VERY Thankful Tuesday

1. Paul will be teaching chemistry starting next month!!!! The Dean at Kutztown called him today to offer him the job that he interviewed for on Friday. He has until noon on Friday to accept or decline the offer.  PTL!!!!!!!!!!! What a relief to know he WILL be able to make use of his Ph.D. in chemistry!!! He also found out today that Bloomsburg will be offering him a job as well! After that happens, he'll be declining Kutztown's offer and accepting Bloomsburg's.

The two reasons he would prefer to teach at Bloomsburg are #1 Kutztown is 90 minutes farther from our house (one way) than Bloomsburg and #2 he would be teaching lecture classes as well as labs at Bloomsburg whereas at Kutztown he would only be teaching labs (and the community colleges really wanted to see that he had experience teaching lecture classes). I am thrilled to know he WILL be teaching next month - either at Kutztown or Bloomsburg! I printed out his application for Kutztown at his aunt's house in May and mailed it from our resort in Orlando. The ironic thing is that Kutztown was where I started my career in higher education in January 2003! Kutztown was the only place I applied to teach in 2003 whereas for Paul it was application 56 out of 88 that I submitted for him over the past nine months. I taught at Bloomsburg from August 2004 - January 2013. Hopefully this year of teaching experience will help him get a tenure track job for 2014. I don't need to send in any more applications for jobs for 2013 though!!! I think we'll be a bit more selective for the ones for 2014 - at least east of the Mississippi anyhow!

2. Friday will be the last day of swimming lessons (lesson #10), and I'm also glad that is coming to an end. Hopefully we can keep working on their swimming skills at our pool, but I'm really, really looking forward to not needing to have three kids out the door at 9:00am every morning. This also means Oliver can start taking his morning nap in his crib again instead of my arms at the pool or in the van on our way home. I love cuddling the guy, but I also like him to take his naps in his bed. Nadia has made a lot of progress. I haven't noticed as much of a change with Ian. I don't think I'll have him do the preschool classes again next summer. I think I'll just wait until 2015 when he's old enough for Level 1. I observed the water babies class, and I'm glad I never signed anyone up for that as it seems like a big waste of money!

3. Nadia has started trying to read things on her own whereas previously it was always at my initiative. Last week a box came in the mail from the company ACSI. Nadia looked at the box and asked, "Why does it say "acks"? I wasn't going to try to explain the concept of acronyms to her when we're working on sounding things out, but it was exciting for me to see she's trying to read. It always thrills her when she tries to read a brand new book (one she's never seen before) and she is able to read some of the pages all by herself. Way to go, Nadia! We haven't done much homeschooling the past 10 days due to swimming lessons and VBS, but next week I plan to get back on track. The next subject I want to add to the routine is science.

4. On the way to VBS last Friday Nadia asked me, "What planet do Gabby and Alexis live on? followed by "Is it a hot planet or a cold one?" LOL! I guess she thinks Oklahoma is on another planet. I love how the kids say things every day that put a smile on my face.

5. VBS went really well last week, and I did enjoy teaching the Bible story to the children each night, but I have to say I am also really glad it's over. It was an exhausting week with swimming lessons in the morning, Paul busy with interviews, the kids going to bed later than usual, etc.

6. Last Thursday Nadia left a small bag at the playground by the swimming pool. It contained all our swim toys, goggles, one of Ian's swim suits and swim shirts, and one of her bathing suits. I came back a few minutes after we left to retrieve it, but I misunderstood where Nadia said she left it. After it sat out for many hours a maintenance worker put it in a shed, which is where I found it on Friday. I was VERY grateful no one took the bag or threw it away. What a relief!

7. Paul's mom had a surgery today to determine where she has been bleeding internally. They think it was from ulcers in her stomach from a medication she had been on for quite some time (Plavix). Hopefully the biopsies will confirm that it isn't lymphoma again. We are grateful the surgery went well.

8. We are taking the house OFF the market. I am soooooooo glad that we didn't have lots of showings the past almost two months, and I am very grateful we didn't sign a contract to sell it to anyone since we're not moving for at least one more year. Now we can hang the letters in Oliver's room, and I can start making plans for the fall (such as sign Nadia up for soccer and both kids up for gymnastics).

9. Nadia and Ian got their hair cut today at a beauty salon, and they both did a great job. Nadia hadn't had a hair cut (aside from her bangs) for 13 months. I laughed when Ian asked the beautician about her stamp (which was really a tattoo, lol).