233 weeks

Tyler meets the new bath foam...

Saved

Eric works at Intel. Last Wednesday night our friend John called to say he was watching the news, and heard Fab 20 was closing. Fab 20 is Eric's fab. We quickly went to the computer and found the news segment and watched it. It stated that Intel was closing Fab 20, and laying off 1000 people at the Ronel Acres campus.

Seeing as how it was Eric's weekend, we figured we'd just have to wait until he went back to work on Sunday to find out what was going on. Of course, a million things were going through my mind about the possibility of him loosing his job...I was ready to take action and come up with a back up plan so that we were prepared if he was no longer employed at Intel.

Good news came early this morning. They stated that Eric would be safe - he would transfer to another department. The news blew everything out of proportion (surprise!). 1000 people will be affected at the Ronel acres campus....most will go to other areas of Intel. I was instantly relieved and felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

As I sat down to read the Oregonian this morning (yes, I'm one of the few people left in the world who takes the actual newspaper and reads it cover to cover), the first thing that caught my eye was an article on unemployment in Oregon. Normally, I'd just skim the article, but having had the recent possibility of a job loss in our family, I read the article. It was so sad - totally broke my heart. People who had been out of work for months, people loosing their houses, people not able to provide food or health care for their children.... It was just awful, and it hit so close to home.

I can't help but wonder when and if we will be able to get out of this economic slump. I haven't really known too many people who have been very affected by it, but when the threat is knocking on your door, suddenly you become more aware of your surroundings.

Tonight I'm thankful for all that I have...and for those who don't have, I'm hoping with all my heart that things turn around for them very soon.

232 weeks

Out like a light.....

It runs

In keeping with yesterday's post of "only I could do this..." I think I have to share the following grossology incident...if you are easily grossed out, stop reading here.

So, I have a cold. Last night I took some nyquil before going to bed. I figured it'd help me sleep, because I hadn't slept very well the past couple of nights. Nyquil usually puts me into a deep sleep where I have wild dreams...which is fine, because it's sleep.

I took the nyquil and went to bed. I was out, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Then I woke up about 3:30 in the morning because it felt like something wet was on my neck ( I sleep on my back)...an odd way to be awakened. Then I realized that there was a trail of snot coming out of my nose, all the way down over my mouth, and trickling down my neck and onto my chest. I was pretty grossed out! Haha. Then I sat up and it was pouring out of my nose like a faucet.

Trying to not wake everyone in the house up, I quietly got out of bed and took care of it. But OH MY GOSH - who else in the world would that happen to?

Seriously, it must have been going on for a quite a few hours, and thanks to the nyquil, I was out like a light and didn't realize it. Ha ha...it's a good laugh anyway.

I'm getting ready to go to bed now. I wonder what tonight or tomorrow will bring, lol...stay tuned!

Only I could do this...

My work days starts pretty early, around 5 am. This morning I was getting ready to go outside and warm up the car before I left for work. Well, I just don't see that well in the dark, no question about it, but I'm not going to turn on all the lights in the house at 6am when my boys are still asleep.

So, back to where I left off...I was leaving to go warm up the car. I walked into the front room and my shin hit the recliner chair that was up - DOH-SON OF A GUN...and then as I'm half cursing under my breath and in pain, somehow, the bottom of my foot (no shoes on) skids across Tyler's Lightening McQueen Mac Truck that was left out the night before and I fall to the ground in pain. I should mention that I landed on all the cars that were waiting to be loaded on Mac. AWE MAN!!! So I wobbled up and got the car started.

I must say, plastic toys can leave some nasty scratches...

I come back in, get my lunch ready, check email, all my morning usuals. So what happens when I get ready to leave? The exact same thing happens again...like it was video taped before and now the audience is requesting an encore performance. This time, I have my purse, my work bag, my water bottle and my lunch bag in tow. Needless to say, it took me a minute and a tear or two to get back up.

Again, those plastic toys can leave marks...blunt scratch marks. Later tonight, I still have marks. Hello neosporin. My shin is bruised.

My day was going pretty smoothly at work , even though I ended up having a bad cold. I was going to blowing my nose at work and someone said my name (standing outside my cubicle) and it scared me half to death. Well, my snot missed the kleenex and landed on my lap. Ohvej!

