A Hiking We Will Go

Well, one by one, we all fell to the stomach virus. It was pretty nasty. The nausea was worse than I've experienced before. I actually only threw up once, thanks to my iron belly. The bad part is that June was crying and up with a slight fever, so I had to run to the bathroom, set her down on the floor behind me, puke, and then hurry and get out of there before she tried to climb up the side of the toilet (she's got great scaling skills these days). Ryan wasn't so lucky and it took him a few days before he was back to feeling completely normal. I finally started cleaning our master bathroom today, the main site of all the carnage. Shudder.... it was not pretty.

On Saturday, though, we took a family hike to Red Rock. Being active, being outside, and all being together is my very favorite thing. When we're on the move doing something there isn't a lot of whining or boredom. Willa is the perfect age. She did not stop jabbering the entire hike up and down. She pointed out rocks, deliberated on which direction we should take, jumped of things, and was the most delightful little traveling companion. We stopped at a big rock to eat our snack. Willa is big into picnics, so the snack at the top was very important. She kept saying, "Our happy family. Our family picnic." It was so sweet.

Old Ironbelly

On Monday night Willa puked every 30 minutes like clockwork from approximately 8:30 pm until 4:30 am. It was rough, but I knew we were headed for the clear when the last puke happened a full 45 minutes later at 5:15 am, instead of her usual 30 minute episodes. What's sadder than watching a toddler throw up repeatedly? Well, it's watching the tummy pains wake her up out of a brief respite of sleep and then dry heave repeatedly and then beg for water. I started giving her water because it wasn't making her throw up more often, and anything has to be better than dry heaving.

I pulled out an air mattress and laid next to her in her room to help her through the night. Eventually, she asked (and I allowed) her to come and snuggle with me on the mattress and surprisingly we slept a little better and I was better positioned to hold the barf bowl during the following rounds. She went through three sets of sheets from all the vomiting this time and finally I started putting towels on her pillow since the dry heaving was still bringing stuff up, but not a lot of stuff. We went through about five or six towels.

Tending to a sick loved one is always an inner battle for me, especially with stomach flu-ish things. On the one hand, I want to provide relief and comfort, on the other I want to avoid germs and inflicting the same flu upon myself. It's always kind of a hug with my face turned away, holding my breath, my eyes closed, and then running and washing my hands right afterwards and lysoling everything like crazy. I'm a woman who loves my can of Lysol, my disinfectant wipes, and my hand sanitizer. As soon as she first puked, we cleaned her up, and then I ran through the house spraying every light switch, handle, toy, couch, phone, remote control, and anything that she could have remotely put a germ on. Then, I repeated this exercise several times throughout the illness (well, on Tuesday when she was laying around watching t.v. and the puking had stopped). I washed anything and everything that she has come into contact with. Her clothes, blankets, sheets, our clothes that we were wearing when we hugged her, any towels, everything

It's been 24 hours since her last bout and she is feeling better, but I'm keeping a strict eye on June and myself. Up until it happened, we were all sharing germs like we didn't have a care in the world. It will be amazing if we don't come down with it, but I'm crossing my fingers.

June continues to delight and vex us with her little personality. She likes to pop off during nursing and start laughing a silly laugh like we have an inside joke. I have tried milk in her sippy cup a few times, she tastes it, looks at me, tastes it again and then hits the cup away and gags. It's going to be a journey, I think. Yesterday, she communicated that she was done eating her oatmeal by not only refusing the spoonful that I offered, but also picking up the little oats that had spilled on her bib and then flinging them over the side of her highchair onto the floor. Message received!

The Smith's Visit and Red Rock Half

Last Saturday was the half marathon. It ended up being so much fun! First of all, our dearest friend Mr. Smith and his newish wife flew down from Reno to join us for the race. Meeting Rachel and spending time with them was so great. Rachel was the life of the party and is quite the catch for Peter. It's so nice when friends marry people that you can be friends with too. It was great to see happy newly-ish weds and I think they are a perfect match.

Peter and Rachel were kind enough to let me tag along with them for the race. Rachel talked the whole way and didn't seem out of breath once the entire time - even through the tortuous hills the first five miles. It actually made the time go by really quickly! It was probably the most fun I've had during a race, and they didn't make me feel badly for possibly slowing them down a little at the end. They had a little more gas in the tank and could have pushed for a real whiz-bang finish, but I was spent and they stayed with me at our normal pace. 2:16 finish, which is really good for me and for the terrain, but probably extremely slow for most normal people.

Ryan recovered from his sprained ankle and only missed about two weeks of training. He took fourth overall and first in his age group. Not too shabby! We like to imagine what he could have done if he hadn't hurt his ankle.

It was a really difficult race because of the hills, but overall still the most fun I've had in a long time. We hope the Smiths come visit us again! No judging the post-race photo of me.

Had to add this photo of Willa. She got an apron and was excited to help me make her PB&J sandwich for lunch. She's also wearing a princess crown. She also has a princess nightgown that she wants to wear every single night. She told me that Princess Jasmine wears a crown and a blueberry on her head. I took a closer look and sure enough, there is a blue gemstone on Jasmine's crown - must be a blueberry!

