January 2012
We started out the year with an epic snowstorm. We of course LOVED it and stayed at home. Some of our friends actually took this time to have a baby…whoa there! Still really glad that wasn’t us, for many many reasons.
As in January’s past we traveled to the city by the bay to participate in the Fancy Food show. The highlight of the trip was biking across the Golden Gate Bridge and having nice warmer than Seattle weather to bask in while having lunch outside in Sausalito.
We had such a nice time, and even though I was a weenie and had to walk my bike a few times, I would do this ride again…gladly.
February, March 2012 for us were pretty quiet. I turned a stunning 53 years old, and we celebrated 11 years of marriage…both of which are excellent milestones in my book. It was the beginning of the second year of Sweet husbands hand injury, he spent a lot of time at physical therapy with little or no improvement.
Some time in March Sweet Daughter was trying to decide whether she would register to study in Italy for August and September. Sweet Husband and I took this as a way to get our carcasses back to Europe and finally travel there together….oh, and we’d see the girl while she was there. We had both been to Europe, but never together. I was looking forward to going as an adult and being able to do ‘adult’ things, like drink and what have you…like go places I wanted to do. My past trips had been awesome, but were very restrictive since I was under the broad broad wing of a conservative college group.
In April 2012 I changed to a new job. This was an exciting time. I had new products to sell, new places to travel and all those new things that go along with a career change. At this time same we turned the house upside down and danged if we didn’t find enough loose change in the couch to purchase tickets to Europe, all under the guise to see our daughter at school in Italy. Please note that I haven’t even gone to visit her on the U-dub campus that is less than 5 miles from our home. So exciting….to be in Europe again.
We struggled with when to fly and arrange schedule so we could meet in the right place and not be a pain in the ass to her, but also have adequate time….blah blah blah. Our best option was to fly into Milan and then fly out of Rome. I had a food show in Oregon to work around as well as the child’s schedule in two different cities to deal with. Our best option turned out to leave early in the day, change planes in Chicago, fly to Helsinki and stay over night. Wait a minute….our friends Cindy and Ari live in Finland and not to far from Helsinki, so we arranged to meet up with them and hang out before we headed off to Milan the next day. Our plans were set into motion, tickets were purchased for our trip and the planning continued, hotels/destinations/museums/lots of walking.
May 2012 brought to me a lot of traveling and more physical therapy for Sweet Husband on his injured hand. I flew. I drove. I drove some more and I actually purchased a new vehicle so my driving would be more comfortable….and so I could haul around more crap. Thanks for the pic of me and my car, Royce, I jacked it from you. 🙂
June 2012 Before I changed jobs, it had been on my itinerary to travel to New Orleans for a Food show in early June. However once I made that change it wasn’t necessary for me to go, which meant that Sweet Husband wasn’t going either. For the record, we’ve been shut out of trips to New Orleans 3 times now…..I guess we’ll go some time on our own dime, but it’s really more fun when someone else is paying.
The weather started to get really nice in June and we took every opportunity to work in the yard and make it nice and presentable for weekly Open Houses. Our house was still for sale and we were seeing more activity with inquiries and visits. Every Sunday afternoon for the past several months we cleaned feverishly in order to open our doors to the public to find a buyer. The Real Estate market in Seattle has been on a slow rise and in our neighborhood it’s coming back faster, because it’s a very desirable area. More on that later.
July 2012 With everything in tip-top shape, we ushered in the 4th of July with the usual bang and pop. Frankly I don’t recall what we did…maybe had a few guests over, but I know it was low key, as I had to work the next day. What I do know is, our we were about 6 weeks away from our trip. Yippee, clapping of hands!
Sweet Daughter had been with us over the weekend for her birthday. Sweet husband and I had been doing our daily walks in our hilly neighborhood in preparation for our walking tour of Europe. We were both excited about the prospect of perhaps losing a bit of weight while walking in European cities. We had both experienced weight loss on our past trips which was due to the large amount of walking. Therefore we purchased the best walking shoes we could afford and we were breaking them in for the trip.
