Current Events

Chief Breadwinner has found some time between mybookfacetweet sessions to keep you posted on the kiddos, so let's talk about me. Much has happened since we last spoke via the interweb. I turned 35, the Vikings lost 2 of 3 games in very poor fashion, I shaved, my addiction to sweat pants has increased exponentially, and my hope has been somewhat renewed in SNL. What else can a guy ask for really?

First up, the birthday. Chief Breadwinner got me out of the apron and took me to dinner while G&G J watched the offspring. Very nice. But more pleasantly surprising was the urging of Chief Breadwinner to go out with "the boys" the night before. What a turnaround from the days of yore when such an event would require more than a little negotiation. I must be doing a great job of looking worn out at days' end. Otherwise Chief Breadwinner has nightmares of me pulling a Jack Nicholson in The Shining or something. Either way, night out on the town - excellent. Unfortunately, at this advanced age, that means little more than meeting at a bar to watch the aforementioned Vikings get embarrassed by AZ. Ugh. Still a thoroughly enjoyable time though. Thanks boys.

Since we are on the subject of the Vikings, what is up? Way to jinx the team and buy a plane ticket to Miami Officer Glucose. By the way, both losses were games that I watched with Swede Larsen. As much as I enjoy the company, this game watching marriage may be over before it hardly began. I'll have to go back to watching the games in high speed TiVo after the kids go to bed.

Thirdly, I am now clean shaven again (or at least I was for a day.....). After fighting through the scratchiness period, I was really feeling the Grizzly Adams. However, it was not a big hit with Chief Breadwinner and Little A. Plus, the gray was really showing up. Fine with me, but to paraphrase/amend a classic movie line, "graying, balding, and overweight is no way to go through life son". Shaving off the facial hair did remind me of a product placement opportunity for Milk & O's though. Every Man Jack face lotion. A must have for every post-shave recovery period. Check it out at EveryManJack.com, and get some to stuff those stockings for that special someone in your life.

By no means does this concern for personal appearance limit my new found love of sweatpants however. As mentioned above, they are my new love. Sure, I've worn them occasionally throughout my life. But now, I've taken it to the next level. My only regret is that I have a limited supply of said fashion staples. Are you listening Santa? Get off your arse and get those elves sewing. Drawstring waist, no elastic around the ankles. Soft and loose. That is the way stay-at-home dads roll.

Lastly, did anyone watch SNL on 12/12 with Taylor Lautner (I think that is the correct spelling, right teen vampire fans)? Anyway, not the greatest effort, but if you made it to the last skit, you were treated to a classic. Doorbells & More. Check it out on the GoogleTube. I was rolling. Combine that gem with some newer staples like "What Up With That", "JJ Casuals and/or The Mellow Show", and anything that includes Andy Samburg's face, and I am back to being a die hard SNL nerd. Now if only I could revert back to 1990-1993 and watch every SNL with the HLOL group in Stenzel's basement after a raucous ping pong tournament. Then I'd truly be living the good life.

That's all for now. Stay cool Milk & O's followers. Merry Christmas.

Mr. Shaggy McGee (Before)

Who will miss the mullet?

A Farewell to Babyhood (After)

Colin's first haircut: Saturday, December 19, 2009

Kids' Hair, Eden Prairie Center

Celebratory lunch afterwards at D'Amico

He did a great job- no tears, just squirmy.

Mike is...

Buried under a pile of work

December 6, 2009

Bath time!

We had a nice and busy week and weekend. The kids are doing a great job at swimming lessons, and will have their last lesson of this camp on Tuesday. I went to the neighborhood womens' book club on Thursday evening, and while there was not a book in sight, there was plenty of wine! To be fair, it was their holiday party and white elephant gift exchange. It's so nice to be in a neighborhood with so many friendly neighbors! This afternoon, our next door neighbor had an open house, and Mike and I went over to visit in shifts, as we didn't arrange a baby sitter. We are planning on having a sitter this coming Saturday night for our friends Blake and Candy's annual holiday party, as well as an evening of shopping some night this week for Mike and me.

