Woohoo!

Justin got offered the job with Edward Jones this morning!!! He starts June 29th and that's all we know for right now. We'll be updating in the next few weeks with more details. Yippee!

Waiting...

Nora eating a teething biscuit.

We are waiting for a few things this week. First, Nora is getting all 4 of her top teeth. They are just below the surface, in fact one could not be much closer to the surface, so they must be breaking through soon. These teeth are taking much longer to come in. When Nora got her 2 bottom teeth in, once we saw them below the gum's surface it was only a day or two before they cut through. I have seen 2 under the surface for 1 1/2 weeks now and the others since this weekend. We are going on day 3 of a very fussy Nora, so we will all be glad when this wait is over. And then Nora will be able to really bite things, which is good and bad.

We are also waiting to hear back from Edward Jones this week. Justin had his interview Tuesday afternoon. They told him it would be 7-10 days before he heard back from them. Reading online forums, most candidates hear back in 1-3 days after the interview. We are on day 2. We are patiently (and sometimes impatiently) waiting for an answer.

Finally, we're waiting for our pastor's wife Miki to go into labor. She is having a baby any day now and we are watching their 7 kids while she and our pastor Doug are in the hospital. Miki says she's really dropped and had some big contractions, so we'll see. You may remember that we posted last summer about babysitting them for 4 days. It was a crazy time but very fun. And this year, there will be 8 kids with Nora! I think I have a little more energy now though that I'm not pregnant. The kids kept wanting me to run and play soccer and do a water fight, but I was like "Hello, I'm 7 months pregnant!". So do you think we can we handle it??? I think so, the older kids are such a big help and they all have their assigned chores. We will definitely be posting pictures of that wild time! We already have some plans. And again, NO we do not want to have 7 (or 8) kids.

Long desired goal fulfilled

Hahaha, this picture was making me laugh last night. I know it's not wonderful quality, but I was taking great pains to get Emma and Nora to both look at the camera last night as we watched them. When I finally got them both looking, Emma started falling over and looked terrified on the way down for the 1 foot drop from her sitting position.

Anyway, last night after we put the girls to bed, Justin was going to run to Dairy Queen to get us a Blizzard. As we were getting our cash out, Justin heard the bell of the Ice Cream Man that bikes around our neighborhood. If you don't know, this is going on our 3rd summer of trying to catch this guy! In past years we have tried to note the nights and times he drives by and we've even sat out on our driveway in lawn chairs with flip flops on waiting with money in hand. This was all to no avail, he has always eluded us. We've even contemplated if he was a ghost. We always heard his bell , but when we ran to find him, he'd be nowhere in sight. Justin and I decided we would give it our all to catch this man before we moved from Eau Claire and last night that goal was fulfilled. When Justin heard the bell, he grabbed the money from my hand and ran out the door. Totally forgetting about the girls, I ran after him yelling, "What are you doing?". All he could say was, "The ice cream man...the girls!" I handed him the rest of my change, told him to get me whatever, and waited in the house. He brought us back two ice cream bars and a little bit of nostalgia from my childhood. We had a similar ice cream man in our neighborhood growing up, only he drove a truck that played music. We always made a point of playing outside in the front yard on the day and time the ice cream man would come. What a summer treat! And now we're on his route...though I think half the fun was chasing him down. He was excited to know we had been seeking him for so long and even gave us a $1 off coupon for next time.

I also want to take a moment to brag on my Mother's Day gift from Justin, a Rowenta iron. I have been told about Rowenta irons from Martha Stewart and Megan Holmen-the only 2 people I know who actually get enjoyment from ironing. Megan is the Ironing Queen and that must make me the Ironing Peasant. I am now realizing that some of my hatrid for the task was not being successful at it. You know, you get out the ironing board then iron the shirt and it looks just as wrinkly afterward. What's the point? Anyway, from Martha and Megan I have learned a few tips and thought I might share them with those who share my sentiments.

1) You need a thick ironing pad. I guess the 1 layer of fabric one I got from Walmart in college wasn't thick enough. A few months ago, my mom graciously bought me a $20 thick ironing pad. It was sad to me to think of a good $20 going to something like an ironing pad, but when I used it, it did help some.

2) You need a heavy iron. My Sunbeam brand cheapy also wasn't cutting it. I now also recommend Rowenta brand-and eek the good ones are near $100. That motivates me somewhat to iron more to get our money's worth out of it.

3) Having the iron on the right setting really does make a difference. I ironed even with my Rowenta with no sucess. Then I actually to a second to look at the fabric of the shirt and match it with the setting on my iron and to my suprise I got all the wrinkles out of Justin's dress shirt.

