Tennis

Liv has been going to tennis lessons the last couple of weeks and really having a good time. Her teacher is absolutely darling with the kids and they all just adore him. Here she is running some sprints to warm up.

Practicing some hand eye coordination bouncing the ball up and down with the racket.

And practicing that forehand.

It is always fun to find the kids something that they enjoy doing. Keep it up Liv!

School Pictures

My how they grow and change. Here are the girls school pictures from the beginning of the year, in the fall, and then again in the spring.

Here is our beauty Liv...

this past fall

and this spring

And our lovely Lex...

this past fall

and this spring

Reason To Celebrate

Say goodbye to casual weekday Nate......

Because you are looking at the new Senior Financial Analyst for Thermo Fisher!! This company is a world wide leader serving the scientific community with services and products for.... research labs, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, government agencies and universities, just to name a few.

CONGRATULATIONS NATE!!!!

After applying to jobs for months, going to interview after interview, turning down a few offers here and there... and then wondering if maybe he should have sucked it up and taken one even though it paid crap and wasn't really what he wanted to do..... it all payed off! I am so proud of you honey, for sticking it out and waiting for the right job, even though I may have complained just the tiniest little bit!

Just to give you all an idea of what he has been dealing with, for this company alone he had a total of EIGHT interviews and, of course, a few exams. It is insanely competitive.

I really worried that by moving us to small town America to go to medical school I had selfishly limited the career opportunities available to Nate. The last 8 months have been insane, my schedule has been exhausting and unrelenting and my mood most days is nothing less than 100% bitch, it has not been easy. I am so glad that Nate was willing to put his career goals on hold to help me out these last 8 months. He has been wonderful at taking care of the girls, the dogs and the house but it is time for him to move on to bigger and better things.

Now what I am going to do!! HELP WANTED... now hiring for several positions... cook, maid, chauffeur, dog walker, babysitter and personal assistant. None of these positions include a salary or any benefits, just the personal satisfaction of... okay who am I kidding, there really isn't much satisfaction there at all, if there were neither Nate or I would be chasing professional careers!!!

We are so excited for this new opportunity regardless of the challenges that are sure to follow. Nate will be working 2 hours away in Pittsburgh, so he will need a little apartment there as a 4 hour commute each day is pretty unrealistic. We will just have to settle for weekends together for the next little while. I will continue to stay here with the girls for at least another year of school and we will see if I am able to get clinical rotations there or re-evaluate on where we want to go and what will be best for our family. Stay tuned because I am sure things are about to get a little bit crazy here... we will let you all know how it goes!

An Easter Weekend to Remember

Our first Easter in Erie couldn't have turned out any better. The kids had the entire week off from school, so if I had been a conscientious blogger; I would have chronicled the entire week. But because we didn't really do anything too exciting and because the first picture I took was on Saturday; we will have to settle for blogging Easter weekend.

Liv had been asking us to paint Easter eggs all week, so on Friday afternoon; we finally relented. We even got Lex to participate, although she did not appreciate getting her picture taken.

Ang took Liv to the new Hannah Montana movie on Saturday morning because it sold out before they could get tickets to the Friday night show, and Liv was EXTREMELY dissappointed. While they were gone I decided to hide Easter eggs in the yard because Liv had been begging me all week long for an Easter egg hunt. As you can see from the pictures, we made it a family affair and several of the girls did not look like they were enjoying the beautiful Erie weather, but Liv was in HEAVEN.

On Saturday night, the girls and I decided to watch a movie together. The difficulty was trying to decide which movie to watch. We looked through all of our DVD's and on-demand movies, and argued for nearly an hour. Liv wanted "Ice Age 2" or "Bridge to Terabithia". I wanted "Old Yeller" or "Where the Red Fern Grows". Lex didn't care, until me or Liv would make a suggestion, and then she did not want to watch any of our movies. We finally settled on "Independence Day" because it was on the regular TV and required no effort to watch. As you can see from the picture, we were all VERY tired from the days activity.

We told Liv that she had to wait until 7am to wake up on Easter morning. At our house, the expectations for the Easter Bunny rival those for Santa Claus. Liv was up at 7:05, but Bella was the first one up and had already found her basket by the time Liv came to our room. This is a picture of one of her presents.




Liv found her parents baskets in the closet and then she set off to find hers. After the third try, we managed to get the teenager out of bed, but she refused to do any searching. Liv found Baby's basket up in the office and then she located Lex's basket in the downstairs closet. Lex was THRILLED.

After searching for about a half an hour, Liv was starting to wonder if the Easter Bunny had forgot to leave her anything (I don't know where she would have got that idea?). Lex made the suggestion that she should look out in the garage and the rest is history.

Lex got a bunch of clothes and candy. Liv got several things from Build-a-bear, a new Nintendo DS and a game. After the festivities of the morning, Ang made one of the most spectacular dinners of all time. I wish the picture could do it justice, but it just may have been "as good as it gets".

Happy Easter to all and to all a good night.

Down and Dirty

Wednesday night when I picked up Lex from soccer practice, she told me that she had made the starting lineup (YEAH). I was so proud of her because there are 25 people on the team (only 11 play at a time) and only a few 7th graders were selected for the starting lineup. As you athletes know (i.e Jo the track star), making the starting lineup as a freshman is a BIG deal.

Lex was supposed to have her first soccer game on Tuesday, but because of the snow we had on Monday the game was canceled. Her next game was scheduled for yesterday and luckily it was the best day of the year. The field was really muddy and it was actually pretty cold, but the game went on.

It was amazing watching the game at this level compared to what we were used to back in Utah. The girls were a LOT better players and the ball and game moved a lot faster. The referees were even first class (for Erie). I think Lex was a little nervous at first, but after about 10 minutes; she got in the groove. Her FIRST goal came on a corner kick and was with her left foot. She was in a big group of girls in front of the goal and she "thread the needle" with a low kick to the corner of the goal. Her SECOND goal came on a breakaway and she kicked it so hard that the goalie didn't have a chance. She played almost the entire game and only got taken out for a couple minutes. Several of her friends showed up to watch, so she had her own little cheering section, including her obnoxious father, her sister and her mother.

On a side note, Ang was having Liv run around to stay warm and she fell in the mud, so we had two dirty girls coming home with us. It was a wonderful start to the soccer season and we couldn't be prouder of Lex. Hopefully it gets a little warmer and the field drys up for the next game, but other than that; it couldn't have gone any better.

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