My thoughts on our new adventure

Three years ago, Austin and I made the decision to move to Western Iowa when Austin accepted his first teaching position at Riverside. At the time, it was a huge decision for us. We were newlyweds, I had a great job and we were living in an area where we had been throughout our college years. We were comfortable where we were. In fact, you can go back and read old blog posts from that time to see how we came to the decision to move and what that all meant for us. 

I'll admit right here that while there was some excitement over our move, especially for Austin to start his first teaching job, I was somewhat leery about moving to Western Iowa. After Austin had officially accepted the job, we came out here to start looking for apartments. I really wasn't impressed by what I was seeing and had some doubts about if this was the right decision or not. But we found an apartment we liked, in time I found a great job in Omaha and we started to make this our home. 

Now if you were to ask me if I think we made the right decision three years ago, I would say absolutely. This is where we were meant to be at this time. We've developed some great friendships with people and have some very supportive communities that we belong to. 

My co-workers at UNO became close friends very quickly and have made going to work for the past two years feel nothing like work. :) I've been blessed to work with such a great group of people and in an environment where we can have fun together both at the office and outside of work. 
The staff, students and parents of the Riverside School District have also been of great support to us. They welcomed us into their community with open arms. Again, I say that we've been blessed to get to know many of them throughout different events and activities. We actually moved to Oakland after our first year out here and being a part of this district has been great. Austin has really been able to grow the vocal music program from the ground up over the past couple of years and that would not have been possible without the support of the community. 
I would also say that we've been extremely blessed to be a part of the Grist Mill Theater community. After participating in the production of "Annie" last summer, we made some great new friends. This group of people is one of the best that you'll meet. Welcoming, supportive, fun. It was a great experience that left us with some great new friendships. 

When we had family or friends come and visit us, many of them would say how great of a community we're apart of and how lucky we are to know such great people. And I would agree. Austin and I are both so grateful for all of these friendships and the support we've gotten over the past couple of years. It's meant a lot to us. 

The one downside - and I mean it, there is literally just one - of living in Southwest Iowa is the distance to our families. It's a five hour drive to my parent's home in Minnesota and a four hour drive over to Austin's parents in Eastern Iowa. This has been hard for us as family means everything to both Austin and I. And I know I should feel lucky that we don't live any farther away than we already do! I think five hours is definitely my limit. 

And so we've always said that at some point, we want to get closer to our families again. Especially when we decided we wanted to start a family. But deciding if now is the time to leave Riverside hasn't been an easy decision. We tried (unsuccessfully!) to convince our families to move here so we wouldn't have to leave! :) But in the end, we want to be closer. And with a baby on the way, Austin started applying for jobs. 

I do want to say here that Austin wasn't going to apply for just any job. We weren't looking to leave Riverside because we didn't like it - nothing could be further from the truth. He was only going to apply for jobs that put us closer to family and that would potentially be in larger school districts. We were also looking for larger areas so that finding a job for me hopefully wouldn't be too difficult. 

And there were some jobs that fit what we were looking for, mostly back in Eastern Iowa. He applied early and we didn't really think we'd hear back from any of them that quickly. Soon I had left for Minnesota for two weeks for work and that's when things started to happen. 

On the Wednesday of the first week I was gone, I had a text from Austin saying that Dike-New Hartford had called him and wanted him to come interview Thursday - as in the next day! And while I thought "hm, that's really fast!", I was also excited. For those of you that don't know, DNH is located about 20 minutes west of Cedar Falls and Waterloo - where we lived before moving here. In fact, my old job at Kruger Seeds was actually located in Dike! So this is all very familiar territory for us. The Cedar Falls/Waterloo area, being just 30 minutes south of Wartburg, is about as close as we're able to get to halfway between our families. The drive is three hours up to my parents and just two hours down to Austin's. 

So Thursday, Austin drove over to Dike for his interview and I anxiously awaited his call to hear how it went. Finally he called and told me all about it. He said he really like the people he met with, thought he could get along with them really well and thought the program would be a great program to come into. He also said that they were doing more interviews on Friday (the next day) but were hoping to have an offer out to someone by Friday evening. Well, in our experience, these things tend to get stretched out and so we weren't expecting to hear from them right away. 

Well Friday comes and before the day is over, Austin is calling me telling me DNH has offered him the job. And that they want an answer by Monday. Well I'm not sure how Austin was feeling but I was a little bit shocked! That wasn't much time for us to consider everything and the worst part was that I was still in Minnesota while Austin was back here at home. Not being together to make such a big decision was frustrating. 

We spent a lot of time on the phone that weekend, going over everything. The benefits of taking the job, the stress of moving with a newborn, me having to find a job, being closer to family, taking a look at the district and seeing if it's a place where we could stay for a long time... etc. It was a lot of back and forth. In the end, it's about putting it all in God's hands and letting Him guide us to the right decision. The only problem was that a weekend isn't a lot of time to try and listen for an answer. 
In the end though, a decision was made. Austin called me on Monday and said he was going to accept the job. Looking at the position and the school district, he felt comfortable in saying that it feels like the right fit and a place where he can continue to grow professionally. And that's really all that matters. Everything else surrounding the move will fall into place in due time. I'm confident in saying that God will help us. 

