Easy Saturday

Today we went to a movie. We were early so we played in the projector's path to the screen. We made bunny ears, dogs and alligators. It was pretty funny. Then other people arrived and we had to stop playing. :) We saw "No Strings Attached" which I thought looked like a cute movie. I was wrong. I'm not sure why I thought I'd enjoy this flick, but I didn't. It was too vulgar and explicit to be an acceptable ro-com. Skip it!
We came home and took MacKenzie out to play in the snow. Yes, I am sitting in the snow. It was so deep that I decided to sit down instead of trying to wade through it. MacKenzie has always loved the snow. Isn't she the cutest?!
Playing in the snow must have worn her out because when we got upstairs MacKenzie climbed on top of the pillows and made herself a little nest. She has such a tough life. :)

State of the move

Ok, I have gotten a lot of crap from people for not updating more regularly on what is transpiring with our big move back to Indianapolis. I'm sorry people. It is not like I've been working over 65 hours a week or anything. Oh wait. I have. Again, cut a girl some slack. It is not like you want to read about my 35 daily conference calls, 678 daily emails and how every client I have seems to think they are my only client. I'm only slightly exaggerating. Honestly. If you only knew. Now, am I right that my days are not good reading material or am I right? As I thought. Anyway, I digress. I'm back on to the subject of our move. The current details are as follows. Please note, these details regularly change and are by no means set in stone.

January 17th- Jenna gives her 2 weeks' notice. (Complete. Whew. That SUCKED. But it is done. You would think that I was an irreplaceable asset. It was somewhat flattering that they thought the whole department would be pained by my departure, but seriously folks you will find a way to survive. I promise.)

January 19th- Jenna is convinced to stay for 3 weeks instead of 2. (That was NOT a part of the plan. ARG!)

February 4th- Jenna has her exit interview at 9:30 and then the whole Petefish clan will be Indianapolis bound by noon (we really hope that the weather cooperates with this plan.)

February 5th- Arrive in Fishers to our temporary home (Susie's)

February 6th- Jackson will watch his first Super Bowl without Jenna since they met. Where will Jenna be? On a plane to Pittsburgh for a few days of training in Deloitte's office there.

February 7-8th- Jackson hopes to be interviewing with some firms for jobs before returning to his job in Boston. Jenna will be loving life in training without an assigned email account, Blackberry, clients, etc. She may even go to a spa after training just because she can.

February 9th- Jackson is back in Boston and Jenna reports to her first day at Deloitte's Indianapolis office

February 28th- the lease on our apartment in Boston expires and Jackson moves home (this date is subject to change if Jackson hears back from a job sooner than later)

March 1st (or so) the Petefish clan is reunited at Susie's minus Susie who will be in Florida enjoying the warmth for a month.

As soon as Jackson is settled into his new position we intend to make a bid for what we refer to as the "dead man's house." You previously saw a photo of the home with a question about whether living in a house where a man died is creepy. We have decided that he must have been ill and died peacefully at home and it is no longer creepy. We are fairly certain it was not a murder because no amount of Google searching has provided any information to lead us to that belief. We also promised to ourselves that if we get the house we will call it "home" and not "dead man's house." HA! :)

Oh, a little about my new position. I interviewed for a position with a direct competitor of my current firm (PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP or PwC) one level above my current role. I thought it was a long-shot. It probably was. It worked, though. I felt very vindicated after my current boss told me that I wasn't "high enough on the totem pole" and she was sorry for hiring me into the wrong position. Gee, thanks boss. (GRR!) I will still be working with exempt organizations (think hospitals, public university's foundations and especially private universities), but I do not know much else about my new role yet. It is in downtown Indianapolis on the Circle. I will be on the 20th floor of the Chase Tower. (The Chase Tower is the tallest building in Indiana so I'm not going totally away from my big city life. At least that is what I tell myself. A lot.) I really enjoy life as a Big 4 employee and look forward to new challenges. I am excited to really build my career in Indianapolis since that is where we intend to stay until we're older, graying and more ready (financially because I'm ready now!) to retire to Palm Beach. :) I will also be working at my former employer, Bill's, during this individual tax season prepping tax returns to earn additional money to buy the dead man's house! Whew.

I think you're all caught up now. I'm a little tired thinking about all of this. We think it will work out. We're willing it to work out. I won't stop until we're settled into our "forever" lives in Indy surrounded by our families, friends and back at our home church. YAY!

Mr. Big!

Oh my goodness! I got this photo of Baby Alex yesterday and almost passed out. He has gotten SO big! I did hear later that he didn't pull himself up (I hear that is a big distinction. It meant NOT A THING to ol' inexperienced Aunt Ninny here), but was standing there on his own. I will also note that I have sent Kylie multiple Boppy covers (one of my former clients invented them!) yet the one in his playpen (is that what that thing is called?) is naked. I'm only mildly annoyed by that fact. :) In other news, Alex began daycare this week- he had a nanny previously- and is getting along famously. YAY! I cannot wait to see him again sometime in the near-ish future.

