Rough Times Are Headed Our Way

Today my heart is breaking for Bill and for his fellow union officers and the entire St. Paul Fire Department. As I am sure every one of you who follow this blog will attest to - the economy is extremely brutal right now. This week Gov. Pawlenty came out with his proposed budget cuts. The City of Saint Paul is being hit hard - very hard. I know they aren't alone and I also know that the cuts could have been even worse. As Bill told me the other day - it is at about 80% of the worst case scenario they had been warned of. Literally this week I have seen Bill for about 1.5 hours since he left for work early Monday morning. When not working he has pretty much been in non-stop meetings crunching numbers and trying to work WITH the city to help determine how best to go about cutting the $7 million they have been told needs to be cut from the Fire Department budget.

The goal all along has been to try to avoid lay offs and cutting companies. Moves like this hurt on multiple levels for a Fire Department. Obviously first and foremost is the loss of jobs for these individuals. It is not likely that those laid off could just go and get another fire job somewhere else and is in fact nearly impossible. Many if not all of these individuals have families - wives, children, mortgages. Secondary to this is that running with less people will have a direct impact on the level of service the department can give to the city. In a profession where seconds and minutes count, longer response times can truly mean the difference between life and death, between saving a property from a fire and losing one to it. And lastly, the thing with the most impact to me, is that running short affects the safety of Bill's job overall. The chances of him being hurt or heaven forbid worse increase dramatically with less people. I have always prided myself on being able to bid him good bye each day and not worry that he wouldn't be coming back through the door the next day. I can't say I would be able to do that any longer.

I feel bad for Bill too because I can sense and hear the toll this is taking on him. He knew when he ran for Union treasurer that the job would be much like a marriage - you know for better or worse, for richer or poorer. But I don't think though that any of us could have really foreseen the magnitude of the impact the tanked economy would have on us all.

Tonight when I put the kids to bed and we say prayers we will send out extra blessings to the fire department and all the people being impacted by everything going on. I hope you will too.

Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, It's Off To The Orthodontist We Go

Yep as if the economy in the tank isn't enough, layoff and cutbacks and doom and gloom. As if needing a new bed and yet another car repair wasn't stressful, our financial load is about to have yet another pile dumped on it. Ryan will soon be going for his first Orthodontist appointment. Now at this point it will simply be his initial consultative appointment so I don't even know what the "damages" will be although I have an idea and it ain't good. The real shocker to me in this however was that I learned that ideally your child has their first ortho appointment around age 7, which of course puts me about 3 years behind the eight-ball for Ry but with a 1 1/2-year buffer for Anna.

In all honesty I have known for quite some time that Ryan needed to go. I am just not sure if subliminally I was hoping he would wake up one morning and his overbite would miraculously be closed and the spaces between his teeth vanished or what. But unfortunately with his speech therapist telling me, "You know he is doing really well but I honestly think that the struggles he continues to have are not ones that can be remedied by me - I believe only orthodontics will totally fix it," it was a reality that I could no longer ignore.

It seems like I remember when growing up that most of my peers didn't don braces until junior high at earliest and more typically high school. My how times have changed!

Oh My Aching Back

For several months now I have been waking up with a very sore back, neck and body overall. I have also been really tired regardless of the numbers of hours of sleep I log. And oddly enough on weekends when Bill is home and is kind enough to let me sleep a bit more (say 8 hours versus 5 maybe 6) I find I wake up even more sore and tired. Very odd. I had sort of chalked it up to turning 40 and not getting the exercise I should. Finally about a month ago I said something to Bill one weekend morning when I woke up so sore it hurt to get out of bed. I asked him if he was suffering from a sore back at all. Low and behold he too was having pain and stiffness in the mornings after sleeping at home. And he wasn't having problems on the nights he slept at the fire station.

Thus began our quest for a new mattress. We decided we wanted to try something new - something different than the traditional mattress. We tried out the new memory foam ones and thought that was what we wanted but they come with a VERY steep price tag. Then about a week ago I was at the mall and stopped into the Select Comfort store and laid on their memory foam combo sleep number bed. I was sold. In fact I inquired if they could just lock me in the store and let me sleep there for the night. Again however a very steep price tag.

Fate was smiling on us however as a discrepancy was discovered in Bill's pay over the past year and he was shorted several thousand dollars. Hip hip hooray - money for a bed! And not a moment too soon. Tonight I am still feeling the soreness from sleeping in our current bed this past weekend. We went with the Select Comfort model and with luck we will be sleeping peacefully and pain-free in about two weeks. I can't wait!

Read All About It!

The agency I work for was featured in a full page story in today's Star Tribune Business section. It is a great read on what we do and our unique approach. Take a moment to read and learn a little more about us. Here is a link:

Star Tribune 01.19.09

There's Cold and Then There's COLDER

Just when we thought it wouldn't get any colder here this winter we hit an even higher low last night. Does that make sense - a higher low? I guess since I am talking minus numbers here that a higher low does make sense. The overnight temp hit -22 as evidenced again by my van thermometer.


Wind chills dipped dangerously cold in the area of minus 40 or so. No, I will not deny that it was just downright COLD heading to work this morning and that the thought of hunkering down at home was VERY appealing. Forecast is calling for another very cold night tonight with lows in the -20 range again. Then tomorrow the slow thaw begins. I heard this morning that this will be our last really cold weather for the season. Time will tell if this is the case.