Colin had spaghetti and ragu for the first time this evening. He promptly dumped the suction cupped bowl on to his tray, and dug in with both hands! I shot some video of the proceedings, and here are some pictures of his bath, that was necessary after said meal.

And in case you were silently wondering (and some of you not so silently wondering), this is the week that we're taking my baby for his first haircut! He's been mistaken for a girl one too many times. He'll look so grown up, but I'm anxious to see how handsome he'll be too.

All through the house, not a creature was stirring...

I'm home for a short bit before heading out to catch the kids' swimming lesson. It is so rare nowadays that I find myself home alone, and I am enjoying it. Shug is happy to see me. I left work, as there was not much going on, and I am getting ready for an avalanche of work to hit on Monday, when I am scheduled to start seeing patients of my own in clinic. I didn't even know what to do with myself when I decided to leave, and all I thought of was getting home, even though I knew no one would be here to greet me.

I am having a bit of trouble removing myself from the day to day details of home life, and am sure that it is wearing on my patient husband. Not to mention being exhausting for me, since it was all I could do to handle everything when it was my only job, and now I've added full time employment on top of it. It's a tricky situation, because although I am not home overseeing the kids as my primary job, I still have the job of mother. Thanks for letting me vent. Everything else is great. I'm still loving work, the house is all decorated for Christmas, the kids are having a good time in school and swimming lessons, and Colin is full of pointing and grunts and working so hard to communicate with us. He's quite the little personality- and so in love with his siblings.

Did you learn that from your wife?

For those irregular followers of Milk & O's, as well as those who have not been privy to the multiple changes that have occurred with Swiss Family Frodermann since August 2009, the artist formerly known as SuperDad is now Mr. Mom. I have taken a few months to settle into the new gig before contributing to the FroFamily blog, but if I am going to really embrace this new role, the cross to bear that is maintaining this blog should become a bigger priority of mine. We all know that this blog has suffered anyway since the advent of MyFace and the stranglehold it has taken on KFro. It only promises to get worse now that work has "required" that Chief Breadwinner get an iPhone. Now it is SpaceTweetBook all the time, in the car, on the couch, ..... As such, this is the inaugural blog post of Mr. Mom, with the promise of regular ones to follow.

While a less sexy title than SuperDad, Mr. Mom is whimsical, clever, and descriptive, as well as conjures up fond memories of that classic 80's film by the same name. However, I vow to be more entertaining than the comical stylings of Michael Keaton and Terri Garr. Plus, I won't almost single handedly ruin the Batman franchise. Michael Keaton = Batman = lame. I also vow to not let the new role change me as a person. I will still be the same softball addicted, beer drinking, Chipotle eating fool that I've always been. Except now I've found myself drinking even more, and I've grown a full beard. Grizzly Adams - look out. There is a new sheriff in town. And I don't hang out in the woods with some old crazy guy and a bear. At least not yet anyway.

Now, to break you all in slowly, I'll leave you with a little anecdote from a day in the life. Hence the title of this post and accompanying picture. To set the scene, one night last week, Chief Breadwinner was working late doing what she does and the kids and I are eating dinner. I am doing some refrigerator maintenance by serving a variety of fruits as part of our meal to ensure that they do not spoil and thus be destined for the garbage disposal. As we are eating, the following conversation occurs.

B (in his typical loud excited voice): "Dad, we have three different kinds of fruit! Grapes, apples, and peaches."
Mr. Mom: "Yes B, we do. Good counting. Can you guys think of any other kinds of fruit?"
B (as he spies what is on the counter): "Bananas and kiwi!"
Mr. Mom: "Yes, good job."
A: "Pineapple."
Mr. Mom: "Great."
B: "Pears."
Mr. Mom (thinking when will this end): "Yes."
A: "Tomatoes."
Mr. Mom (completely surprised): "Yes. How did you know that? Most people think tomatoes are vegetables."
A (in complete teenager voice): "I learned it in school. How did you know that? Did you learn that from your wife? She is a scientist you know."
Mr. Mom (straight faced but busting a gut internally): "No. I learned it in school to, ... and why did you call Mommy my wife instead of just saying Mommy?"
A (matter-of-factly): "Because that is what she is. Your mommy is Grandma F."
Mr. Mom (now laughing out loud with B joining in): "You got me there A. You got me there."

