Many of you know I am taking my Speech Pathology exams this coming Friday. Tough stuff. But soon to be over. I hope.

When I decided to take it short notice a sweet friend in Texas popped her study guide in the mail and it was due to arrive last Friday! Great timing for this once in a lifetime freshen up!

Only Friday when I opened the box that was delivered it was not the trusty book it was a cell phone and scarf. Hmmmm. Maybe my friend had mailed two packages and one (this one) was meant for the other friend?! Not so much. The UPS store confused stickers and mailed our book to a different recipient. Today UPS came by the pick up the cell phone box and says my book should arrive by Wed evening. The test is Friday. On Friday I went ahead and bought a new study guide. At the time of this silly incident I said to Seth “what are the odds?”. Pretty good.

I pushed through the weekend studying like I haven’t in years. Seth planned to telework today knowing that Owen is entertaining himself if he is set up with toys, etc so he was going to attempt it so that I could leave and study. (fully prepared to take the day off it things went south). This morning I spent 3 hours at La Madeline. I was proud of graduating from studying at starbucks yesterday and enjoyed the peaceful place by the fire. I wrapped up my time and miraculously felt good about all that I had covered. I attempted to call Seth but honestly my brain was so jumbled that I just told him I would stop at the store and be home.

I filled a cart in 20 mins or less (which you all know is humanly possible when you are on your own after having been trained to shop with kids). I breezed up to the checkout and grabbed my wallet…..

nope. wasn’t there. But I knew I had seen it in my purse when I bought tea a few hours earlier.

I rushed back to La Madeline and walked in as my cell phone rang and Seth informed me that someone had already spent $4,000 at the Apple Store and $2000 at Target. Stolen. Stink.

So I broke into tears (I couldn’t help it. I was too tired to even think about holding back) as I explained to the manager that I had been there, amongst the business meetings and coffee dates all morning and that the only people hanging out were employees that kept getting in trouble for sitting around being lazy. who knows who took it but whoever it was was good. My purse was tucked by the all under my coat.  Any other time I would feel  dumb for being distracted but this time I don’t feel one bit dumb. For once in my life I needed to be totally focused and of course that was when it happened.  I would have expected it wrangling two kids and such but alone in a peaceful cafe. Ugh.

I made my way home and begged Seth to go to Trader Joe’s to rescue the cart that I had them save while I began my practice test. He was able to go on his lunch break which worked out well. When he got home I noticed a baguette sticking out of the bag. My first thought was “hmm, that’s kind of nice that he grabbed a baguette to go along with our dinner.” then it hit me, he was carrying someone else’s groceries. Not only had I filled a cart and had to leave it like a crazy woman but I had never told Seth what I had in the cart. It turns out there are other crazy cart-leaving people like me. Trader Joe’s was awesome and told us to bring it all back….but then Seth got stuck having to re-shop for the whole list. TJ’s gave us free flowers to make up for our bad day. There are still nice people in the world.  And now I keep remembering things from my wallet and my grocery cart that I had once in my possession and somehow are no longer.

And that is the end of the story.

Tomorrow has got to be better.

The funny this about this place is that even though it’s mine and I can technically write whatever I want I often shy away from sharing the heavier stuff. I want this place to be cheerful and uplifting. I don’t want to talk about grief and grumps and unexpected turns.  But I also want to be authentic and real so that all of you can be the same with me.

Here’s the low down…

Seth has been hearing whispers that have now become announcements in some offices about he and many of his colleagues getting furloughed. IF this goes through this would mean they will still have their jobs and benefits but they will be sent home and not paid their salaries. This could come in many forms, likely to be a day or more a week in which he can’t go to work. We are already on a tight budget and now this means he would take likely a 20% or more pay cut. Eeeek. So we are obviously hoping it just doesn’t happen at all like people are predicting. But in the event that it does we have to be proactive.

So, how does this affect us? Besides stress and anxiety?! It means that I am in the midst right now of studying to retake my boards. It seems the state of Virginia doesn’t love a Texas license and will not grant me my Virginia license unless I retest. What??  I have worked for years to maintain my continuing ed classes and credentials and I still need to go through all of the motions again. Which as you can imagine with kids and a house to keep running is challenging. My field is very much science based and technical and the areas that pushed my comfort zone in my dreamy young single years will most certainly push me again.  So while I am excited to eventually have a license and be able to contribute financially to our family again, the task before me feels quite huge.  Not even taking finding a job into consideration yet.

Yet as I feel overwhelmed about going back to work and facing this mountain I am bustling around getting the kids ready to head out the door to take Jackson to his final ortho appointment.   I am keenly aware that had someone told me Jackson would break one bone, then another, that I would have seen that as a similar, seeming impossible mountain to climb. and yet we have already completed that climb. We lived through it. The bones aren’t quite like they were but we learned and grew in that experience. Our son learned so much about working through frustration, social side effects and things I hadn’t anticipated. Worse things have happened to so many other people, but that was one of our mountains. And I am so thankful it is behind us.  I can see how God gave us the patience and strength to get through it.

So I face this new mountain, I am a bit defeated and frustrated that the circumstances weren’t better. I feel ill-equipped for the climb but that doesn’t change the fact that the mountain is still there, staring me in the face.  2013 will no doubt bring with it some interesting times, unexpected ones no doubt.  January is typically a slow month of holiday recovery and a tinge of winter blues as we anticipate Spring. This year is just kicking to get a move on. February here we come!