Dave and Laura's Excellent Adventures

Things have actually started to get better. Things aren't perfect but are a lot better. Laura has started to feel better. She is not back to 100% but is doing much better than before. She has come back to work and has been a lot more active.

Sadly our study abroad has been cancelled. We had to cancel our application. With all the events that took place we can't afford to go anymore. Our plans have now changed to go back to school. We weren't sure if we were going to get back into Utah State University. I didn't think I would have a hard time but there are limited spots for Laura's student teaching. I applied and got into a few classes for my major. Laura called the university and was able to get the last spot for student teaching. She will teach at the on campus pre-school. She will graduate in Spring. We were lucky to get the last spot. Our next step is getting housing. Obviously since we cancelled our study abroad we will be able to see all of our friends and family in Utah very soon. We are upset that we can't go to the Netherlands but things in Utah are working out. We are taking things as they come.

Our claim came through for our insurance and we were able to replace our laptop, ipod, nintendo ds, and kindle. It is nice to have some of our things back.

The job is still stressful and boring as always. We have been installing in Gary Indiana and Chicago lately. I would much rather install in Chicago than Gary. Gary is ghetto. Really ghetto. It is nothing like the happy song in the "Music Man". Today we drove all the way to Michigan to work. We drove almost 2 hours and did 3 jobs. It was extremely hot in Michigan. We were sweating like pigs. The customers noticed our abundance of sweat but did nothing. They don't believe in air conditioning where we install...

Like I said our hard times aren't over quite yet. Laura was brushing her teeth and a cap of her cavity fell off. A few weeks ago our headlight fell off and we need to get that repleaced. Finally, when we got our brakes fixed it messed up our alignment. These aren't a big deal but I just like to add it to the "summer from hell" tally. :)

I need to get Laura to update the blog more often. She adds pictures. If my blog has pictures it is because she added them in later lol. I apoligize for my boring, pictureless blogs.

We are doing good. Our moral is much better and we can make it through anything out here. I can't imagine what I would do if I were going through all of this alone. Things are tough but so much better since I have Laura by my side.

I can't wait to see all of my Utah friends again. We miss you all.

Dave

After seeing the doctor the first time we didn't feel completely satisfied. Laura wasn't feeling better, the pain was worsening, and the pain was moving so we knew that we needed to take her in again. We took her back on Saturday. We explained that the pain was worsening, now at the bottom of her ribcage on the left side. It also seemed to get worse at night time and after she would eat a big meal.

The doctor told us that she thinks her initial diagnosis is wrong (which is always comforting to hear). We asked the doctor if it could be her gall bladder. She said that it sounds like it could be but the gall bladder is on the right side and her pain is on the left. She now thinks that it is either a ulcer, gastritis (inflammation of stomach), or Esophagitis (inflammation of esophagus). They put her on some medication for the pain and another medication to help the inflammation. So far nothing has helped at all. The pain medication isn't helping the pain at all and the inflammation medication may take some time for it to work. I just hope this is the right diagnosis this time.

I also want to say thanks for all the ideas, support, and love we have gotten from all our friends and family. It means so much to us.

Dave

I feel like this blog has only been a rant of our bad luck. We hope that it is all over but then keep finding more and more bad luck.

For about a month, Laura has been experiencing chest pains randomly. Usually they will come at night and only last a few hours. On Monday, we came home from work and Laura was experiencing pain worse than ever. The pain lasted all night. We decided to take her into Good Samaritan Outpatient Center in Downers Grove. After explaining the pain the doctor told us she would like to do some tests to make sure it wasn't her heart or a blood clot in her lungs. The doctor proceeded to to an EKG, chest x-ray, blood work, urine work, and a CAT scan. The results all came back perfectly normal. This sounds like good news but is frustrating to hear that she is experiencing pain and we can't fix it. The doctor said the best guess is something called costochondritis. It is an inflammation of the ribs. They told her to take ibuprofen and rest. We have tried waiting and seeing if the pain goes away but the pain is still there and we aren't seeing any improvement. I have been stressing really bad about this and don't know what to do...

I want to take her back in but Laura says she's fine. If the pain gets worse I will take her in asap. But we can't afford to take her in for another ibuprofen diagnosis... We have no insurance and we will be getting the bill any day now. I'm sure it is going to be huge and just canceled our trip to the Netherlands. We can barely make it right now and with each event we are falling deeper and deeper into debt.

I'm sorry if this seems like complaining to anyone but it is all the truth. We are having a rough patch and I'm just telling it how it is. No sugar coating or anything. Like i said before we are survivors but we are really getting pushed to our limit. I just hope Laura's pain goes away. I will go into debt for the rest of my life as long as my wife is safe and healthy.

