Moving

It's official, so now I can make the official announcement. We're moving to Ohio. Never in a million years did I think I would ever live in Ohio again! Ryan got a new job doing HR for MARS (the chocolate, not the planet) out in Washington Court House, Ohio.... or what I like to call the middle of nowhere. Thankfully MARS flew us out there to check out the area and we found a nice Columbus suburb to live in that takes us just about 6 miles outside of downtown. Now I have a better chance of finding a job myself and we can make friends with people that are younger than the age of 70 and that drive cars, not tractors. Aaaand, we may or may not have relatives move very close to us... but that's only 99% official. So we can't make that announcement yet... but they would regret not coming. Just sayin'. ;)

Ryan is actually working in MARS' petcare division. Did you know that MARS makes pet food? They do Whiskas, Pedigree, Royal Canan, Wal-Mart brand, Kirkland (Costco), etc. They also make Uncle Ben's rice, Gum (orbit, extra, wrigley's), Dove chocolate, M&M's, Snickers, Starburst, etc. etc. etc.

Anyway, this is all happening very fast as Ryan starts December 27th (working just one day in a year gives you a whole complete year of vesting... so we chose that start date instead of in January), and then we start the trek out on January 1st. It's bitter-sweet. We hate leaving our family and friends here in Utah, but it was an opportunity we couldn't pass up and exactly the next career step Ryan has been looking for. I am so happy that Ryan is so excited about this position and I can't wait for our adventures in Ohio!

This is where they actually make the pet food. Believe it or not, there are offices in there, too.

And everyone can keep in mind that we will have more than one bedroom where we live, so plenty of room for visitors! :)

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving today was great! I was definitely thankful to not have to wake up to an alarm, that's for sure! Ryan and I went up to Sugarhouse with my family and we had a ton of fun just hanging out, playing games, talking, and lot's of cooking and eating, of course. Oh, we also had a very impromptu family photo shoot at the beginning of the day (hence the non-coordinated outfits and bright-red, freezing noses... but none of that stopped us!).

We also had our family "Thankful Tree" where we wrote down what we were thankful for. Our lists were long, but some of what was included this year were family, friends, the Gospel, decent health insurance, heated blankets, and football. I love this part of Thanksgiving because it makes you stop and think a little bit more about what you're thankful for and you're reminded that it's the small, simple, everyday things that are the biggest blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!

Jazz

Two nights ago, Ryan and I got emails announcing $5 Jazz tickets for Wednesday night's game, and a few minutes later we had a date planned!

We started out the evening by doing a little shopping at the Rack (thanks to Groupon- $50 for $25!) where I also ran into my old roommate, Betsy, who now lives in Washington with her cute kids and husband- which was such a fun little surprise! Then, we grabbed some of our favorite chinese take-out, Pei Wei, and ate that at home.

Next, Ryan had the best idea ever to take Trax into downtown, which saved us traffic and parking hassles and allowed us to just talk and relax the whole way. Despite the fact that our seats were basically in China, the Jazz game was a ton of fun and we had a good win over the Hornets.

Regarding this next picture, read it and weep- like I did. On our way home, we realized that the temperature was only 3 degrees (but it went back up to 5 before I took this pic), so of course we stopped by Wal-Mart to stock up on our Stephen's hot chocolate (chocolate raspberry and white chocolate...delicious!).

Randomness

Yesterday I had to make a quick trip to the store. It was pouring rain, so I pulled my hood up, got the key ready, and made a mad dash for the car. I hopped in super fast and then just sat there for a minute before I realized I was sitting in the passenger seat. Apparently I forgot Ryan was at work. Then I proceeded to sit there for another minute laughing all by myself about how dumb I was. I felt like everyone was watching, even though I'm sure not a single soul saw (say that 3 x fast).

.....

The bulb in our T.V. popped yesterday so we had to order a new one online that will take a couple days to get here. That's fine, no big deal... thankfully I weened off of television shows (read: The Bachelor and SYTYCD don't start for a few months) so I can handle that. But couple it with the fact that I am without a car today and I got off work at 1, I am bored to death. I have no new books, it's cold and rainy outside, the apartment is cleaned, laundry is done, dinner is made, and my eyes can only take about .2 more seconds of looking at a computer... what the heck do I do now? Well, blog about it, apparently.

.....

I went to my monthly orthodontist appointment and came away with good and bad news. Bad news: my teeth hurt worse than ever. I don't think they've ever been yanked that hard... we're talking a large, post-surgery gap between two of my side teeth were completed closed by the time I walked out of that office. Ouch! But I'll get over that because the GOOD news is that the doctor said I only have 3 more months of braces and that these bad boys are coming off in February, which is way sooner than I thought! Wahoo! I can finally kiss Ryan again... jk. :)

"You serious, Clark?"

