Monday, February 2, 2009

What a difference a day makes!

On Friday Nathan received an email from the company in Boston asking him to fly out and meet with the rest of the team. He also was able to contact the company in MI and found out that they want not only a resident, but essentially a future partner. So, though no direct offers have been extended, we spent the whole weekend debating these two options. We could afford a house and a life in MI. (Grand Rapids) They have farms in the area (apples, blueberries, peaches, and wool!), farmer's markets, midwives (I'm not pregnant), are close to the beaches of Lake MI, and a host of other things that sound nice and good and wonderful. But then there's Boston. Something about New England won't let us go, even though we'll never be able to afford a house in the area and would remain indentured renters indefinitely. But it also carries the possibility (though no guarantee) of returning to our beloved Upper Valley after the residency. To accept the position in MI means a promise to stay with the co. But MI offers the joy and beauty of no on-call and no weekends. But Boston offers research opportunities and collaboration with some well-known universities, colleges, and hospitals, and the director is one who "came" highly recommended by several people Nathan has worked with in the past.

See? It was a very interesting weekend.

So, here's what will happen next. Nathan will fly out to Boston and visit and see what happens. The guy in MI is going to call and schedule a day visit there, as well, but we will all drive. It's only about 3.5 hours from here, around the lake and up. He'll spend the day at the company, hands on, while the kids and I visit the city. Grand Rapids is the 2nd largest city in the state, but has just under 200,000 people. I'm sure I could get lost and get a feel for the area.

In other news, Joseph has a terrible diaper rash and we are thinking of going 100% on the potty training. He spends most of his days in underwear anyway, is it time to start taking him at night? He never manages to sleep through the night, anyway.

We watched The Hobbit on Saturday. The 1977 animated version. When it was over, Lil'Nathan came into the kitchen, let out a huge sigh, and said, "I hate it when they leave out parts from the book." I was surprised. This was the first film adaptation he'd ever seen of a book he read.

Joseph will be two next week. We are thinking of making ice cream sandwiches with cookies. But I may have to buy the cookies. Our oven is totally unreliable and inconsistent. I tried to make yummy soft molasses cookies like I made in Manchester, nice flat-ish and bendy. Nope. We got puff cakes. Good, but not right. One week our biscuits are crispy blackend beasts, the next they take forever to lightly brown. Whatever.

Mary has a library class today. Last week they read snow stories and built a styrofoam ball snowman. (Anyone wanna bet today will have something to do with Groundhog's Day?) She's very excited.

And, just so this posting wasn't a total waste of your time, here's a couple of pictures:

Mary and Joseph. Hairstyle courtesy Daddy.



Joseph on Christmas. Wig courtesy Gramma--a gift to Mary, that Joseph thought was way cool!

1 comment:

Sara said...

Lisa,
Good luck with everything! The other day my friend and I made ice cream sandwiches from home made chocolate chip cookies and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream...it was YUMMY!!!!