Dave

Soooo much has happened since last time we wrote. I shortly worte that our car got broken into. We lost thousands of dollars worth of stuff. It was pretty scary and frustrating. At least we are safe though. We haven't written because our laptop is one of the things stolen. (Right now we are at a library using a guest pass to work on some things).

We are doing ok. We are tough but can only take so much right now. We have had so much happen that we take turns getting down about things. We are survivors though and will push through it.

On June 6th at about 3:45 A.M. we got a text from Mike saying "Don't come. When your mom arrives you will know where to go. Good Samaritan Hospital." I was so tired that I looked at it and threw the phone down. I was pissed off that Mike was texting me so late. Laura asked what it said and I said, "It didn't say anything". Lucklily Laura asked to see the phone and interpreted it for me. I guess I was so out of it that I didn't realize the text was telling me Sami, my sister, was going into labor. Once we realized what the text said we threw on clothes and made our way to the hospital. We stayed there until 11:45 AM waiting for the baby to come. Finally we had to pick my mom up from the airport. As we were driving back from the airport to the hospital Sami gave birth to Kaiden Lawrenece Porenta. Though we weren't there for the actual birth we were so excited to be a part of the experience.

That week we spent as much time as we could with my mom, Sami, and Kaiden. We tried to visit as much as possible when we weren't working. The week went by too fast and soon it was Sunday. Sunday we took Diane, Dave's mom, out into Chicago. She really wanted to go to the Shedd Aquarium. We drove out and had a great time. It was like an indoor Seaworld. The best part was the otters. Because otters are sweet!!! They had a dolphin show that was really cheezy. The coolest part was the fact that we were able to watch the dolphin show normally and under the water. Under the Aquarium they have a viewing that you can see the show from underneath. We all thought this was better than the actual show. You could watch the dolphins swim as fast as they could and then shoot out of the water. The dolphins were out of the water for so long and looked amazing under water during the show. We had so much fun with Diane.

After the show we took Diane to dinner. The morbid thing is after being at an Aquarium all day seafood sounded great. So we went to Red Lobster and ate what we watched at the aquarium... :)

Once dinner was over it was time to take Diane to the airport and say goodbye. This was tough. It was so great to have her out here. We already miss her company. It may also be the last time we see her for a while if we can go to the Netherlands. We are still hoping to go but aren't quite sure if we can afford it with all the problems that have arisen lately. Life is crazy and won't give us a break but we have eachother and can make it through anything.

~Dave~

Last night at an install our car was broken into. Our Gps, Ipod, Laptop, brand new stereo, Nintendo DS, Camera, Flipvid, and Kindle were all stolen. Life just got better. Luckily we are not hurt and are safe. It just sucks...

Laura got her turn so now it's my turn.

Work has been ok. We constantly meet interesting individuals at our jobs. As my knuckles hit the front door I wonder what will happen when the door opens. Every house is a new challenge but it keeps our lives interesting. Most days are slow so we go to Borders and use the Wifi and read or go to the public library and use the Wifi and read.

For valentines day I got Laura a Kindle. For those old folks reading (jk): A Kindle is an ebook reader. So I find books online and put them on the Kindle. It is like a small computer but when you read the books it looks like actual paper, not a big flashy computer sceen. Anyways, during our off time, Laura and I fight over who gets to read it. Laura just started reading the Enders Game series after completing the Percy Jackson series. I just finished the Angels and Demons, Davinci code, and The Lost Symbol series by Dan Brown and am now reading the Hunger Games. Reading is our life when we aren't working. But it's a good habit to have right now.

Life seems to love to throw new challenges in our direction. We are fighting to make it through each week but are doing pretty well. As you may have read our car broke down, so we had to fix it. We are still living in Exteneded Stay hotels, which we are uterly sick of. Earlier this week we got hit with a bunch more repairs: Our laptop battery broke, our car stereo stopped working, our check engine light turned back on and our car is making some new noises, and finally my drill broke (which is necessary for us to work). We have replaced what was needed and are keeping our heads up high but it is easy for us to become overwhelmed.

Mike, my brother in law and boss, has been trying to help us get an appartment but doesn't really have a say in it. He seems to think we are making too much of a big deal out of the sitution. We are frustrated because we would like to actually unpack our things and move into an apartment. This way when we come "home" from work we might actually feel like we are home.

I see his perspective and ours but we just want to have our own place instead of a hotel. Hopefully soon... I'm not trying to complain, rather express my opinions and feelings.

