All the married couples do it...

I've been just surfing facebook the past hour or so and I realized that a lot of the married couples that Carmen and I went to school with are blogging. It seems to make sense. It is a great way to have a lot of your friends realize what is going on with you without the need to tell the same story time and time again. Also, it is a great way to share other things like videos, etc... Therefore I have decided to start a blog. I am a blogger. Well, we'll see how often i actually end up blogging.

Anyway, it has been 23 months, tomorrow, since Carmen and I got married (January 6, 2007). About a week after our wedding, I started working in sales for Edward Don, a provider of supplies to (mainly) the food service industry. We lived in Evergreen Park, IL until May 2007, at my parents' old house. We took my shih-tzu, Gizmo, back from my parents. Then one day in February 2007, I convinced Carmen to go to the animal shelter to "look". Carmen really didn't want to get any more animals, but that day, we got a rat terrier, which we named Lupe, and a kitten named Trouble. Then I was told by Don that they were giving me the Waukegan, Gurnee, Fox Lake, etc. territory. That's when we decided that we were going to move closer to my territory. Taking into account that Carmen was about to start graduate school at Rush University in the near downtown area of Chicago, we decided that we wanted to find a home that was in between. We started looking at Schaumburg until we realized we couldn't afford it. We then checked out the Palatine area. Carmen's friend from ISU, Amy Landsberger (now Amy Lovi), lived in Palatine so we called her for advice. We had great luck when we found out that Amy's mom was a Realtor. It truly was a blessing because the market, at that time, was doing pretty good, and Mrs. Landsberger spent hours and hours, Saturday after Saturday, helping us find a condo to buy. She didn't pressure us or anything. So, anyway, we ended up finding a condo that we both could agree upon.

Carmen and I spent about 2 months searching the local parishes to find the best parish we could. We ended up settling on St. Edna Parish in Arlington Heights, IL. I, wanting to get involved, joined the area Knights of Columbus, not knowing that I would be the only twenty-something that went there. I also, surprise, surprise, ran for the Board of Directors for our condo association. I ran, won, and got elected president, all within the first 3 months after buying our condo. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. In the next year, I fired the $200,000 stealing management company, hired a new management company, dealt with complaints, improved the property values, etc., had my name defamed by another owner, was harassed by the aforementioned owner, dealt with the aforementioned owner finagling his way onto the board and subsequently quitting, chose a new board member, became good friends with the other board members, etc., etc., and decided that, should I choose to run the next year, I would NOT accept being pressured into being president again. Well, luckily Bobb, the guy that Carol (a 60 year old lady, the only other board member that lasted the whole year) and I decided to fill the vacancy with, a 35 year old married father who was a non-practicing lawyer, and took on the role of president... Which he is not thanking me for pushing him into...

The first year after Carmen and I moved to Palatine, was also kind of tough because Carmen and I moved away from our families and most of our friends. We didn't know many people. This made it extremely difficult to be happy. We left or were left by all of our friends at ISU. We left our friends in Evergreen Park. We only had Amy and her new husband, Dave, nearby. I since have become friends with Carol and Bobb. Carol helps Carmen and I by walking Gizmo and Lupe. She also will stop by when Carmen and I go out of town to give attention to Trouble. Bobb and his wife, Vicki, have 2 great and cute children, Xavier (Xavy), a 3 year old boy, and Genivive (Neva), a 1-1/2 year old girl. We were limited to these 5 friends and their children. Our group of friends in the area increased when we became closer to Steve O'Connor and Janet Haro, a dating couple who we knew from ISU. Janet lives in Arlington Heights. At a Newman Center reunion in the Chicago area in the 2007-2008 winter, I had mentioned to Steve that Edward Don was a great company to work for and I would be proud to recommend him to my bosses. A few months later, Steve told me that he was looking to move to Chicago and was interested in Edward Don. Long story short, I talked to him about Don for a few days, he wanted to apply, I helped him get an interview, and he got the job. Steve and I naturally started to hang out more often and we've become pretty good friends. I've even brought him (and Janet) to 2 or 3 Cubs games with me.

In the past couple years, I also felt my faith life slowly and slowly slipping away. I wasn't going to Mass. I wasn't praying. I wasn't feeling how I wanted to feel. Carmen had gone on a CRHP (Christ Renews His Parish) weekend at St. Edna in October 2007. She also was on team for the next women's CRHP weekend this past October, so I decided to go on the men's CRHP retreat in September 2008. I really was hesitant, but, like Koinonia, it was what God wanted for me. CRHP focuses on relationships within the parish so that when people go to Mass and other church events, they know other people. At this retreat, I got to know the 30 other men a bit, but when I signed on to help lead the next men's retreat, I really go to know the dozen or so men that are also helping to lead the next retreat. A great group of men. From Frank, a man in his 50's who just lost his wife, to Joe, a married man in his 20's. Joe and I connected because we were 2 of the 5 guys on the retreat who were under 30 and his wife, Lily was about to go on the retreat that Carmen was leading. Joe and Lily really are great friends who Carmen and I love to hang out with.

Anyway, I think that is enough for now. I'll get into other things in other posts.