I debated what to title my first blog post of 2009. There are several appropriate options, including
- Farewell, 2008! Farewell, Fred!
- Colorado or Bust!
- Head West, Young Man!
- Allison's Physics Experiment
- Kids Are Expensive
I finally settled on Murphy's Law because we learned the hard way that if something can go wrong, it will. More on that in a bit...
Well, for those of you who haven't yet heard, FLEA has some very big news. Fred accepted a new job with a new company and....we are moving to Colorado! More specifically, we'll be moving to the NW Denver suburbs at the foot of the Rocky Mountains! We'll actually be closer to Boulder, even though the area is considered the Denver metro area. We are very excited about the opportunities and adventures that await us, although it certainly will not be easy to move so far away from our families and friends. We will miss everyone very much, but we also know that we'll keep in touch and visit whenever we can!
Our house in the 'zoo is going on the market very soon (within the next few days!) and we are hoping we have some luck selling our house in this rotten housing market. (I can't wait to bury the statue of St. Joseph that I got for Christmas!!) The girls and I will remain in Kalamazoo for the time being, while Fred will live in an apartment in Colorado when he's not traveling for work. He'll fly back to Michigan on weekends when he can (he just left today and he'll already be flying home next weekend!) and hopefully we'll all live together under one roof again soon.
Now that we have our big news out of the way, it's time to explain the title of this post. Simply speaking, Allison kicked 2009 off with a bang, quite literally. Allow me to explain.
Fred drove my beloved van to Colorado and left us the Trailblazer. Yesterday he started the process of loading up the van. When I saw all the stuff he planned to take to CO with him, I laughed and told him he'd never fit all that stuff in the van. He retorted with, "Let me worry about that. I'm a packaging engineer, remember?" Sure enough, he managed to fill the van to the brim and every available inch of space was utilized wisely. He managed to fit a 27" TV (in it's huge original box), our desktop computer (also in it's huge original box), the desk from our home office, a folding table, chair, pots, pans, dishes, several bottles of booze (since the moving company won't transport alcohol when we eventually move), several of his dad's old hunting guns (again, because the moving company won't transport them), and what seemed like a million other things. And he still had room for all his clothes, linens, and more! I'll admit it, I'm impressed, even if he DID use a tape measure to measure the available space in the van and then used the measurements to calculate what would fit and where until every inch of space was utilized. (Does anyone else use a tape measure when packing their car up for a trip?!? I didn't think so...) All hail the packaging engineer!
So, Fred was getting all packed up and I went down to the basement to grab some luggage so he could pack his clothes. Fred was upstairs sorting his clothes. Elisabeth was parked in front of the TV watching a movie and Allison was playing with some toys. When I came upstairs, Allison ran up to me and said, "Look, Mommy!" and pointed to my laptop. I gasped in horror when I realized what had happened. In the 2 minutes it took me to run downstairs, Allison had conducted a little physics experiment and pushed my laptop off the desk onto the floor. My laptop has sat atop this desk for months and she has never touched it. Until now. The power cord had been plugged in, and it got ripped out when the laptop fell to the floor. In addition, some pieces of the power cord broke off and remain lodged inside my laptop while some jagged pieces are still attached to the cord itself. Not good. Especially considering that Fred was taking the desktop PC with him (it was already packed up and loaded into the van) and I teach undergraduate Human Resources classes online. I need my laptop to teach. My next class starts on Monday, and I'm not done uploading material to my online course shell. No, it was not a good situation, and this was not good timing (not like there is ever a good time to have computer problems...). I make all my phone calls over the internet, my main method of communication is email, and I have a new Facebook addiction. And don't forget about my blog! There is simply no other way to say it: I need a computer with internet access.
After we all calmed down a bit, Fred made a joke about Murphy's Law. "If anything can go wrong, it will." Could there have been a worse time for this to happen?
My beloved laptop is currently in the shop and I am praying that a computer geek can fix it. From what we've been told, it will either be a quick and fairly inexpensive fix, or my laptop may be shot if there is damage to the motherboard and we could be talking $$$. I am hoping and praying that it will end up being a quick and easy fix. My beloved laptop is practically brand new; I just got it in August. And did I mention that it's flamingo pink? I'm quite attached to it, and quite upset that this happened. But, things happen, especially when you have curious kids. It's not the end of the world. (Just the end of the world wide web as I know it...)
In the meantime, I am borrowing my parents' laptop (thank you VERY much, mom and dad!) for a few days and of course I will be watching Allison a little -- no, a LOT -- more diligently.
So....please forgive me if my next few blog posts are picture-less as I am using a borrowed machine. I haven't yet figured out how to upload pictures on this thing...
And...please join me in congratulating Fred on his new position!! This is a wonderful opportunity for him (and for all of us, really) and one that is well-deserved.
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