On July 29th, five weeks before we were to travel to Europe, the three of us were doing our evening walk. I don’t know about your family, but my husband and daughter have always played well together. Today was no different as they challenged each other to race up the hill. I was in no mood to run….ever! So continued my brisk walk and to my surprise as I rounded the corner going up the hill, was my Sweet Husband sitting on the ground holding his left leg. He heard a ‘POP’ and then went down in writhing pain. I felt sick for so many reasons…had our new insurance kicked in yet? Would we still get to go to Europe. And what the hell was wrong with my husband. I turned my fat little body toward home to get the car. We scurried off to the ER to very quickly find out he had ruptured his Achilles tendon and the recovery often took up to 8 months. He would be in a boot for at least 6 weeks and then in rehab for….well until now and then some. The very short story was yes, the insurance had kicked in on July 1st, but we hadn’t gotten cards yet. They showed up on August 1st with the activation date of July 1st printed right there. Secondly our trip to Europe was cancelled, not postponed, just cancelled. For some reason, I had purchased trip insurance so we weren’t out the money on the flights and we had only prepaid for one nights hotel, and I got that back as well.
I really think we were numb at this point…and sadly disappointed. Sweet Daughter was still going to Europe, in fact she was going a couple weeks before school with her mother, so she was going to have a grand time. We were shut out again from a trip that we had been looking forward to. However we turned our attention to getting Sweet husband healed. The Monday after the accident he had a hand appointment, so I drove him there. While he was there the same doctor that he saw for his hand, scheduled his surgery for the heel repair the upcoming Wednesday. In hindsight with all of the billing insurance nightmares, it may have been easier to go to a separate doctor where they wouldn’t even have a chance to mess up the billing. But the good side was the surgery was swift and the healing could begin.
August/Sept/Oct 2012, the weather continued to be awesome. We actually had one of the nicest summers in recent history and the sunny days stretched into 90 plus days. As fall approached so did the Open Houses. We were even starting to get offers. We got three offers in one weekend, but they were lower than what we wanted to go. And then out of the blue, a woman that had been through the house several weeks previously and loved it, made an offer that we could live with. The papers were signed, the ball was rolling and we started packing. Well actually we started purging and packing. Multiple trips to the Goodwill and pieces of furniture that we wanted to unload were sold off. We were set to close on October 31st when the buyer backed out. My suspicions were that she found another house and put an offer on that one. Don’t ask me how i know this, but she closed on another house on November 15 and it wasn’t ours. Oh well. live, learn, adjust.
So if you’re keeping track:
- New Orleans–SHUT OUT
- Trip to Europe–SHUT OUT
- House sold—SHUT OUT
November 2012 With the disappointment of not selling the house and NOT going to Europe behind us we concentrated on getting Sweet Husband better. He made an appointment for a second opinion on his hand and we’re still in limbo on that one. MRI’s-inconclusive, more weird blood tests scheduled for after the first of the year to see if there is an infections. I say weird blood tests, because it’s a 3 day exercise….more on that later.
Sweet Husband continues to get more and more strength in his legs and we’ve both been going to the gym since I have a little bit more time on my hands. What do I mean by that?
December 2012 The new ownership of the company that hired me,came in and started doing the things that new managements do. New people were hired, plans were made, pow-wows were held. Positions were eliminated…mine specifically! Yep, after 9 short months having been hired to grow the Retail business of soup manufacturing they decided to go in a different direction and NOT go into retail after all. And thank you, this could have been avoided all along. I didn’t NEED to take a new job, I had a perfectly fine one that I didn’t need to leave. My last day was December 13th. It really sucks to get let go two weeks before Christmas. Maybe it’s the Disney gene that I’ve acquired but that seems rather Scrooge like to ‘eliminate’ someones position just before Christmas.
Sooooooo, if you’re still counting:
- New Orleans–SHUT OUT
- Trip to Europe–SHUT OUT
- House sold—SHUT OUT
- New job– SHUT OUT
- Bad attitude–SHUT OUT
TODAY, December 31st, 2012 With all of that said, I can assure you that I’m still very happy and grateful in my life. It’s that Disney gene again, but we’ll bounce back….that’s what we do. And as my Sweet Husband says, now we’re just down to one obstacle that is keeping us from moving forward, and that is getting the house sold. And do you know what? The real estate market is on the rise and the new signs have been ordered. Tomorrow, the day after tomorrow and all the days that follow, are all new and full of their miscellaneous adventures. I’m grateful for everything we have and all the lessons learned, I’ve nothing to complain about. It doesn’t take a very long glance in a different direction to see someone far worse off than me.
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