David is eight months old. David is eight months old. David is eight months old.
I have to keep saying this to myself because it is all so surreal. It has been a while since the last blog. As Heather indicated in that one, "it might be a while until the next post because are having a baby." Turns out, she was right. I mean, obviously she was right about having a baby. I mean the posting. Between the new position, David (his name by the way) being born, Dawg being jealous (in a cute way...not "I'm going to bite someone" way), and both of us just adjusting to this beautiful little person in our lives, we've been...preoccupied.
David was born healthy as can be and is so adorable! I know, I know. You are saying "you HAVE to think and say your baby is cute." I understand that. But, really, this kid is c-u-t-e. If you know me, you would agree that I am a pretty honest person; I don't like to beat around the bush. My wife knows full well that if something comes out of the oven a little overdone, and she needs an honest opinion, I'm the guy to ask (and I say everything as lovingly as possible). If my kid wasn't the cutest kid on the block, I think I would say so. And that would be ok. Eventually, he would grow into his awkward features and be fine. But, really, David IS the cutest kid on the block (never mind that there are no other babies on the block...you get my point).
Parenting is very awesome. It doesn't hurt that David started to sleep through the night right after the two-month mark. David is a morning person, so that's pretty easy. When we wake him up, he is usually all smiles and rolling around his crib. He eats his breakfast without complaint, and settles right into his car seat to go over to Grandma's. (By the way, having two grandmas and grandpas in the area is probably one of the most amazing things in the world. Knowing what I know now, I think I'd pack up and move home to have this if I didn't already live here. It is a blessing to say the least....and free:).) David's grumpy time is right about the time he gets back home in the afternoon after we pick him up. This isn't always the case, but he can sure give me a run for my money when he is in his fits. I'm so lucky to have a wife that is such a natural parent. She knows things that I can only guess at. He'll cry, and she will know exactly what to do. When she isn't around it is way more stressful because I can't just tap into this encyclopedia. I'm working on it. I'm becoming more patient. Because of grandma's amazingness, his schedule is very convenient and predictable. He goes to bed at around 8, wakes up around 6. For our crazy schedules, this is perfect. And it sucks when he is off his schedule. Luckily, that is rare.
After buying our house, we've just been waiting for the weather to get better so we can get outside and do some work. The first big project? You guessed it: build a fence. This may seem like a bit of deja vu as that was the first thing we did to our last house. We are SLOWLY learning that we need to include this in our offer to whoever we buy from next. NO DEAL IF YOU DON'T BUILD A FENCE BEFORE WE MOVE IN. In the meantime, I'm getting wicked good at building fences. After the fence is done, we will put down some soil and drop some grass seed onto it. Finally, a place for Dawg to roam! He's been such a good sport about it all. It helps that we live right in front of a little park, where he can use his acid pee to kill the grass (shhhh....I don't think anyone suspects that it's our dog!). We have a long list of to-do's after this, but we can take our time with those.
Although we are busy people (by our own doing most of the time), we are seriously considering having a foreign exchange student for next school year. We are worldly people that never travel, so we figured, why not bring the world to us? In this case, Hungary. We have hosted a few Japanese students for weekends, and we have really loved to teach them about our culture and especially learn about theirs. Having a student for the year is obviously a much bigger commitment, but Heather and I roll with the punches well. I think this will be a lot of fun! We are excited about showing her around and teaching her what our country is all about (guns and freedom!). She will be going to Reardan with me and will be in the music program, so it will be convenient. She sounds like an outstanding student and will fit into our academic household well. If you have any advice, let us know in the comments!
Speaking of busy, Heather just began her schooling to become a principal. It's been several years since we were in school, so we are a little nervous about doing this and just getting back our study habits (and I say "we" on purpose...it's a family affair). Heather is excited about doing this so I think any fears or doubt will be overran by sheer will. She wants to be more involved with school environment and culture and wants to be able to help teachers become better at their craft. I think she has so much to offer; she is so innovative in her approaches. I'm looking forward to seeing her progress!
The job is going well. I'm spending a lot of time just trying to get it into shape with basic necessities. For example, I successfully added jazz as a zero hour class for next year. Another example? I bought a bari sax case that will actually hold the instrument without it falling out and getting damaged...yes, that basic. Jazz has been taught for free up until now. It's K-12 everything, so I figured the least they could do was pay me for doing my job. The kids are excellent. There is a little bit of a learning curve (ok...a big one) for the community and just recognizing that music is just as important as other academic classes, and especially the almighty sports programs. But, that's another blog. It really is a great place to be. I'm hoping that the support continues and the growth continues.
So, life continues. We are truly blessed by all the wonderful things that have happened to us in the past year and all the people that are involved. We could not do this without God's guidance. We pray and think hard about all things that we consider doing and things we do. Every time we are at a cross road, we have been lucky enough to know God, and have followed him as best we know how.
Thank you for reading! It won't be so long before the next post....SUMMER HAS ARRIVED!
I hope all is well with you!
Sam
