On my mind

1. Ethan can sound out and write all of his letters now. So instead of "spelling" by yelling out a stream of random letters, he's working hard to hear each of the letters in the correct order. I love that he works so hard! He's even managing to read a few short words by sounding out the letters!

2. Edward backed off on wanting to use the potty for a while. But the interest seems to be back. He saw a potty at Target last week and fell in love. (It's frog shaped.) He's been sitting on it multiple times every day. No success yet, but the dry diapers all day and the overfull ones at night indicate that he's learning some control. We'll get there.

3. Please don't tell me how thin I look. I'm very aware. My pants are hanging off of me and all the baby weight has disappeared. (Wish the extra skin would too!) Even my face is thinner. This was not an intentional weight loss. It was achieved by a combination of stress, too little sleep, frequently eating only one real meal a day, and lots of Dr. Pepper to keep the blood sugar up and the headaches at bay. I am looking forward to gaining some weight back in Dec. Then losing it in a much more healthy manner.

4. So happy for John. He's loving his new job. It's exactly the type of growth opportunity he was looking for, and they need him there so badly. He jumped right in, meeting with people to figure out what he needed to learn, interviewing someone to do their SEO, and scheduling a business trip to get some hands on experience. Nine months was worth the wait!

5. Think I might attempt to fold the many, many loads of laundry and clean a bathroom or two before having to go to work. Better get started...

Ummm... I think I forgot to mention...

We've been crazy busy this last week or so. Much, much busier than usual. All because we're making some big changes around here.

It all started when JOHN GOT A JOB!!!

That's right. After almost 9 months of unemployment, my husband will start his new job on tuesday! Can I tell you how relieved and excited I am?

We've been getting the ball rolling on a few major changes during this final week of joblessness. I'll be sure to let you know about them as they happen!

Talking over Ice Cream

Ethan's directorial debut!



John reciprocated. (Please ignore the mess in the background. And Ethan's horribly long hair. It's been cut. But not Edward's. I'm not ready to give up the curls.)



And because I still can't believe it, this is how John let Edward eat his dinner a few weeks ago.

My Boys

As much as my boys get in the way of my desire to sit on my butt doing nothing, I can't help but love them.

Ethan has been so sweet lately. He's helpful and kind and says the most wonderful things. I hear that I'm cute several times a day, and he will always jump up to help me out as long as the request isn't ridiculous. I can't figure out why he thinks I'm so great, but he tells me all the time that he loves me. I must be doing something right! (Actually, I'm going to pat my husband on the back for this one. Ethan treats me the way John does. He's a great example to his boy.)

Edward is our clown. He's always figuring out new ways to make us laugh. My current favorite is how he yells"POOOOOOOP!" when he needs a diaper change. Most of the time everyone else gets in on it and we all crack up while yelling "POOOOOOOP!" (And there is the added bonus that he's easier to change when he's giggly!)

Can I mention my husband again? Not many husbands would be willing to be a single dad five evenings a week. Not only will John do it, but he'll be great at it.

I'm a lucky woman to have these boys in my life.

Stinky Bacteria

John came home from his week-long innovator's road trip with some super-stinky clothes. Not dirty John stink. Anaerobe stink. (That's right you lab rats out there. This one's for you.)

One of the stops on their road trip was to a distillery. I'm not sure what innovations they were able to learn about at a distillery, but they did learn that making hard liquor is smellier than you'd think. Apparently, after the fermentation step, they need to clean the excess water they'd used. How, you ask? With anaerobes. The smelliest class of bacteria out there. I'm not sure how that makes the water cleaner...

John got in so late last night that he dropped everything by the door and went to bed. This morning when I sat down in the living room about five feet from the front door, I suddenly sat up and jumped into action. I could smell a nasty bacteria and I wanted it found and destroyed. I said "I know that smell!" And John replied "It's my jacket. From the anaerobe room."