As I walked in the door tonight, ready to get my weekend started and my week behind me...Eric said, do you have dog poop on your shoes? I said, I don't think so. Needless to say he was right. Yuck!

Anyway, just a day in my life...honestly, things like that happen to me everyday, I just thought I'd document this one cause it sure made me laugh tonight as I reflect on my day...hope if gave you a good laugh too!

231 Weeks

Visiting all 50 States....via his floor puzzle

Cursed

There is a little something in our family known as "The Young Family Curse."

If you know me, you have probably heard be refer to this before. It is a real thing. It exists. When you marry, your spouse marries into it. It cannot be explained. There is no logical reason for it. I know that Eric, Rachel and Danielle will tell you they have experienced it first hand. I believe my brothers and I each tried to explain the curse to our prospective spouses...I guess they must have really loved us, because they were willing to see what happened.

There are endless examples of the Young family curse...when you go to the Doctor and you hear the words, "there is a less than 1% chance that it could be this or that," you come to expect that's what it will be.

We seem to fall over backwards into bad luck. If something strange can happen to us, it will. You will choke on medicine, cut yourself on a butter wrapper, bend over to see that your sandal just broke, and have your bra strap break at the same time...have stitches in places you should have never been cut in the first place, watch your Mother accidentally almost cut off your husbands ear with a knife and other random medical/social issues.

Yes the curse has struck us all, but at least we have something to blame our misfortune on. We all joke about it my family.

The thing I have come to realize about the Young Family curse, is that, while all these little unfortunate/strange things happen, in the end, everything always works out. People become well, and things get replaced....and we always have a good story to tell each other...hey, at least we can laugh at ourselves.

These odd life experiences somehow mold us into who we are as adults... There has never been a Young Family curse situation that we haven't been able to find a solution to, or overcome. So next time we get some news we aren't thrilled about, or something odd happens, we just have to remember it's another chapter in our story...and someday we will look back on it and laugh.

So for my husband and sister-in-laws, thanks for joining our ride. You knew it would be a journey, but I'm sure it's not what you had expected...at least we have made you laugh with our funny life situations...and sometimes laughing is all you can do!

Baby Tag!

I saw this on my sister-in-law Danielle's blog and figured I'd give it a whirl...

1.Where were you when you first found out that you were pregnant? At work.

2.Who was with you? I was by myself.

3.How did you find out that you were pregnant? Standard pregnancy test.

4.What was your first reaction to finding out you were pregnant? Complete and total shock. I doubted the test results.

5.Who was the first person you told? I asked a lady I worked with (who had children) if pregnancy test were pretty accurate. She laughed and told me "yes, you must be pregnant!" So I suppose she was actually the first.

6.Did you plan to get pregnant? Tyler was a welcomed surprise :)

7.Did you tell everyone else right away? We told a couple friends who we saw very often...a few of our friends figured it out...we told our families when I was about 2 months along.

8.Was everybody happy for you? Oh ya. There were many tears of joy shed.

9.Did you go out and celebrate? Eric and I were in complete shock for the first few days. We did then go out and celebrate (it was my birthday). We went to J. James restaurant in Salem. I remember he gave me a gift of painting supplies - so we could make a nursery. It was very sweet. Did I mention that we just got Tyler's room painted last January, lol!

10.Did you want to find out the sex? Absolutely!

11.What was the sex? One bouncing, wiggly, baby boy.

12.Did anyone throw you a baby shower? My Sister in law Krista threw Eric and I couples shower which was totally awesome!!!! My Cousin Melissa also threw me a baby shower, but unfortunately, it was cancelled.

13.Did you get any outfits at the baby shower that you just knew that you wouldn't put on your baby? Nope, I liked them all. Good friends with good taste :)

14.How much weight did you gain? Quite embarrassed to say, but 50 lbs. Altho, I'm pretty sure it was much more than that - because they never officially weighed me in when I arrived at the hospital.

15.Did you lose all of the weight that you gained? It took me about 2 years and a lot of hard work, but I dropped it. The body just isn't the same as it use to be though.

16.Did you get any stretch marks? Not a single one (so lucky).

17.What did you crave the most? Milkshakes - which is probably why I gained 50+ lbs.

18.Did you crave anything crazy? Not that I can think of. I do remember eating more fruits and veggies than usual - and I ate a lot of them already... I guess some people would say that was a crazy craving.

19.Who or what got on your nerves? Random strangers who wanted to touch my stomach. I just thought it was so odd!