Froderfall

Mike at the Office

Reading a good book

All dressed up and no place to go!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Our Christmas tree is up! I think this is the earliest that we've ever put up the tree, but I'm totally in the holiday mood already. We had to find a new lot since moving to the new house. It sure was nice to walk down the alley and carry a tree home, at the old house, but the new tradition will work just fine too. We got the lights strung on on Tuesday night, and decorated with ornaments last night. The elves came during the night, and we had a fun time discovering what they left in our stockings this morning. Now that the elves have visited, they will go back to the North Pole to tell Santa that our house is ready for him to come on Christmas eve.

Happy First Birthday!

Colin didn't quite understand how to open his present. He better practice before Christmas.

Colin enjoyed his birthday cake. He wasn't as fond of vanilla ice cream.

Colin's birthday celebration consisted of a family dinner (tacos) on his birthday, November 11, some balloons and streamers to decorate the kitchen, and cake for the birthday boy, siblings, Mom and Dad, and Grandpa & Grandma J. Happy First Birthday, Colin August! We love you.

Thanksgiving

This year especially, Thanksgiving was really meaningful. It finally feels like things are settling down and fitting into place after the upheaval that was our summer. It was also fantastic to have four days with my family! I am so thankful for our family and friends, our health, employment, and our home.
We went to my parents' for the noon meal on Thursday, and Bridget and Steve's bunch was there as well. Colin was a wild man for stuffing. I should add however, that my Grandma J's recipe for stuffing is not typical- it is hamburger-based. Annalise is still a fan of cranberry sauce, and now likes pumpkin pie. On Friday morning, well, actually after lunch, we headed down to Okabena. We had a nice time with Mike's parents, although it was busy as usual. The kids really liked sitting in the combine with Grandpa, and Annalise was really good at driving it too! It is good to be home, and I think I'm ready for a 5 day work week. More pictures soon!

Happy Halloween!

We had a great halloween in E.P.! It was such a contrast with the anonymous trick-or-treating we were accostumed to in Minneapolis. Everyone knew we were the "new kids on the block." I was offered a bottle of beer, invited into a neighbor's home to see her kitchen remodel (she knew that her kitchen was the reverse of ours), urged to drop by a nearby house party, and enjoyed the warmth of a driveway fire pit. Annalise was Cinderella before the ball, Colin wore his tiger pullover just for the picture and then went straight to bed, and Bennett was a police officer (Officer Awesome it says on his name tag), since we were able to talk him out of being Chick Hicks (the bad car from the movie Cars).

Here are the kids!

I know many of you are anxious to see what our crew has been up to lately- here are a few shots of the kids to tide you over.

Hello from an old friend (Oh, how I've missed you!)

My name is Katie. Welcome to our blog. My husband Mike and I have been married for ten spectacular years, and have three beautiful children: Annalise, 5 ½ years, Bennett, 3 ½ years, and Colin, 12 months, and a Brittany spaniel/? mix named Shug. This was a tumultuous summer for our family. This post in no means will be all inclusive, but may serve to highlight the happenings of our life over the past three months.

We sold our home in Minneapolis, and moved to Eden Prairie. We love suburban life! Our neighbors have been so welcoming, and several teens in the neighborhood have offered (certified) babysitting services. We are absolutely loving the space in our new home. All the kids have their own bedroom, and our master suite is gargantuan. The basement is unfinished, and is currently being used as a racetrack for bikes. Shug and the kids love the fenced backyard, and we all love being able to park both vehicles in an attached garage! One of the 1985 building-era decisions we are not fond of is having no overhead lighting in the rooms! Arghgh! We are in need of lamps, and storage/shelving. Oh, how I miss our lovely cherry built-ins! We have started to prioritize our list of remodeling projects, but have not arrived at a conclusion regarding which task will be our first.

