News News News News!

And ALL of it good!!!!  I've been waiting months to post all this good news and today I finally can - everything's official!!
(And let me just say, we are not pregnant - definitely good news.) :-)

Chris' contract at BYU was renewed a few months ago, he's still not tenure track as his dissertation is still in the works, but we have a job for next year, Hip, Hip Hooray!  It was touch and go there for several months - the drama and circumstances of his renewal were ridiculous and so we feel extremely blessed to have a job!!!  

I got my old job back!  I've been working for WGU, grading student submissions from home for the past 4 1/2 years, which has been great, but it just so happened that the French teacher at my old Junior High decided to move back East for some additional schooling and my old position was available for the coming fall.  I got re-hired for part time French, which is PERFECT!  I'll teach from 7am-10:25am every day.  By the time the little ones realize I'm gone, I'll be back!  I couldn't be more thrilled.  Going back to the school has felt like going home, I have such good friends still teaching there and such wonderful memories.  I'm soo soo excited to be going back to the classroom and still getting to be home with the kids.  Blessings!! 

Clare got accepted to the BYU preschool.  There were 257 applicants and 34 spots so we feel extremely blessed in this as well.  The preschool is located directly below Chris' office two floors, so he'll drop Shea off at school (he gets to keep going to French Immersion program and we're sooo happy about that!) and then take Clare to school on his way up to his office.  She'll finish at 11, just in time for me to pick her up on my way home from school.  And Fionn got a spot at the best babysitter ever - who lives right next door to my Jr. High!  Whew!  Puzzle in place!!

And the best news... We bought a house.  We plan on being here for 5 or 6 more years (fingers crossed that that works out!!) and didn't want to rent the whole time.  We figured the sooner the better so we started looking in Feb.  We found the perfect house when it was just a foundation and some studs and got to watch it being built and got to pick out all the options.  It's been a blast, but also a ton of work and recently more stress than I can take.  Pretty much anything and everything that could go wrong the last month, has, so it's been back and forth if we'd even buy in the end - but glory, glory, hallelujah, we found out today that finally, finally, we're closing on Tuesday!! 

Oh, and I got an iPad today!  :-) 

Life is good and we feel incredibly blessed.

Here's some pics:
I guess I didn't take any of the house before this stage :-( but here it is wrapped and ready for siding.  (Like the porta potty in my front yard?)

 The siding going up.  We got to pick everything for the house except for the exterior color, which was already ordered when we signed on, so we were stuck with puke brown.  Some day we'll get a house that's a lovely grey or blue, but I've made my peace with this color and love it now.

All sided! 

Plumbing going in.  The kids thought toilets and sinks in the family room was hilarious.

They were also thrilled, thrilled! the day they dumped huge mounds of dirt for the landscaping.  I think they saw years of mud and climbing in their future.  Sorry guys!

Carpet delivery, just waiting for install

Front yard dirt mountain.

Floor installation.  I love this floor.  :-)

Fence?  Check! 

Dirt mountains, gone.  Sprinkler installation day. 

I'll keep you waiting for the all done photos.  :-)  We're so happy to have our own home.  In our 10 years of marriage, we've never lived anywhere that didn't share walls.  So we're thrilled with this cute little beauty and anybody coming to Utah needs to come stay with us!!!!  :-)