Last night I drove to Mankato and back for the funeral visitation for my mom's friend Lolly. As I headed south the thermometer in my car quickly plummeted hitting -13 by the time I arrived in Mankato a little before 6 pm. I was back on the road a little after 8 pm and the temp dipped to -18. The drive home was downright chilly despite my heat set on high both temp and fan wise. The winds that blew across Highway 169 surely were the cause for this. That coupled with the drifting snow impeding the highway made for an "interesting" drive home. I was quite relieved when I entered our basement family room and there was a fire roaring in the fire place. Just what I needed to take off the chill. ALMOST gives me a renewed appreciation for the humid dog days of Minnesota summers. Ha ha ha.

It's COLD, The Roads are FROZE, It Must Be Minnesota

We are enjoying a "treat" in the form of a deep freeze this week in Minnesota. Temps dipped to below zero on Monday night following a 4" snow fall. Yesterday morning my car read -18. Yep that's not a typo and here's the photo to prove it.


The cold temps mixed with the snow made for a treacherous and lengthy commute yesterday morning and again this morning. When the temps are this cold the chemicals placed on our roads to melt ice and snow simply don't work. The slippery conditions force traffic to grind to a crawl (I drove 5 mph my ENTIRE commute yesterday morning). The slow moving cars allow the exhaust to turn into what we hearty Minnesotans affectionately call "black ice." And black ice there was. Literally, 494 (the Interstate I travel on to and from work) glistened in the morning sun. A thin, albeit very dangerous, layer of ice coated the roads. Yikes. My drive normally takes me anywhere from 15-20 minutes door to door. Yesterday it was an hour. Today is was just under an hour. It is ridiculous - you arrive at work exhausted and you haven't even sat down at your desk.

Luckily most people put on their slow and cautious driving hat when conditions get like this. But clearly there are those that will never learn. Reports yesterday morning cited over 200 accidents and roll overs and this number did not include the numerous cars that spun out or went in the ditch solo.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel - forecasts are calling for a warm up with temps in the 30's next Tuesday. No doubt you will see people without jackets and maybe even a few silly ones in shorts (no joke) as we enjoy a well-earned heat wave! :-)

A Sad Day

I got a sad call from my mom this evening. Her dear friend Lolly Nelson lost her valiant battle this evening with cancer. Lolly was diagnosed in April with a very aggressive cancer that had metastasized in her body. It was a cancer that created large tumors and unfortunately did not have a standard treatment protocol. She underwent surgery followed by aggressive chemo. It seemed the chemo slowed the cancer but sadly within weeks of the treatment's end it was back as aggressive as ever.

Anna and I had the pleasure of spending a few hours with Lolly on October 11 at a tea party my mom had for Anna at the Dunn Brothers in Mankato. It was so good to see her and although this was Anna's first time meeting Lolly in person, she was quite taken with her. Lolly generously gave Anna a bag of goodies including princess related items. Anna was thrilled. She quickly made a thank you card and sent it off. Only days after the tea party, Lolly's condition deteriorated rapidly and she was hospitalized for several weeks. Amazingly however she recovered and it seemed might be holding her own. She actually went back home for a bit. Sadly this didn't last long and the pain of the cancer took her back to the hospital and eventually to a nursing home. Anna drew a picture of her and Lolly and mailed it off to try to cheer her up and Lolly was included each night in our special blessings.

What wonderful blessings that Lolly got to celebrate her birthday, have Christmas and New Years with her family and celebrate her only son's birthday this past Thursday. My thoughts and prayers go out tonight to her family and her extended family of friends as a wonderful wife, mother and friend may no longer be with us in person but surely she will remain in spirit in their hearts and memories.

Confessing Our Sins

As Catholics we celebrate several sacraments while growing up -- Baptism, First Communion, Reconciliation (confession) and finally Confirmation. Ryan has made it through the first two (although he still gets nervous when he goes up for communion) and tonight he will make his first Reconciliation. In preparation for this he and I had to work through an entire workbook of exercises that taught him all about what this sacrament means, how he will go about making it and what happens afterwords.

It was rather "cute" as we went though this as he learned to identify sins and the things one might confess and he seemed to grasp things quite well. The challenge for him (and quite frankly even for me!) is remembering all the "stuff" he has to do when he goes to make his first reconciliation. So now I am sitting here at lunch "cramming" for tonight so I can help him through this. I feel bad for him because things like this make him really anxious and he wants to do it right. And of course as a mom you want to help your child in any way you can. Unfortunately this isn't a time when I can hold his hand through it all. I will just have to quickly prep him before we leave for church tonight and then hope for the best. Think it's o.k. if I give him a little "cheat" sheet to hold on to in the confessional?? :-)

Teacher Teacher Can You Teach Me?

Well I did it. I took the plunge last week and submitted my application for enrollment at Concordia University in their accelerated degree program. If all goes well I will officially become a student in their Marketing & Innovation Management program beginning in June. To say I am excited, an understatement. To say I am a bit scared, a very real truth. I have consistently throughout my life (all 40 years I suspect) been known to take on a lot, to juggle many balls and to extend myself to the utmost edges of my abilities. I think it is just how I am wired and thankfully I have a husband who doesn't seem to bat an eye at my ever-reaching aspirations. Rather, I think because we have been together for over 18 years, I have an inkling he has come to expect this from me. So when I announced earlier this fall that I wanted to go back to school his response simply was "go for it, you can do it."

So now I have to figure out a way to juggle a full-time and demanding career, being a mom and a wife, managing the household (you know laundry, shopping and all the fun domestic stuff) AND attending school, doing homework and writing papers. Oh and did I tell you that I am planning a return to running with plans to run the 5K again in May that I ran last year? That will be my stress relief and my sanity pill. :-)

I have a hunger for learning and a thirst to expand my horizons. I can't even begin to tell you the excitement I feel at the very real possibility that in only a few months I will be fulfilling both desires. I can't wait to see what is around the corner for me and all that I will learn. Stay tuned for more details as they emerge.

Happy New Year everyone!