Thanksgiving in Chicago

We had Thanksgiving at my parent's house in Chicago, and were there about 8 days. We landed at O'Hare airport, my parent's met us at baggage claim and mom handed me a stick of Juicy Fruit gum. MY FAVORITE ... Valentine came with us in her new travel bag which added nicely to my wardrobe.

She behaved really well on the plane and was only stressed on the take off and landing parts of the flight. I would unzip the top of the travel bag and pet her head to calm her. True to her personality she did not bark or make noise. People around us didn't know we had a dog with us. Praise the Lord.

The day we flew in was the day we headed 20 minutes outside of Chicago and toured Northwestern University. My cousin's finance (now) is in the graduate program there for Opera singing. Trevor would like to get his MBA from there, if we can swing it some day. No plans in that direction so far. The university was beautiful, right on Lake Michigan, and situated in a quaint town.

We tried many Chicagoland treats while there, the pizza, for one is pretty great. One night Trevor, mom, dad, Nicky and I went to Hancock tower to really see the city from 97 floors up. it was gorgeous. We had a drink at the lounge and enjoyed the sites. You could see all the way around Lake Michigan into Indiana. Amazing. We walked around the city a bit, right by the old water tower and hunted for a popcorn place called Garret's which has the best gourmet, Chicago style popcorn ever. Chicago style = chedder cheese popcorn mixed with carmel popcorn.

Thanksgiving day my parent's friends Gary and Anita Thomas came over to share dinner with us. They've known our family since I was six. Gary and my dad were in Marketing togehter at Beckman when we were in the Bay area, 1985 through 1992. They played on the Beckman softball team and I remember playing with their baby daughter Jessica, who is now in college. Wow did I feel old. They are great people and added much joy to our celebration. My mom was a wonderful host and the night ended with many rounds of Wii bowling. I won. :-)

We are blessed by the people, family and time together in this year of changes. What a wonderful Thanksgiving in 2008.

Spa

Spa, spa, I love the spa. Please bring your suit anyone who comes to visit. I could not have lived October without our spa. It forces relaxation in places I never knew were tense. Wonders are worked every night when I go home and have a crick in my neck from the computer bag and sitting on the train for hours. When I'm distracted by something that happened at work or have a problem to which there is no obvious solution.

After 10 minutes in the warm, toasty water, sleep comes easily. I even got Trevor in there a few times.

I think Debbie and Bryan should get a spa and put it on their deck. They have the perfect place for it. Then we can all pile in when we come for Christmas and it is snowing or cold outside.

San Francisco

This just in, those with the last name PITTAM are being called out of Southern California. You know that song, "Sittin' on the dock of the bay, watching the tides roll away." Wait for it ... Nikki is moving to San Francisco. Promotions for everyone, she will be managing the SF salon, large and in charge. She has the perfect knowledge and experience to really grow the salon and the stylists that work there.

Trevor and I are so proud of her and feel better that she will not be alone in the busy city. Josh said he would give her free food :-) Now I have several reasons to go play in wonderful cities across America with people who I love. Trevor says I may even see her more since SF is not so far away. Can't help feeling sad.

She will be moving the exact same weekend as my parents. Who can know what God has in store for everyone.

Psalm 20: 4 & 5

May he give you the desire of your heart
and make all your plans succeed.
We will shout for joy when you are victorious
and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.
May the LORD grant all your requests.

A Bit Each Day

There are many ways to do this blogging thing and what may work better is not to wait till I get pictures of our vacation, or our house or ourselves, because Trevor and I are so bad at making pictures a priority. I'm going to write what is up in small bits. See the Kientz family blog for some info on our vacation to Somerset in August. We had a fabulous time with everyone.

Big news is my parent's house sold in two and a half weeks. Great timing in this market. They move out of it the first week in October, will stay with us for a few days and fly to their new house they bought in Cary, Ill. It's gorgeous and apparently huge and perfect etc. Thanksgiving in Ill. here we come!



