Three Days Later it Still Hurts to Walk

Alternate Title: Broomball Tournament Time!

Last Saturday I played in a broomball tournament as part of the Deaf Inc. Winterfest. Deaf Inc provides ASL classes, interpreting services and advocates for the deaf and hard of hearing. If you remember back to when we were teaching Abby ASL with Signing Time, I know a little. Turns out, a lot of my signs came back to me, and I will admit to watching an episode on Saturday morning to brush up on my Sports Signs!

The team that I played on over the winter actually fielded TWO teams at this tournament, which was a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. When I got there and checked in I found out that both teams were playing at the same time, and since our organizer is also our only goalie, I ran back home to gather more equipment as a just-in-case measure. Glad that I did, because in the first game we played, I had to play goalie!

My team in front of me played really well, and so I had a shutout, with only two shots against. In the second game I ended up with a goal and two assists - all around I had a really good day.

Most of us ended up playing on both teams with the exception of the first game - so I ended up playing goalie twice (gave organizing-guy a break for a game halfway through the day). Playing in each game means that we ended up playing nine games in the course of nine hours!

Our teams ended up the round-robin play in 4th and 5th places. In a playoff field of 8 teams, that means we were slated to play against each other! We opted to have one team forfeit and combine teams to play against the #1 seed for the semi-finals. I am a firm believer that the new guy should be the one to sit on the sidelines, so I volunteered to sit in the semi and play in the final, if we got there. I had a really good time on the sideline - I know hockey and was able to sort of coach from the sideline. I had not even thought of coaching as a hobby until last weekend, but now I think I could get into it really easily. (Not now, too much else on the proverbial plate to take something else on!)

Our team ended up losing in the semi-final game to a much more organized team. Good game, lost 1-0 and there were lots of chances to change the outcome of the game, but they just could not do it.

The title of the post is intentional - I could hardly walk on Sunday, could walk with pain on Monday and Tuesday, and was finally able to get around and feel like a human being again! I spoke to two others on the team that I happen to work with and was relieved to know they felt the same way! It was a blast and I will jump at the next opportunity to do so, but it was not without pain!

At-Home Adventure!

The In-Laws came into town this week to watch Abby. Abby's spring break and Anny's did not line up because they operate in two different school district schedules. There are occasional days here and there that get annoying, but a full week meant bringing in reinforcements so neither of us had to take a chunk of time off.

Our apartment is spacious, as I've said before. Each room is oversized, even the kitchen! Normally this just means we have lots of extra space for stuff to fall on the floor - my broomball stuff, Anny's knitting, Abby's... well, Abby's just about everything.

The space came in extra handy this week when Abby had to give up her bed to Anny's parents. Certainly easier for them to stay here, and part of the reason that we opted for the Full sized bed was for instances like this.

Abby was even more excited at the idea of sharing her room, especially when we figured out that she was going to sleep in her TENT! There is an extra crib-mattress that easily moves between here and P & S's house, so she was not really sleeping on the floor, but it was adventure nonetheless!

Here is a picture from her in the tent on her last night:

The blue book that is opened is The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe! She likes to pretend that she can read.

She was stocked and ready for anything in there - two pillows, a sleeping bag and blanket, her Poe book, water bottle and two (yes two) night lights.

I can't wait for a real camping trip - we might have to look into something this spring!

Wordless Wednesday: Playing with Colors

Have not done a Wordless Wednesday submission for a while... Go check out more at http://www.wordlesswednesday.com/newhome/!

We Sold Our House!

I don't know how to write a post about this. Our whole home-ownership story is filled with chaos and bad decisions, starting with the day we signed the purchase papers almost five years ago. We have learned a lot about ourselves as people, learned a lot about the goals we have for our life and learned many, many hard lessons about finances. We love the house, but for us it was a bad choice.

Bottom line is that we will be paying off the house debt for about three years even though we sold it two weeks ago.

When we bought the house we knew we were going to make things tight. Then we continued to pay for infertility treatments and finally were blessed by having a child. I can not tell you how quickly our comfort of finances went out the window and we had to borrow even more money to deal with that. Not a good feeling, and that is honestly when we really investigated a move to somewhere we could afford to be.

