We had a few weird days in our neighborhood in March where there was much more excitement than usual, and not the good kind.
On March 16th at about 11:30 at night we had to call dispatch and report that our across the street neighbors were burning weeds and completely smoking us out. It was so stinky, smokey, and gross and I have no idea why they thought they should go to bed and leave their fire going. I honestly didn't think anyone would come check it out (I honestly didn't think anyone patrolled Santa Clara at night, haha), but a cop went and knocked on their door and had them put it out, in fact 3 cops showed up and a fire truck. That gave me warm fuzzies, and I feel pretty safe now.
Then on the morning of March 18th, there was a house fire in the neighborhood. Merit was in bed with me when Logan left for work and Chap was still sleeping. I swear it was right after Logan left that I heard a siren. In fact, it was so close to when Logan left that I thought maybe he had been pulled over. And then I heard more sirens, and I thought (as I lay there in bed not wanting to wake my baby monster) that perhaps there had been a car accident on the main road and I hoped it wasn't Logan. Then more sirens and more sirens and more sirens. I started to worry because it was close and this "car accident" must be really serious to warrant that many sirens. Then I heard the deep "honk honk" of a fire truck and I got up to see what the heck was going on. I looked out my front door, which would give me the best view of where I thought the car accident would be, and I saw what is probably the most heartbreaking thing I have ever seen, our neighbors house was on fire. I pretty much immediately started crying and I called Logan. It was a very emotional thing to watch, I think that aside from losing a family member, a house fire is everyone's worst fear. I know it's just "things", but it's your things and it all the things you have, gone in less than an hour. Pictures, memories, necessities, all gone in the blink of an eye.
Chapter wouldn't go outside, i thought he would like to see the trucks, but he was so so scared. After things calmed down we went up to see if there was anything we could do, but of course, there isn't really anything anyone can do. It mostly burned their main living area and kitchen, supposedly the bedrooms were okay, but this last Saturday the restoration company took the whole roof off, and the house is completely gutted down to the studs. It was a pretty big deal.
We had no fun at all last year, so I have decided that we are going to do some fun stuff this year NO MATTER WHAT! The day of the Provo City Center Temple dedication, we couldn't find anyone to take our kids so we could go (which was a bummer), but we had a good time anyway because we thought it was a great day to have a little family time and get out into nature, so we headed up to the Castle Rock subdivision and went on a little family hike at the Gap Trailhead. Chap was a trooper at the beginning, and then he just wanted to pick up every stick he could find and it got a little frustrating. Oh well, it's still memories:)
Our kids are a little bit Irish, from both sides of the family, but neither family really gets into the celebrating of St. Patrick's Day. I remember one year going to school wearing a paper 4 leaf clover my mom had cut out of blue paper. She spent the whole morning trying to convince me that it was green. I got pinched.
I don't really go all out either. We usually make green playdough and green jello for dessert. Occasionally I'll make green rice krispies, but oh well. You can't go all out for everything, especially with Easter and Merit's birthday right around the corner.
Since it was Leap Year, Merit actually got an 11 month birthday. We had some fun; we went to Target and the park.
About three weeks ago, Logan's boss called me. I, of course, believed that something horrible had happened and Logan was hurt or dead or something. It about gave me a heart attack. BUT, it was for something fun. He told me that Logan had been nominated for an award and he needed me to email him a picture and proofread Logan's bio that he had written. And this was all supposed to be secret. Secrets are hard for me, but I did it! I'm just as proud of myself as I am of Logan. It was really hard when Logan came home and told me about this engineering banquet and that it was weird because the company was buying both of us tickets. Haha. Yeah, that's weird:)
So last night was the banquet. We sat at a table with his boss and his wife and it was really fun. Then it was time for the awards. I was almost dying. Then they announced Logan's name and I think he almost died. He was super-duper embarrassed. When he came back to sit down he asked me if I was in on it and I said yes, and honestly, I think he was a little upset with me for keeping it a secret. Poor Logan, always being wonderful and getting awards, haha.
Congrats to my favorite engineer! I'm so proud of you!
Chap has suddenly started hating the bathtub. It is seriously like bathing a cat, not that I have ever done that, but he tries to climb out and he screams and thrashes. It's not really a stretch to imagine him clawing and hissing haha. He claims the water hurts his face. Not his eyes, and I use the same stuff on Merit and she almost always gets suds in her eyes and she doesn't cry, so I'm pretty sure that isn't the issue. Anyway, after bathing him way too many times like a cat I decided to try goggles.
Long story short: Best $5 I've ever spent:)
An old acquaintance from high school posted rant on Facebook this morning about how she's sick of people asking when she and her husband are going to have a baby. She went on to explain how they want to wait until they are "ready". They want to get out of debt, have a house, good jobs, Master's degrees, etc. Basically they are waiting for their lives to be perfect. So here's my unsolicited two cents (and personal experience); Having a baby makes your life perfect.
Logan and I had a plan when we got married. He'd finish college (1 year), then we'd move to St. George where I would finish college (3 years) while he worked. Then we'd move and I'd teach for 3 years while he got his Masters degree. Then I'd quit my job, we'd move back and we'd have a baby. Any of you who know us very well at all know that very little of this plan actually happened.
Logan graduated, we moved to St. George, but Logan was "demoted" very shortly thereafter. I finished college but it took an extra semester because not all of my credits transferred from SUU to Dixie, and for some reason, teachers graduating in December are at a major disadvantage. I also graduated at a time when there were literally hundreds of teachers applying for a dozen jobs, and I didn't get one. I had a hard time finding a job at all. Places like Kmart and Deseret Book don't exactly hire college graduates. I ended up back at the dry cleaner before finally getting an aid job working 30 hours a week, but only being paid for 25 at $8/hour.
That's when we decided that we weren't getting any younger, took a leap of faith, and got pregnant nearly 5 years after we were married. Then life started falling into place. I feel like we had spent years trying so hard to jam the puzzle pieces of life together and getting no where. We were trying to force life to go the way we wanted it to.
I won't say I regret waiting necessarily. I'm grateful for the years we had to build a solid marital foundation. I'm grateful for all the adventures we had and for all the memories, but having babies is when life finally turned our way.
In the years and months before we had Chapter, Logan's work environment had deteriorated rapidly. He was trapped in a position with no room for advancement under an arrogant and egotistical manager, and none of the upper management offered any assistance. We were both stuck in jobs we didn't even need a degree for. We'd been applying for jobs everywhere for months, we were more than willing to move out of state, but Engineering jobs usually require 3 years of experience, and teaching jobs were few and far between, especially in cities large enough to have engineering jobs available. We didn't even dare buy this house (we rented it) because we didn't really see a way for us to stay here.
Then literally within a month of Chapter's birth, Logan got a call that would change our lives. Logan was offered a job by Quality Excavation to be an estimator (Miracle #1). Still not the job he went to school for, but it was a job he liked, working for a company that was owned by a truly wonderful family, and they treated him well. Then 6 months later, Logan passed the Professional Engineering Exam on his first try (Miracle #2), then he was hired by this same family to work for their engineering firm Development Solutions (Miracle #3). And you know what? We never missed my tiny salary through any of this.
Having kids changed our lives for the better, in completely unexpected and unforeseen ways. Our life puzzle just wouldn't fit together without them and I'm grateful everyday that we abandoned OUR view of how our life SHOULD be for HIS view of what our lives COULD be. Sometimes it's hard to admit that Heavenly Father knows more about what is best for us than we do, but He is always right.
