Thursday, February 26, 2009

News!

As many of you know, Eric has been in a perpetual job hunt for the past three years. He's been teaching on one-year visiting professor contracts at Notre Dame for the past two years. They allow their graduates 3 of these total. Each year has been the same up and down roller coaster of will he get an interveiw, will he be invited to campus, will he get offered the job. The span of time from application to offer is abou 5 months, so there is lots of time for stress and worry. Every year it seems I feel less invested in the "here and now" and more concerned with the "what is to come." Not at all a fun process to go through.

This year, even with the economy in the tubes and many schools cancelling their searches Eric was lucky enough to get three on-campus interviews. They were January 20th, February 12th and February 18th. The job he REALLY wanted was on the 12th. Without going into the details we had some highs and some lows and some stress throughout the past 5 weeks.

I'm happy to announce, however, that he was offered the job he REALLY wanted and he has accepted. The job is at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL (part of the Quad-Cities on the boarder of IL and IA). We are all very excited about this.

It does mean that I actually have to get the house ready to put on the market (we are targeting April 1st to put the sign in the yard). It does mean that I have to actually write all those procedures I've been planning to write to explain the various functions of my job. It does mean that I have to polish up a resume and start job hunting myself.

But all in all it's good. We will be so sad to leave the community we have been a part of for the better part of 11 years. But ultimately this is where our family needs to move for our next step. The kids will start Kindergarten in a new school, hopefully where they can stay their entire elementary school career.

I'm excited and hopeful and scared and terrified and... all rolled into one.

Monday, February 16, 2009

The Ladie's Man

This weekend Aron, Jordan, Eric and I went to the Annual Valentine's Dance put on by POP Action Committee. It's an event we've attended every year since the kids were born. We always have a really good time.

Aron is very taken with older women. He loves his babysitters very much. We knew that at least two of his babysitters would be there that night.

It took him about an hour before he was ready to dance with Margaret. And shortly after their dance ended Margaret went off to dance with a gentleman more her own age. Aron was NOT pleased "I don't want her to dance with that boy!"

He got over it, however, by moving onto other women. A total of 10 in all by the time the night was done. And I have documented proof of each and every one of them! He's such a little heartbreaker.

It's all nice and sweet right now, but I imagine it's going to be hell in a few years.

(Click to view slideshow)
2009 Valentine's Dance

Thursday, January 15, 2009

January Updates

Since my last post we've had Family visit, our 14th anniversary, Christmas, more family visit, New Years, a trip to Albuquerque, more Christmas, colds and now it's mid-January already! How'd that happen?  
These are some of the pictures from our Trip to Albuquerque. There are more at the website. Also some of Christmas.

I don't really have a lot to say at the moment. Life is moving along. We are, as we have been for the past few years, in a holding pattern, waiting to see what will come of Eric's job search. It feels more inevitable that a move is coming, but I'm not holding my breath and I'm not getting worked up over it.

The kids are loving school. They had a great vacation (3 weeks off) and now are happy to be back with friends and structure.

We really enjoyed seeing both my family at Christmas and Eric's family last week. We missed seeing Dave and Jamie and hope it's not too long before we get a face to face visit with them.

I'm spending more and more time on Facebook, so if you are on there, or if you want to get on, let me know. I'll friend you!

We got a Wii for Christmas and a Wii Speak, so if you want to communicate via Wii, let me know.

Also, we have a WebCam and can talk via Skype or MSN Messenger if you are interested in that. We'd love to hear from any and all of you!

Hope your January is going well!

Love,
The Stewarts
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