And so that's where we are today. We're moving back to the Cedar Valley. The place where we went to college, where we met, where we got married and where we started out together. We're both very comfortable in the area and that's helpful to us as we start to plan our move back. We'll be able to get involved in a new community with the school district and we're also looking forward to going back to a community that we were a part of - a community at Zion Lutheran Church. Austin directed the choir and the bell choir there for two years before we moved and we're both looking forward to being back to such a great church family. 

We're excited. We're excited about the move, about the new possibilities and new adventures that will come our way. There's a lot to be nervous about it as well, but definitely a lot of excitement. But there's also a lot of sadness. Leaving this area is going to be hard. Maybe even harder than we're anticipating. There are going to be some hard good-byes. Some of which have already started. 

Austin and I will both agree that we will treasure our time that we've been out here. We've grown as individuals, as a couple and professionally. I know that we were meant to be here for the last three years. We've learned a lot and done a lot. We've met some amazing people. It's been a great experience. 

But now it's time we make that next step. We're starting a family. We're ready to start settling down in a place. We're ready for new adventures. And there are sure to be some adventures in our future. 

Hello Third Trimester!

For whatever reason, for both Austin and I, it seemed like our time between our last doctor's appointment until now has been forever! And yes, there was an extra week in there due to my traveling but it felt much longer than it actually was. We sure to like being able to see this little baby or at least hear the heartbeat! :) But because of my traveling, we ended up having two doctor appointments, just a week apart - no big deal to us! 

Our first appointment was Monday, the 25th. At this appointment we had a 3-D ultrasound to get pictures of the baby's face. Well apparently this baby is going to be stubborn like both mommy and daddy... :) Baby Z kept both hands in front of it's face the whole time! At the very beginning, it even had a foot up there as well! Maybe it just didn't want to be photographed today! The doctor did measurements and everything is measuring perfectly, which is great! He kept going back to try and get picture of the face, but nothing. We tried talking and getting the baby to move, and it was moving, just not the hands! :)

I've said from the beginning that this baby is going to come out talking, something it'll take after it's father... ;) Well one of the first things we saw at this appointment was the baby with it's mouth open in a little "o". Already practice talking in there! 

Here are some pictures from this appointment: 

This is about the best we could do for a face shot. It's a side profile, you can see an ear, an eye, some of the mouth and of course that hand up in front of the face!

See that fuzzy stuff? That's hair on our baby's head! :) 

This picture makes me smile but it's really hard to see. It's a straight shot of the baby's face. There's a small arrow pointing to a black hole - that's the baby's mouth, wide open and probably talking away! :) 

The nice thing was since we were going to be back at the doctor's in just a week, they said we could try again to get some better pictures then! 

Our next appointment was just this past Monday. At this appointment we again were going to try to get some pictures of the baby face, but the biggest event at this appointment was my one hour glucose test. This is a test to check for gestational diabetes. Basically they make you drink these orange drink full of sugar and then an hour later, take your blood to check that your body is processing sugar correctly. If you fail this test, you then have to go back in for a three hour test. 

I have to tell you I was dreading this appointment. I don't always do the best with drinking weird drinks and I'm definitely not good with getting my blood drawn! So needless to say, I was nervous. But I will admit that the drink was not nearly as bad as I was expecting and it was pretty easy to drink. Then getting my blood drawn, I lucked out and got someone who really knew what he was doing and again, it was pretty painless. And then we had to wait for the results. 

I got the call the next morning and I'm happy to report that I have passed the glucose test!! :) I can't even tell you how happy this makes me! I did not want to have to go back for the three hour test. Any time I don't have to go the doctor, I'm going to take it! So I'm one very happy pregnant lady! 

Back to the appointment... we did try another 3-D ultrasound to get pictures of the baby's face. All day before the appointment, the baby was moving around so I was really hoping we'd have better luck this time! The nurse also joked that after drinking the sugar drink, maybe that would get the baby moving! Well, instead we got to see our stubborn little baby! It still had a hand up in front of the face, along with the cord. And then the little bugger kept moving it's face towards my back. So we unfortunately didn't get any pictures. This baby just really wants to surprise us when it arrives! :) 

They did check measurements again and it seems that this baby is growing at a fast rate! At the time of the appointment I was 28 weeks and 1 day along. The baby, however, was measuring at 29 weeks and 2 days! I've joked all along that I didn't want a real big baby, but it's not looking too good for me! :) The doctor said they'd keep an eye on the size though. We'll have another ultrasound closer to the due date to check for growth. 

Overall, things with the pregnancy have been going well. I haven't had any complications or any real problems, and for that we are very grateful. I am, of course, dealing with a variety of the "fun" symptoms that come along with pregnancy however. But I suppose it's all just part of the package! :) 

The baby has continued to be on the move inside of me! The movements have been getting a little bit harder but still pretty constant at times. I have to say, this is one of my favorite things about being pregnant. Now, I won't say that if the baby is kicking away at me and I'm trying to sleep, but for the most part, I love it. :) It's still crazy to think a little baby is growing in there but the movements make it so real. I've actually gotten sad thinking about once the baby is born, I won't have those movements inside of me anymore! I will, of course, have the little baby to hold in my arms though! 

It's hard to believe but I'm now in my third trimester! Last leg of the race, I guess! We're now going in to the doctor every two weeks. We start our baby classes next week and soon we'll have to start getting things ready like our birth plan and packing a hospital bag! June is going to be here before we know it! I was just telling Austin the other day that it feels like this pregnancy has just flown by. But if you were to talk to me during that first trimester when I was feeling sick every day, I would have told you it could hurry up! Now I think it could slow down a little! :)