Cousins...

One of the reasons I HAD to go to Utah was to meet Miss Molly… When I got there she was only two weeks old and oh so TINY. Especially when we set her up next to Alex. At the time he was 3 1/2 months old…

Flyin’ with Four…

Johnny needed to finish his thesis, I needed to meet the tiny little Molly, no one had met Alex, and my baby brother Danny got home from his mission. FOUR good reasons to justify flying home BY MYSELF with ALL FOUR munchkins.

And, it was awesome. (mostly, awesome…)

The kids were SOOO good.

This is Zack, just after he said “BARF” into his barf bag.

On the way to Utah our flight got in at what felt like midnight to me and the kids. Zack had a little (ok a ginormous) meltdown about 20 minutes before we landed and about 10 minutes before we landed the three big kids finally fell asleep. My sister Tami took this picture of me as we walked to see everyone. When Zack and Abby were freaking out at the end, a sweet lady from Kentucky volunteered to hold the baby. She saw my family waiting for me at the baggage and kindly told my dad that I needed help. He went and got a pass from the airline and came to my rescue.

After a reasonably great flight in (really… it was mostly great!!), I was really nervous about the flight back. I mean, how lucky could I be to get two great flights? But lady luck was on my side. There was absolutely NO crying. NONE!! (And if you know my history with flying and crying… 4 hours of straight crying… you know that this is a miracle.)

Abby & Zack even scored some new suitcases to try and make things easier…

We had a four and a half hour layover in Denver. I was really worried about it, but the kids had a great time.

We rode the train…

Dreamed of becoming astronauts…

And made ourselves at home on the third floor of concourse C by playing some cards, Barbies, and “Inja” Turtles,

Some of us even had a little nap…

The trip would have been perfect if Abby hadn’t gotten airsick and puked while we were landing. Too bad I didn’t teach her to use the barf bag!!

Kids Say The Darndest Things 2009

Here is this year’s poster. For you new readers check out our previous installments of "Kids Say The Darndest Things" (2007, 2008) for an explanation. With three little ones speaking their mind this year we have had a banger year. The column down the left side is dedicated to Lila's "Big Sisters" that we weren't aware of until this year. Lila was kind enough to enlighten us on their fascinating attributes and abilities throughout a good portion of the year. We don't see or hear much from them anymore, except for the token Christmas gift of new underwear that Lila's sister, Miss Swamp, brings every year.

To read the quotes you can zoom in and out on the image below. Just click the image (not the little box in the corner) with your mouse or roll your scroll wheel, or you can use the buttons at the bottom. To see different parts, you can just drag around with the little hand, or you can drag the blue box around in the upper left corner.

So what are your favorites? Let us know in the comments.

On The Twelfth Day Of Christmas…

The Russes gave to me…

A new job.

I have been trying to find a job since this summer. I have applied and interviewed for a lot of engineering jobs and consulting jobs. By the end of November, I had gone through the final rounds and been turned away from every engineering and consulting job I had tried for.

I had one final round interview left with McKinsey & Co, for a management consulting job. It was the job I was least suited for in terms of my educational background. It was the one I was least likely to get, but it was also the one I wanted the most. Two days before my final round interview I tore my disc in my back again, and I was completely debilitated. I couldn’t stand or sit at all. I could barely move even when I was laying down. I had to cancel my interview.

The next week was Thanksgiving, so I had that much time to recover. My interview was rescheduled for December 1st. I convinced my spine doctor to squeeze me in for a steroid injection the day before Thanksgiving. The injections reduce the inflammation and take away a lot of the pain. I also got a new prescription for OxyContin. So the day of my interview came and I was still in pain but functional. I took all of my narcotics and hopped on the three hour train ride to the interview.  At that point I was feeling a lot like George on Seinfeld when he interviewed with “MacKenzie”, the part where he was panicked, not when he was feeling cool, calm, and collected.

 

The interview consisted of three one hour slots, where I had to work through a consulting case on the spot, doing the calculations in my head and coming up with ideas on the fly. I practiced some with Emily beforehand, and she said that it gave her nightmares. The interviews went pretty well but not stellar. I got stuck in one part and had to ask the interviewer for help. After the interview I was sitting at the train station trying to figure out what my game plan would be at this point. It looked like I wasn’t going to be able to get any of the jobs I had tried for.

I was incredibly relieved and overjoyed (but not as much as Emily was) when they called me at the train station to let me know that they were going to give me an offer. In hind site Emily and I feel like me re-injuring my back may have been a little divine intervention. Maybe that was what needed to happen to get me lined up with the right people, to make this happen. Or maybe I needed to be on OxyContin to perform my best ;-). Either way we are very happy and feel very blessed.

This job will be in Stamford, Connecticut, and won’t start until this summer. I am writing up my thesis at MIT over the next month or so, and plan on taking a little time off to relax and to let my back recover before I start with McKinsey. We will be sad to leave all of the wonderful friends we have made here in Boston, but we are excited about the what lies in store for us ahead.

On The Eleventh Day Of Christmas…

The Russes gave to me…

A few more days of summer.

On The Tenth Day Of Christmas…

The Russes gave to me…

Two brothers and two sisters.

Having four kids that were four and under all at home, was often more than we could handle. Luckily they do a great job of taking care of each other.

They welcomed Alex (Chubby at the time) in to the fold well before he was even born.

Alex was 6 or 7 weeks old before Zack finally let us take off his “Baby Alex’s Big Brother” bracelet the nurse gave him at the hospital.

The first time Lila got to hold Alex she said, “He is way better than a doll.” Lila’s birthday was last month. At the time all of the kids had a really bad cough while they were recovering from the H1N1 flu. Today out of the blue she told us, “I love Alex so much that on my birthday, when I made my wish, I wanted to wish that I could fly. But I wished that Alex’s cough would get better instead, because I didn’t want him to die. I can just make my wish to fly next year.”