lewis and clark had a journal. you, beth-annie, have a diary.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008
What some of you already know.

Josh went on quite a few job interviews over the last six months. There were a multitude of reasons. Among them: Josh has been less than happy with his job over the last couple years (and he's not the only one, as turnover at his company has been ridiculously high); we've been wanting to move back to Iowa, both to be closer to our families and just because we like Iowa; now that we have a child, we'd like to live somewhere with better schools than Belleville (nothing against Belleville, and the schools aren't awful, but they're no Ames school system, that's for sure); and we don't feel terribly connected to our church or really have many friends there (which admittedly is partially our fault but is also partly just a chemistry issue that I can't really explain -- it probably doesn't help that it's just so big), unlike our church in Racine that we very reluctantly left a few years ago when we moved to the Madison area (and where we still have friends we make a point to go and visit).

So this all brings me to the news that Josh was offered and has accepted a job in Cedar Rapids, IA. He starts on March 10th, so we've been extremely busy trying to get our house in order enough to put it up for sale (with the housing market as slow as it is right now, we need to get it on the market as soon as possible). We've packed a good amount of stuff we don't use every day away and stashed a whole bunch of boxes in a corner of the basement, while cleaning up the rest of it so it looks... not bad (for an unfinished basement). It certainly hasn't been easy, what with a 14-15-month-old around -- the couple hours of naptime each day have been spent scrambling to get as much done as possible, especially in places like the basement where we can't just let her roam free. Josh and I are both feeling pretty worn out from all the work of the past couple weeks. At least we should get a short break now (aside from keeping our house pristine, that is, something that doesn't come terribly naturally to either of us -- and certainly doesn't come naturally to Ava) before we have to get back on the packing wagon.

I'll admit to being fairly anxious about the whole selling-our-house thing right now. The week it took us to sell our house in Racine three years ago is... well, that's not going to happen this time. We will have a temporary apartment provided for us in Cedar Rapids through April 30th, which we're extremely grateful for, but I have a feeling it's going to take longer than that to both sell our house and buy and take possession of a new one. I'm also anxious about how Ava's going to deal with all the change. When we took the computer desk out of the dining room (to open things up for house-showing purposes) during her nap one weekend, when she got up she seemed very concerned that that area of the room looked different. So this could be interesting.

We met with a realtor tonight and our house should be listed in a couple days. Scary.

As for our options for where to live in the Cedar Rapids area, the schools are the main determining factor. The Cedar Rapids school district has three high schools, one of which, Kennedy, is one of only two silver-ranked (by U.S. News & World Report) high schools in Iowa (Ames High, our alma mater, being the other). Other good schools are supposed to be in the Linn-Mar district, which contains a small portion of northern Cedar Rapids and some suburban areas, and the College Community district (Cedar Rapids Prairie H.S.), which contains a small portion of southern Cedar Rapids and a bunch of ruralish developments and tiny towns. (Hehe. Tiny Town. Sorry, "Arrested Development" reference. Parenthetical over.) So those are pretty much the areas we'll be looking at (preferably, anyway). We don't know, of course, if we'll still be living in the same house by the time Ava's in high school, but high schools tend to be where the differences between schools are most pronounced, so that's where we're looking. And after living in three different towns for two years, two years, and three years, respectively, it'd be kind of nice to stick around in one place for a while. So hopefully Josh likes his job (for once) and we like the area.

Ah, change. It happens.

beth, 11:20 PM || We are 23 comments. Read us!

Thursday, January 24, 2008
I've been skimping on the Ava photos lately...

...So we're going to play a little bit of catch-up, with some random photos from October, November and December.

You know what's even better than a picture of Ava in the swimming pool at the Country Inn & Suites in Cedar Falls, IA? A video of Ava in the swimming pool at the Country Inn & Suites in Cedar Falls, IA. (October) (Note: This is a different file format (Quicktime) than movies we've posted in the past, so please let me know if any of you can't watch it. It's around 10MB.)

I believe this is the definition of "hanging around." (October)

"I caught a fish, and it was THIS BIG..." (November)

Dimple alert! (November)

This is Ava's "hide and seek" look: she likes to play a game where she'll stand behind me (when I'm sitting on the floor, so we're at the same level) and then peer around me toward my front until I look at her. Then she giggles. :-) (November)

She really looks like she's playing the piano here, leaning over to turn the page and everything. (November)

"Look, Mommy, my eyes match my dress!" (November)

She has a very grown-up look on her face here. (November)

Ava's always up for a good boat you can put balls in. She'd love the "Ping-Pong Ball Rescue" episode of "MythBusters." (November)

Ava decides her baby cereal is more fun to play in than to eat. Who knew she could reach things on the dining table? :-P (November)

This is what is known 'round these parts as the "scrunchy face." (December)

Ava loves her IKEA giraffe. (Yes, that's a giraffe. Apparently.) (December)

Who wouldn't love a giraffe that doubles as a lower back support? I mean, can your giraffe do that? (December)

beth, 11:42 PM || We are 12 comments. Read us!

Monday, January 21, 2008
The unthinkable has happened.

I was rooting for the Packers yesterday. I haven't really cared about them all season, but last night I wanted them to win and go to the Super Bowl. Has living in Wisconsin for seven years finally broken me? I don't know. I'd like to think it's just because the annual Super Bowl party we go to with our friends in Racine would have been a whole lot of raucus fun this year if the Packers had been in it. Ah, well. I'm sure everyone's foul mood will be just as fun. ;-)

beth, 12:08 PM || I am a comment. Read me!

