Our dirt yard...

This is what we have to deal with all spring! Poor Gizmo! No actually, it is poor us! Gizmo has no problem running through the mud to come back in the house!

After yesterday, with serious paw washing everytime he went outside, I have now started taking Gizmo across the street to the open area, which has less mud surprisingly, to use the bathroom. Not as convenient having to put him on a leash and take him out, but much less clean up! Gonna be a long spring!

The builder has said that they won't come back until May sometime to spread that mound of dirt in the backyard, which means no grass until then! Probably a good thing financially, but that is the only perk about it!
See the wonderful surprises we are finding in the front yard as the snow melts!

Labor and Delivery, Here I Come...

No, I am not pregnant!

But I have accepted a new job, at Appleton Medical Center (AMC)!

Thursday I received a call with a job offer, part-time (0.6) 12 hour shifts (6a-6p/6p-6a), rotating days and nights. And I accepted.

I am very sad to leave my wonderful friends at St. Joe's, but a 1 hour 20 minute drive just doesn't make sense, nor is it safe after being awake for 24 hours! So, I have put in my resignation letter as of yesterday, and my last day at St. Joe's will be March 16th! I am not starting at AMC until March 29th, so will be taking a week off in between jobs! Plan to spend that week/weekend visiting our new nephew in MI, and maybe a few other short road trips, we will see.

I will be working full time through orientation, so I won't get to enjoy the part time life for a few more months. I am going to eventually be a Labor & Delivery nurse as well as proficient in their Level II nursery and Postpartum as well. I like to call it, the jack of all trades! It will make me more marketable in the future as well!

Long Lost Buds...

It sounds like Tulah has been lost since we left, she sits at the top of the upstairs whining! When we lived there, she hardly ever went upstairs! She was a great buddy to Rowan, a bit more tolerable of her than Gizmo is at times! Must be the puppy in her still! We do miss her despite all the crap we give her!

Sorry Stella...

When Dusty was here on Saturday to visit, he brought Stella (Julie and Jorie's dog that he was watching for the weekend). Rowan loved her! Rowan would sit on the floor and Stella would jump on her chest and lick her, and Rowan would giggle up a storm! Then Rowan tried to hold her, which turned into a head lock that Stella attempted to wiggle out of. And Rowan thought it was hilarious!
Then came the shopping cart rides. That is what you get for not trying to jump out Stella! I guess someday we might have to actually invest in the lapdog that Gizmo didn't end up being! We will see!

A lived in house...

I am almost ashamed to post some of the pictures, but I figure many people are awaiting some new photos. The house is a constant disaster! Every picture has toys all over the place, or boxes, or something in disarray! But I have a feeling this won't be fixed anytime soon, so you will all have to deal with it. As I get a room finished, as in decorated and organized, I will update the pictures!

Here is the goofy girl in here room! The one downfall of our house is the lack of a play room. So there are large toys in the living room and Rowan's room. Once we finish the basement, the guest room will move down there and then I will make the extra room up here a play room until another child arrives. Eventually the playroom will probably be in the basement, but not until Rowan can be left alone to play!
Here are some random photos of the rooms throughout the house, with shower curtains, and beds, and so on.

Our busted refrigerator was exchanged today! So we now have an organized refrigerator with water and ice. The back is loose on the range, so we are having that exchanged tomorrow. We could have had a service technician come and look at it, but if they couldn't fix it, it would mean another range coming on a separate trip/day, so I opted to just swap it out right away and not have to deal with American here a 4th time this week! Things are coming together, there aren't many boxes left, but lots of organizing to be done and decorating to do. All of which costs money, so it might take sometime to accomplish it all.

Moving in...

Moving in was a bit chilly! Having the doors open to the house for several hours while our things were moved in made for a cold house, but that didn't seem to affect us much. The portable DVD player that we got for Christmas has proven to be a life saver, as well as Baby Signing Time. Rowan watched her DVD's in the car on the way up to the Fox Cities on Thursday afternoon, then she watched it in the hotel room Thursday night, and Friday while we were moving in as well. The movers were done unloading our things around 12:30pm on Friday, and shortly after that I went to check on Rowan in the spare bedroom, and she had fallen asleep in the queen sized bed all by herself, so I cornered her in with pillows and let her rest. She was obviously beyond exhausted!

Packing/Closing Day...

Thursday the 25th of February was the day they loaded the truck with all of our belongings, and we headed to Appleton to close on our 1st home! After the closing was done, we dropped off some things at the house that we had brought in our cars and then headed to the Comfort Suites, which is where we would spend our first night in the Fox Cities! The hotel had a kiddie pool area that Rowan absolutely loved. So we did some swimming, showering and then headed to bed to prepare for the big moving in day on Friday!

Here is Rowan watching our things being loaded onto the truck!

The happy swimmer!