The good news is that we have now put ourselves into a place, both physically and mentally, that we can afford to pay off that debt now, and still live very comfortably here in St Louis. We are not naive enough to think we will not have hiccups, but we are smart enough to know that we need to set ourselves up for success in the future, not failure.

It has been several hard lessons to learn, but we are stronger people now. Stronger in the long run for our finances. Stronger in our relationship.

I do not know if we will ever buy a home again. We have talked through and around it. We have found a great apartment to live in in a wonderful location that is more-than-affordable. The people who live here, it seems, live here for many years at a time. One of our neighbors has been here for more than 15 years.

So, with signatures across two days and hundreds of miles, as of this two weeks ago, we are no longer homeowners. And we could not be happier.

Making Friends is Hard to Do...

Okay, so maybe the blog title is a bit strong, but in my head it is sung to the tune of "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" by Neil Sedaka.

We have been here in Missouri for a while now. We have made several friends and sets of friends. We each have friends at work, and we have friends from church. We have Paul and Sarahlynn, obviously, they are the reason we moved here!

Anny and I are nice people and we really do make friends easily. But how we move folks from the "people we know who we are friendly with" to "let's hang out just because" people?

Our problem is pretty much the same as we have always had in the past - we do not like the idea of imposing or assuming for others that we know when it comes to making plans. We have invited folks over on occasion, but not often. We have not yet figured out who to invite to which kind of events, and how to invite (or get invites!) to things like parades or just hanging out.

We do have a non-scheduled but fairly-regular desert date at a local frozen yogurt that just opened in the last few months, Red Mango. Abby can not talk about that place without talking about calling Maggie to go with us! (Which also made for a funny Facebook status one time...)

I am at a loss. I am hopeful that it will be easier as the weather gets nicer and there is more sunlight at the end of the day. I love the three musketeers that are Abby, Anny and I, but I like to repeat my stories and I need new ears!

So how do adults make plans with other adults?!

Work Update

We moved right after the Fourth of July of last summer. I had an interview 48 hours after we got into town, wearing shoes that were less than 12 hours old. Do not know if it was the shoes or the actual interview, but I got the job and started on August 8th. That means this week will be seven months!

I have avoided work talk on the blog, but only because I am not completely sure of the talking-about-work policy as it relates to the web. Bottom line, I work in healthcare. In the technology arm of the system. As the receptionist. Ours is a non-profit, Catholic health care system, so I am still free to live my faith in the workplace, something I have done for most of my working career, so that's a bonus! (Not that I am or ever have been the Bible-beating type, mind you.)

I am quite literally the furthest person in healthcare from the patient from what I can tell.

Technically I am an Administrative Assistant III with a main duty of reception. We have between ten and 40 visitors a day, so some days the bigger role is greeting, but often I have a hundred other things on top of that. It's perfect for me!

I have a big role in a few things - normal reception stuff like getting folks signed in and get them where they need to be, sorting mail and answering the phones. I also have a small but significant role in lots of things across the board - Human Resources and Accounts Payable and fun stuff like that. It fits my personality to have little bits of lots of stuff, plus I get lots (and lots) of interaction with lots (and lots) of people. I have responsibilities across the board, but few that are weigh-me-down hard.

One of the best parts is my co-workers. I know that if something falls through my fingers, there is a great safety net of folks who don't just help, they jump to help. I am grateful for that, and make that clear on a daily basis! They help me because they know that I go out of my way to help them, as well. I get regular feedback in a productive way from folks on my level all the way up to the Chief of the company. That feedback makes it absolutely wonderful, even on a hard day.

Another great thing is that there is never work to take home. When I clock out at 5 that is really the end of my work day. I rarely even have to think about work once I walk out the door. Because of my role I don't even get many emails over the weekend to make me dread Monday mornings. (I do get and send more email than I thought possible in a day, and I'm on the small side in that realm in my office!)

Anyway, I just wanted to let folks know that I am absolutely happy in my work life, and that is an awesome feeling.

(I do have a not-everything-is-perfect blog post in the works, because the reality is that life is hard no matter what your situation. If you are reading this you likely know that I am an optimist by default, so that tends to be what I blog about...)