Thursday, January 17, 2008
Eat at The Ruby and get gas.

I promised Alex a long time ago that I'd write about my impressions of "Corner Gas," a Canadian comedy that started airing for the first time in the U.S. in the fall (on WGN Superstation -- sorry, cable-have-nots). We have now watched just about all the episodes that have been shown here (which is getting to be most of what's aired in Canada as well, I believe), so I now feel sufficiently qualified to give my opinion.

I wanted to come up with an American show I could compare it to, but haven't really been able to think of any that work very well (and I suppose that would only be helpful to anyone who had watched the show I came up with, anyway). It has elements of shows like "Scrubs" and "How I Met Your Mother" (and even "Arrested Development") with quick cuts to flashbacks or other scenes and back again, and the occasional meta reference (those seem to be more frequent in the later episodes), but in all other ways is very dissimilar to those shows. It is the very opposite of tawdry (unlike, at times, the other comedies listed above), with the only thing that could be considered offensive in most episodes being one character's inclination for using the word jackass. The characters are all relatively normal (read: not all too-beautiful twentysomethings living in too-big apartments in New York City), and yet not-normal, with their quirks and sometimes silly behavior.

The show is a little bit of an odd duck in that it has moments of smart, offbeat funny as well as ones that feel much more traditional-sitcom. But the overall result is a show that's just plain easy and fun to watch. It's not "Arrested Development" (but, then, nothing is), it's just... nice. And after watching a bunch of episodes, the familiarity with the characters and their world makes it even nicer. It somehow winds up having a comforting effect, with its silliness and ease. It's a real contrast to a lot of other TV I watch, which I love but falls into more of the stressful-to-watch category (i.e. the thrills of "Lost," the uncomfortableness of "The Office," the elimination stakes of "Project Runway"). It's the perfect thing to wind down with before going to bed. That's a pretty big compliment.

beth, 12:59 PM || We are 2 comments. Read us!

Friday, January 11, 2008
Z is for zoo.

Back in October we took advantage of what turned out to be about the last warmish weekend of the fall to go to Madison's Henry Vilas Zoo. Josh and I had never been there in the few years we've lived here, despite the fact that it's free, so it seemed like it was about time to take Ava to her first zoo. She's still too young to get much out of it, but she did take notice some of the time, especially with the animals she could get closer to and the ones that moved a lot.

Oooohhhh, leafy...

Look, Daddy, the fishy is as big as my head!

Macaw! Macaw! (Okay, I don't remember if that's actually a macaw.)

Polar bear big. Ava bitty.

Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see? (In this case, I'm betting a wall.)

In case you haven't figured it out by now, a lot of these are just going to be pictures of Ava looking at animals. :-)

I think this one was prairie dogs.

Ava lounges on a tree branch.

Ava had her very first carousel ride.

We stuck to one of the stationary animals so she didn't freak out too much (and so Mommy could hold on to her better).

She seemed to enjoy it -- or at least didn't not enjoy it.

Oh, you guys, always with the taking of the pictures...

Giraffes? I don't see any giraffes...

beth, 5:00 PM || We are 8 comments. Read us!

Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Best WBB game ever

Matt recently posted a video of the best play in football history. I'm taking advantage of my new ability to blog here to post a link to a story about the best WBB game ever. No video, unfortunately.

josh, 3:45 PM || We are 3 comments. Read us!

Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Wow, this is even better than a winter edition of "Big Brother."

The strike strikes again. ABC is bringing back "The Mole." Yes, really. It may have been my favorite of all the reality shows (certainly it has the most intriguing premise), and introduced me to the wonderfulness that is Andreson Cooper to boot. Of course, he's on to bigger and better things these days and so won't be a part of it, but I just couldn't be more thrilled. After four years without a new edition, I think everyone (myself included) assumed it would never again see the light of day. Hooray for being wrong. :-)

beth, 2:11 PM || We are 6 comments. Read us!

Snow in December, tornadoes in January -- what's next?

There were tornadoes in Wisconsin yesterday. Not just tornado warnings, but actual tornadoes that destroyed actual homes.

Huh?

beth, 1:39 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me!

Monday, January 7, 2008
My apologies.

I know I haven't blogged in a while, and I hate that. Cliched as it may be, we were really busy over the holidays, and then right after we got back Ava got sick -- again (that's her third time since the beginning of December, poor girl). But this time was a little scarier, as her fever reached 104.8 in the middle of the night Wednesday night, the highest she's ever had by far. It was enough for us to call the on-call doctor at 3am, fearing that we'd be taking a trip to the emergency room, but after asking us a bunch of questions about her condition, the doctor felt we could wait and just take her to the Belleville Clinic in the morning (though Josh did have to drive up to Madison for some Infant Motrin -- funnily enough Belleville doesn't have any 24-hour stores). At the doctor's office she actually had a chest x-ray (which I can't say she enjoyed much), just to make sure she didn't have pneumonia (I guess with babies it's a lot harder to tell whether there's something more serious like that wrong just from listening to their chest with a stethoscope), and it came back fine. So aside from being miserable and hardly eating or sleeping for a couple days (the sleeping part ditto for her very tired parents), she's fine -- and much better now, with her fever gone and her appetite, sleep and playfulness back. She still has some nasal congestion and a cough that may hang on for a while, but we're very thankful to have our Avabug mostly back to normal. Now we just have to hope that neither Josh nor I (nor anyone we saw in Ames) develop what she had, because it really seemed not fun.

I'm working on some pictures and stuff to post soon -- I haven't in a while and they've been piling up. :-)

beth, 1:48 PM || We are 4 comments. Read us!