And the move.....

I almost forgot to mention that we survived another moving experience without divorce. I decided that my husband was insane to try to utilize me in any kind of heavy lifting scenario so I contacted a bunch of his previous baseball players and they all pitched in and saved my back as well as my marriage. It was glorious watching a bunch of 19 year old brutes do all my hard work. And we've actually almost got everything unpacked.

Good things happening

Well, just as I was about to decide that God did NOT want me in the teaching profession after all.......I got offered a 4th grade teaching position in the same school district that Russ is teaching in! This means - a 10 minute drive to work! My car will not know how to handle it. Not to mention I don't think that my system knows how to take in the fact that we are actually wanted in this town: both of us at that!

Yesterday, we met Canon's new babysitter. She's going to be wonderful. In home licensed day care, maximum of 8 kids AND she cooks them both breakfast and lunch all for the low low price of $65.00 per week. Also, she doesn't want me to pick him up until after 4:30, which is perfect because there's a workout club that we're going to join just about 1 block from her house. Oh... to have some alone time.

So, now all that's left is selling our home in Mtn. View. Several people have been looking at it lately so I'm feeling more and more faithful that it will sell sooner than later. My stress load is considerably lower after yesterday and today's happenings. Now, on to the business of planning for a fourth grade year!

Thanks to all of you for your support and prayers during this most stressful summer. I feel so good about where we are. One of our neighbors even brought us a carrot cake the other day to welcome us. I wanted to call her Brie Vandycamp but I just kept the little grin to myself and said a word of thanks that we were in such a friendly place.

Read any good young adult books lately? Ill be trying to pack in a bunch over the next few weeks to recommend to fourth graders.

Why are babies so much like puppies?

So, as I start to write this my son strips himself down and sneaks into the now empty closet for a quick pee. A sign of potty-training readiness, right? But then again he doesn't talk so negotiating is an obsolete concept. When I mention "potty" (and of course I bought one way too early) he runs to the bathroom and crams both feet into the 6" diameter hole and stands up - quite proud of himself I might add. He refuses to sit down on it but standing in the white bucket couldn't be more entertaining or accomplishing in his eyes.

And what do you suppose the earth has in it that is so much more nutritious and appetizing than prepared food? (By earth I mean rocks and dirt and anything grimy.) I mean the boy just picks up clumps of dirt by the handful and eats it like a popcorn ball! I now know that "Rock Gut" is actually a literal term. Oh, kids. I don't know what I'd do without that little freak of nature.

Then there's always the pacifer and what new place he'll find to "dip" it. Since birth it seems he's been dipping it into my mom's coffee, ice cream, beer, dirt, whatever is handiest. Well, we went to the ballpark the other day and one of my friends had his four month old English mastif (sp?) there. Canon went straight for the beast, of course. Treated him like the neighbor's cat, with an occasional "wiggle giggle coo coo" and then there the pacifer went...straight into the dog's mouth and back into my son's mouth before I could say a word. That move was the highlight of the hour at the softball park, but I knew it was time to go home when some older kids started building a mud pond and Canon stamped right through it and then bombarded it with rocks. I thought he was going to get beat up.

In the midst of our moving, me interviewing twice daily for jobs and running back and forth to Searcy for basketball practice, Russ has become obsessed with the Lord of the Rings for the thousandth time. (At least once yearly we must re-read the trilogy and pay homage to the wizards and elves and hobbits and orcs and dwarves and men of middle earth). It's helpful, mostly, because he stays out of my way as I'm dashing through the chaos of our lives. Not to mention it keeps him sane by escaping our reality and my own organizational madness. So, I too give thanks for the little webbed-footed Tooks and Pippins and whatever their "precious" names are.

Reason for my post: PRAYER. In need of it, got to have it. This coming week I will have two final interviews for jobs at Newport and Cabot - hoping for Cabot, close on a house in Searcy and make a decision whether or not to lease our house here. The only thing I don't have on my list is child care and we'll all be praying about that soon. I'm giving it a break right now. Seems I've been to every child care center in White County and gotten on about 10 waiting lists with nothing hopeful except a mediocre center run by a blabber mouth Kathy Bates look alike. So, get on your knees people and send whatever loving karma you can afford to share my way!

Sara

July 5

So, does this post to my first blog or am I creating another blog?

My first blog

June 24, 2006

This is my first attempt at a blog and I'm not nearly as crafty as Tiff and MB but I thought that I'd give it a go as it's such a promising way of staying in touch and more than that I think it could be a fun way to journal.

We just returned from Texas where we gorged ourselves on sushi buffet (me only once and Russ three times) and Mexican food - fajitas, fresh guacamole and salsa galore. Russ' family is always fun to visit except this time it rained the entire time we were there and the skeeters were in rare form. Poor Canon has literally about 50 bites on his little body and we've vowed to keep him inside until the swelling starts to subside, which isn't easy because he's definitely an outside kid. But now that we've returned we're onto the seemingly contagious process of moving to Searcy, Arkansas, where Russ has just been hired as the girls' basketball head coach for Riverview High School. It's only about an hour from Mtn. View and we're pretty excited about the move. We're both pumped up about the possibility of finding a new church home, one that might possibly meet both our needs. Not to mention, we're also hopeful that I'll be able to find a job within the year as there are so many more schools in the area than around here. As for now, though, it looks like I'll be driving back and forth to Clinton from Searcy ... back up to 55 miles. Had gotten it down to 36 but oh well I guess that I'm meant to drive. Must be some sort of punishment that I'm enduring because of my misdirected spiritual life. Anyway, I'm scheduled to teach 5th grade at Clinton. Good age, very impressionable and ripe for learning still.

The rest of the summer looks to be fairly bleak as I stare at closets and cabinets full of breakables and over-sized collections of recent years. I seem to be making daily runs to the local grocery store for boxes, nabbing what I can from the rest of the locals. So far I've packed one closet and our hutch. Not much of a start and already about 40 boxes. Ugh. But, they're small boxes. I learned my lesson with the last move. Note to self: Do not permanently injure back for this.

After we get settled we are going to attempt for another baby. I've officially survived the first 2 years ... applaude here. So, I've got about one more effort in me. Canon is our greatest joy. He is the happiest kid I have ever met and also, obviously, the cutest. He's not much for social skills yet but we're working on that.

Okay, I'm going to try to publish this now and see what it looks like. Catch you cats later.