Moving Decisions

I "slept in" until 4:40 this morning. That's pretty good, right? The thoughts of living in a house finally are making me restless. I'm giddy. I wake up and can't stop thinking about stuff like:

• one or two story (one! I'm currently not handling my four flights - once or twice a day - very well)
• schools (Emma, I need that website link you use to check out schools)
• movers (can't they pay us the difference between the moving bids and what we could do it for? we could do it for under $300 and bids are coming in at $1750!)
• quitting (I'm sooooo ready to be done yesterday)
• explaining the bad side to Bradley (not so giddy - he's going to be sad to leave his school/friends)
• rent or buy (I can't imagine buying)
• what to do to thank everyone who's been so great to us (any suggestions - you're probably on the list ; )

I've been bothering the people I know who work(ed) in the public school system for a long time. I'm loving their advice. They are mentioning things to me that I would never have considered or thought of. Hopefully the research will pay off. As for house hunting: we'll try and check it out this weekend - so if you have advice - freely give it!

The Search is Over

We have a job.

The contract will come today in the mail. We are so excited and happy about this we've both had perma-grin since yesterday afternoon when the numbers were finalized. I can't believe it's all over.

Steven will be working for a large cardiologist group but under only one doctor. There are lots of perks to this but mostly better benefits because it's a big group, but he'll only have to answer to one person - not 4+ pushy doctors. The pay is going to be great and we'll be living in a small town just outside one of the major cities in TX. So the cost of living will continue to be rather cheap, but we'll have the access I was hoping for to a big city. (I'm a little ambiguous about the exact location because I've inherited my father's paranoia and seen one too many episodes of Law & Order... if you want to know exactly where, call/email me.)

We're not sure when we're moving (most likely within a few weeks). We're not sure if we're buying or renting (if you have advice about this, freely give it). We're not sure about lots of stuff. This weekend we'll try and make a trip there to look around. And for those of you asking yourself, "what in the world are they doing moving so far along in a pregnancy?" ....well, this is nothing compared to my last one. Thanks to my church family (Audra was bombarded with questions from me), we successfully moved when I was 38 weeks along.

Thanks to all who've been praying for us and wishing us luck through this. Especially those who didn't want this sort of outcome - you know who you are - whether it was because we'll still be far away or because once we move then we'll be far away. You're support is the most appreciated and noticed.

PS It would benefit me greatly as to not have you guess which one of us is the kitten/pig. Remember - I'm pregnant. Just keep it to yourself and out loud say, "those are really cute pictures."

License Schmicense

We finally swallowed the jagged little pill that we may have to stay in Texas a little longer than we had planned. It's jagged because of the distance between us and all of our family.
More often than not, we were being turned down from jobs because we didn't have licensure to practice medicine in any of the states that we were applying to. We felt the obvious course of action was to first get the job, then apply for the license (mostly because it's kind of an expensive process and why have more than one license?). Not so. Employers want you to be ready to work ASAP - go figure.
On Tuesday this week we finally submitted our papers to become licensed in TX. There were several problems with this because:
1. In TX, paperwork needs to be submitted 30 days before the medical board meets.
2. The medical board meets quarterly (the next one being in early-March)
This means we were already too late to apply for the March meeting. We called to find out the timeline of things and they told us they were "back-logged" and "not to expect it for 60-90 days."
3. We overnighted it with lots of hope - overnighting requires signature confirmation
4. We mailed it to a PO box
Hopefully I don't have to explain this dilemma to you. When we checked the tracking number the next day, it said they tried to deliver it at 7 am with no success and they would try again the following day then send it back in 5 days if it hadn't been picked up ....we were annoyed that the mail carrier just didn't send it back right then.
Yesterday, Steven got an email from TX Medical Board saying his licensure was complete and would be reviewed by the board next Friday, the 2nd. They had only received his paperwork by yesterday! We were under the impression it would be 60-90 days for temporary licensure and up to 120 for the actual license. WE'RE EMPLOYABLE!
We were ecstatic! We were all running around the hotel (we were interviewing in Tyler at the time of the email) screaming with excitement - mostly because we had a great offer pending on licensure. All I can say is this was such a huge blessing for our family. Someone's watching out for us, that's for sure.

As for the 4 am postings, I wake up between 3:30 and 5 unable to sleep. I begin to think about various things which then causes stress and anxiety - so to avoid that, I wake up and am productive in other ways until I think I'll be able to get back to sleep. A little advice for anyone else with the same problem....a warm bath is always a good move.

