Seis Puerqueños

I figured out the Seattle driving plan:
Sun: 10mph Snow: 80mph Rain: 10mph Fog: 80mph. What gives?

My favorite favorite organization needs your help. And I’m not afraid to ask and/or beg for it.

As you may or may not know, in 2004 I spent 9 months in Ecuador working with an orphanage support program. It was by far the most amazing thing ever, and I still think about it on a daily basis. It taught me so much about love, patience, hope, hard work, and LOVE!!!

So, what help is needed? As you are probably aware, the economy is not so great, and the organization has seen a decrease in donations. This is a problem for obvious reasons, but another even greater problem is the decrease in number of volunteers. So, if you have (or could make room for) 2 1/2 months of your life to have the most amazing experience, please consider doing this. You don’t have to speak spanish, and this opportunity is open to singles, couples, families, everyone!! I encourage you if you are even THINKING about it to let me know so I can sell you on the idea. Or you can read about it on the website. http://orphanagesupport.org/ They sometimes have shorter term opportunities too.

I realize not everyone has that amount of time to give, but most of us (even in these rough times) have a couple of dollars to spare. So, here is my plea to each of you. If you have $5 or $100 or anything that you could donate, please please please do! I know I often wonder about charities, which ones are good and which ones are less than quailty, and I promise you that I know first hand how much your money would help, and that it would go to all the important things these beautiful kids need. If you want to read more about them, and donate online, or find the form to send a check, you can check out http://orphanagesupport.org/donors.html

And as I haven’t been to the website in a while, I just read that you can sponsor a child for $30/month and they will tell you how the kid is doing. Neat!

Anyway, that’s the end of my begging, but PLEASE think about spending some time in Ecuador, or sending just a few dollars their way. Thank you!!!

So, it has come to my attention that the last post was quite unclear. Here is what happened:

Tuesday morning an exec at Aaron’s company called them in for a mandatory meeting. He took two minutes to tell them what they already assumed was coming, they were getting laid off, and would be meeting with HR that afternoon to turn in their badges and such. A meeting with HR revealed 4 weeks severance pay (yay!) and insurance through the end of the month (yay!) and another month of cobra for free (yay yay!) Although Aaron (and co-workers) had already assumed they were getting laid off, they thought it would be the end of February instead of the beginning. The good news is that Aaron had plans to quit in May to start his own business, so it is just a couple of months we hadn’t planned for. For those of you desperately curious, he will be doing independent software test consulting. It’s something he’s always wanted to do, and it will likely never be a better more convenient time to start. So now we have him working at home, which is nice, Harmon and I enjoy having lunch with him and taking walks when he is taking a break.

Hope that clears up any confusion

The view is better, the coworkers are cuter, and the commute is shorter, even if it doesn’t pay quite as much (read: zero). (But can you beat that dress code?)

How many times does a person have to spray themselves with water from the spray hose on the sink before remembering to let go of the handle before putting it back in place??? Seriously!!!

I don’t think I ever mentioned Aaron’s car accident again after mentioning that he totaled his truck. Most of you thought that meant it just got pretty banged up, but it is indeed actually totaled in the unfixable category. That was a bummer, since we were covered for liability only, but not the worst thing in the entire world. Since we had had the truck for only a couple months it stinks a lot, but again, it could have been worse. The worst thing (ok, that’s a bit dramatic) in the world was the other car. Although (thankfully) not totaled, we apparently only had $10,000 of coverage on hitting someone else’s car, and we quickly got a call letting us know the damage was approaching that limit, and was not even fully taken apart yet. Yikes. We had visions of owing thousands of dollars and with Aaron’s upcoming layoff, this was not a delightful thought. Our insurance company told us they were sending some sort of waiver to the other company, in which they will say $10k is enough and we won’t be responsible for more than that. His accident was over a month ago, so you can imagine the sweating we have done waiting for them to sign the form.

Today I got a message from the insurance claim lady. I was quite terrified at first, even though her voice sounded happy. Eventually she gets to the part where she says the damage was over $10k our limit, but that they did sign the form.

PHEW!!!!!!!!!!!! Many sighs of relief and prayers of gratitude at our house today.

PS How does one only buy $10k worth of insurance when tons of the cars on the road are worth many times that??? How can they even sell that?

You probably thought this was going to be a gross post, but it’s not.

I think the first time I ever had an explosion moment was when my brother Caelin was little. You know, you love someone so much you are going to explode. It’s generally a momentary thing, but could potentially last longer I suppose. When I went to Ecuador I had that feeling a lot. I LOVED those kids, and seeing them smile produced many explosion moments. And even a couple of times I’ve felt that way about Aaron, but don’t tell him, it will go to his head.

And then I had Harmon. And now I have them all the time. Something about the way he smiles when he’s thinking about peeing on me, or the way he giggles when I raspberry his neck, it gets me every time. I often wonder how I got so lucky to have such an easy calm amazing baby. So, I am just proclaiming (like you didn’t know) how much I adore my baby and how happy he manages to make me.

Ok, I suppose it was sappy, but not gross.

PS It’s his happy 3 month birthday today. His new favorite thing is grabbing everything. Now be forced to look at great photos. More here.

In the spring I spent some time helping my country try to teach people not to sue for stupid reasons. I thought it was enough to spend three (million) weeks of your life on jury duty, especially while pregnant. Even though I didn’t have a job that I was missing, getting paid $10 a day was almost insulting. Maybe I would have felt better doing it for free so I could have felt like I was REALLY doing my civic duty. In the end I made a whopping $120 for my time, not to mention the free bus pass to and fro. Today when I did my taxes it turns out the government wants $14 back from me for said experience. I’m pretty sure that’s just a cruel joke.

In better news Harmon earned us $1300 just for being born last year, furthering his status in our minds as the best child ever. But still, I want my $14.

For a long time now Aaron and I have given many of our couple friends joint names, just like celebrities sometimes are lucky enough to get. It started with Chate and discussions about whether Joliza or Lise (Li-zay) was a better fit, and along the way we got to know others who already had their own chosen, like Ajake. For those of you who haven’t been so lucky, today is your lucky day, as now you have a celebrity couple name. If you hate yours, then you can pick a better one, unless yours is really awesome, then you have to keep it. Or if you have a suggestion for someone else’s whose is not particularly awesome (but they are all pretty awesome) then we are all ears. Enjoy.

PS We are still between Aarsey and Kelron. I’m voting Kelron. We considered Karon, but that’s almost like a real name.

Dear WSDOT,

I just wanted to say thanks for reading my blog. I can only assume that you do because two days after my letter to you I had new merge sign, ample room to speed up to merge, and 100 times less fear getting on the freeway. Today, only three days later I have my very own lane to enter on. It could not be more ideal. You must have seen the cute pictures of Harmon and decided he was worth keeping around. We think so too.

Thanks for thinking of us,
Kelsey