Early to Bed

My bedtime lately has been 10pm. I need to push it back to 9:00. Last night I went to bed at 8:30 because I hadn't gotten more than 7 hours of sleep in weeks. Many nights I've only gotten 6 hours. I function best with 8-9 hours of sleep. I tried to take a nap yesterday, but since Oliver only takes 20-30 minute naps now, that didn't work too well. I feel rather frazzled, and I figure getting a better amount of sleep might help. Today is our eighth day at home, and Oliver hasn't made any progress in returning to his pre-vacation self. For the past 6+ months he was getting an average of 14 hours of sleep a day (sometimes as much as 15). Yesterday he had 10.5 hours total (9 hours at night and three 30 minute naps). So he's losing about four hours of sleep a day. This translates to a yawning, fussy baby and makes it oh so much harder for me to do things like cook, clean, do the laundry, mow the lawn, pack, do schoolwork with Nadia, etc. Had I known this was going to happen, Oliver and I wouldn't have gone on vacation.

The weather has been ALL over the place this past week. When we got back the highs were in the 60's and then it went to the 70's and then the 80's and then the 90's, and yesterday the high was only in the 50's! This time of year we usually don't use the furnace or the air conditioner, but we used the air conditioning for the first time this year a few days ago and then last night we had to turn the heat on for the first time in weeks. A few months ago I would have thought the 50's was balmy weather, but after being in Florida and then experiencing a brief heat wave here in PA, it felt so cold! At this time of year (when we're not trying to go swimming), my favorite weather is when it's sunny and the highs are in the 70's. The kids took advantage of the rain we had this week and enjoyed jumping in puddles although when we were walking back from the park on Thursday Ian discovered he didn't like jumping in really deep puddles because then the water splashed up higher than his boots. Yes, my little boy doesn't like to get wet (he cries when I wash his face after lunch), and he insists on using a fork to eat a brownie. I love you, Ian, quirks and all!

 

We haven't heard anything since Monday morning from MVCC. We're assuming that no news is bad news and that they picked the other candidate. What I find ironic is that we are so disappointed about a job that really was far less than desirable for so many reasons. This position involves teaching 19 credits a semester (I used to teach 12 credits a semester) for a salary about $10K less than what I started at 10 years ago, and our contribution toward our health insurance would be about $5K a year, double what we used to pay at my university. Also, upstate New York is definitely not where Paul or I were hoping to end up, but we would have accepted if they had offered. I am so tired of checking higheredjobs.com, chronicle.com, and Paul's two email accounts multiple times a day. We've submitted a total of 57 applications thus far for at least 60 jobs over the past 8 months. We expect to find out in the next week if Paul will be interviewing in-person at West Liberty. A little glimmer of hope would do our hearts so much good.

The realtor hasn't posted our listing on realtor.com yet. I am disappointed. I remember that in the past when we listed a home that there were several showings within the first several days, which is why I was SO thorough with cleaning and decluttering prior to Wednesday. I moved the kids' hampers into their closets, two floor lamps into the basement, etc. I am trying to remind myself that #1 God is in control (obviously I'm not!) and #2 four houses have sold very quickly in our small development over the past 10 months. We don't have any competition within our development because the house that went on the market in February sold this month, and the house that went on the market in March is under contract. The one that sold the fastest was our next door neighbor's. Theirs was on the market for less than 5 days in October, and the new family moved here in November. The last two times we sold a house it didn't go that fast, which is why I feel like we're late in getting started if we want to move the end of July or sometime in August, but hopefully everything will work out just right. It does feel strange to be trying to sell our home before we have any idea where we're moving.

 

Aunt Tina with the kids at the zoo