June's Birthday

Ryan's mom was coming into town, so we were excited to have some family to celebrate for June. Rebecca picked up this awesome and delicious cake. She got the same one for Scarlett's birthday over Thanksgiving and we all agreed it was the tastiest cake we'd ever had. This one wasn't quite as tasty, but still very delicious.

By the time we all ate dinner and were ready for cake, poor June was ready for bed. She wasn't fussy, just not as smiley as usual. She mustered up a few grins, though, and liked dipping her finger in the frosting.

Here's a photo from the next day - eating an apple. She loves apples so much and starts flapping her arms when if I start cutting slices for Willa or eating one of my own. I sat her down and started giving her small bits that she could gum and swallow, but she wanted more, so I gave her half an apple that she gnawed on happily for quite a while.

She's got her four upper teeth cutting through as we speak. She's been a little fussy the past few days, but has also had a little cold so that might be the problem too.

June LOVES throwing food off of her high chair. If she's not interested in eating it, there is no way she will tolerate it on there. She's extremely specific about picking out certain foods and dropping them off while leaving other foods alone. Under her highchair would be a dog's paradise several times a day. I've tried scrambled eggs a few times several weeks apart and each time her mouth has gotten a little red and hivey-like around her chin area for about an hour after she has eaten. Boo. I feel like eggs are the ultimate go-to dinner if all else fails. Hopefully it's a mild allergy and she'll grow out of it.

While I was in Utah, we took June to Target to get a few one year shots. They turned out pretty cute, but nothing can quite capture her adorableness. I'm glad we did them, though. The photos of Ryan and me when we were young were nothing special - my mom would just take us down to the school when they were doing photos. But, I think it's nice to have a more formal photos for some life milestones.

Happy Birthday June!

One year old today! She is still the sweetest, cutest thing on the planet. We're going to have cake tomorrow so I will write more about her with that post.

I'm so glad when bacon comes home.

I suppose there's a double meaning in that title, but Willa actually means it quite literally. She has gotten to a new developmental milestone and is starting to see a lot more humor and make her own jokes. On Sunday, I was in the kitchen and she was eating breakfast. Ryan was at meetings and she started singing "I'm so glad when Daddy Comes home." Suddenly she came holding her bacon (broken into two pieces) and sang, "I'm so glad when bacon comes home" and she continued singing the entire song complete with making the two pieces of bacon kiss each other at the end. It was hilarious.

I have about a million things to do, but I wanted a quick update. Work is going fantastic. It's crazy and strange. Our entire marriage has been almost seven years of law school and then the Texas fiasco. He was never home and when he got home, he was exhausted. Now, he leaves late enough in the morning that I usually have time to go running and shower. He's home by 5:30 and he's not completely wiped out from the day so he can play with the kids and help with bedtime. He is also enjoying his job, shock! and comes home in a good mood. Really, I doubt he's been this stress-free the entire time we've been married. It's so different than anything we've ever experienced! In Texas he left at 6:30 am and usually didn't get home until after 7 pm, usually when I was putting Willa down for bed. It was a long day. Now, it's just the perfect amount. I'm actually being a lot more productive too! We're only into week two, so definitely we expect things won't always be so easy, but right now we are enjoying it.

I ran the kids up to Utah (driving, by myself!) for a few days for Dr. Alyson's wedding. It was wonderful and she looked very beautiful and happy. Her dress was amazing!

It was a short trip, so we mainly hung out at my mom's house. We did manage to get the girls in for a much needed (and dreaded) haircut. Willa was terrified once we got there and was crying and clinging to me. It's my fault for not preparing her better by talking through everything that would happen. It was just new to her and scary.

At the last minute we decided to cut about an inch of shaggy mullet off of June. A stranger's eye might not notice, but it does look a little better. I probably should have taken more off, but I just couldn't.

VIP - Very Important Post!

* Before you think that I am so brilliant, I want to admit that I stole that blog title from someone else

What could be so very important, you ask? Employment! That's right.We will soon be joining the ranks of the averagely employed American (not underemployed, not unemployed). We are ecstatic, joyful, grateful, excited, nervous, and still a little in disbelief. Here's how it all went down.

First of all, when we moved to Las Vegas, Ryan was busier networking than he had ever been in Texas. For some reason (Heavenly Father's plan?), everything he tried in Houston kind of fell flat. In Vegas, he was mostly quite busy with phone conversations, lunches, and meetings of various sorts with lots of attorneys. Often these attorneys gave him additional names of people he could contact and things just started growing. He was quite busy up until the end of the year. In January things slowed as far as networking, but he was having a job interview or two almost every week. It was way, way more success than we had ever had in Texas. Still, we were often worried that nothing would come and that the longer he went without a job, the longer it would be until we sank into the depths of long-term unemployment. It was so frustrating and ridiculous that this was our position since Ryan is so capable and hard-working, but there we were - victims of the Recession :).

Ryan went in for an interview on a Tuesday with Firm #1. It went well, nothing out of the ordinary and we expected to get another rejection just because that is what always happens. Actually, Ryan always expects that he will get offered the job because the interviews usually go quite well, and that just makes the disappointment so much more bitter.