As an early Christmas present, Mike and I are ordering a brand-new king size bed for our new digs. It was time for our ten year old mattress to go, and since we’ve got the space we decided to upgrade from our queen. Our queen size bed is going in A’s room, so when we have guests, they can stay in her room, and she can sleep in the bunk beds in B’s room. The kids are doing really well in their own rooms. Annalise and Bennett were sharing a room in Minneapolis, and had grown accustomed to having a nighttime companion. They made the transition without a hitch, and it’s been smooth sailing. Colin has even been doing alright during the night. He goes to sleep between 6:30 and 7:00, and cries out to nurse one time between 3:30 and 5:30. Then if we’re lucky, he goes back to sleep until 8 or so. Colin seems to be on the verge of losing his morning nap, and no longer naps in the car, as he is out of the infant carrier. Bennett and Annalise continue to sleep 7-7, with Bennett having a good afternoon nap on most days.

Annalise has been having a fairly uneventful Kindergarten year. She is such a hard worker, and Nadine tells me that she has multiple projects going at once (just like her mother), and needs to be urged to finish up a project before moving on to new work. She brings home some wonderful artworks that are also diagrams of the anatomy of a fish, or a flower (stamen, style, calyx, etc.). It is so much fun to walk by her bedroom and hear her reading books to B. Bennett is quite the leader in his casa, and is enjoying having a whole new room of friends to entertain. A and B just started a swim camp at Foss, and are in the same class (and are the only ones in class), so they're really having fun, and progressing in their skills quickly. It's great to see Annalise more comfortable putting her face in the water. Besides swimming lessons, the Big Two have been busy going to classmates' birthday parties. We're thinking of having them start Sunday school at our new church too.

Colin is crawling, and EATing, and whining, and rushing to climb the steps if the gate is not pulled across, and waving, and loving to be held always. We had a very low-key first birthday party for Colin on November 11, and since we were recovering from a week of fever/cold symptoms/possible H1N1 infection (in Annalise and Colin), we didn't want to get a group of cousins together to swap germs. He gave us quite a scare last month, and I write about it now, more as a way to reference when it happened as my memory of it will fade with time. Mike's memory of it may not fade as quickly. I was at work (I'm getting to that next!) when I received a frantic call from Mike, at about 10:30. He was with Colin, and needed to know which hospital to direct the ambulance to, as Colin had just had a seizure (not febrile). Mike was at my parents' house loading some things in the truck, and Colin was in his carseat in the foyer, displeased at being put in the carseat instead of being held by daddy. Mike was just letting him cry as he finished up packing his load, when suddenly Colin was arched in his carrier with his eyes rolled back in his head, spitting, and holding his arms locked at a ninety degree angle. I met my dad at the Little Flowers, explained briefly what was happening, and he took the kids from school for the rest of the day. I then met Mike and Colin at Childrens', where Colin was acting totally normal, and was in fact quite charming and uncharacteristically flirty with the ER doc. He had some blood work and a head CT. We were discharged with a prescription for rectal valium should he seize again, and could not be stopped after five minutes. The likely diagnosis was seizure versus breath-holding event. The next week held a plenitude of appointments for Colin and Mike. He had to see the pediatrician for a pre-op physical, then had an MRI with sedation, followed by an EEG and a consult with a pediatric neurologist. All testing came back negative, and the neurologist told us to live our lives without any restrictions on Colin- it may or may not ever happen again. That was hard to listen to when the information we read on breath-holding said it can be initiated by bouts of crying. For a few weeks we were at Colin's crib seconds after he cried out, and we got back into a nasty habit of letting him breastfeed multiple times per night. But now all is well, and we thank God for our family's health (and health insurance, which started November 1!).