Side note: I know that my grammar in this post (and likely all posts) is not up to par and I'm fine with that. I mean my blog to be more conversational. I have to write professionally all day and night at the office so give me a break. :)

Wurdle

I think I have posted before about our love for the iPod/iPhone game Wurdle. My mom occasionally texts me to update me on her highest score. She was way behind Jackson originally (I don't really have time to play anymore- boo!), but sent a text this morning saying that she just scored 316o. That beat Jackson's high score at that time. He was determined to beat her and within an hour posted a 4360. Her reign was short, but sweet. Keep trying, Mom. Susie plays, too, but we haven't heard a score from her recently. She must not be in competition. ;)

Doug

We stopped in at our local Petsmart to get MacKenzie's medical transcripts today (she gets to go back to her old vet in Fishers- we loved them- yay!) and decided to get her a new toy. She was quite pleased to have someone new to pick on. She has already beat "Doug" to a pulp. Classic. :)

GOING HOME!

I will post more details soon, but I wanted to make the quick announcement that Jackson and I will again be residents of INDIANA in a few short weeks! I took a job in downtown Indianapolis and Jackson is interviewing with a firm there, too. WOO HOO!!! :)

Let's go play in the snow!

MacKenzie and Jackson walked with me to work today. (Yes, it is Saturday. Yes, I did go to work. Yes, you did read that correctly. Yes, my status on Facebook about 75+ hour weeks until May 15th was spot on. Yes, that does make me sad and tired.) They stayed behind at the park and I continued to the office. MacKenzie got in a solid game of ball even in the snow. Snow in no way fazes this little dog.

I wasn't there so I cannot say why she's on a picnic table-? She looks cold.

Jackson sent me this photo while I was at work with a caption reading, "I do what I want!"

After a long game of ball, MacKenzie went to rest on the bed sans bed clothes (it is Saturday sheet cleaning day after all) and somehow got herself under a mound of blankets. She's something else.

We're keeping busy since we returned from vacation. I have worked. A lot. Jackson took a half day on Friday to take MacKenzie to get a haircut. She didn't really have to go, but they were testing the fire alarms in our building again so we decided she should be out of the house. I thought it was nice of him to sacrifice some exhilarating times at the office to take care of MacK. ;) He has stepped up and done the grocery shopping, cooking, a lot of the dishes and assisted with laundry since I've basically taken up residence at the PwC Boston office and I appreciate him so very much. Here is hoping that the next 16 weeks seemingly fly by for us! :) (Quick note because I know people will ask: exempt organizations tend to run on fiscal year so their tax returns are generally due on May 15th-- not April 15th like individuals.)

Back to WPB

We came back to West Palm Beach this morning. The drive is a gorgeous one. We were quite happy to be back in our comfort zone of WPB.

We spent the afternoon at the beach on Palm Beach. That is Jackson out in the cold(er) water playing in the waves.
He is like a little kid when we get to the beach. You cannot keep him from playing. He was good today and didn't get any of the lifeguard's angry whistles. That might be a first.
I stayed on the beach and read a book. It was lovely. I think we both got some sun. We needed it. We looked like ghosts from all of our indoor time in Boston.

We watched a little football this afternoon then headed out to dinner on Clematis Street. We ate at a trendy Mexican restaurant- outside at 7:00 pm on January 2nd. Yep. We love Florida. We took a long (4+ miles) walk this evening around the island and tried to forget that we have to return to reality tomorrow. Sigh. It has been a fabulous vacation and we wish it didn't have to end.

We do, however, miss MacKenzie. We checked on her this afternoon- she's with Jackson's boss- and she's doing really well. We are excited to have her back, but we're glad that she is getting along so well with her substitute family.

The Keys

We decided to go back to Key West to do some more exploring on the special day that was 1/1/11. I never got to write down the date that day so I decided to do it here- fun! We had lunch across the street from where Ernest Hemingway used to hang out. The people watching in K.W. was incredible. We loved it. Our favorite was a group of college kids who were still obviously hung-over/ drunk from their NYE festivities singing "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NEW YEAR! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NEW YEAR! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR NEW YEAR, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, 2011!" They were REALLY singing. They were so proud of themselves.
We did a little shopping. Jackson almost died when the ladies at Coach brought out this HUGE shopping bag for my purchase (a new carry-on duffel bag). He held it up next to this kid to show that he could fit in it. Classic. :)
We didn't go into the Butterfly & Nature Conservatory, but Jackson sure does look cute posing in front of it.
This is where the drag queen drops inside the shoe at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve. Key West is full of surprises like that. ;) I had always wanted to see the Southernmost Point marker. As you can see to the right of the pole, there was a LINE to take a photo with it. I don't do lines.
I was able to get a photo of it QUICKLY before additional tourists made their way up from the front of the line!
At the very end of the island there was a military base. I thought it would be a nice place to be stationed if you were enlisted.
Roosters and chickens roamed the island like little citizens. It was really odd to see them just hanging out around the island.

We spent a little time at the beach on the island. It was so nice and warm. We really enjoyed seeing Key West and the rest of the Keys. I am definitely a fan of the warmer weather for our holiday vacation. :)