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!