On Thursday, Firm #1 called and offered him the job. Ryan came downstairs and told me and I think the two of us were just shocked with disbelief. We hugged, I cried a little, and then he had to run out to a meeting so we didn't have much time to talk. It was shocking that this ordeal could actually be over. When we talked later, after looking over the firm's offer, it was a little more sobering. They were offering the salary that Ryan had requested, but the billable hour was much higher than he had anticipated. They wanted 2040 hours a year, around 170 a month. Now, if we're lucky, Ryan would be about 80% efficient with the billing and work, so that worked out to about 60 hours of work a week. Then, no holidays or anything were fitted into the hours, so if he wanted to take holidays or vacation time, he would have to fit those billable hours in somewhere. I know that lots of attorneys do this, and some might scoff that we were a little disheartened by it all. Ryan really wants to have a life to live and to be with us as a family, though, and I'm grateful for that. If they were offering a much higher salary, it would have been much more palatable, but for the offered salary it was sobering.

Now, we were nowhere near going to turn this offer down. No way. After three years, we were accepting it and I was excited for the long-term when he would have experience under his belt and could negotiate a better position at that firm or at another one. Still, we were a little depressed, which felt really horrible and ungrateful.

Meanwhile, when he had gone to interview at Firm #1, we had heard from Brandon that another firm might be contacting him. Brandon's friend knew this firm and that they might be looking for someone in the future. Well, we never heard (not surprising to us) and we got the job offer from #1 on Thursday. After the job offer, Brandon texted his friend and said that Ryan had an offer so if this other friend was interested, they needed to act fast. She got Ryan's resume again (after losing a hard copy) and contacted Firm #2.

On Friday, Ryan got a call from #2 asking him to come interview. They knew that he had an offer waiting and asked if he could come immediately into their office. So, away he went - not even dressed up and was gone for quite a while. When he got back, he said that he had really liked the firm. It wasn't in their best interests to hire someone right away, though, so he didn't expect to get the job. They told him they would let him know for sure by Monday (the deadline to accept the other job).

It was a bit of a stressful weekend for Ryan. On the one hand, he wanted to hold out and wait for firm #2. On the other hand, he didn't want to seem ungrateful to #1 and he also just wanted to have things settled. Monday came and we hadn't heard anything. Ryan and Brandon went out in the afternoon and when I sat down at the computer there was an email from #2. Apparently, they had emailed an offer into him on Friday, but for some reason it went to his Spam folder and he never got it. So, they emailed again on Monday (President's Day) asking for his phone number. I sent it, then called Ryan to let him know what was happening. Then, I waited impatiently and made cookies, and couldn't believe that we were actually getting another offer.

I wasn't sure what we were going to do - if it would be a hard decision, or if the second offer would be amazingly better. I thought we'd have to talk a lot about it, etc. etc. Well, I suddenly get a text message from Ryan saying he accepted #2's offer without even talking to me about it! The pay was better, the hours were less (1900 - almost a month less of work!), the health plan and 401k were both better. Plus, he really liked the vibe from #2 and the type of work they did. On paper it was definitely a better offer, but really he just felt in his gut that he would rather be there.

It's a small firm, only about five associates, but it's been around a while and they have a good reputation in town. They mainly do commercial litigation, which is what Ryan is interested in. He has also been drawn to this type of smaller, close-knit type of group. Plus, the commute is about fifteen minutes away! It was amazing when he made that decision. We were both so excited and happy; much better than the anxiety and dread we were feeling from the Firm #1 offer.

It is just such a strange story about how it all played out (at least for me, you readers might be bored to tears). After three years in Texas and nothing, we received two offers in four and a half months in Las Vegas. I also think that it's interesting that #2 would actually call Ryan in and offer him the job so quickly. It seems like if most other firms were tentatively thinking of hiring, but had heard than a potential applicant got another job, that  they would probably just brush it off and not call him in for an interview, much less offer a position. It just seems like everything is finally working out. Maybe we needed to get an offer from #1 to make #2 pick up its feet and get down to business.

Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways. I don't know why everything had to happen the way it did - especially the three years in Texas - but, now we are living in a place that we love, near to family, and there is a good job. There are still going to be some rough months ahead as we jump into the workforce, for sure. I'm not ready to say that I learned so much from Texas, or that it was worth it. I'm still bothered by the years of work (and money and savings) that we missed out on. But, things are looking up for the old Daniels' family.

 Don't expect too much change in any of our habits, though. We're going to hit that student debt and we're going to hit it hard. And then we're going to build up our savings and retirement because, let's face it, we're not getting younger. Then, we'll probably have to work on college accounts for the kids. After that, probably braces for them. Then, dentures for us.

Finally, the last laugh goes to Brandon and Rebecca. They wanted us in Vegas sooo badly and they made it all possible. They annoyed us for years telling us how Brandon would be able to help Ryan get a job here. After all of Ryan's networking that had nothing to do with Brandon, he ends up landing a job that is directly tied back to him. We are so grateful and we love the both of them so much. We spent a very jovial Monday afternoon with them hiking and then eating pizza back at the house. It was a very good day.