Now, the job. After 5.5 years at home, I have jumped back into the world of medicine, although I've moved to the other end of the body. I am a physician assistant for a colon and rectal surgery group in the Twin Cities. I am loving it! The surgeons are all very kind, and are great teachers. The variety of procedures I get to do in the clinic is great, and the OR cases are really interesting. I love how BIG everything is (as compared to neurosurgery). The surgeon just wades through piles of intestine, 'cuts and pastes', then plops them back in the abdomen, and sews them up. Wahlah! It's so much fun! And the reason I can have so much fun at my job is that I am completely at ease about the care my children are receiving. That's because Mike is at home now, and he is a rock star! He is really enjoying his new job, and he seems really happy, and totally thrilled to not get up and go to a desk job day after day. He is an excellent cook, multitasker, laundry-folder, chauffeur, and playmate. I'm really grateful that we have transitioned to our new roles so smoothly.

I think that's about it for now. I really appreciate everyone's patience while the blog was out of commission. I also am so grateful for the wonderful support experienced from family and friends over this crazy summer. Your friendships mean the world to me. I'm so glad to be back to blogging- I have missed reading everyone's updates, and using this blog as a virtual journal, as well as a way to communicate to everyone at once.

Aachchhh...

I TRIED to post last night from home, to no avail. I plugged in the computer and tried to get online with dial-up. Apparently, my computer doesn't have a modem/we didn't reinstall it after the great hard drive crash a few years ago (figuring, when would we ever use dial-up...). So apparently I need to get on the ball and make a quick decision about high speed internet. I am so nervous, as I should not be typing this at work! So goodbye for now!

TOMORROW...

Tomorrow's the Big Day!

Think of me tomorrow, Milk and O's followers. I am such a mix of emotions, I can't even say which one is the most prominent, or lingering. I have set out my outfit, and I'm already in my pajamas. Now I'm going to soak up some of the calm oozing out of my husband, and head off to bed.

Last Homeless Weekend

Here we are, enjoying every last bit of the advantages of multi-generational living. This past week, we've gone on a boat ride with G and G, had a fire in the backyard fire pit and roasted marshmallows for s'mores, and enjoyed the wonderful luxury of letting the boys sleep under the watch of an in-house babysitter while going to pick up Annalise from school. We've also enjoyed Mom's wonderful cooking and the glorious hot tub. Grandpa and Grandma are now accepting applications for their next batch of houseguests...

Mom and Dad left yesterday for The Land, so we are left for the remainder of our stay here in PL, to fend for ourselves. Last night, Mike and Annalise brought home Red's Savoy pizza for dinner, after Annalise had an after school playdate with Alma. Our plans today are still undecided, but so far Colin has been put down for a nap, and the big kids have caught quite a few sunfish, and are now looking for oysters and clam shells, in hopes of finding pearls. Swimming suits in Prior Lake the last weekend of September- not too shabby!

I think we've got a zoo date scheduled for tomorrow, and Monday has Mike slated to be at the new house for half a day or so, to oversee the radon mitigation system installation. Yup, that's right, the new house tested over a 4 for radon during the inspection, so luckily the sellers were able to schedule a radon removal company for Monday, before the Wednesday closing. We found out yesterday that Wednesday is the only day that pods are not delivered, so we'll have to wait until Thursday for Pod Delivery (cue angels singing "Hallelujah"). We'll stay at the house as a family on Friday night, so as not to disrupt school morning routine Wednesday-Friday.

Delicious Progress

Mike was scheduled to be at The House today at 1:30 for the inspection. Well, I couldn't stay away. After picking up B from school, the boys and I went to Einsteins in my new 'hood for lunch, then cruised around the neighborhood, seein' the sights. We drove by Bryant Lake Regional Park beach- nice! We found the park, 0.3 miles from our new driveway. Bennett had a great time on the slides, balance beam, rocking motorcycle, and swinging gate apparatus and then we took a stroller ride to the house. Bennett played in the backyard on the swingset, and it was so fun to watch him get so excited and see him really enjoying himself at our new house. I left Bennett at The House with Mike, Mom and Dad (who had taken a motorcycle ride up to see the new place), and Colin had a carnap while we picked up Annalise from school. Twelve minutes from The House to school, and ten minutes back home! Woo hoo! Annalise was also excited to see the house, and "liked everything about it, except the kitchen." Apparently, she doesn' t like that it is painted burgundy/red, and suggests purple for the redecorating hue.