Sweet Success

It's ironic how my last entrance said I had all this time, but I haven't made any entrances for nearly a week. We've been busy traveling again for various interviews...all in Texas, if you're wondering.
Steven is my (and all my girlfriend's) new hero. Emmy's stubbornness only shined through when I got home last Saturday from our day away. She decided to have an accident. And two days ago when our baby-sitter got to our house so we could leave for an overnight trip. Emmy walked into her room and did it then, too. Besides that, we've had total success. She did both (if you know what I mean) on the first day. This is quite a change for us. Bradley took months (I'm talking almost a year) to have the "courage" to do the deuce on the potty.
We knew she was potty-trained when we put a diaper on her for bed-time and after about an hour of tossing and turning, she came out to watch TV with me. After a few minutes she looked at me and said, "potty?" I didn't have to prompt her or ask her and she had a perfect reason not to - the diaper was already on. YEE-HAW!
This picture captures Emmy's diva-esque triumph. I would have posted an un-cropped photo, but it was just a little on the weird side.
Steven IS for hire. You just probably can't afford him - even if it did only take him 5 hours (what is up with that?). Thank You is sooooo inadequate right now.

The Princess & the Potty

Steven's taking on the dubious task of potty-training Emmy. My very intelligent and successful SIL has managed to use the book Potty Train in Less Than a Day. I used the same book when training Bradley and 4 months later, he was trained -mostly. Let's just say I didn't follow the book's outline and I didn't do every step they told me to.
I've been using the excuse 'we're moving soon, so I don't want her to regress with change'. And I've been saying it for months. Even if we did move this week, my energy level is starting to diminish with the pregnancy. That girl is SO needing to be trained. But she's such a stubborn little diva that I've been hesitant (note the game board I found online is very appropriate for this child). Steven, being my adorable stay-at-home daddy, was willing to re-read the book and -- get this -- take detailed notes.
Today's the day. He's prepped with all of his needs and Bradley and I are leaving for the day to go to a birthday party and to run various errands so there are no distractions. Wish Steven luck. Oh, how I love that man.

A Break

A break was finally given to me when a student came to the office to do her externship. Phew! I've given her lots of the busy work (like verifying insurance), so now I can do my job of recredentialing for providers and putting out other small fires for the doctors office. Most importantly, I don't get home quite so exhausted and I now have time to blog! I was going crazy at work. My to-do box was piling higher and higher while my done box was looking very meager.

This job/move thing is really starting to get to us. Steven finally admitted that he's feeling anxiety about the whole situation. If you don't know Steven, he's the kind of guy that NEVER feels real stress. I feel so bad for him. I can' t imagine the pressure he feels right now.
I know we'll end up in the place that "we're meant to be". I know it sounds so cliche, but I know that place is out there and our family will be happy wherever it is. I just wish it would show itself to us sooner rather than later. I have a baby coming for crying out loud!

Money is Wicked...

....especially when it's scarce.

I recently found out that my health insurance these past two months has mistakenly put me under the wrong plan -- a plan that my doctor doesn't take. Lovely. This not only comes during the mid-pregnancy ultrasound ($235), but I have a thyroid condition that requires lab work every 4 weeks that costs about $200 each time. Not to mention the $80 check-ups that have come up twice now in those two months.
Babies are awfully expensive when you don't have insurance. I'm praying that there is retro-eligiblity....especially since it was THEIR FAULT! Ugh. I think I'm feeling picked on.

Oh ya, we had to replace the axle on the Carolla last week. Can you say, "cha-ching"?

Decisions

To keep people abreast of the situation (since lots are asking), the Oregon job didn't work out. After all the money that was spent on us to fly out there and the googling that took place over us during interviews, they decided to go with another candidate that WASN'T a new grad - nice. Hey, it was a free trip, right?
I've decided that like the famous sentiment on making money, in the job market you need experience to get experience. For Steven's job market, that's true everywhere in the country BUT H*! So, we decided that come March 1, we stop looking for jobs elsewhere - with the intention of trying to move a little closer to family - and take that: great pay, great experience, career boosting job in the medical center in a city where the cost of living is better than nearly everywhere in the country. I know it sounds like stupidity that we're moving away from a place that sounds so great - especially since I'm pregnant and we already have a great OB/Gyn here. It's just that we've been looking forward to a new scene for our family. Since we began our grad school experience here, we knew this was a temporary stop for our family. I think it's just in our heads that a move to a new city is the obvious next step.If H* continues to be our home, we'll see if a move only a mere few miles away (we'll have to move into a house before the next one is born) will bring that new-scene feeling to us . I get the feeling that come August, it won't. But while "weather amnesia" (what happens in H* during winter) is in effect, I'm okay with the thoughts of staying.

The Resting Weary

Emmy, like Bradley and most other children, has this capability to sleep anywhere. These past 3-4 days, she's been sleeping 9 hours a night and taking 4 or 5 hour naps during the day. Can you say 'growth spurt'?

Here's an illustration from last fall.

Home Ownership

Why I'm scared out of my mind to be a home-owner.
These leaks and cracks (4 total) came after that last ice storm that came through H*. We're on the top floor, so when the roof doesn't hold up, neither does our ceiling.

A lovely bowl that caught it all (er, at least most of it). I will say it was awfully nice to call our office and the maintenance team was up on the roof by the next day - it's all fixed. Throwing our money away while renting is occasionally worth the hassle-free upkeep. I don't have to clean my carpets, mow the lawn, fix leaky faucets, paint my walls, climb up on my roof - three stories up. Some things are just out of my league.