P.S. You may have asked: why the crap is there Otters randomly in his blog? Because Otters are freaking sweet! Laura told me to add pictures to my blog so there you go. I love Otters! Peace

On Sunday, we decided to go with Sami and Mike to go explore more of downtown Chicago. We went to Navy Pier. It is a pier, obviously, that has some great views of the city. They also have a lot of shops and a small carnival type area. It was fun to be able to just relax and walk around. The view was beautiful of both the water and the city. The shops had had Chicago on pretty much anything you could think of. They also had a lot of smashed penny machines which made Sami happy, because she collects smashed pennies.

Then we went to Bubba Gumps. It was awesome, because we only had to wait for 10 minutes. This gave us just enough time to use the restroom and explore the shop before we had to eat. Bubba Gumps is fun because they have a great atmosphere. If you don't know the resteraunt is based off the movie Forest Gump. They have movie quotes and memorabilia all over. Dave and I shared so that we could get as much seafood as possible. We ate five types of shrimp, mussels, clams, lobster tail, and CRAB LEGS(Our favorite food)!!! It was so delicious!

After Bubba Gumps we decided we would go home. We went to Sami and Mike's and just hung out for the rest of the day. All in all it was a great day off!

So we have been in Chicago for a week now and haven't done much of anything. We arrived to our hotel on Monday and spent some time with Sami. Ya I said hotel. We arrived and have no apartment. So good old Pinnacle Security is cheap and won't order enough apartments because they expect 30% of people who start with Pinnacle to quit or be fired. This sucks for us because no one has been fired or quit yet. So we are stuck at Homestead Inn, which is a part of Extended Stays Hotels, for a while. We are expecting to be stuck in there for almost a month. We feel bad because Sami has to watch our guinea pigs for a while. They get stinky fast and Sami can't handle the smell for long. We try and visit Sami and the Guinea Pigs as much as we can. We just bought a new cage for them and it has a hammock on the top. Chip loves to sleep in it and it is so cute.

We haven't really tried much food out here except for Portillos. They are a Chicago original and they are amazing. They are famous for their hot dogs and their Italian beef sandwiches. Chicago hot dogs are not a bun mustard and ketchup. They had the bun, a hotdog, mustard, relish, 1/2 chopped onion, 1/4 pickle slice, and 2 peppers slammed together. They weren't half bad either but the best thing Portillos had was their italian beef. The closest thing I can say it is like is a french dip sandwhich but way better. YUMMM!


We started installing security systems on Tuesday. The first few jobs Laura watched and I tried to teach her as much as I could. She picked up on everything really fast. By Friday we were finishing jobs in under one hour. Which is really good for installing. The office isn't incredibly busy right now but is keeping a good pace. We have been installing 2 installs eveyday so far. The great news is that almost all of the installs are takeovers. Which means they have existing panels and we just have to put up a new one and a few new sensors.

We have had some pretty interesting customers so far. We installed at a daycare that looked extremely ghetto. Laura can tell you all about how they were not up to code on almost anything.

One night we got an install at 8:30. The install said it was supposed to go in at 9 PM. So we sat outside the house for 30 mins waiting to go in. Finally we get out of the car to go into the house. A man in a car in front of us starts honking his horn. He starts yelling to his wife. She just screams "WHAT?!?" back multiple times. Finally he yells the security people are here. She screams back to take us inside. He tells us to just walk in and get started and he would be in soon. We walk in the house and all the lights are off. So we find our way to the existing panel and start working on replacing it. The man in the car walks in the house and tells us that he's been drinking in his car and passed out. He didn't need to tell us he was drinking we could definitely smell it.

His name is Andre and he is quite a character. He is a tall big black guy who reeked of alcohol. We ask him a few questions regarding the panel. As we are talking to him he starts taking his pants off and walking into the bathroom. We saw some crack... I'm sad to say the panel is right by the door and we heard everything that went on in the bathroom. It sounded like he needed a new toilet by the time he was finished. Let's just say he was very noisy in there.

He walks out of the bathroom and comes back in the room with us. He forgot to button up his pants but he doesn't seem to care. He then goes on to tell us all about the tacos he ate and how they didn't agree with him, going into detail about the noise we just heard from the bathroom. He explains how he doen't understand how Mexicans can eat tacos so much and how the cilantro made him feel. Finally, I change the subject and try to stick to the security system.