We did it!

We have been on a rollercoaster ride.

On Tuesday, we went to look at more houses after the weekend-long negotiation on the offer for the Minnetonka house fell through. On the ride home from house hunting Tuesday (where we saw one remote possibility, and one that was close, but not quite right), Mike and I made a decision to pursue the Golden Valley house that had been in the back of our minds for a while. When I got back to PL and on to my Saved Properties list, I discovered that the Golden Valley property was nowhere to be found. Our agent confirmed our fears that the seller had accepted an offer, and that really threw me into a pit of despair.

Mike stayed up after I went to bed a complete downtrodden mess, and discovered a house that we hadn't found in our previous searches. When Mike came to bed, he mentioned to me that he was really excited about it, and I sort of remember mumbling something like, "that's nice, honey." The next morning, I woke up before the sun to drive to Roseville to attend an All Staff breakfast meeting for my new job. I told Mike he should set up a showing of this miracle house of his (I was quite skeptical of anything working out for us at this point in time). Mike, Colin, and I showed up for an 11 am showing, and by about 11:04 were both ready to sign on the dotted line. Long, long, long story short- WE MADE AN OFFER, AND IT WAS ACCEPTED!!!

So, to summarize:
- Mike finds house late at night on Tuesday, 9/15
- We go to see the house Wednesday, 9/16, 11 a.m. and make an offer
- We find out our offer was accepted Wednesday early evening

and here's the great part..... we close on September 30th!!!

I suppose you want to know about the house? Give me a call, or I'll tell more in the next post. I know, I'm awful. I have to have a little fun though. Now, who's going to have a drink (or many) with us? We've earned it.

Rounding the Curve (summer to fall)

Here is a picture from the kindergarten roundup party we held the evening of the house closing. It was such a fun time (and not at all crazy to schedule on the same day as the chaos that is moving). And no, Bennett is not a kindergartener, but loved to be included in big sister's activity.

These two were from our trip with friends to Danielle's mom's cabin the last weekend of August.

The saga continues...

We are living with my parents since leaving our home of 7 years on August 24th. Mike and I have both been fielding job opportunities and scouting out various prospects for the past two months. Mike has had some success already with consulting work. I accepted a position as a physician assistant with a group of colon and rectal surgeons on Thursday, which also happened to be our ten year wedding anniversary.

We put an offer on a home in Minnetonka on Friday evening. We heard back with a counter this morning, and are still in the midst of negotiations. My first day of work will be September 29th. Aghghhh- that's soon! I'll be working out of a clinic at the Physicians Building next to the hospital in Edina. I'm excited, and nervous all rolled into one. Mike will stay home with the munchkins, and that is one of the major reasons I feel that I can even consider returning to full time employment.

Away from the home and job front, the kids are growing like weeds! Colin turned 10 months on Friday, and climbed a flight of stairs all by himself, also on Friday. Not to be outdone, Annalise ditched the training wheels, and has been riding her bike like a champion. Bennett seems to have grown up overnight since the first few days of preschool. He really seems to like the work he's doing at school, and is getting to know his classmates, which if you know Bennett, is an essential part of adapting to a new environment.

The computer is temporarily unpacked- here come some pictures!

We are here in PL, and I'm not even going to attempt to recap the events of our lives since the computer was unplugged in Minneapolis on 8/24, except to say that we are chuggin' along, one day at a time. Here are a few pictures of our last day as Minneapolitans...

Father/Daughter

What a difference five years makes! Mike and Annalise on the first day of her life, and her first day of Kindergarten.

