Willie and I are at the end of his schooling. It is time to look for jobs. He is planning to graduate in the summer this year. Five years in Georgia (well for the most part). Willie applied to over 100 schools and labs around the country and a few outside of the country. February marked the first of his onsite interviews; Shanghai, China. Willie was very excited about this trip. He loved being immersed in a country where he knew the language. One thing that was a bit overwhelming for me was that if nothing else came about for us in the States then I would be moving all of my children to a foreign country where we didn't know the language and Parker would be starting kindergarten. I probably would have home-schooled. Willie didn't want me to have to deal with so much because he knew the culture shock would be enough. Thanks love. Here are a couple of pictures from China.
During Willie's visit to China Parker got an ear infection. It was towards the end but it was not a fun experience. Parker doesn't like to take medicine, at ALL! So in a way I wanted him to be punished for that so we went and had shots given to him for three days in a row. It was a bit of a head ache but next time punishment will be to take the medicine. I think that taking medicine will help him to realize that sometimes it's good to get healthy by taking the medicine prescribed by the doctor. Fun times.Anyway on into our March madness. We started the month off right by attending the temple. Willie was able to attend an endowment session with a couple from our ward who were going for their first time. A couple of days later we both returned to the temple to watch their sealing and the sealing of their son to them. We heard word that first week that a school in Colorado wanted Willie to come out to interview. The only time he had left available was the coming week. So he was off for three days. While Willie was gone I fed the missionaries, luckily we have Sisters! During this time I had to take our van in to get checked. I kept hearing a noise. Hopefully it won't be too bad but the mechanic says it could be the...transmission, eek! Not what we want. Let's hope it's something else. Oh I must add that every weekend in March there is a consignment sale! Yeah. I love the sales.
Into the second full week of March Willie was off again, this time to Baltimore. He came back late Tuesday night. I was so very grateful to have him home the next morning. We were heading to Indiana as a family while he interviewed in a place called Terra Haute. In the morning however I had my ultrasound scheduled to find out the gender of our baby. Thank you Laura for watching the boys. This time we are having a...GIRL!
Yes, nothing on the ultrasound means it's a girl. My doctor did great at showing us all the fun stuff and taking pictures and giving us the dvd. We came home and told the boys but Parker seemed to already know that it would be a girl. Go figure. We were off to Indiana by noon and we arrived around 9:30 pm. Thank you to the Bahr family for watching Mr. Blue while we were gone. So the trip to Indiana will be posted later.
The third and fourth weeks in March included trips to Buffalo, NY; Carbondale, IN; Penn State Altoona, PA; Boston, MA. During these weeks we had meetings for our callings, birthdays, babysitting, joyschool, and other fun things going on. By the fourth week we had two offers on the table and a third came at the end of the week. The last Saturday happened to mark General Conference. I had been gearing up for us to enjoy more than one talk of General Conference this year. Willie and I chatted on the phone a few times and talked about our options. He had four hours with us on Wednesday the fourth week and so we put a movie on for the kids while we discussed our future. We pretty much knew where we would be going by Sunday. Conference was wonderful. We invited a new convert over to watch with us, his name is Tyrone. The boys loved having him over. One thing I had never introduced to the boys was water colors. What a perfect time to introduce it. Parker was quiet and worked really hard on painting. I tried to only have it out when Henry was napping, which worked well with the sessions.
Monday rolled around and Willie called up Colorado to accept the offer we had from them. In the end my stress was reduced a large amount. I am very grateful for the past five years we have had in Georgia, Boston and Porto. I think of when we need to move and to tell you the truth, it will be harder than when we moved out here. The family we have gained will be incredibly hard to leave because we don't know when we will see them again. I will miss everyone who is a part of my life right now. Thanks to all those who have helped me to become better while I have lived in Georgia.
I am thankful that the March madness is over. Congratulations to Kentucky.