Yikes! Needless to say, John's laundry did not wait another second. The suitcase will be disinfected too. I don't care if it's just the smell. I don't want even a single one of those bacteria in my house!

John Sings?

I love my husband. For oh so many reasons. One of them is that he sings.

WAIT! Hear me out!

I know he doesn't sing well. I still love that he does it.

The first time I sat next to John in church, I think I nearly gagged on my own spit when I heard him sing a hymn. I couldn't stop staring at him. He had to know what he sounded like, right? Being such an awesome girlfriend, I pointedly told him how bad he was.

Let's fast forward to when John met my family. I was much more afraid that he would turn and run as fast as he could than any kind of judgments my family would have. (I assumed they would be awed by his relative normalcy.) So we're sitting in church and the first hymn starts. My family is made up of trained singers or those who appreciate vocal music. The instant John opened his mouth, every head in our row turned very slowly in our direction. They were all looking at me with this "You're OK with this???" look on their faces. I think it was the most unified my family had been in many, many years.

By that point, I could laugh at them. John pointed out to me on that very first sunday that hymns are prayers. And that if I asked him to stop singing because I didn't like it, I'd be depriving him of saying those prayers.

Now I love that he has the guts to do it. That the prayers are more important to him. And I love that he sings to our kids. (They love it too.)

--------------------------------
I wrote this because I saw a writing prompt (and hilarious story), and because I was at choir rehearsal about an hour ago. It seemed appropriate.

The prompt is: Why even sing? Write about a time when people were singing badly.

:(

No job. Like I told my sister, we had a little pity party and then got over it.

Here's what happened. This company fully intended to hire John. BUT, just last week they received a call from an applicant who had been working for their competition. Apparently she hadn't signed a non-compete agreement, and was very interested in this open position. Unfortunately for us, she is just as qualified as John and has much more relevant experience. Ouch. But we understand.

There is an up-side, though. The woman he met with felt really bad about having to turn John down. And she happens to be a relatively big name in their industry. So she took John out to lunch and talked about how she can help him. He came home with quite a few leads on companies who may be hiring in the near future, names of some other people to talk to, and an invitation to an event with industry executives where she will introduce him around. (He also learned that the salary range for his particular niche of marketing is much higher than we'd thought. Yay for specializing!)

We kind of wish this had been a short story instead of a potential epic. But we know that there is a reason he didn't get this job. We're not giving up.

An extra bonus, John has found some contract work through some old friends. So hopefully we'll have at least a trickle of income soon.

Some Random Things

- Edward got his first tooth on his first birthday. That could have been bad, but we didn't even know he was teething. Yay for my stoic, sweet guy!

- Ethan is having sleeping issues. Mainly going to sleep issues. It takes hours every night, and napping is non-existent. (It was only four days a week before, but he still needs it.) Our boy is exhausted. He's so tired that he's started having tantrums again. Like he's two. And the nearly constant whining and crying is driving me out of my mind. We have no idea what the problem is and have found nothing that will keep the boy in his room. Really no fun at all.

- Edward is a chatterbox. He almost never stops talking. I love that he looks at me and rattles off whole sentences, like I should understand exactly what he's saying. We've figured out a few. Mama, Dada, and Hi are all obvious. Then there are those that no one else would get. Ethan, All Done, What's That, Ball, and Raaar (as in roar). Also he has a specific grunt that means "Yes, my diaper is stinky." And he has the "no" head shake down pat. Loving that we can communicate more!

- John is shaving off his goatee in three days! Really, two days and a wake up. I'm so excited!! I've decided to call it a Christmas present to me. I've been ready for it to be gone for a while. He's had it for a year, people. A year of a scratchy faced husband is not my favorite. (I love him, just not his unkempt facial hair.)

- My Grandpa's doing great. We couldn't even let ourselves hope for this before, but he should be home for Christmas! Probably even the traditional Danish Christmas Eve at the farm. I wish I could be there. (Also, this means I really need to decide on a layout program and a printer so that I can buckle down and get his book ready for publishing. At least the first volume. Any suggestions? I've used Blurb, but have some issues with their layout program. Solvable ones, but it's easier to avoid them all together.)