First Day of Kindergarten

My sweet baby girl took a big step today. She entered the world of academia, and we wish her a successful, enriching, educational career. After a night filled with frequent wake-ups in all three children, we had our usual morning routine, breakfast, and classic Kindergartener wearing a humongous backpack photos on the front step. The whole family drove to Little Flowers this morning to see Annalise off on her first day of Kindergarten, and Bennett off to his first day of preschool at Little Flowers. They were both so excited!

After a smooth drop off, Mike, Colin, and I went to breakfast at Yum, and then on to Trader Joe's to stock up on blueberry bars. When we picked Bennett up at 11:40, we spied him holding hands with a cute little blonde classmate as they returned from the playground. That Bennett!

Signing Off

I'm not going to post again until we are out of our house, which will not be our house anymore at 12:30 on Monday. Packing is arduous, and we couldn't have done it at all without the help of Mom and Dad, and Bridget and Steve. Thanks so much! Now I can unplug the computer.

Congratulations to Alex and Katie on the birth of their baby girl!

Holdin' Steady

We've had a nice week. We've been feeling like we're unable to do anything fun, since we should be finding jobs 24 hours a day. But now we have things fairly mapped out, so we had a fun family day at an outdoor pool yesterday, and are leaving momentarily for the last weekend of softball this summer. I feel able to leave for the weekend, since I heard back from the potential employer, and I'm not on call for potential interviews with surgeons for the rest of this week. My second interview is scheduled for Monday, and Mike doesn't have anything going until a potential interview, yet unscheduled, after August 24th.

Off to gracious Sioux Falls we go!

Tag! We're IT!

LOST IT (July 14)

Mike went in to work on Tuesday the 14th, that his office would be closing, and he no longer would have a job after July. That same day, we were slated to go look at houses, which we ended up doing anyway, after hearing the news. The last house we went to was our Dream House- the house which prompted us to get on this whole roller coaster ride in the first place. Our realtor spoke very frankly with us regarding the large fissure in the limestone foundation, the need for a structural engineer inspection, the possibly $100,000+ needed to make this house livable, and the fact that we would never get our money back if/when we tried to sell. She also finally checked with the sellers' realtor, and discovered there are 2 purchase agreements on file with the bank already. But he encouraged us to write up a bid. Thanks, we'll get right on that... When we returned home from that disappointing trip, we got a call that we'd be getting an offer on our house in the morning. Wow, what a day. [The offer turned out to be an insult, and they didn't end up meeting our very firm counter.]

SOLD IT (August 5)

We received a second VERY low-ball offer on Monday, the 3rd. But after several counters over the next two days, we actually came to an agreement, and SOLD our house on Wednesday, August 5 (which has been on the market since May 14). The surreal aspect of this paragraph is not the simple joy of selling our house, the confusion of keeping our house on the market in the midst of job loss, but the speed of closing. We will be closing on the sale of our beloved home since 2002 on August 24. Which brings me to our next challenge- the job hunt. Or Race to Employment, as I have labeled an email folder in Outlook.

NAILED IT (August 7)

I started to apply for jobs once we got the news about Mike's job. I did this in part as a good faith gesture, and I was hoping that Mike would get a job before anything came of my emailed resumes. But then I applied for a position in colon and rectal surgery, and realized that I was actually excited about the possibility of doing surgery again, the chance to use my brain in a different way, the chance to use all of this pent-up medical education. They called me, and I had a quasi-phone interview on Tuesday, and a real interview was set up for Friday. Since our whole life is boxed up in a storage pod, waiting for things to get back to normal, I had no options to wear to this interview. I went shopping on Thursday, bought a few nice suits, and was dressed to impressed by 8 am Friday morning, when we had to leave the house for the 4 hour-long buyers' inspector's appointment. Mike and the kids dropped me off at the corporate office in St. Paul on that rainy Friday morning, and after leaving Annalise's rainbow umbrella in the entryway to drip dry, I walked through those double doors and tried my hardest to be a real physician assistant.

