Still here....

We're still in Minnesota. I haven't had access to the internet on a regular basis so I haven't been around much. The wedding was beautiful, the babies had a great time swimming at the hotel. Yesterday we went to some horse races and we won $60, today we just had a relaxing day at the house we're staying at, and tomorrow we're off to the Mall of America to have lunch at the America Girl store. I can't even begin to explain how excited I am about that. I love the America Girl dolls and have always wanted to go to the store. Tomorrow Marcus and I are also going to  Minnesota Twins game and on Wednesday I hope to get to a museum to see the Dead Sea Scrolls. So we've been incredibly busy seeing things, hanging out with family, juggling our poor babies (who are doing a great job just going along with things all things considered).

I lost the cord to my camera so I can't post pictures but hopefully soon I'll have time to post more detailed accounts of everything with pictures if my life ever slows down for two seconds.

And now...

We're in Minnesota, because we're insane, (and for a family wedding) but mostly because I think we're insane. In less than a week Marcus and I have been in 14 or 15 states. We drove to Idaho last night to stay with my sister since that's where we were flying out from. It was great to see her cute little house and she was such a great hostess. I love seeing my little sisters turning into adults (which I know sounds weird) but I've always just thought of them as little girls and then all of a sudden she's living in a house, cooking me dinner and breakfast and giving me a place to stay.

Then today we caught our flight, had a connection in Utah, and now here we are in a hotel in Minnesota. The babies did amazing today the only problem is Emerson slept on both flights and now it's 11:30 pm and she's just ready to go. At least 50% of my babies are currently sleeping.

We also took them to the ER yesterday to have their ears checked. Which is a whole other drama. I called every single doctor in my hometown and the doctors who were willing to see them didn't have any room in their schedules and the other doctors just refused to see them and told us to go to the ER. I wanted to scream I was so frustrated. It takes two seconds to look into a babies ear and see if it's infected. (I miss my Pedi. who always saw the babies at the drop of a hat). More stupid transition stuff that with time I'm sure will work itself out.

The babies didn't have ear infections thank goodness just a virus that's going around. They seem to be feeling better today, I however am now sick. (It probably has something to do with 14 states in 6 days, no sleep, and two babies sneezing in my face).

Not the greatest day...

Today kind of sucked for a variety of reasons.

1.) A job rejection from the interview I had yesterday. Although I will say I appreciate their promptness with all of this. (The last job took weeks to go through the process before I had a clear answer). They told me that they decided to go with a candidate who has 5 years experience, but should that not work out for whatever reason I'm next in line for the job. It was just such a disappointment, especially since I took a chance in not taking the other job I was offered back east. So the job hunt continues and I'm hoping something comes along soon.

2.) Meeting with my Grandma. It's way too complicated to get into the specifics of why this contributes to a bad day, but I'm not close with her, I don't really know her, and I felt uncomfortable having her around my kids. We did meet at a park and only for about 30 minutes because I couldn't think of a graceful way to get out of it without seeming like an awful person.

3.) Emerson fell down a couple of the stairs in my in-laws house. I am so not used to being in a two story home. We usually have a gate up but it was down because both babies were napping. Then Emerson woke up so Marcus brought her down from upstairs and then he went outside to unload some more of our car. Then Eli woke up and without even thinking at all I went up to get him. (Not thinking about the stairs and the gate). Emerson was only on the first or second stair when she fell but she has a huge bruise/knot on her head. Poor baby I'm clearly mother of the year.

4.) Both babies have fevers and if I were to guess they probably both have ear infections. I've talked with urgent care and we're treating the fever with pain relievers tonight and seeing how they sleep. If they get worse we'll probably take the them in.

So yeah.. I've had better days.

That said I am trying to remain positive in the midst of this transition stage and not let myself get overcome with worry and anxiety so to uplift the positive...

1.) Happy babies swinging for the first time at the park (despite Emerson's bump on the head which I think worries me and Marcus the most) she seems to be be just fine.

The both loved swinging, and they both fit really well in one swing.

2.) Home cooked meals. Marcus and I never really cooked much and after the babies were born grocery shopping took a huge backseat to things like school, sleep, and surviving the day to day. One nice thing about staying with my in-laws is eating actual meals. They make me feel a little more human.