- How is it that Christmas is so close and I haven't finished my wrapping???? Usually I'm done shopping before December hits and I'm done wrapping by the middle of the month. I like having the last few weeks to just relax and enjoy the season. Life managed to get in the way this year. At least I'm done shopping. (Unless you're family. We're aiming to have your gifts done by the end of January. Hopefully.)

- I need to clean the boys bathroom. But I think I'm going to go make some chocolate gingerbread cookie bars instead.

Skipping Ahead - Grownup Halloween Party

I needed to skip ahead b/c I've already posted some pictures of this elsewhere and just wanted to bring on all the comments at once.

DON'T SCROLL DOWN TO THE PICTURE YET!

SERIOUSLY!!

YOU'LL RUIN THE SHOCK OF IT!!!

So, John's new company hosts a big Halloween party every year. It's always music themed. This year it was 80's Beat-Boxing. (Break-dancing.) Everyone was supposed to dress along those lines, or at least some kind of 80's pop music.

Ummm... yea. That's just not us. So we decided to branch out to other 80's music. After weeks of searching for the right costume ideas, I saw a comment somewhere about 80's goth-punk. That was it. The best costumes ever were born. You really need to click to see it larger.

So yes, we crashed their party. It was awesome. And honestly, we loved wearing these outfits. Both of us commented that our clothes the next day felt like our 'regular costumes'.

You know you want to borrow that wig.

Recap 3: The Drive Out

Apparently, we have no pictures from the people we visited on the way out. NONE! Don't ask me how that happened. Here are a few of my boys from the driving portions of the trip.

Napping during a break for lunch. All that driving wore him out.

We visited a fun cave (no pictures, of course) and Ethan loved his spelunking hard hat.

My cute hubby taking a turn driving.

The sweet boy was an angel on the drive. Slept or entertained the rest of us with his chatter.

Aren't I cute?

Hey! I asked you a question!

We don't play rough with our boys! Who told you that?

Awwww

Ethan was obsessed with his drinks the whole trip. "You mean I can have juice?? Really???? I drank all of this one. We need some more."

My Husband the Marketer

John hasn't started a serious job search yet. But he's been really actively networking. Getting to know people in his field here in Austin. Self-branding, if you will.

It's paid off. John had 5 interviews last week. FIVE! Like I said, he wasn't even looking. Two of them went really well. Really, really well. More once things are final.

Man he's good at marketing.

Recap 1: Still in Boston

A few pictures from our last month in the Bay State.

Ethan doing one of his favorite things.

John found his old scouting shirt. Anyone else reminded of Tommy Boy?

Ethan feeding Edward. Note the slightly terrified face.

"Yummmm"

"Don't smile... "

Our little ham.

Travel Updates

John has been posting audio snippets of our trip on his blog. Go take a listen!

Good Things

I haven't been writing much about the good lately. Even with the misery, we've been having a lot of good around here. Here's a few.

John and I, because the baby keeps us on a weird schedule anyway, have been making time late at night to talk. Having two kids with very different needs makes us miss 'us', so it's been good to take some time to reconnect. Even if it means missing out on a little more sleep.

My recovery this time around was SOOOO much better, meaning I've been able to enjoy having a baby. I've never been a baby person, but I just can't get enough of Edward. Even with his issues, I'm already sad that he's growing up. (For anyone who's wondering why I mention my recovery 4 months out, it was really that bad last time. I don't really remember what Ethan was like until he was about 6 months old. So I'm soaking it all in this time. Maybe in the future I'll write about what I learned from those months.)

Edward, when he's not in pain or overtired, is the sweetest and most happy baby I've ever met. He is a huge flirt, is always ready with a big grin or giggle, and could not possibly love me more. Makes getting through the rough spots a whole lot easier.