20.Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? Good pregnancy, worst thing was heartburn. Delivery was a different story.

21.Where and when did you go into labor? After being 13 days overdue and practically begging my OB to induce me (he wanted me to go a little longer) , I was FINALLY induced.

22.Did your water break? That was how I was induced...thank goodness it happened in the hospital!

23.Who drove you to the hospital? Eric.

24.Who was in the room when you gave birth? Eric, a nurse and the Doc.

25.Did you go early or late? Did I mention the 13 days, 14 by the time Tyler was born.

26.How long were in labor for? Around 12 hours or so.

27.Did you have any drugs for the pain? Thank goodness, yes. Hello epidural :D

28.Did you go natural or have a C-section? Natural - altho-there didn't seem anything natural about it.

29.What was your first reaction after giving birth? No girl is ever going to be good enough for Tyler...and I was also so glad to get him out.

30.How big was the baby? 8 lbs 1 oz, 19 1/2 inches long.

31.Did your husband cry? I don't think so. 3 weeks later we were both crying from exhaustion though :)

32.What did you name the baby? Tyler James

33.Does his name have any significant meaning? We both liked Tyler, and I wanted a boys name that ended in er, to go with the flow of Gallinger (ending in er). I know, it's crazy. James for the middle name was easy - it's a family name on both sides of our family. It's also Eric's middle name.

34.Did you have any visitors? Many friends and family were in the lobby/waiting room patiently waiting for Tyler to be born. They all came to greet him shorty after he was born. We were in the hospital for 4 days, and had a constant flow of visitors, it was great!

35.Did the baby have any complications? He didn't. It took him a while to learn how to eat though, which was a challenging time for all of us.

36.How old is your baby today? 4 years and 5 months.

37.When is the next one coming? No more thank you, we have permanently taken care of that.

38.If you could, would you do it all over again? Yes, but I'd do a few things differently :)

230 weeks

Oh no!

Beauty Queen, didn't you know?

Reader beware, this is pretty much a post for the ladies.

Last night as I was laying WIDE AWAKE in bed, one of the things that crossed my mind was that I needed to paint my nails. My old polish was starting to chip. Now, for anyone who really knows me, they know that 99% of the time I always have my nails painted. Sometimes I have been made fun of for always having my nails painted, but that's ok, I've come to take the criticisms as compliments over the years.

I was trying to remember who got me started on doing my nails last night. I think it was a combination of my Mom (who always had great manicured nails) and my Grandma Mabel (aka Mabes). Mabes use to take me for manicures and pedicures when I was like 6 or 7 years old. Of course, I instantly became addicted.

Then, as my mind began to wander, I started thinking about all the women in my life who have had a beauty impact on me. The list was pretty amazing. I think I'll try to recall some of them :)

My Mom - Definitely the nails. She also taught me to always go to a salon to get your hair done. I remember always going to the real beauty salon ever since I started cutting my hair.

Mabes - I think she is the original Queen of Beauty. Still to this day she cannot walk by Nordstrom or Macys without helping to support the make up industry, in a very big way. She taught me about nail polish, hair supplies, make up and to always wash your hair after swimming with special shampoo, otherwise, your hair will turn green.

My Aunt Susan and Melissa - Thank you for introducing me to Mac make up & to mineral make up. It has made a big impact on my life over the years :)

Chloe - Lip gloss. No need to say more. I'm convinced lip gloss was invented just because they knew you'd be coming into the world some day. Thank you for getting me hooked!

Krista- Beauty Supply. I would be lost without this store. You have shared your fortune of hair/nail/beauty products with us all, and we are forever in your debt. My hair is healthy & happy because of you. You were also the first person who informed me about eye brow waxing, thank you in a big way for that :)

Andrea - Burts Lip Balm. Still many, many, many years later, I'm addicted to it. I cannot go a day without sliding it's tingly goodness over my lips. You also once gave me a bottle of OPI nail polish called "Not so bora-boring pink." To this day, it is still one of my favorites.

Megan - Sensaria. Love the lotion - it's so fresh and clean, and I love that it's all natural! You also realize the mental/social value of a girls day at the salon. When is our next Dosha girls day?

Jenn - Solar nails. You helped me have that "special" look on my wedding day. Ya, I could have done my nails myself, but you taught me that sometimes you have to treat yourself to the good stuff.

