13mo. , laundry & boxes...

Today started with Nathan standing on his own! We started clapping and he just stared at us with a huge grin on his face before sitting back down and clapping for himself. Haha. I love my child! (He's 13mos. old today by the way)

Most of our day was spent doing a lot of random little things around the house. Caleb had to work so Nathan and I went just hung out. I finished six loads of laundry (well, they are still laying at the foot of our bed, to be put away tomorrow), the cat boxes, thank you notes from Nathan's party and even packed a few boxes. I know we're not moving until mid-December but I figure a head start never hurt anyone. I've started with things that I know we wont need over the next three months. All of my books, pictures, trinkets are things that I can live without for a while so away they go!

Our goal is to be COMPLETELY packed by the 21st...no last minute packing this time around. Just load the truck & clean. That will take long enough as it is, we don't need the added stress of packing onto that. I figure we'll pack suitcases two weeks ahead of time and live out of those so we can pack everything else. Just pretend we're on vacation.

I know I mentioned it in my post when I announced our move, but I am so ready to get back to Oklahoma. It's funny, I never thought I would want to live there long. I thought, maybe one day when I retire, but I definitely wanted to live somewhere else. Now though, I miss it ... I miss it a lot. I think the only other place I would want to live is Colorado, which I miss just as much. However, it costs a lot to live in Colorado. We can get so much more for our money in Oklahoma.

Ahhh! I know these next three months will fly by, but right now it can't get here quick enough.

Remembering...

Nine years ago today I was sitting in my play production class as my favorite teacher tried to explain to a bunch of teenagers that our whole world had just changed drastically.

A period later I sat in my eleventh grade english class and watched the towers fall on a spare TV that they'd managed to find and wheel into the room.

I didn't know anyone there at the towers, but found out that my best friend's aunt who worked in the pentagon at the time had gone out to get something in her car...just as the plane flew overhead and crashed into the pentagon. That is probably the closest person I know who was directly affected by this tragedy...but of course it was also an event that affected the world. Whether or not you knew an individual who was there.

It's hard to believe that it has been nine years and next year will mark the 10th anniversary of it all. Wow.

Kick off...

Alright so a lot has been going on here in our little Chicago hideaway the last couple weeks. I've started work again, Nathan had his first birthday party and we have made a very big life decision:

WE'RE MOVING BACK TO OKLAHOMA!

In December that is.  We knew we were going to be moving back to Oklahoma after I got my IL teaching certificate and that I would just transfer the certification once we moved back. The decision to move earlier than that came after a lot of thought over what we were going to do during my student teaching here in Illinois. To complete my 10 weeks of student teaching I would have to take an unpaid leave of absence from my job. Not only that, but I would not be covered by health insurance those entire ten weeks unless we wanted to pay for COBRA. We can't afford that.

So, we discussed a variety of possibilities, including Nathan and Caleb moving down in December while I stay with a friend here in Chicago and get it done. That was not an idea that we wanted to go with. Being away from my 18 month old for 10 weeks? I couldn't do that. It wasn't until Caleb suggested I look into the alternative teaching program in Oklahoma that we started to come to this decision.

I looked it up and it is a very quick process if you have a Master's Degree, and although I'll have to retake two of the tests I already took here in Illinois, I could have my certification quicker than I would my Illinois certificate if we stayed.

That's the basis of our decision. We will be leaving Chicago on the 22nd of December and moving to Bartlesville. Right now we're going to be moving in with Caleb's parents to save money and get situated. Once we both have jobs and get a little money saved up we'll probably move into an apartment until we can afford a house. I'm really hoping the house issue will be something we'll get to look at in the next year or two.

Anyway...as you can see a lot has been happening here with us. A big decision we thought was a year in the future is now only 4 months away. Crazy. I'm very happy to be moving back, I will miss Chicago (well except for driving) but I love Oklahoma and I know this is the best thing for us as a family.

In other news...college football starts today: GO POKES!!