Ethan, although he is a typical 3 yr old boy (read: CRAZY!), is so much fun. My favorite thing is his singing. We listen to a super-old Janice Kapp Perry tape in the car and Ethan knows most of the songs really well. I absolutely love to hear him belting out "Jesus understands MEEEE!" and "Who will preach the gospel? I will!" everywhere we go.

And I decided to mess with my favorite cookie recipe and made it even better! I'll post it below for those of you who asked about it. Mmmm. I might need to make some more tomorrow.

My Snuggly Boys

John has always been snuggly. (Don't be getting any ideas ladies!) But Ethan and Edward just aren't the snuggliest of guys. Ethan is good for a short hug on occasion if I make a sad face or when he's hurt. But I'm not his dad, so I don't get much else out of him. And Edward, who is such a mama's boy that he screams when even John holds him, would rather look around at the world or eat my shoulder than give me some real lovin'.

Last night, Ethan wasn't feeling very well. (My fault. I'd used the wrong sunscreen on him and he broke out in a nasty rash.) Even with the Benadryl, he wasn't sleeping well and came into our room several times. Usually, John walks him back to bed and he goes right back down. But last night, as soon as John would get up, Ethan would climb into his spot and snuggle up against me. He doesn't even remember waking up, but I loved those few minutes of snuggly Ethan.

Edward has been sleeping better. Not great. Just better. Once he's down for the night (those few hours when he fights it are the worst of the entire day) we do ok. But it's the naps that are still an issue. Rarely does he sleep longer than 30 min. I'd be able to rock or nurse him back to sleep if I didn't have a 3 yr old who is getting really sick of not yelling or stomping (or spitting or shrieking or....) while his brother is trying to fall asleep. (Edward is also realizing that he doesn't like to be dragged around to Ethan's activities all the time. What fun is the park or a museum for him?) So Edward is tired and cranky a lot. Not all the time, but a lot of it. Today, he was tired without being cranky. And this meant I had my first intentional snuggle! He layed his head down on my shoulder and tucked his little face into my neck. Didn't last long, but it felt so nice.

It may not be often, but I love when my boys are snuggly.

Laughing (and photos)

Because quite a few of you don't even know that John has a blog as well, here is the video he just posted.



And the link to a flicker set with all our photos from the last three months.

(John actually has two blogs. The second is focused on social media marketing.)

The News

A lot of you know at least some of this already. Here is the whole story of why my husband is amazing. (He would write this himself, but as you'll see by the end, he's pretty busy.)

We've been talking about moving for, what, 2 years now? The thing holding us back was John not being ready to start a job search. After Edward was born, we realized that Heavenly Father had stopped gently nudging and had started shouting. So John started looking around and updating his resume. But until two weeks ago, not applying for anything.

About a month ago, John found a great position in North Carolina. He was excited and made a big push to have his resume ready. After two weeks of rewriting, having others look at it, and rewriting again, it was an incredibly powerful resume. I think my dad even swore (by association) about how good a section was in the last draft. Plus a perfectly tailored cover letter and an email that would get their attention. It really would have been shocking for this company to NOT respond.

Respond they did. Less than twelve hours later they asked for salary requirements and whether or not we would be willing to move. So John took the weekend to research and make sure he asked for the right salary. This was tough. Coming from the Northeast, we worried that they would consider even his current salary too high, but we aren't moving without a raise b/c we plan to buy a house. After agonizing, John felt good about the range he gave them (a range b/c it would depend on benefits, obviously.)

We were stunned when the next morning, they responded that they were going to make someone else an offer. The wording told us that they had been waiting on this other candidate b/c they thought John might be better, but that our salary request ended that. Ouch.

My great husband, not willing to have things end that way, emailed back that he was glad they found someone and asked about what it was they had been looking for from us, so that we could have a better idea when applying to other jobs in the area. We were so glad to hear back that John hadn't asked for too much. They realized after reviewing John's qualifications and the job description, that they had created a job that was a higher level position than they had intended. So they actually changed the job description and John was overqualified. And they offered to be available to answer questions about the area if we do continue to look for work there. Which we are.