3.) Sunsets. While living in Connecticut Marcus and I always noted that the sun just seemed to disappear there was no real beauty in it. Not at all like the summer skies we're used too. 

Which come alive and glow as the sun sets. (This isn't the best picture since it was taken on my phone in a parking lot). I forgot how much I love the sunsets over here.

Just trying to keep some perspective. It's not all bad. 

Job interview...

I had my phone interview today for a job I really really want (and can I just say I despise phone interviews. I'm much better in person). It was an interview with 6 people on the other end so I was on speaker phone and it made hearing really difficult.

I'm not feeling overly optimistic about how it went. I just don't really have a good feeling about it. I was so prepared for some of the standard questions I assumed they would ask and had spent a ton of time researching and preparing lots of things I hoped to share (based on the job description and my previous interview) but they didn't ask any of those. So I stumbled out answers, really long winded answers (which is another reason I hate phone interviews. In person you can gage body language and get a sense for if people are with you or if they have a puzzled horrified look on their face). So it was a lot of me talking... they kept saying, "Wow that was a very thorough answer." Which I took for code as, "Holy crap you talk a lot."

Then during another question I totally spaced out mid-answer. I had no idea what I was talking about, what the question was, I just paused awkwardly, apologized and fumbled my way through it after being reminded what I was about to say.

They interviewed all top 3 candidates today via phone and I know I was interview #3. The whole thing was over really quickly and now I just wait and hope that I'm remembering things worse then they actually were.

Now I wait and hope for the best.

Back tracking... May 21, 2010

So much happened in May and I just haven't had a chance to keep up with any of it. So the next few of my blog posts will be my effort to remember and record our last few weeks in Connecticut. As I mentioned (I think, I mentioned anyways) my sister, brother-in-law and niece came to visit for my graduation. Although it was a crazy time in general, I did want to try and show them at least a little bit of the east coast since it was the first trip for all of them. So our go to attraction is to take our visitors to lighthouse point. A little beach area of long island sound, with a lighthouse and park.

First task was getting a family shot in front of the lighthouse. This is when they weren't quite ready for the camera. So it's more candid.

Second task was a family shot with Long Island Sound in the background. My niece Hannah was a little bit tired at this moment.

  Then we decided to play too. This is actually a pretty awkward shot of me and Emerson, but Marcus  looks pretty good though. 

Marcus & Eli

Me & Emerson

And then my favorite discovery was just how much of a water baby Emerson is. I took her to dip her toes in the water assuming she would freak out because it was cold and the dirt. But she was so excited. She kept laughing and kicking and digging her feet deeper into the sand. (Don't mind my hunchback Emerson is short and my back was hurting and I couldn't bend over all the way). 

My niece Hannah hated it. Apparently it was a little too cold for her.

But not Emerson and because she was so excited about just dipping her feet in, we promptly took the babies swimming the next day. Which was equally adorable and hilarious. (More to come about their first swimming adventure soon). 

2709 Miles later...

and we made it yesterday! (Well we made it to our hometown where we both grew up, we'll be staying here for a bit while we continue our job search. Interview on sunday *fingers crossed*). I think I blocked out just how awful the drive across the country is because I don't remember it being so bad three years ago. Nebraska and Wyoming are currently among my least favorite states as they seem to stretch on and on and on.

I suppose part of it is we were trying to get here as fast as possible so we traveled those 2700 miles in our moving truck pulling our car in 3.5 days. We pulled into town around 1:00 and immediately went to go see our babies who stayed with my sister. They were so excited to see us. Emerson kept jumping from my arms to her dads back and forth as though she couldn't decide who she wanted to see. And Eli... well he was just delirious with excitement. He was rolling all over the couch and smiling and laughing randomly.

We also pulled into town in time for my littlest sisters high school graduation (there's no rest around here). Today Marcus and I are dragging (as in barely functioning as we work to put all of our belongings in storage, handle the babies, and essentially destroy my in-laws house as we invaded every corner it seems).

I so can't wait until we get somewhere permanently and can start the new next stage. I hate this in between chaos.

And then...

one year ago today we brought our little Emerson home! Our crazy, observant, stubborn, hilarious little peanut. What a joy she's been. Coming around to things in her own time, relishing each successful milestone and almost immediately becoming frustrated at what she still can't do. What a joy and a blessing each of our babies are to us.

Then: June 1, 2009

Now: May 9, 2010