One Thing After Another

Here are some sayings that I am starting to hate/relate to:

"When it rains, it pours."
"Things can only get better." (Bull crap by the way...)
"Bad news comes in threes." (I pray that things stop at three because one more thing is going to push me over the edge of sanity!)

So, of course things have been really difficult since finding out about mom's "incurable" cancer back in April. If I wasn't so close to my mom maybe it wouldn't hit so hard but she is so darn special to me that it's hard to breathe just thinking about life without her so yeh, being told that she is going to lose this fight with cancer has been devistating.

The second "event" is that our family's "cabin" in Montana where my dad lives caught fire on Thursday morning and burned to the ground. Now for those of you that don't know me very well, don't realize the significance of this loss to me, but for those that do know me well, you know that this "cabin" meant the world to me and my family. My great grandparents owned that land, my grandfather and my dad (when he was 10) built a one room cabin on that land. Through the years we added on and the little one room cabin became a very comfortable house. Every summer my family would drive out to spend two months there and I have nothing but good memories of my time there. After my parents divorced, my dad moved out there permanently and continued to add on and improve the cabin and it became a 3 story home that dad worked incredibly hard on. Every time I was able to visit, I felt as if I was the one place in the world that I could find myself again. The real Kalle comes out there and I am finally home. Over all those years, the Varholdt family stuff has ended up there and memories are attached with nearly everything in the cabin. THAT is what this place means to me and I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that it's ALL gone forever. I'm so incredibly thankful that my dad and his two dogs weren't in the cabin at the time and they are all safe. What a loss. What a sad, sad, loss.

So, the third (and hopefully final) thing that is happening is that I found out today that there is an extremly good possibility that I will be losing my job before the end of the year as our Vancouver firm will most likely be closing and two of the partners are leaving (including my boss). The really bad thing is that no one in my field (Architecture) is hiring because of this stupid economy and I'm not sure what to do because I need to work. I guess I will have to focus my search on other fields so if any of you happen to know of a job opening please, please let me know because I'm trying very hard not to panic about this. I loved working for the county so maybe I'll try to go back to them? I've worked so hard to get where I am and I'm so disappointed that after 4 1/2 years, I have to start over. At least I've been doing marketing/promotion for the past 2 years as well so maybe that will help me find something new?...

I apologize about this being such a bummer entry. I'm just kind of struggling right now and am desparate for good news.

To finish on a positive note, Greta and I are putting on an online auction for mom to help her with some of her medical and daily expenses. We are so excited to see this be a success for her so I hope that you all can check out the details and help if you're interested/able!
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/cowgirl/journal/1 (Sep 10th's entry).

Peace to you all.

Kalle

Papa-ratzi and Mama-ratzi

Elliot is resting up so that we can party all night long.

My little bookworm. Emerson loves her books and likes to pull them all off her bookcase in order to enjoy each of them fully. Luckily she is good about putting them back (for the most part!)

Eat, Sleep, Poop. It's hard being a baby!



Emerson is happy to be a big sister!


She gets to play with all sorts of cool toys.
I'm amazed those mobile animals didn't fly off with the way she was spinning that thing!



Yes, Elliot is sleeping in my bed.

Stop judging me people! I NEEDED SLEEP and she would NOT sleep in her own crib. Desperate women do desperate things!

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Elliot is growing so fast! She is gaining an average of 1 1/2 ounces a day which doesn't seem like much but in the two weeks she's been out in the world, she went from 6 lbs, 8 oz. to 7 lbs, 11 oz.! Grow Ellie grow! I can't say that I'm entirely surprised because I feel like all I do all day long is nurse her! I don't remember Emerson being that hungry!

Tony and I are trying to decide how we should spell Elliot's nickname. I say "Ellie" and he says "Elli". I would love to hear what you all think!

With Tony gone to work this whole week, it has in essence been trial-by-fire for me so to speak. I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to handle two small children. However, I am so happy to report that the following things have NOT happened so far...

I have not had a mental breakdown (minor ones excluded...)

I have not caught my house on fire because of my two little distractions (I won't say I haven't been close, but almost doesn't count!)

I have not called Tony and demanded that he return home immediately

Here are some of the things that HAVE happened so far...

I have LOVED every second of being at home with my two sweeties

I have managed to give Emerson a bath while nursing Elliot

I went to the dentist to have a tooth filled while nursing/holding Elliot

I have mixed up my children's names on countless occasions already (but have yet to call them our dog's name)

I have thanked Evenflo a trillion times for making my Snugli front pack. Elliot is in heaven in that thing and I can actually get stuff done!

I have thanked God every night for blessing me and my family like he has.

Anyhow, the pictures above are from this last week or two and the short video is of Emerson with a talking greeting card that my mom received. She was fascinated with this card and pretty soon tried saying what it was saying. I got a kick out of it!

Pictures from July 2010

Pictures of Elliot coming soon!