It was kind of a roller coaster for about a week with this company (and John didn't even make it to an interview!), and we were sorry that it didn't work out with them. They were clearly a company of good people. But the amazing response has been so motivating for both John and I. He spends every moment he can on his job search and I've started working on getting us ready to move.

You should see us. John is doing only his one big chore (dishes) and childcare when I need him to and spends the rest of his time on the computer. I've been dejunking, working on using up the food in the pantry rather than restocking, and packing. Yes, packing. I've already packed up some of the files we don't use regularly and am heading to the bookshelves next. On top of keeping our house cleaner than usual and the addition of a newborn. Crazy, I know.

So, my husband is amazing. When he finally started his job search, he did it with a bang. And it's helping me accomplish more in a day than I previously did in a week b/c I'm so excited for the change.

Wish us luck! If anyone has any leads for an Internet Marketing Specialist (particularly in the Cary, NC area, but it doesn't have to be) let us know!!

How to get AAA to come in 10 minutes or less!!

The magic words are "There are kids locked in the car!"

So, we've been having some car trouble. (It's all Grandma J's fault!) The battery had been dying, so we took it in to be replaced. (It's just too cold outside to do it ourselves.) Our shop is great and they checked the battery before pulling it out. It wasn't having any trouble holding a charge, so they did a little more investigating and found that the light-box, a ridiculously expensive bunch of relays, was constantly drawing power. It took a few days to get the new box, so I had to pull out a fuse every time the car was parked. Friday, it was replaced.

We didn't drive the car at all yesterday. When John got in to drive to church this morning, it was dead. Again. I was already gone, so our neighbor gave him a jump. Once John made it, I told him how to pull out the fuse.

Jump to after church. John loaded both kids into the car and started it to check the battery before replacing the fuse. It was fine, so John hopped out and popped the hood. Because it was cold, he closed the car door. Not a problem b/c the doors were all unlocked. EXCEPT that when the fuse is replaced, it locks the doors. Don't ask me why, it just does. And yes, we really should have a duplicate made of the key.

John tried to get Ethan to unbuckle himself and unlock the door, but he's never done it before and I'm not sure he has the hand strength yet. He did manage to wiggle his arms out and reach his lock, but he couldn't pull it up. Both John and I tried the unlock code on the door (it has those buttons above the handle), but that stopped working ages ago and we didn't really expect it to work. Edward, of course, started screaming only moments after we realized we couldn't get in.

AAA responds REALLY fast when kids are locked in cars. That was the first thing I said and the woman on the phone immediately asked for our location, had her supervisor start calling the closest place, and promised they'd be there in less than 10min before she even verified that we were members. It was pretty impressive.

The most amazing thing to me was that I wasn't even worried. I think John was much more worked up, and I knew that the appropriate reaction was freaking out, but it just didn't seem like that big of a deal. Edward would survive crying for a few minutes, Ethan would be a trouper, and we'd be able to comfort them both when we got in. Maybe I'm a little too laid back about my kids.

What a great guy

I'm managing today b/c John stayed home from work. I didn't fall asleep until after 4am, so it was wonderful to sleep in. He's keeping Ethan out of the house so that I can clean, plan my preschool lessons for the week, run to the store, etc... without them in my way. This would have been a horrible day without him, so I'm sooo glad I have a great husband. I love you, babe!

How could I forget?

Somehow, I forgot to mention that John and I had our seventh anniversary a few weeks ago. Way to go us! A friend mentioned that they struggled through their seventh year, glad to hit the anniversary and put it behind them. We've been lucky. I'll be the first to admit that this hasn't been the easiest year we've ever had, but it wasn't the hardest either. No problems with that rumored seven-year-itch.

So babe, just because I don't say it enough,
I Love You!