We finish the job fast and leave the house. However, the office ran out of a certain part so I had to come back the next day... We get to Andre's house to install the part and leave as soon as possible. I get to the house and Andre is just getting out of a car with a beer in his hand. It is noon and I can tell he is already wasted, again. He tells me to go in with his wife. I walk up the steps and ring the doorbell. Meet Barbara, a short plump black woman with an attitude. A real bad additude. I can't even say the hello before she starts complaining about the system. The funny thing is her complaint is about the chime feature. She complains that it is way too quiet and she wants it turned up. This is not possible on our system. She is not happy to hear this. She starts freaking out and talking about cancelling the system. I try and calm her down but it is not working. Finally, I get the sales rep on the phone and make up an excuse to leave. They cornered me and tried to get me to stay but I was crafty and finally made it out.

The sad thing is this woman will probably cancel because the chime is not loud enough. The chime feature says "front door" when the front door is open. This works for all the doors and is not very important to the overall security of the system. This may seem like a far out story but is quite normal for our job. Sorry it was so long but I thought it was worth telling.

Yesterday, we went to Wrigley Field with Sami and Mike (Dave's sister and brother in law)to see the cubs play. We had to drive to a subway station, then take the subway to the field. It was nuts on the subway. Everywhere you looked you saw Cubs jerseys, hats, etc. I don't know if you know, but in Chicago you are either a huge Cubs fan or a huge White Sox fan. There is really no inbetween. If you like the Cubs you LOVE the Cubs. When we got to the field it was even crazier. You couldn't even walk you were just moved with the pack. We finally got to our seats. Which were amazing! We had found them on stubhub.com. We had thought they were going to be higher than they were, but we ended up being on the 11th row. The game was against the Pittsburgh Pirates. They have both been sucking it up lately so we knew it would be a good game. Which it was. The cubs ended up winning 4-3.

After waiting in car repair shops for over 11 hours in a 3 day span and paying $700we got our car fixed... (We're broke) The Nissan dealership found that the distributor was broken. They fixed it in a few hours and were finally able to get out of Des Moines. We drove to our hotel in Westmont Illinois and now are hanging with Sami, Dave's sister. So we made it to Chicago fine and are going to start work tomorrow.

On Friday, we started our drive from South Jordan, Utah to Westmont, Illinois. It started out fine. We left at 5:30 AM and arrived at Dave's Aunt Joanne's house at 8:15 PM. Joanne, her husband Mick, and son Steven treated us to pizza, lasagna, salad, and bread sticks for dinner. We went to bed early because of exhaustion.


We woke up early the next day and were on the road by 7:00. Around 9:30 our car started "bucking" and the RPMs were going crazy. We called Laura's Dad, the car expert. He had us check out a few things. Nothing we checked seemed to be off. So we looked on the GPS for a near by garage. The first auto repair shop could not even look at our car until Tuesday of the next week, but referred us to a nearby Goodyear. We went over there. Originally, they told us they were to busy to look at it. We told them our sob story of being stuck on the way to Chicago. They said they would squeeze us in. They looked at our car and told us that a small part needed to be replaced. They told us they would order the part in and the car should be fixed midday. So we hung out in Altoona, Iowa for a few hours. The awesome people that worked there were really nice to us. They offered to do anything they could for us. They even suggested a great pizza buffet for lunch.

When we came back from lunch they told us they had some really bad news. The part had arrived, but they could not install it. At this point we didn't know what to do. We were somewhere by Des Moines, Iowa and we had no idea where to go. The guy behind the counter said he would take care of us. He called all over Des Moines to try and find someone who could get us in and fixed that day. Finally, he found a shop across town. We drove over there and they said they should have the part installed and the car ready to go in not to long.

Fifteen minutes after the new shop brought our car into the garage they came back out and said there might be more wrong then they had thought. Three hours later they came back out and said that the part was not the problem but a symptom of a bigger problem. They didn't know what the problem was. They referred us to the Nissan Dealer. Unfortunately, they are closed on Saturday and Sunday.


So after 7 hours of sitting around we were stranded in Des Moines, with a broken car. A man, who had heard our story while we were waiting, offered to show us where some nearby hotels were. Driving 25 mph in front of us and pulling off to the side as our car shut down 3 times he got us to some hotels. He pulled over and told us where many places around were and even offered us money. So even though we're stranded at a hotel and are looking at a huge maintenance fee, we have realized that the people of Des Moines are extremely nice and helpful. Neither of the auto repair shops we went to charged us anything and a random stranger went out of his way to help us and offered us money. We hope that we can pass along the kindness that has been shown to us to someone else in need.

Also the Jazz were killing the Lakers and then I turned on the TV. Our luck was then passed to the Jazz and they lost. I am sorry to all Jazz fans and the Jazz themselves. It is all our fault they lost...