Mom's been working the LA County fair and has adopted a puppie, three pounds of adorable. She named her Penny Pittam. She looks similar to Valentine, but she has big paws for how tiny she is. This is a melo, and loving dog.

She fit perfectly into our family and we are glad the doggies get along.




I will spare most of the crusty details of August and September. We've had issues with renters, busy work schedules, deadlines, spent max time with my parents, became familar with ebay, spent time with Nikki, friends and went to the beach.

Trevor is officially done with school!! I am so proud of him and all he's worked on this year. As we begin to lift our heads up from responsibilities and the perveribal grind stone, the fall looks eventful and full of choices about what the next phase of life will be. Please pray for us as we continue to learn that God's provision is suffient for us and we are sensitive to His guidance.

Roller Coaster Ride

About June and July ... we've been up, down, and all around. Design school is almost done, the pink house (see exact color) looks great in my head and hopefully will translate well into the final project on July 29th. Finding fabrics with this color was difficult to say the least, but the challenge was interesting and hilarious for me. I enjoyed creating the client who would want me to do their house in pink. She is basically Bella in 30 years, if Bella became a practicing lawyer. Hey, it could happen.

Trevor is on his second to last class. We will most likely have a party for his graduation in December when he actually walks. His summer activities include one day trips to Vegas with his great friends, the Larson boys. No money was won but they had a wonderful time.

My company's summer picnic was at the Santa Monica Pier which Trevor and I had never been to before. All the rides and food places were open only for us for most of the day. It was so hot that day. There was no breeze, so I went on every ride just to feel the wind. A trivia fact about Trevor, now that he is older, he does not like rides nearly as much as he used to. He did not ride one while we were there. Despite riding rides sans my husband, we had a great day.

Those are the ups of the roller coaster ride.

The down of this ride has been that my parents are moving to Chicago. It is an up too, since the reason they are moving is my dad was promoted to the job of his dreams and will be doing exactly what he's wanted to do for years. We are so proud of him and all that he has worked for. We are completely mixed with happiness, sadness and fearing the unknown of them being so far away. They will be selling their more-then-perfect house in the next few weeks, a place were we've built many many memories. More to come on this topic, but still in shock a little bit.

Piece of Week

Sunday, last week, I participated in an 8k race put on by Yorba Linda Friends Church (YLFC). They did a great job producing the event. It was 100 degrees during the race. A freak heat wave in the middle of April. There are pictures of me runing the race, but I may not want to post them. Take my word for it, hills and heat are not a good combination. I barely made it to the end when my niece jumped out and ran the last 10 yards with me. We crossed the finishline and while I was huffing and puffing, she smiled, raised her arms and said, "I finished, I finished." We were especially grateful for the fountain convieniently located at the finish line, jumping in together. I plan this is the first of a few races in 2008.

Trevor is crazy busy with his last few classes. He will be done the beginning of September. I am reminded fondly of when we were dating and he fit himself into my work/school routine in several interesting and creative ways. It can be hard when we are each busy enough for two people. That is my goal this coming week, to fit in to his world interestingly and creatively, or get out of the way. That's love, right, knowing when each is appropriate?

One of his hobbies has been working on the house. He built an whole new mantle for our living room and he is logging hours in the attic re-wiring, putting in lights, plugs etc ... making sure the TV does not turn off when I dim the hall lights. The work bench he made last year is coming in handy.

The week ended in Palm Springs with the other Kientz families where we baked the stresses out laying by the pool in the sun.

First One

Let's launch right in shall we? Life is busy so I hope my fingers can keep up.

Trevor's been working for a few small businesses, streamlining how they do business and working on their websites. He goal is to grow the consulting relationships so that he has more dexterity in helping them succeed. He is enjoying the flexiblity of a consulting schedule because he is finishing his B.A. at BIOLA University. YEAH! He will be done in early September.

I am coming up on a year working for an investment firm in L.A. My team and I are building a stronger media presence, brand recognition in the investment community, and changing how clients see the firm by improving, and in some cases creating, their digital communications. Stay tuned. Last year was interesting, a story I will save for another time. We've made it through and lived to write about it.