousin) Bella.

4th of July Fireworks!

Noel makes it work.

Lila has inherited my paralyzing fear of fireworks.

4th of July Family Fun

Author's Note: This was actually written by Amy. 

Lake time

I just noticed that this blog is getting a little bit repetitive. Last year we got a little lazy during June and hardly posted anything. Then in July we tried to recap everything quickly. Like my birthday. And our trip to Bear Lake. AND I just realized I made the EXACT same joke about the "33 Things I Like About Josh." Exactly the same! Go check it out. I even used almost the same example. What is lamer than recycling jokes on your blog? Not a lot...

So, since I already wrote about my birthday, this blog would have to be about the annual trip to Bear Lake.

Bear Lake always involves a lot of mini-golf. Noel is obsessed. We have to go every day. After the mini golf there is a lot of this:

Coming Soon: My "What I Read in June" post so you can hear all about that book I'm reading.

And this:

Amy has Lila butterfly towel on her head to keep her head from getting sunburned.

And this:

Even though it looks like we are just sitting in a park, we are actually at the beach at the lake. We found a lovely beach this year with little sandy area leading up the the water for the kids to play in with a big grassy spot with big trees right behind. So instead of having to deal with the hassle of setting up beach chairs and a shade canopy, we just parked ourselves under the tree.

The kids could play in the sand, while the grownups hung out in the shade and read books. 

Bear Lake is truly my favorite vacation. We eat way too much food and do a lot of sitting around and relaxing. It is pretty predictable but also pretty awesome. 

We do occasionally make it out to the water. But rarely. Is that wrong? 

As a fun bonus this year, my family happened to be up at Bear Lake at the same time, so we did get to spend an evening with them. I did a really bad job of taking pictures, but I promise, we were really there. 

Somehow all of the boy cousins got into a game of throwing footballs and stuffed animals from the second floor balcony to the kids awaiting below. My kids thought it was the funnest time of their lives. 

Stay tuned for July 2012 where I will recap June 2012, make a joke about my birthday and post pictures of our trip to Bear Lake!

Surprise!

June is the month of my birthday, and if you are wondering why you haven't seen a lot of action on this blog lately, it is because I have been waiting for Amy to write a post enumerating my many special qualities. Isn't that what we do on the blogosphere now? "7 Reasons We Love Brekken Who is 7!!" So, I have been patiently awaiting Amy's ode to the 34 reasons she thinks I am awesome. I somehow don't think it is coming.

So I will eulogize my own birthday. We happened to be in Utah for our annual family reunion in Bear Lake. Amy told me she had arranged for us to go to dinner with the Clarks on the Friday before we headed up to the lake. Lovely! I like nothing more than dinner with the Clarks! I thought it slightly odd that instead of meeting at a restaurant somewhere, we would be meeting at the Clark's home, but as I am slightly obtuse, I didn't think too much of it.

Much to my surprise, as we walked into the Clark's backyard (where Lisa was insisting I plug in my iPhone to charge - again, I'm slightly obtuse.) there was a surprise party waiting for me! It was awesome.

The sad truth about surprise parties is that it is hard to catch much photographic evidence of the surprise itself. Because why would I have my camera ready as I walked into the Clark's backyard to plug in my iPhone? But the sight of Chris and Company jumping out from behind their patio furniture was awesome. And surprising. And made me happy.

I think Amy somehow understood that I needed this party. My circle of friends in Oregon is pretty small. We have our lovely book club, whom we see about once a month. But for me, that is about it. I'm OK with that, but it was lovely for an evening to be surrounded by people I love. Add that to the fact that my birthday was my last day of employment at my job (more on that in another post), and it was just where I wanted to be.

In attendance were:

Kacy Faulconer, Lindsay Livingston, Christian Faulconer, Chris Clark and Lisa Clark. (Sorry for the photo quality - again, I didn't think to bring my nice camera since I thought we were just going to dinner. These were all snapped with my phone.)

My lovely wife, Jed and Jayne Wells (who I hadn't seen for about 18 years.)

My wife, again. Amelia and Brett Merritt and Kacy again, this time not just the back of her head. I think when this picture was taken, someone must have been telling a very serious story. Everyone seems quite intent and concerned.

Dinner was provided by Lisa and involved grilled meat with some sort of amazing Gorgonzola cream sauce (yes - you read that correctly,) grilled veggies and salads. It was amazing.

Dessert was as follows: Lime Pound Cake with raspberries (slightly undercooked in the way only Lisa can), Ice Cream Cake that said "Happy Birthday Kacy",  Ice Cream provided by Tropical Dreams and some sort of Oreo brownie magic. My dessert plate literally weighed more than my dinner plate had. And isn't that how it should be?

Thanks to everyone who came, but the special selfless award goes to Kacy. See, the party was held on her actual birthday (mine is the 17th and hers is the 18th). Which is why the ice cream cake (which Kacy bought herself) is wishing her a Happy Birthday. So thanks for sharing, Kacy. (Also, note to me: I should try and make sure that in all future pictures of me I am leaning back slightly to emphasize my double chin.)

So, Happy Birthday to me!! (And Kacy.) Feel free to use the comment section to list the 34 things you love about me.