Spring is Here!

I have lots to write about. I hope I can remember it all.

On Thursday, 3/15, we all went to the Baby Fair at the Parkway Early Childhood Center. Caleb enjoyed watching all of the other babies, but I can't say that we learned very much. We did make a fun toy and Caleb got to crawl all over the tumble mats to get some great exercise.

On Friday, 3/16, Caleb and I (once again) headed for the airport. We flew to LR to see Memmie and Poppie. Hannah was visiting them, too, so Caleb got to meet one of his 2nd cousins. We had a relaxing visit with Memmie and Poppie. Rudy made the drive down to meet us on Sunday.

Caleb had a couple of big developments on Sunday, 3/18! He learned to go from laying down to sitting up all by himself! We were pretty excited about that advancement, but he shocked us even more right before bedtime when he decided to pull himself up to standing by holding onto a stool. He was so proud of himself and we were so excited for him. The best part was that Memmie, Poppie and Pat got to share the excitement with us.

Monday was a busy day for us. I had 3 job interviews in Little Rock and Rudy had one. I haven't been writing about our possible move to Arkansas, because I didn't want to count our chickens too early, but now that things are looking more like we're going to be moving, I'm a little more comfortable with it. It actually all started last summer when Caleb was only 6 weeks old and we made our first trip to Arkansas with him. When we saw how much our families loved him, we realized that it meant everything in the world for Caleb to grow up close to the majority of his family. We talked a lot about it on our way home to St. Louis and decided that we would do what we could to make it happen. The rest would have to be up to God. That was June 2006 and now it's March 2007. God is beginning to show us glimmers of hope that it might actually happen. We have had some promising job interviews and the housing market is starting to turn around. We are excited about this possibility, but very sad about leaving the people that we have come to love here in St. Louis. That is the only hard part about the whole situation. It will be wonderful to be closer to our parents and grandparents, but we will be leaving behind some loving people and two fantastic jobs here. We know, however, that we have to do what is best for our family.

Back to Monday - I had my interviews and Rudy had his. After that, we were on our way to Ft. Smith to spend some time with Jan and Chris. We were about halfway there when my phone rang. It was the school district that I had interviewed a couple of weeks ago when I was in Arkansas. The secretary told me that the superintendent and asst. superintendent wanted to interview me on Wednesday morning at 7:30. Yikes! I told her that would not be a problem.

When we got to Ft. Smith, we enjoyed visiting with Jan and Chris. We ordered pizza and relaxed at the house for the evening. On Tuesday morning, I grudgingly said goodbye to Caleb and Rudy and headed out to shop for an interview suit. I finally found what I needed and then headed to Hot Springs to spend the night before my interview. I enjoyed the night "at home" with Mom and Mr. L. I got up early on Wednesday morning and drove over to Bryant for my interview. It went very well and I was finished by 8:15. I left the superintendent's office and drove around the area for a while, just to get my bearings in case the job were to be offered. I then drove back to Ft. Smith and met back up with my boys. Wednesday night we went out to eat and packed up to leave the next morning.

On Thursday, 3/22, we went to Rogers to see Grandma and Grandpa Voise. We had a nice lunch with them and they enjoyed seeing Caleb. After lunch, we headed back home.

On Friday, 3/23, Rudy and our neighbor, Broc, went to the Sweet 16 basketball games here in St. Louis. Jerry offered Rudy the tickets for free, so they couldn't pass up the opportunity. I had already planned to go over to Jen's to crop, so Rudy and I bit the bullet and got a babysitter for Caleb. Katie is in the band at RSHS, so Rudy knew her and felt comfortable with her keeping him. She said that he was good the whole time and only cried for a few minutes at bedtime.

Saturday, 3/24, was a little stressful for us. We had a real estate agent come over to look at the house and get the process started for listing it for sale. As we walked around, she showed us things that needed to be repaired and changed in order to make the house more marketable. That completely stressed me out! The wierd thing is that I already knew all of the things that she said, but just hearing them made me freak out! After she left and Caleb went down for his nap, we got started on the list. I did some touch-up painting and Rudy worked in the yard. We also rented a storage building to get some things out of our way so that we will have more room to work and to declutter the house.

Today was a little more of the same. I didn't feel too hot today, so while Rudy worked outside, I rested a lot and gathered my strength to go back to work tomorrow. Rudy has tomorrow off, but I have to go back to work. Yuck.

2 notables from today: Caleb cruised a few steps on the couch for the first time and he is now consistently giving us kisses. He just opens his mouth and leans right in. We always have to wipe our faces after a Caleb-kiss, but they are worth a little drool.