What a week!

I can't remember the last time that we went a whole week without updating the blog!
It's just been one of those weeks!
I finally feel like we get a breather and then the week starts up again in just a few hours.
I finished my job with the newspaper by mid-week and decided to go in for the remaining two days at my new job at the college. My new job is going to be great and the people are fantastic and fun! What a breath of fresh air! No deadlines breathing down my neck or negative comments, etc.
Throughout the week we were also in the midst of bidding on a new house. We have been looking at moving into a bigger home for the past three months simply because we are outgrowing our current 2+ bedroom home. We've finally decided to look in Fort Dodge since that is where both our full-time jobs are now located (and the cost of gas to commute is getting ridiculous!) We found what we thought was "the one" - two story, old charm with refinished hardwood floors and woodwork, 4 bedrooms, man cave for Paul and it was within our price range. We spent the week at the bank, talking to our financial guy and on Thursday afternoon placed our bid. We countered with the seller until 11 p.m. that night and decided to sleep on it. We both woke up Friday morning still stressed out from the bidding process but decided to walk away from the house. Dropping the price just two-thousand dollars isn't a good enough deal - not to mention the fact that the seller wanted us to drop the contingency that we be able to sell our house first which would have had us with two mortgages hanging over our heads. So now we have decided just to keep an eye out on the market. More and more houses will go up for sale as the school year ends and we're convinced that we can find a great house in our price range that has everything that we want.
And if those two events of the week weren't enough - Grace is getting a handful of back teeth in, Paul is swamped at the office trying to get ready for the college's spring showcase concert and with all of his classes, I'm experiencing constant third trimester exhaustion and now I'm feeling fashion challenged. It's a lot...
The recently pregnant moms must know how I feel about the fashion thing. By the third trimester (I'll be 30 weeks on Tuesday) I already feel like a whale and have crossed the never ending weight gain mark. Clothes that I wore with Grace have since shrunk from being washed so much (why can't they make good quality maternity clothes??!!) and I refuse to spend oodles of money on new maternity clothes that I swear I'll only get to wear once or twice. I've been scoping out the quality used clothing places and have found a few odds and ends, but just don't feel very put together lately. Maybe it's also the fact that I've watched "What Not To Wear" a few times this weekend.
So needless to say it has been quite the week. We do have some new cute pictures and even a movie of Grace to post at some point. Now I just have to find the time to do it. Maybe tomorrow.
Perhaps now I can convince the baby to stop moving and go to sleep so that maybe I can get three to four hours of sleep before getting my bladder kicked in the middle of the night. Keep your fingers crossed!

I got the job!!

It has been such a busy week that I haven't had a chance to post my good news! I got the job that I have been hoping and praying for!

I will be the new Administrative Assistant for the Homeland Security Training Center at Iowa Central Community College.

It is going to be a great job and I've met and even know some of the people that I will be working with and it will be a lot of fun. I decided that it was time to get out of journalism. I don't need the adrenaline rush of covering accident, etc. or the stress of meeting a deadline that was set 30 minutes out. It's time for a job that is fulfilling and allows me to be a mom too and this one will be perfect!

Paul also works at Iowa Central and we will work just across the street from each other so we'll get to eat lunch together sometimes and hopefully (depending on his schedule) car pool together.

I start part time this week (Tuesday and Thursday) and will begin full-time on the 31st.

A visit from Ti-Ti

Aunt Kristi (aka Ti-Ti) came for a visit this week. It's been a lot of fun. Kristi took all these pictures.

As a side note, please pray for Paul and his family as his grandpa (Papa) passed away earlier this week. He was a sweet dear man. Services are this weekend.

Construction 101

Over spring break, Paul decided to tackle a minor remodeling project - our main floor bathroom.
Our 100+ year old house has its quirks. Two owners prior decided to turn (literally) a closet into a main floor bathroom. We call it the cruise ship bathroom. It's small. So small in fact that if you're tall you can't use the toilet and close the door completely because of leg room. The bathroom itself hasn't been updated since the bathroom was originally put in.
I hated the way it looked. It never would look clean no matter what I did and an old medicine cabinet that partially worked for lighting took up the wall space.
Paul dug in and we have freshly painted walls, new wiring with a pretty new wall sconce and newly tiled flooring.
I will post pictures when it is completed. (We are battling a small leak in the toilet and are waiting for it to warm up so that we can finish a minor painting project.) But let me just say Paul is quite the handyman!
But the picture that I do have is forewoman Grace inspeting Daddy's work. She wanted to help with the project so badly!!

How to eat an Oreo cookie

Take note as this is the correct way to eat an Oreo cookie (especially cool mint creme Oreos) as according to Grace.


First you must smell the cookie.


Then look very, very closely to make sure that the cookie has enough chocolate in it.


Stare the cookie down - even though you may have creme in your eye from the previous step.



Step 4: Take a small taste of the cookie to see if it is still edible after being in your nose and in your eye.


All was well with the cookie! Hooray! Now it's time to tell mom that I need a bath!

Dancing Queen

Grace loves to dance especially to her favorite Disney tunes. Disney features a guy named Dan Zane in between some of Grace's favorite shows in the morning. She loves a song that he sings called "Two-by-Two". We even DV-R'd it so that she could dance to it whenever she wanted. She requests it some days.

Here are two videos of Grace getting her groove on:

Choo-choo

On our way back from town on Sunday we had to stop at the railroad tracks to let a small train go by. Grace couldn't believe what she was seeing or hearing as the engineer kept pulling the horn. We told her that he said "choo-choo." She just watched in amazement.
This afternoon while slowing down for a highway stop sign we drove over rumble strips. Grace got so excited and said "choo-choo" and started looking around for the train. We purposely drove over all the rumble strips that we could on the way home because it was so funny. "CHOO-CHOO!"

And of course like any girly-girl, Grace loves to dress up. Here are pictures of tonight's dress-up routine.

Solving the case of the missing food

Grace has become quite the stealth food napper.
Earlier in the week, Grace was sitting at the dining room table coloring a picture. I cut a small piece of a scotcheroo for myself. At about the same time, the phone rang. I went to answer it and left little Grace unsupervised for a minute or two. This is what I came back to find - chocolate all over her face and a missing scotcheroo. At least Grace said "THANK YOU!"



We have been eating a lot of fresh fruit lately. (Thank goodness for healthy cravings!) I was setting the table for supper tonight and put out a bowl of fresh fruit. I went back into the kitchen to get the place settings and this is what I came back to find. Grace had climbed up on a chair and was helping herself. We also learned that she is not a big fan of pineapple. About half a dozen pieces of partially chewed pineapple had been put back in the bowl. Oops!