Could it really be true?! I actually cheer for a team that wins?!

That's incredible.

It's been fun looking forward to watching the Giants games and trying not to have a heart attack in the 9th inning of every 1-run victory. It had been 56 years since they last won the World Series. I remember the 1989 earthquake that postponed the Giants vs. A's World Series for 10 days--which the Giants lost. I also remember the 2002 World Series heartbreak when the Giants led the Angels 5-0 in the 7th inning of game 6 only to lose the game and eventually lose the series as well. That seems to be the typical ending to each of my team's seasons every year (in every sport). But, not this year. Finally, I had one team come through for me.

Go Giants! 2010 World Series Champions!

Halloween Party!

Saturday was quite a spooky night at the Martin home! We had a Halloween party that included a lot of family and friends, "scary" food, creative costumes, trick-or-treating (for the kids) and fun games like Halloween Feud and the Werewolf game. Everyone pitched in here and there in different ways and it was a lot of fun. This was our first Halloween party, but it was so fun that it might have to be an annual event from now on! Happy Halloween!!!

Sandwich toppings on a skull (Ryan's mom got the skull from work and made this masterpiece!), the best-ever sugar cookies, worm-infested punch, and a pumpkin cheeseball:

Pumpkin balloons and an amazing pumpkin bouquet (made by Rach):

Me and Ryan as Legos... Ryan gets pretty much all the credit for making these bad boys...

Kevin, Amy, and fam made a mostly vampire family with a sweet princess and bear in the mix

My parents, Mike & Gail, as an email (e-male.. get it?) and his attachment:

Ryan's parents, Mark & Janae, as a cereal killer and grapes:

Brandon, Lisa, & Ashlynn in Wizard-of-Oz fashion (props to my mom who made all of these):

Jon, Rach, & Craig as the Bachelorette cast (Justin "Rated R", Ali, & Kurt "guard & protect your heart").

*side note: Congrats to Jonathan & Rachael on this!

This is Joe (Craig's roommate), but last night he was Tom. And he peeps. Peeping Tom. Watch out girls of S.B.! Just kidding....

And because we had so much fun making last year's costumes, we decided to do something homemade again this year, only we were smarter and did it more than just the night before! Ryan spent so much time and effort on our costumes, so here's a little bit of the progression... from cutting out cardboard, to covering it with posters, to spray painting-- and taking safety precautions from inhaling too much spray paint, to figuring out how to be able to walk and see in them!

Well, that's all folks. Hope your Halloween was as spook-tacular as ours was! Now I can't wait for Thanksgiving and then Christmas! I love the holidays.

Stay-at-home-non-mom...?

Position elimination. Reduction in force. Downsized. Merge & purge.

Call it what you want, but it's all the same thing and applies to me.

That's right... I'm a product of the economy. Nothing like returning to work on Monday for the first time after a 5 week leave and only 5 minutes into the morning get the call saying that my position is being eliminated. My company was bought out by another company and as soon as everything was official on October 1st, somewhere between 1500-1800 people were laid off due to both budget cuts and overlapping or eliminated positions. I'm amongst that lucky group, but at least they waited until I returned from leave to notify me.

I cried for probably a total of 3.5 minutes yesterday and then I realized that I felt more of a relief than anything. First of all, my position won't be eliminated for a couple months, and then severance kicks in; therefore, I have full salary until the middle of February. Also, a few months ago Ryan and I felt the need to start budgeting more carefully, saving a little more, stocking up our food cupboards, and not yet booking that trip in November that we really wanted to take. We feel very, very blessed that we had these promptings several months ago and followed them!

As I mentioned, I really feel slightly relieved. I have loved this job and loved the experiences it provided me with that will hopefully help springboard me into something else, but I have been itching to get out of my tiny apartment all day, every day. Not only that, but I really dislike the company we were merging with and the way they did things, and I have been dreading coming back from my leave and having to switch over to their systems, policies, and overall culture.

Also, the timing couldn't have been better (for me). The company just forked out thousands for me to get my professional HR certification, to send me to consulting conferences and workshops, and to pay for both my surgery and my leave. A few weeks later and I would have been in big trouble!

Anyway, enough about all of this. It's boring and I'm sick of thinking/talking about it. All I know is that I can't ignore the constant feeling I have that this was for the best, so I am anticipating what the near-future holds for us!!

**In the meantime, if anyone has any good HR connections, send them my way! :)