Family Update

Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed reading about Cliff's adventures in Spain. Now that he is done sharing his trip, we thought it was time to update you on what's been going on around home. Here are some tidbits:

• Nathan has, in the last few weeks, gotten much bolder about letting go of the furniture while on his feet; he can now walk 5-10 steps at a time pretty consistently. He'll be on the go soon enough. He also had his first haircut recently, as you can see in his photo.
• Laura also had a first recently. I heard a noise in the middle of the night--a door latching. It jolted me awake because the previous week in the metro area, there was a horrible crime committed against a small girl in her home while her family was asleep. I went across the hall to find Laura climbing into her top bunk. When I asked if everything was okay, she calmly replied "I just had to go potty." My heart went from being gripped with fear to bursting with pride. I know she still has a ways to go on the night training, but this was a huge step for her and we were very proud of her.
• We've had a lot of ups and downs with prepping for our move. Recently, we took the dogs in for their yearly shots, and it became clear to us that Copland will not be making the move. He has been going downhill for the last several months, but things are changing more quickly now. It is a difficult decision, but he will need to be put down before we move. Laura has been told what will happen (to the best extent she can understand), and she seems to be handling it well. However.......
• She doesn't know that our other dog, Candide, will not be coming with us either. After a lot of searching for a place to live that fit our needs and our strict budget, we have come to realize that taking a large dog just will not happen. Most places that meet our other requirements don't take pets (or at least not big ones). We have found a home for her that we are very pleased with, but it will be hard to see her go. We will tell Laura when we feel the time is right.
• The good that comes out of this is that we will be driving to southern Indiana to take Candide to her new owner. This will allow us to have at least a small vacation, see some friends and family, and get some much-needed time away before our transitions take place.
• Also exciting news.....we have a place to live!! A spot opened in campus family housing, and we decided to take it. It's a 2-bedroom townhouse that is clean and big enough to fit all of us. They do not allow pets, hence our previous decision, but we feel really excited about it. We pick up our keys at the end of the month and move in the first week of August.
• I have at least some part-time work lined up for this fall. First of all, I will be teaching classes for a company that offers language immersion classes for preschoolers. It will be done entirely in French and should be a good new challenge for me. Also, I am working on getting some water aerobics classes lined up for the fall.
• We continue to try to sell the house. It gets discouraging at times, but we have had good traffic and try to remain positive that our offer is just around the corner. We have been assured that we have it priced correctly, so we just need to find the right buyer--hopefully sooner rather than later.
• Cliff has been enjoying his summer landscaping job. He likes being outside and the opportunity to see instantly the result of his work (very different from teaching, where the fruits of our labor appear gradually). I have taken on an extra job title at the Y, that of front desk attendant. I work on Saturdays during the day and M/W/F early mornings--4:45-9am! It was very weird at first to set my alarm for 3:30am, but I actually like the peace and quiet I have getting ready for work. I get to sleep in on the alternating days, and I'm only doing this for a few more weeks, so it's not so bad.
  
• Cliff is also busy writing drill for a local high school marching band and prepping himself for this fall when he becomes a full-fledged part of Husker Nation as a grad student on the band staff. Lots of crazy football fans in his future!

Well, we will update more as the moving preparations progress. It's hard to believe that after months of preparing mentally, the actual "pack the boxes and get out of here" phase is finally upon us. Should be a crazy 6-8 weeks ahead! Stay tuned!

Gina