Thankful Thursday

1. I'm grateful that Paul had a safe trip to and from Indiana on Thursday and Friday (into early Saturday morning) last week.

2. Nadia has been enjoying reading Amelia Bedelia books to us the last few days! I know I sound like a broken record, but it's so much fun to see her really taking off with her reading skills! She's been reading one a day, and most of them are 50-60 pages long!

3. Nadia and Ian are doing such a good job in the worship service on Sunday mornings. I wasn't planning on training Ian this early, but he doesn't want to go to children's church any more, and since he's so well  behaved in church (even when I go up to the choir loft), I'm fine with that. I shed a few tears on Sunday when I listened to Nadia singing the hymn "It is well."

4. Oliver eats just about anything. With the exception of blueberry pancakes a few days ago, Ian has been doing better at dinner lately. We just need to get Nadia back on track.

5. Bucknell University (15-20 minutes from our house) is looking to hire a one year visiting professor for their chemistry department. Paul got his Master's degree there, and it's even closer to our house than where he is teaching now. Although we'd prefer a tenure track job offer, we'd much prefer a one year offer from Bucknell than a three year offer that involves moving 500 miles away.

6. Paul's parents came to see Nadia's second basketball game. The kids always love to see their grandparents!

7. Paul had a snow day yesterday!

8. Oliver has gained back the 1.5 pounds he lost and then some! He's up to 24 lb 4oz, which puts him at the 28th percentile, and he now weighs more than Ian did at this age!

9. Two of the last three days, Oliver has slept until at least 7am! He needs to sleep at least 11 hours at night now that he's down to one nap that is between 60-90 minutes long. Thankfully he's been in a much better mood the past three days than he was on Monday. He hasn't totally adjusted to the concept of not taking a morning nap any more, but he's getting there! He did sleep for 10 minutes in the car on the way home from ladies Bible study on Tuesday morning, but other than that he's just been taking one nap a day.

10. Oliver is healthy! Considering the cough Ian and Nadia have had the past couple of weeks, it's not something I am taking for granted. Hopefully his surgery will really take place tomorrow and go very smoothly. We'll be leaving our house at 6:15am, as we're supposed to be there by 10am.

11. The photo of Paul and I dancing is from the summer of 1997. As of tomorrow, Paul and I will have known each other for 17 years as we met on February 7, 1997. I love him SO much!

12. Although Paul's preference would be that I start pursuing a tenure track job for August 2014, I am glad that he supports my decision to stay home at least one more year. I applied for two different FT jobs teaching in an online university. I'm okay with doing that in 2014, but I am not ready to go back to a FT job teaching on campus yet. My department chair emailed me today and said he'd be delighted to write me a letter of reference. Two of my former colleagues also volunteered to write me letters, but I am going to see if I can get ones from my former Dean and such first, as they never observed me teach. Most of the professors who observed me teach are no longer at the university (a couple of them retired, one is in jail, one died, etc.).