I can say, I did find a slight bit of enjoyment out of the task, until I looked at the clock and saw that it had taken me 20 mins. to accomplish this. So I accept that I never will be an Ironing Queen, but I do appreciate being able to decently iron a shirt if need be...

Short and (not) Stout

Nora had her 9 month appointment today. She is growing fine in her growth charts in height, though still short, and head circumference. The doctor and I were a little concerned about her weight though. She has only gained 1 pound in the past 3 months, in which she has been eating solids 3 times a day in addition to nursing that whole time! She is an active little girl-always moving so I'm sure she burns a lot of it off, but 1 pound! Anyway, he wants to have her weight checked again in 6 weeks.

For now, the doctor's orders were to let her eat as much high caloric foods as often as she wants. Wouldn't you love for your doctor to tell you that? I would. I made a ham yesterday and we gave Nora some at dinner which she loved and ate every last piece. It's funny how even babies can sort out the foods they like on a high chair tray-the ham pieces among broccoli and squash. I guess we know who will be eating the rest of the leftovers...and in true Wisconsin fashion lots of cheese too.

Nora is 9 Months!

Here, Nora is playing with one of her girlfriends, Ella, on a play date. The age that Nora is at is so much fun for us! She is beginning to understand more. We know that she for sure understands the words "no" and also "dog". Our landlords have 2 dogs that bark often. Whenever they do, she looks toward that direction. Sometimes we go in the back yard to visit them. If they do not see her and come over right away, she will yell out to them and they come running over. She always laughs at any dog she sees or even if we just say/sign it. Yelling out is another thing she does frequently now. She is starting to love other older kids and as they walk by her, she will call out to them in her baby babble. This is mostly cute and funny, but the other day she was

calling out to another kid while we were out to eat at TGI Fridays. This was then embarrassing. No amount of toys or finger foods could distract her until she got the boy's attention. Nora is also starting to shake her little booty when music comes on. That is just adorable. The best development though is her smile. We used to have to really coax smiles and laughs from her by making silly noises or faces (which we still do quite often). Now, she will sometimes just look over at us and we simply smile at her and she smiles back, like regular adults would do with each other. It is so sweet. Also, sometimes Justin will be teasing me in a silly voice, with no intention of making Nora laugh, but she will. Justin is very glad to now have an audience of 2 to laugh at the silly things he says and does.

In other news, Justin is continuing to move forward in the hiring process with Edward Jones! He has a final face to face interview on May 26th in the Twin Cities. Sometime after that he will either be offered the job in the La Crosse area or not. Hopefully, the former and not the latter!

Moving Along

Nora is progressing more and more toward free standing. She almost always crawls to objects and pulls herself up on them. She even attempts moving from one object to the other-like from this coffee table to the couch-while still holding on with one hand.

Here Nora is satisfying her car seat fetish, her most favorite "toy" right now. It can be ours or any other baby's, but she loves inspecting all the buckles and straps.

The other day I was opening mail at the kitchen table and taking with Nora who was in the adjacent room. I heard her, but when I looked around the corner I didn't see her at first. Then I spotted two feet sticking out from the end of our futon. Nora had discovered a new world behind the futon, I had no idea she could even fit back there. As I attempted to pull her out, she moved further and further into the crevice. I had the move the futon out to get her.

In other news, as many of you family and friends know we are planning on moving to La Crosse to help start a new church that our current church is starting. The target time to move has been determined for next spring/summer. Our pastor who is leading the team advised us to start looking for jobs now and if we get one before the target to move down early. We weren't planning on looking for new jobs for Justin until early next year, but over this past month an opportunity has fallen into our lap with Edward Jones. Justin is now in the hiring process for that position, he has had a informal and formal face to face interview and had a phone interview this morning that went well. He has another phone interview scheduled for next Monday morning. I guess the company is very selective in who they hire, so there are many interviews before they offer a job. We are praying about this daily and asking God to open this door wider or close it. We would be happy to stay in Eau Claire until the last possible minute, but are willing to move sooner if we feel that is where God is leading us. We take solace that there is another couple already moving down in August because the husband got a teaching job for next school year. We wouldn't be completely alone. We are excited about Justin possibly getting a job but very sad about the thought of leaving Eau Claire earlier than expected. We have many people we have been very close with here for almost 8 years, and I have already cried tears over leaving this place. Yet, it is such an adventure and we're excited for all the new and exciting things that will happen over the next 2-3 years. So we are a mixture of emotions right now, depending on the moment.