Rachel - Informed me that anti-aging moisturizer was the way to go. She was right - and it's really helped my skin.

Danielle - Taught me to look good in a pony tail. She always looks like a million bucks even with her hair in a pony tail. I've adopted her philosophy on many mornings, altho, it doesn't look nearly as good on me.

Tina - It's been a long time since we've spent time together, but you taught me about beauty rest. Honestly, you did - about getting a good night sleep, and eating healthy fruits and veggies for good skin - and that olive oil was good for my over all health. As I have become older, I realize the value of a good nap and good food. You were then and are now, wise beyond your years.

Signe - Ahhhh, I think we taught each other about make up. It was all an experiment back in our first days of being set free with our own clinique make up bags. It was a fun ride, and we've come a long way since our light blue eyeshadow, and icy pink lip gloss.

I'm sure there are many other people who floated across my mind last night. For all you ladies who I know, I want you to know that I appreciate all the beauty tips and insight we have shared over the years. Clearly, it has had a lifelong impact on me. I've always thought that women shared instant connections, and as I think of all I know, and the diversity of the women in my life, it's funny how beauty is the common connection that we all share. Sure, there are the beauty products, but it goes more than surface level - it's more skin deep. We have all shared and given useful insight to help us feel and look more beautiful on the inside as well as the outside.

With that said, who is ready to hit the salon?

So, we've been at home...

I think this is the third or fourth week we've been at home. I've lost track, honestly. When the 40 year snow hit, it hit pretty hard where we live, and it seems as if there was snow for almost 2 weeks here...ya, there were a couple days where it semi-cleared up.

About two weeks ago I really started getting cabin fever, but the holidays were upon us and we were able to do fun things in the house.

After Christmas, and after the snow started to melt, Chloe and I ventured up to Portland one day for a hair cut and some shopping therapy. (Note, I've decided to call shopping therapy now, because that's what it feels like to me :).

Then after I was getting use to the idea of leaving the house for some fun things (like spending Christmas gift cards, going out to eat, etc) I came down with an awful cold. I was at home for 5 days, until I went into work last Friday (first time in like 3 weeks I went to work, I had scheduled holiday vacation off). Friday I did manage to get some "therapy" time in.

Then one of our cars broke down. Mechanics are not open on the weekends. So, Eric and I are down to one car. The one car we have, decides that the heater doesn't want to work anymore. Did I mention it hasn't been above 32 degrees today? So, Eric took the non-heated working car to work. When it rains it pours, this is Oregon after all :P

Anyway, Tyler came down with a very bad cold last night, to top it all off. Ha! So, here we are at home again, just chilling out. I've never spent so much time at home since we've lived in this house....and it's not like we can really go outside or for a bike ride. Ho hum. I wonder why things like this throw such a wrench into life? Normally, I can just go with the flow of things, but the last few weeks have been somewhat of a challenge to even get out of the house, whew!

Tomorrow is suppose to be back to school for the kids. Tyler really wants to go. He might be spending another day at home with Mom so he can rest and get better. Although, for some reason when he's sick, rest is not on his mind. Hmmmm. He is suppose to be taking a nap as I type this, and I can hear him in his room playing, "Ninja Warrior."

I suppose I'm just kind of blabbing about all this jazz....because....well, there's nothing else new or exciting to write about :)

Gosh, Hawaii sure sounds nice right now. Actually, retail therapy in Hawaii sounds even better. Wanna go with me?

P.S. I just looked outside and it's snowing. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!

229 weeks

Nothing like a little wii bowling...

Merry New Year

Happy New Year to everyone!

I'm starting off the new year with a really bad cold. December 2008 started off with the 40 year snow, and it ended with the 20 year cold for me. I don't remember the last time I had a cold this bad. I've literally been doing nothing for 4 days now. After being pretty much snowed in for a week and a half, now it seems as if I'm semi-house bound with a cold. Blah!

Every New Years Eve we celebrate with our friends the Eagles. This year I was unable to join them - but Eric and Tyler went and had a fabulous time. It's always a kid-friendly party and we celebrate it on East Coast time so the kids get to enjoy the celebrating the ball drop. I was sad to miss it this year, but enjoyed sitting on the couch watching the James Bond marathon.

I need to get some pictures organized and posted (including Tyler's weekly picture). More to come, stay tuned.