SQTF 92: All the things

I meant to post this week, again, but... stuff. Life. All the things. Here's a taste of it; linking up with Seven Quick Takes, being hosted by Kathryn at Team Whitaker this week.

I

Our wonderful landlords are selling the duplex where we and they live, and the buyer and her agents are making life so frustrating for all of us. Their engineer forgot to bring a ladder last week, so they want to kick us all out again and then reopen negotiations. We've been told that the buyer plans to raise our rent significantly, so we have been looking for another place; we really need to be out of this apartment by the end of July. But it's not as simple as just going and finding a new apartment, because...

II

...We've been thinking and talking for months now about the possibility of moving to Indiana. In April, Matt found a job listing for a video conferencing position specifically looking for someone with knowledge of the particular technology he's been using the past couple of years. It sounded like a good fit, and he applied. We didn't hear anything, and assumed he'd been passed over. Then, two weeks ago, he got a call asking to set up a phone interview for last Tuesday. The day after the phone interview they called back, asking to set up a video conference interview this past Wednesday. Matt thinks it went well; we are waiting to hear from them. They want whoever they hire to start ASAP, but said they can probably be flexible enough to give Matt a month if he's hired...

II

So we can't sign a lease on a new place here until we find out whether they are offering Matt the job, and we decide whether to accept it. And if he is offered it and does accept, we'll have a matter of weeks to suddenly move everything across the country, which will be... fun. We know they aren't going to offer as much as he makes now, but because the cost of living is so much lower there, depending on what they do offer it could still be an effective increase in income. There would be a lot of good things about moving to Indiana, a lot of reasons why it would logically be a better choice for our family at this stage. And I know that Matt wants my levelheaded support and input on the final decision, if they do make him an offer, and so I'm trying hard to be rational and look logically at what's best for our family and not just blurt out the instinctive emotional response of "I don't want to leave!!!" ...but it's hard. And there are good logical reasons for staying here too. Prayers for our decision-making (if an offer is made) and that we can quickly find housing wherever we end up would be really appreciated!

IV

Wednesday was a very long day, especially for Matt: he woke up at 6am to go in and set up for the interview, which lasted 40 minutes, and then they surprised him by saying that there were more people with questions for him and they'd be calling back in 20 minutes. The second panel of interviewers talked with him for another 30 minutes. Then he had a full day of work, with a shortened lunch to make up for the surprise second round of the interview. And as soon as he got off work, we had a funeral Mass and buried baby Alex. (It takes a long time for the ground to thaw here.) The funeral and burial were... "nice" feels like an inappropriate word to use here. But it was relieving to finally have it taken care of. I'm sorry; that sounds horribly utilitarian. But we're both at peace with her death, at least most of the time, and maybe now people will stop expecting me to be sad all the time? Alex is in heaven. I'm not going to be sad about my daughter being in heaven. I'm very grateful for her beautiful funeral and burial service, and to God for giving us a little saint to watch over our family, and I hope that I will get to meet her one day.

V

After Wednesday, I was ready for some quiet. Then the plumbers came a day early and woke Little Bear up from his nap, and I had an angry monster hanging on me while the plumbers decided that there may be a pipe leaking in the wall between the washing machine and the bathroom sink and they need to cut the wall open and look next week some time. And then after Matt got off work and we spent an hour and a half at the gym and were finally heading home for supper and early bedtime, I dislocated my shoulder. Because I needed more excitement, apparently. I got it back in, but it didn't go in quite right or a nerve got pinched or something, because it still hurts and there's pain radiating up my neck and making it hard to turn my head to the left. We'll see if I can get an appointment with a chiropractor soon.

VI

This weekend won't be any less busy, but it should be a lot more fun. I'm doing a 5k walk/run to benefit Fairbanks Counseling and Adoption on Saturday morning with Little Bear; I was hoping to stick him in the stroller instead of the Ergo so that I could run at least part of it, but now that my shoulder is unhappy with me I'm not sure which would be better. That's not true; the best option for my shoulder would be to leave him home with Matt and just run the whole thing. But having Little Bear with me is my excuse for the awful time I know I'm going to get; if I don't bring Little Bear, I lose the excuse! That evening we're celebrating a friend's birthday at the local brewery (so skipping the race this year entirely isn't an option: I have to be able to justify the evening's carbs to myself :-). Sunday after Mass we'll visit with my family for Father's Day before meeting most of Matt's coworkers to caravan down to Denali Park for the afternoon. Little Bear will be the only kid, so hopefully he gets a good nap on the drive down and is a happy child when we get there.

VII

Ha... I was supposed to try to come up with seven photos for this week, wasn't i? Maybe I'll try again... as in actually try, not just forget all week... next Friday. I just went through my camera roll, and other than the 317 self-portraits and shirt-portraits and ceiling-portraits and solid black photos of the inside of my case that I deleted--thanks, Little Bear--I only have this one shot of Little Bear being silly:

He climbed up here and lay down all by himself, then got our attention by proclaiming "Pillow! Nap!" with a huge grin. He's not usually much of a climber, but maybe that's about to change...?

Have a good weekend!