The End

Today is Josh's last day with Wal-Mart. I am both excited and scared for him. I am happy that he had the guts to realized that he wanted to get out when he had the chance. It is a hard decision to leave a job that no longer makes you happy. I am scared because Josh still hasn't found a job. We are hopeful that the interviews that he has next week will pan out. Also, the USC interview went EXTREMELY well yesterday! The woman there said that if he didn't hear anything from the Wisconsin area recruiters within 10 days to call her back. Let's hope.

Hunt Fish Camp and Can You Hear Me Now?

Josh has two interviews next week on top of a recruiting call this week with US Cellular. On Monday afternoon Josh will be interviewing for a store manager position at Verizon Wireless. On Tuesday afternoon Josh will be interviewing for the Fishing, Camping, Apparel and Footwear Manager position with Gander Mountain. Let's hope this plethora of activity leads to something good!

My Fashionable New Accessory

Today I went to visit my physical therapist. It was a much anticipated visit because my knee has been giving me problems for a while and it seems in the last month that it has gotten worse. I don't know if that is because I have been using it more this month or if it was because my alignment is all off. I have been tempted to just call my knee doctor and tell him what was going on. I didn't want to do that without talking to some sort of medical professional because if this could be fixed by therapy that would be wonderful. I think that I really threw my therapist for a loop because of the amount of pain that I have been experiencing with my knee. I told my therapist that I really feel that is where my weakness in my right leg is rather than in my hip. My therapist really screwed around with my knee today and I am VERY sore! I found out that I have a multipartite patella. That means that the knee cap is in more than 2 pieces. I now have a new, VERY fashionable taped up knee to make sure that my knee cap stays in the right spot. I have to tape it up daily and remove and night. I am sure that I will have to ice it too. This makes me feel really stupid. What I really have to say about the situation is it is SUMMER for crying out load! I wear shorts and skorts a lot! I am going to look like a big DORK walking around with tape on my knee. I will try to wear capris at work so that I don't have a big loser arrow pointing at me. I guess I will look like a dork until further notice.

I will see my therapist in a week to see if the taping is helping, then I will see my knee guy, Dr Graf on the 6th of September. I wish that I could be normal. I really do!!

Family Dynamics

I don't think you truly understand how different families are until you get married. When you are engaged you know, but once the ink is dry on the marriage license the need to hide family oddities becomes less necessary. When you are growing up, your siblings learn your personalities and know how to handle your quirks. You either learn to love then or use them to annoy the shit out of them. Also, there are no set parents the same. Some want a hug and a kiss when you walk out the door, even for a short time. Where as others you get the kiss and hug on special occasions. Some parents yell and others discuss. Parenting styles lead to how the child interacts with people for the rest of their lives.

As my siblings "pair off" into relationships I have begun to see how different families are. One set of in-laws are quiet, don't yell are a little weird, another set picks on each other's faults and riddles their children with guilt. My in-laws have plenty of quirks too, their religiousness, the inability to pick up a phone and call, plus more that couldn't even describe. I am by no means saying that our family if perfect either. How do you learn to deal with these as you decide to become husband and wife or decide to start a family? Do you ever learn completely? Or is it a continuous learning process? Or do you just give up the fight?

Why is it so hard to mesh families? Why can't a family open their hearts and homes to people that their child or sibling loves? Now I am not saying that we as family members should roll over and accept anyone. You should not accept the man who belittles your sister or the woman who is constantly ordering around your son. I am saying that if the person is nice enough, your brother loves her, why not let them be happy? Who cares that they aren't the same religion? Who cares that they don't play golf or watch tractor pulls? Why do we have to find their faults? Especially when we ourselves know how hard it is to try and belong.

Worse yet, how do we move on after the conflict? How do we realize that you promised to love honor and cherish this person forever and their family is part of the package deal? How do you get past the nasty comments or the knock-down drag out fight you had? You have to learn the art of forgiveness and have the courage and integrity to move on. You have to learn to say to that person, you wronged me, but I forgive you. For the good of the family that you and your spouse have and will create, you have to move on. Now I don't expect forgiveness to be granted for such actions as stealing, abuse, or other crimes. When a fight happens you need to get over yourself, your embarrassment or your anger and look at the bigger picture. Do you want to have this hanging over your head your whole life? Do you want carry that anger and resentment for the rest of your life? Or as long as your marriage lasts? There is one person that I am related to by marriage that I want to read this but I know never will. I know that this person will never get past their selfishness to realize what their hurt feelings are doing to not only their spouse that is stuck in the middle, but to the family that desperately wants to get past this and enjoy what they have because we know that it won't last forever! Maybe THAT is why we like to get together so often!!

Feelin' Hot Hot Hot

We had some pretty big excitement for our neighborhood this weekend. Friday night the apartment building 2 buildings down started on fire. About 8:45pm we heard police sirens in our neighborhood. Now police sirens aren't that rare where we live so I though nothing of it until they stopped VERY close by. I looked up the street and saw a cop car blocking the street. So I went out the front door to see what was going on and saw flames lining the roof of that apartment building. Since the fire department wasnt' there yet people were running up to the police department and giving them their fire extinguishers to help fight the fire. There is something about a fire or tragedy like that that you have to watch. This was no exception. If you add up all the people that I have seen in the neighborhood since we moved, the number would still be shy of the number of people out there on Friday night. There were fire departments from Waunakee, Deforest and Marshall responding along with the Sun Prairie department.

The fire seemed to start in the closet that contains the air conditioning/heating unit and spread into the apartment and the attic. It was very obvious that the fire was in the attic as the siding started to peel off the building and smoke was billowing out of the attic vents. We watched the fire departments saw into the attic and put the fire out. By 10 the fire was out and the crowd had thinned. My mom was spending the night so she took Jackson out for a walk to watch what was going on. We think that he ruined the news coverage that Channel 3 provided because he was doing his growl/bark at the people standing there. Including the news crew.

There still isn't a report of what happened yet. There were some early pictures in the Sun Prairie paper this week. I will have to buy one next week to see what happened.