It has been a while since our last post and we thought we should share some updates. Nothing too exciting....Dan is still working on the west side and hating his commute, so we've put our house up for sale on our own and are hoping for a miracle. We haven't taken the route of using a realtor to avoid paying seller commission fees, but we have received a lot of advice and help from a ward member friend of my parents who is a realtor in Scottsdale. We've basically only gone as far as listing our house on owners.com and craigslist and put a sign in our front yard. The only calls we've received have come from realtors wanting our business....We aren't holding our breath that any buyers will surface soon, just hopeful that we'll figure out what to do in the near future. Lots of decisions to make! So as a plea, if anyone knows of anyone looking for a house to buy or rent in Arizona, PLEASE let us know!
I don't think I ever mentioned that I started working, "quarter time" (not quite enough hours to be considered "part time") at Sylvan Learning Center. I am a teacher there for Math, Study Skills, and recently Reading. So far I have about 12 scheduled teaching hours which equates to more like 18 hours with required prep time, etc. Just 6 years post-graduation and I'm finally putting my degree to real use! It can be overwhelming at times when you have 3 kids all requiring your attention at the same time for different things, but this is the first job I've had where I can say my work matters. The satisfaction it gives outweighs the stressful days, so I feel fortunate to have this opportunity. My original motivation to work in a tutoring environment was to gain experience with professional methods so that some time in the future I can use that to perhaps do tutoring out of our home to bring in some extra income and give me something else to do with my days. We'll see what comes of it! So far I'm happy to have the experience and the distraction while we wait the 10 MORE WEEKS for our baby girl to arrive. Wow time flies!
This coming weekend Dan and I will be taking one last "vacation." Destination: Albuquerque, NM. Impressive eh?? Don't be too jealous. We both had vouchers to use up and didn't want to spend too much out of pocket, so that is where we came up with. We've been reading up and there seems to be a lot of things you can do and see. So it should be a nice weekend. We'll spend some time in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and perhaps Taos. Any suggestions of things to see or do?
Other than that life is just moving right along. I had some heart concerns recently, and was hooked up to a monitor for 30 days. My cardiology appointment on Friday revealed that there is no bad news! I have a valve disorder that I guess I've had since birth, also a slight murmur and lung compression which is probably due to the pregnancy, so all of that investigating just to give me peace of mind. Which I will definitely take over the alternative!
More updates to come on the baby blog, but that's it for now until we return from our New Mexico adventures!
So this tree was a hand me down from my grandma. It's pretty sparse looking in the daylight, but this year I put NINE strands of lights on this sucker. So I think it turned out rather dazzling...though it would help if the top would stay straight and I had more than 15 ornaments. Dan purchased another fake tree online that is a totally different shape and color, but it's pre-lit, it came with a lighted wreath and garland, and it was a good deal, so we may do a his and hers tree next year.
The following are some pictures of us from Christmas Eve, Day, and time I got to spend with some friends I hadn't seen in a while...for your viewing pleasure.
My friend Alyssa and her family came to town all the way from Colorado Springs and we got to sing a duet in my ward, "What Child Is This?" It was a lot of fun but mildly stressful, for me anyway who is not professionally educated and trained in singing like Alyssa is! We each had a small solo part and I have never been confident in my singing ability, particularly in a solo, plus the fact that we are both preggo and short of breath and I had to take twice the number of breaths than I normally would have. All in all I think it turned out to be a great experience! My parents, Dan's parents and sister and her family, Alyssa's husband and kiddos and her parents were a part of the fan club in attendance. Dan recorded us during one of our practice run-throughs that morning, but the file is like 8mb and too large to attach, so sorry for those of you who missed out on this spectacular performance! (haha...kidding...)