Job search update #5000

No, it isn't settled yet. Still. Yes, we're sick of dealing with it, thinking about it, talking about it, having it hang over our heads. Really we are.

So, here's the summary-
Indiana job- they do have a medical director chosen and Dave has spoken with him by telephone. It isn't enough. The new director wants him to make another trip there so they can meet in person. Seriously, could this have moved any slower?! His inital interview was in early September.

Tennessee job- He really liked it there, got a "we love you" email from them, but they already had other interviews scheduled that they want to honor, so their time frame for making a decision is still 2-3 weeks from now.

Virginia- I think I forgot to mention he went on an interview in western VA. He also really liked it there and they gave strong messages that they really liked him. Initially, their timeframe for a decision was by the end of Feb. Dave got an email last week saying that they were planning in making a decision in the next few days. So far, no word from them, though.

More maddening waiting. We're so done with the waiting. This was supposed to be the fun and easy part.

How to get well by Dillon

Fart a lot.

Take lots of medicine.

Get lots of rest.

This is particularly relevant since we all (except Corryn so far) have some sort of awful coughing, body aching viral madness. What a joy on top of the several inches of snow we got last night and the endless gray days.

Good reasons not to clean the kitchen

I've been in major clean out mode as of late- you know, getting ready to sell the house and move in a few months. I thought it would be a good idea to run the self-cleaning option on the stove as an easy way to getting it really good and clean in there. Afterall, surely someone will overlook all the kid clutter in the house and know it was well taken care of if the inside of the oven is clean- right? So, for the first time in the almost 5 years we've been in the house, I tried to utilize this clearly beneficial option.

Except... it started beeping "door" at me approximately 2 minutes into the cycle. I fiddled with the door until the alarm changed to "F-9." Hmmm.... did a quick search online to find the .pdf of the owners manual (since the previous owners didn't leave it for us) and found nothing about an F-9 alarm. I called Amana, talked to a very kind customer service person, had her share my joy in the continuously beeping alarm only to find out that F-9 indicated a problem with the door latch and that the oven would now be locked until a new latch could be put in. Shut the stupid thing off, took down the number of the repair person, planning to call the next day. More money out on a house that we're wanting to sell very soon. There's something so wrong about that.

Not learning my lesson, the next day, I proceed to do more cleaning out, finding a bag of flaxseeds that I purchased easily 3 years ago and have used, well, almost not at all. To the trashcan with them!

Except... on the way to the trashcan, they spilled out all over the floor. Did I trip over the dog? A toy left on the floor? Nope, just dropped the bag. So, now there are these little buggy looking things all over the floor I had just swept. The dog, who has a rather sensitive stomach is trying the eat them, Corryn is crawling all through them and Dillon is repeatedly yelling "What happened?!" from the other room. I suppose that's good in that it prevented them from hearing what I was muttering. Out comes the vacuum cleaner- the dog goes running, Corryn tries to chew on the cord. It's almost all clean when the phone rings. While I'm on the phone, Dillon keeps picking Corryn up, making her mad.

How exactly does it go from perfectly calm to mass chaos so quickly?

Anyway, I got the mess cleaned up, procrastinated in calling the repair person and found that a matter of about 16 hours later, the oven unlocked itself- with all the baked on stuff inside still firmly in place.

I just hope anyone thinking about buying our house didn't just read this.

So she likes anatomy...

Dillon has always been highly fascinated with anything to do with the human body. Got an injury? She wants the whole scoop, including blood if you have it to show. We have an anatomy book that she loves looking at, which we did for a little while today.

A little while later-

"Mom? Will you hold you hold your arms up in a big O and let me go through them? That way you can be the fallopian tube and I can be the egg."

Understandably, I'm often a little concerned with what she'll come up with next...

Happy 1st Birthday My Little Imp!

One year ago today, right about the time I'm sitting down to write this, Corryn was born after a dream of a labor and delivery. Today, we're celebrating her first birthday with a chocolate cake, lots of singing of "Happy Birthday" and time all spent together. She dug wholeheartedly into her cake:

And clearly enjoyed it immensely. Raised her right, huh? :)

I've nicknamed her my little Imp. She's the kid that crawls into the room, looks around to see what she can get into, gives a little grin, then goes for it.

Some of her favorite activities-

Taking off her diaper cover and "accidently" dropping it down the stairs...

Turning the cold water on in the bathtub. This is especially fun when someone is in the shower...

Crawling up the stairs, even if it means crawling over the barricade I've put at the bottom to stop this little adventure. She's incredibly quick and silent at the stair climbing.

She loves imitating Dillon as much a possible. Blowing raspberries was the shared activity yesterday. She's almost walking, though not quite. She has 4 teeth- the top and bottom front ones. Although still not a big eater, she prefers spicier food than bland food. She's still a little studier, preferring to watch things and take it all in. Much to most people's chagrin, she's not a particularly smiley baby to strangers. She gives us big smiles and giggles, though. She dances when she hears music, even if it's just Dillon singing. She's starting to learn some signs, which I love. I remember how much easier it made life with Dillon. She shows all signs of being able to throw a proper tantrum :)

Happy Birthday my little Imp!

(And yes, that is her crawling on the tray of her high chair in the first picture!)

Yes, we're really going to homeschool

A conversation in the car today between Dillon and Dave:

Dillon: "How big is the earth?"
Dave: "Really big."
Dillon: "But how big?"
Dave: "Well, about 25,000 miles around."
Dillon: "Are we in the earth?"
Dave: "We're on the surface of the earth."
Dillon: What's in the middle of the earth?"
Dave: "Oreo stuffing."

Job search update

This will be brief since we're a germ factory around here. Corryn's been running fever on and off the last 36 hours, then I started running fever this morning. What a joy.

Anyway-

The job search is still ongoing. Dave ended up going on the interview to TN alone. The hospital balked at the cost of bringing all 4 of us to travel there on short notice. Can't really blame them, given that it was probably close to $1000 per ticket and 2 members of the family don't really have a say in whether or not we move there. In any case, the interview went extremely well, he really clicked with the partners in the practice. They practice there have other interviewees scheduled, so their timeline for making a decision is "a few weeks."

The job in Indiana is still out there. They supposedly are expecting to have all contract paperwork completed with the new anesthesia director by this week, at which point they'll put him in contact with the candidates. They are anticipating this happening by the end of the month.

There are a couple of more places that have requested interviews with him, it's a matter of scheduling. So, there are at least 2 really strong possibilities, either of which we could see being really happy in.

More waiting, though.