The Most Trailer-Trash Yard on the Block

The three of us took a whirlwind trip to visit our new city in order to look for a place to live.  After what felt like a thousand showings, we signed a lease on an adorable, albeit teeny, little blue house!  We are very excited about it.  For the first time in our married lives, we will have a yard!  I'll show you a picture to prove it:  
 

The Professor and I starting making plans for how best to utilize our new yard, and we got a little carried away.  He said, "There isn't any shade in the backyard, so we'll need to get one of those canopy things."
 



And I said, "Well we definitely need patio furniture, because i want to eat dinner outside."
 

"Oh and the neighbors had a great swing; I'd love to have one like it."



"And of course we'll finally get the BabyGirl a pool."












Within a minute or two, we had taken that cute little patch of grass and turned it into the most cluttered backyard on the block!



Ridiculously Good Looking

On the way back from the Women's Retreat, we fulfilled a Retreat tradition and stopped at an outlet mall, where i almost bought this shirt for The Professor:

Why would i buy him this shirt, you ask?  It's simple; because he is really, really ridiculously good looking.  =]

As we were looking at the men's t-shirts, i told my friend Sue that i gave The Professor a shirt that says, "World's Best Husband", to which she said, "Well he is!"  And it's true.

I'm currently very much aware that he is the world's best husband, because we are preparing to move to a new state.  There are two aspects of my personality that make this undertaking very challenging.  1) I am a hopeless procrastinator, and 2) I am not a detail-oriented person.  When there are tedious, detailed tasks to do, and when there are a GREAT MANY tedious, detail oriented tasks, I start to break down.  But my dear husband has already packed about 15 boxes, and we have 3 weeks left.  So when do we think i would start packing if i was in charge?  Probably 2 days before.  But he has already packed about 300 books.  He's the best.

In other news, the BabyGirl is still cute.  She has now mastered walking to the extent that it is no big deal to her, so in order to keep herself challenged she has developed more advanced skills for herself to practice.  And to watch her perform these skills, by the look on her face she believes herself to be quite the daredevil!  These are her Advanced Walking Skills:

1.  Walking on her tip-toes
2.  Walking backwards
3.  Putting a bucket over her head and walking without being able to see
4.  Stepping over high objects while walking
5.  Balancing on one leg
6.  Marching in place (this is the precursor to jumping.  When we say, "Jump!" and we jump up and down to demonstrate, she thinks she is jumping but really she's just marching in place.)

As a sidenote to #4, she always makes sure to hold someone's hand if she is stepping over something too high to get her leg over.  The Professor was sitting on the floor, leaning his back against the couch, with his arm resting on the couch.  She walked over to him, grabbed his hand, and brought it over to where she was, so that she could hold his hand while stepping over his leg.
 

Sometimes You Get What You Need

We've been singing a particular song around our house recently, maybe you've heard of it.  It's "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by the Rolling Stones.  You see, The Professor and I went away for a romantic weekend for our 7 year anniversary, and the BabyGirl's grandparents came to stay with her.  They loved her and squeezed her and spoiled her rotten, such that when we came back she had a hard time understanding why we wouldn't give her every little thing she wanted, exactly when she wanted it.  In order to help her through the confusion of readjusting back to normal life, we sang her that song.

And it was kind of fitting for The Professor and I too.  We wanted certain things that we didn't get.  And like the BabyGirl, we had a hard time understanding why it wasn't being given to us.  Also like the BabyGirl, we cried when we didn't get it.

But as the song goes,

If you try sometimes
You just might find --
You get what you need!

And that's what happened!  The Professor got a job!

So all the hopes and dreams and what-if's that were crushed in late May are now suddenly granted.  We will move to a suburban setting, he will work full-time, and i will stay home with the BabyGirl!

It's very surreal, and i can't fully comprehend it.  A quote from Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory keeps playing in my head.  Willie Wonka says, "But Charlie, don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted . . . He lived happily ever after."

As it turned out, I submitted my 2 weeks notice at work yesterday, and my last day was today.  I have long been scheduled for vacation at the end of this week and all of next week, so i won't even be at work for 1.5 of my last 2 weeks.  Which is a huge blessing from a pack-up-and-move standpoint, but a big letdown from a finding-closure-with-work-friends standpoint.  Most of my conversations went like this:

Me: Guess what, I'm moving away!
Dr Bob: Really, where?
Me: [Town that i'm moving to].
Dr Bob: That's great?  When is your last day?
Me:  Today!
Dr Bob [with bewilderment]:  Um, okay . . . ?

I have a mountain of thoughts and feelings about retiring from my very intense profession, with 2 days notice, after doing it for 8 years.  Truth be told, I'm pretty dang good at what i do, and i have saved many lives.  I love a good cardiac arrest more than anyone should.  My favorite thing is being able to act quickly and decisively in the midst of an emergency.  That job has sucked the life out of me more times than not, but it was my act of service and my way to make a difference.

Now, just like that, it's over. 

The Professor and i, with the BabyGirl, are beginning a new stage of life.  Like my sister said in a post you must read, we are turning.  I have done a lot of spinning around the past year, but it has been haphazard and frenetic.  I did not keep my eyes fixed on the Solid Rock, and i did not remain steady.  But now we have a fresh beginning.  This time i hope to turn correctly.  This time i hope to turn around to the place just right.