4 Happy Family The personal blog of Kevin R. Hoffmann

Summer Loving, it happened so fast

Not even sure where to begin on this one. Very, very crazy and hectic Summer; like living in a snow globe. Let me start from the end and work backwards and hopefully I will not leave anything out.  Basically, in a two-week time period we I quit my job, started my old job back, we sold our house, we bought a house and we finished all of the adoption paperwork and submitted it to China for Kid X. I just needed a death in the family and some public speaking and I believe I touched on all of the most stressful things that a person can do. Well, there’s divorce too; but thankfully the Mrs. Kept me around long enough to celebrate our itch anniversary, seven years of marital bliss. The even scarier thing is that next week we will be celebrating 13 years of dating. Holy Crap! Doesn’t that make you all feel old? 

As for the house we spent the Summer fixing and paining and cleaning and tiling and writing check after check to get it ready for the market. We had new siding put on, redid both bathrooms, painted, landscaped and did everything we can to spruce things up. At one point I was showering at the health club because the bathrooms were inaccessible. The good news is now we are sold. Actually our house was on the market for two days before it sold. We consider ourselves extremely luck in this market and we are very happy with what we received for it considering we bought it as a rental 6 years ago. I did not even have the time to bury the

St. Joseph statue in the yard. I had a different deity for every month. After 30 days I was ready to bury a Buddha or an Allah or even a Vishnu to get this thing sold. 

We have great neighbors on the street that we are going to miss, but the good news is that we are only moving a block or so away so we can still meet up and hit our little downtown

Libertyville. The main reason for moving is that being from the

Midwest we have the need for a basement in our blood. Also, there is more plastic in our house then (insert your favorite

Hollywood celebrity over 35). We need more room and we are ready to move to a more “adult” house and get off of the train tracks. The nice thing about our new house is that besides the basement we also have a master bedroom and a two-car garage; things that neither Courtney or Maya have ever had.

After coming out of the whirlwind of construction we are gearing up for round 2. Of course we need to put our own spin on the house so we are going to actually rent our current house back until Dec 1 while we renovate anew.  We’re moving walls, installing floors and adding paint all over. Next Spring we hope to finish the basement. At least this time we will not have to live in it. We are hoping to have everything done by 12/1. I know, wishful thinking, I think the standard rule of thumb is to add 10% to both cost and time from what you really think it is going to be. C has been doing most (all) of the heavy lifting on getting things picked out and lined up. I do what I can, but you are talking to the guy that still has a hard time picking out matching clothing for himself not to mention tile, paint and finishes. You should have seen me when I was working at the Walgreens corporate office and had to wear a tie. 

(That – my friends – is what we call a segue) 

So around last May I decided that I needed to try something new, I had been in IT at my company for about 9 years and I wanted to see what else was out there. I put out a couple of feelers and my neighbor hooked me into a consulting company that stayed local; meaning I did not have to travel outside of

Chicago. The idea was I would undertake an exciting array of projects and expand my skillset and learn a lot of new and exciting tools. It did not really work out that way. I tried it and it was not a good fit. My first (and only) gig for them was at Walgreens. Nothing exciting, nothing that interesting and unfortunately nothing that challenging. Actually the challenging part was that I had to wear a tie every day (except Friday). The tie is knot (yes- intentional) that hard, I know how to tie it, of course it is the matching that befuddles me. Introducing that new piece into the equation was really an undertaking of Kenneth Cole proportions. Thankfully, C gave me the Grranimals treatment to keep me from embarrassing myself. )Actually I think there was a week where she was mad at me because I was wearing some George Clinton type outfits. 

I did learn a little during consulting, I am glad to have had the opportunity see how the other side lives, but despite all of the free lunches I had to move on to something more fulfilling and that was a bit bigger so I could be a part of something bigger. I had a couple of positions on the hook when I contacted my old boss for references. He told me that they would like to have me back if I was interested.  So that is where I am. We negotiated a good package and I am now in the Product Management side of the business and out of IT and all of the crazy support I had been doing. I started back last week but things are already feeling pretty good. With their support I am looking to get me some more lurning education. I am not crazy about being back on the train again but hopefully it will allow me more time to write in this blog (I know, I know I am coming to grips that this things is going to be sporadic as ever) 

At the end of last month we also submitted our paperwork for kid 2. It is kind of funny how all of the drama and emotion of the first kid is gone and it almost clinical in our approach to get things wrapped up. I guess we had a lot going on with the house stuff and at least this time there was no emotional build-up because I wasn’t punching my clown at Willow Rd.We are happy that we are logged in and now we wait. Right now they are saying it will be about 18 months but we are being realistic and thinking two years, especially since the Olympics are in Beijing next year. 

So, I am sure you are curious how the divine Miss M is doing. Besides the infected eye she has been fantastic. She is growing and becoming a little Diva. She has not gained that much weight but she has definitely put on about 5-7# of surly two-year old attitude. She is becoming quite the talker and continues to amaze us everyday. She will look at C’s design plans and say “Maya’s new house”. She is definitely coming into her own speechwise and she is still a little ham and likes to be a goofball which we love.   Other highlights of the summer include Maya becoming a little beach baby; she is a nut about the water and her little sandbox. We went to the circus where she stared in open-mouth amazement at the animals and performers. She was amazed and it was just a moment that made me happy to be a parent, well to be her parent especially.  

On the flip side we went to Maryland to see some friends that we went to China with and then to

Cape May, NJ for a wedding. Maya has not been sleeping when we travel. If we are in the same room as her, forget about it. She was averaging maybe 5-7 hours of sleep a night for a week. The wedding for Sara and Peter was a lot of fun. They are truly two great people that belong together. Maya loved the ocean and seashells and the rocking chairs on the front porch. It really was a lot of fun.

Maryland was also a lot of fun. We hooked up with one of our favorite couples that were in

China with us and hung out for a couple of days with their two boys and daughter. The food was fantastic and the company was great. Gretchen set us up with an Elmo event so of course Maya went crazy. That is her with their daughter Julia.  (I left

Niles’ hostess gift on the cab and have not heard the end of it.)  More on everything when I can get to it. Each one of these topics deserve its own little section if possible but most likely it will be peripatetic ramblings. Feel free to comment with questions or shoot me an E-mail.   

(The picture editor is not working with me so you get thumbnails -click to make bigger- and you get to match the captions with the picture)

• New house

• Maya with her seashells in New Jersey before she had her meltdown. It was a great two hours of her alternating between kicking the seat in front of her and screaming when we would hold her feet. She completely lost it.

• Old house with new siding
• You can take the girls out of Cape Girardeau... 
• It was crazy hot, but it was nice to have some time to ourselves at the wedding

• Wedding before pictures, while the sun was still up.

• 3 Happy Family

• Wedding ceremony.

• Elmotastic.

• New house kitchen in before mode. After mode to come.

• Weekend trip to downtown. Maya loves the boat and the water

• Maya and Anina at the Botanical garden in StL.

• The preview of the Halloween costume: Monkey princess

• 4th of July

• This picture sponsored by Sesame Street workshop and Maya's friend Julia.
• Elmo fetish
• Don't even ask, but at least we opted out for the limited edition Barbie spinner rims