Beginnings and Endings

I should be going to bed now, but this post keeps bumping around in my head, so I thought I'd jot a few things down.

We've had a very eventful couple of weeks. We've spent the last two weekends with Eric's family. Two weekends ago, his Dad and girlfriend came in town and we visited the Jazz and Rib Fest and Grace got to play in the hotel swimming pool. Then last weekend we spent a night with his Mom and day and night at his brothers. Again more pool time. Both were very pleasant and relaxing weekends. Luke was exceptionally well behaved on both occassions and Grace has a talent for winning over anyone with her sweetness.

As for the title of my post. This seems to be a time of transitions for us with some new beginnings and new endings. Most of the endings are negative, so I'll start there and end on a happier note.

Endings
1) Most impactful...Eric's job. On July 29th, Eric was officially let go. We kind of saw this coming as they did give him 3 months to try to turn the numbers around, but with today's economy he just couldn't sell enough 11% mortgages to get it done. While this is a negative in the short term (reduced cash flow doesn't fit well in our budget), we have been taking the right steps financially over the last year and a half that we can survive for a short period of time on our savings without making drastic measures or increasing the debt. Also, Eric's hated his job for years, so I think this is just the right push to get him into a better position that will make him happy. He's really throwing himself into it to. It's only been 1 week, but he already had his first interview today at a job he thinks he'd like and it seemed to go well.

2) On July 30th, Grace graduated from speech therapy! Yay! Not only does she now speak incredibly clearly, no more $30 a week co-pays! Now I just have to figure out what to do with the left over money in our flex-spending account. We budgeted for a whole year of speech. I'm thinking I may be getting new glasses and contacts. Maybe a pair of prescription sunglasses for Eric?

3) On a sad note, someone from church that I felt fairly close to passed away on Sunday. While I didn't play on the softball team this year (considering my maternity leave ended over 1/2 way through the season), I did play with him for several years. His wife brought us food when I was going through chemo and was the first person to ever babysit Grace (she came over when I was on maternity leave and had a dentist appointment). He was young (not sure, but less than 45) and had a heart attack at the Sunday softball game. He left behind his wife and two sons (ages ~10 and ~14). It was just so sudden and so tragic. They still haven't sent out notice of the funeral service, so I will have that to attend in the next few days.

Beginnings
Moving on to happier topics...
1) Luke is an awesome sleeper. He's now dropped to just one feeding between 7:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. He naps in his crib and on occasion will sleep in the crib all night (when I'm not to lazy to put him back in there after he eats). I'm calling this "beginning" to sleep through the night.

2) Grace will be beginning pre-school soon. In an effort to save money, we gave Amy our 2 week notice for Grace. Luke will still go to her, but until Eric starts working again, he'll stay home with Grace. He should still be able to keep up on the job search with her at home and Amy has agreed to watch her on occassion if Eric has an interview and just needs her for a couple of hours. Once Eric is employed again, we will be sending her back to her previous daycare center which is also a pre-school. I think she really misses the interaction with the other kids her age and will do awesome. She's going to Vacation Bible School this week and having the time of her life.

3) This one isn't mine, but one of my BFF's Danialle is pregnant. She's now had confirmation from the doctor that everything looks great, so we're allowed to start celebrating. She's due in March and has offered to let me be a part of the birth experience if I can get there in time. Of course I will try my hardest. You know how I love births! It's so awesome to watch her in each stage and how she cherishs each moment. I think I was like that with Grace, but sort of took Luke's pregnancy for granted. I love seeing hwo her mentality is already changing into the protective Mommy and I think she'll do great. Makes me reflect on my Mommy skills and realize I should think about them more often to be sure I'm doing the best job I can.

Ok, I really should go to bed, Luke will probably be ready to get up in about 2 hours and I don't usually sleep as well the 2nd half of the night.