The interview went really well (tell me about a time when you had a really bad day....how do you handle it when surgeons yell and throw things...what have you been doing for 5 years...) and they would like me to move on to the next step and meet the surgeons. I will keep you all posted...

LIFE- ALWAYS CHANGING, ALWAYS SURPRISING. LOVE IT.

Or this one...

Thursday night was quite shocking. Hope actually said yes when I asked if she wanted to shop 50th and France with me. I then figured out that she didn't have work the next day, so it wasn't as wild as going out on a school night. After a bit of window shopping, and looking at what the modern-day ladies wear for job interviews, we stopped in at Danielle's for some chit chat.

Friday night was filled with more Hope (in more ways than one). We had a showing in the evening, so we had dinner with Hope and the kids. The kids played so well together; it was really an enjoyable evening. Saturday was pretty much a do-nothing day. Sunday we had a second showing, so we went to Prior Lake for the day. The kids had lots of fun playing with their cousins.

Maybe this is the one...

Bennett finished swimming "lessons" today, although I'm not sure how much educational value they contained. Oh well. He did go down the water slide with one of the teachers, and said, "it wasn't scary, it was fun!" but when asked if he'd like to go again, declined, stating he, "only planned on going down once."

Colin might have gotten some solid food in his mouth today- stewed prunes, green peas, apple puffs, and some pear yo-baby (at two different sittings) were all offered to him. The floor got the bulk of the food though. Colin still is completely toothless. When are those darn teeth coming, anyway? His crawling is really cute- I will try to get a video clip of it for posting. He has been standing at the crib railing twice today when I entered his room, after attempting to lie him down for nap. Tonight when I was putting the older kids in bed, he was wailing away, and I went in and found him standing at the edge of his mattress with one leg sticking out the slats at a weird angle (nothing broken- whew!)

I did something daring today- downloaded the last season of Mad Men from the video on demand. I've been considering watching the series for some time now. We'll see how it goes. Like Mike and I need another show to Tivo- we still have 13 Desperate Housewives to enjoy!

We have NOTHING planned for the rest of the week- no lessons, camp, errands- what to do?

[Pictures: Annalise and Bennett, both around 8 months, Title: refers to my hope before each house showing]

This and That

We had a great time over at Danielle and Mark's last Friday night, when Stokes, Ben, and Andy were in town. It's always interesting with a gator + inexperienced 5 year old drivers. Saturday night was so different from our usual scene! Congratulations to Mark- Mr. One Man Minneapolis! Much thanks to Becky and Christopher for watching our crew while Mike and I went to Pantages Theatre for the One Man pageant, followed by clubbing at Seven. Similar to Cinderella though, we had to catch our carriage (taxi) home by midnight.

We had a flurry of showings last weekend, and then a quiet week on the realty front until finally a showing this morning. We turned down a lowball offer late last week, and have decided to keep on with our current pricing strategy. We're just patiently (?) waiting for the right buyer to find our house.

Annalise had a week of science camp at Southwest high school, while Bennett is taking swimming lessons at an outdoor pool. Our little scientist had a lot of fun at school, learning about anatomy, planets, making goop, and flying paper airplanes, but I think her favorite trick was swinging a cup of water around without any coming out (centrifugal force). If you want your kid to learn how to swim, you go to Foss. If you want something to do while Annalise is at science camp, you spend $40 and not expect much from "lessons". I keep reminding myself that, since I am less than impressed with the four pierced, tattooed 20-somethings standing calf-deep in the water demonstrating arm strokes in the air to their 11 three year old students.

Many thanks to Danielle for a lovely evening of watching the kids bike in the street (Oh, to live in Edina) and eat frozen pizza while Mark was working, and Mike was at Eric's bachelor bash. It is so much better to be doing it together than being alone at home!

I'm going to be back in the habit of frequent posts, so stay tuned! And someday, when I'm ready, I'll fill you in on the meaning of the last post (if I haven't told you in person yet).