Mid-Winter Blues

The last time I posted was right before we left Boston. Since then life has been a whirlwind of settling down again. :)

We left Boston with my mom joining us for the trip. It went as smoothly as it could have gone, I suppose, except that all 5 of us were sick with what turned out to be the flu. The girls had it first, then me, then Matt and finally my mom. I think she's still trying to get it all out of her system. The rest of us have finally got our health back, but we were sick all of the month of December and then some. What a nightmare.

We landed at my parents house in Murray and took over their basement. We weren't there long though, we found a townhouse to live in off of 7200 South in Midvale in less than 2 weeks. It's a great place so far. We love having 2 floors (some separation between the girls bedroom and our living space) and we have a 1 car attached garage which has been so nice especially with this ridiculous cold and horrible air the valley has been experiencing. The complex was built about a year ago I think, and we managed to snag a unit that had never been occupied. We have had zero trouble with the neighbors so far which is awesome.

The holidays went off without a hitch. We really loved being able to spend so much time with our families and it's like we never left! We did have to say goodbye to Stephanie though. She moved to Florida to start her life there at the beginning of January so we didn't cross paths very long. We miss you Stephie! The girls were spoiled rotten at Christmas by all of their grandparents (what else is new?) and it's always amazing to me when I realize how much they've grown since last year. We even made it through an entire movie with them on Christmas day--we saw Wreck It Ralph, which was so cute. The girls enjoyed their giant tub of popcorn that Matt bribed them with and we all got to sit down and relax for a couple of hours, which was a much needed break, at least for me, from all of the running around and chaos that that time of year typically brings.

When we moved into our new place Matt was in between out-of-town clients. He had East Coast trips bookending our one weekend move-in. I did the best I could unpacking while he was gone, and as soon as he got home, it was like he'd never left. He got right down to building our furniture, setting up our electronics, and basically getting the house in order. When it finally came together we were both so exhausted, pleased, and so ready to never move ever again.

Things have been really slow for me as far as work goes. I had 1 photography client right when we returned to Salt Lake and absolutely nothing since. It's been disheartening to say the least, and I try and talk myself into believing that the below freezing temperatures and the disastrously unhealthy air have been to blame for my lack of clients. I'm hoping that when spring gets here and the earth starts warming up again that I can get back down to business. My poor girls are so tired of me taking photos of them, and if I'm being honest with myself, I'm getting tired of photographing them as well. I mean, I'll never stop doing it because I always look back and what I've shot and appreciate how much they've grown and how little they used to be, but everyone has their limits and I'm fast approaching mine. I'm at a point now where I don't pick up my camera most days, and if I do, it has been to photograph my super-slow-growing-possibly-almost-dead plant that my mom brought me a couple of weeks ago. I thought it would be fun to photograph it in stages and then to create a story board to look back on to see its progress, so we'll see how this project ends up. I had a friend and fellow photographer tell me she had fallen to the point of photographing icicles so I guess I should be grateful I haven't sunk that low yet! (Love ya Lou Ann!) If the plant doesn't die before it blooms (I have a serious serious black thumb--like, can't even keep an aloe vera plant alive), I'll maybe, sadly, post the storyboard here for you all to see, even though nobody really cares about my plant. 

One interesting ray of hope that I have happened across has been an invitation from the Huffington Post to blog for their Generation Why series. The section is a spotlight on young adult cancer patients and survivors. I read an article in the section back in November and contacted the editor about my story. It took them a couple of months, but they finally responded and extended the invitation. I've submitted a post to them for review, and who knows how long it will be before I hear back from them, but if it's accepted, it will be published and they will set me up with a blogger account so that I can post as frequently or infrequently on the subject of young-adult cancer (and related topics) as I choose. I'm always on the lookout for a platform to share my story from, and I hope that someone somewhere out there will read what I have to say and be inspired by the things that I share. I'll let you all know how that pans out.