What a week!

What a mess!  It was supposed to be an exciting week, what with a job interview for my first real job on Monday and Tim with a resulting extra day to spend with the wee man...they were BEST BUDS!!!!  Instead this has turned into a week that I can only sum up by saying "MAKE IT END!!!"  Monday's interview was EXHAUSTING, if I wasn't still so exhausted from it, I would make that font a little bigger for emphasis.  Academic job interviews suck...big time!  I decided against sleeping in a hotel the night before since I think I would have freaked myself out more doing that...and I would have been much less comfortable.  Instead, I drove the 50 or so miles that morning, leaving the Boston area around 6:30am and arriving in perfect time on the Assumption campus at 8:10.  My first meeting was at 8:30 for breakfast and a chat with the search committee.  All of them were SO nice, very welcoming and they gave me lots of time to ask questions about the school and the department.  I met with the president next, who while very pleasant, was VERY SERIOUS about the Catholic school business.  I am hoping that he is just really good at marketing and isn't as extreme as he comes across.  I met with the Vice President for missions and had a good chat about my research; its fun to talk with people who are completely unfamiliar with my research area and who actually seem interested in the topic once I explain it to them.  The meeting with the Dean of the College was wonderful, she was such a peach, I could and would have sat with her and chatted all day!  After lunch, I was supposed to give my presentation...you know the one I have been working carefully and somewhat obsessively on since oh I'd say November?!?!  Yeah, my shiny new MacBook failed me and all of the carefully planned and revised notes would not display on their projector, so I ended up having to transfer my talk to someone else's laptop and give my talk from memory.  It was not as perfect as it could have been, but it still went relatively well.  I had to rush through the last study and the conclusions since my perfectly timed notes were lost in the technological abyss.  Incidentally, I have since been able project my class PowerPoint presentations with notes just fine all week, so what the issue was on Monday is beyond me!  I met with the department chair, who filled me in on all of the business details, and assured me that my course load and class schedule would be really flexible and they would do everything they could to accommodate me and my plans to continue research.  I toured the lab space, which is about the only thing that I think I am really hesitant about (but it holds potential for negotiations I guess should an offer arrive).  I had a chat with one of the faculty who is currently up for tenure and promotion this year (and who coincidentally happened to apply for a job at NC State while I was a grad student there!!).  Finally I met with the Provost and went out to dinner with the search committee chair and the newest faculty member.  The department seemed like a good split between senior faculty and younger new faculty members.  All of the newer faulty are young females and most of them are mothers of younger children, which would be a really nice environment to be in.  Overall, I am pretty happy with the possibility, its not my ideal job, but given the market, the chances of me finding that are slim to none.  It definitely seems like the kind of place where I can see my self settling in and being happy there.  And who knows some day I might come across my ideal job and may or may not decide to go for it then.  I am trying not to think about the whole process too much now since there isn't anything I can do about it until I hear whether or not I am getting an offer.  I'll be sure to keep you all posted, but for now, we are focusing on other things!

As for the remainder of the week, its been just about as crazy.  Tuesday, Noah went off to Nana Lou's only for us to find out that Quinton, one of the other 2 boys is no longer going to be there.  Long story short, single mom's boyfriend started to threaten her and Quinton and she moved back to Vermont to be with her parents.  It is sad that Quinton won't be there any more, and scary to think of myself and Noah in that sort of situation.  I will be thinking of them and hoping for only the very best.  But we miss baby Q already! 

Wednesday was yet another massive snow storm, capped off my freezing rain, sleet, and the icing that is one of the "most lovely" aspects of living in New England.  I decided to stay home and avoid driving in the mess, but as a result of a very clingy monkey man, I ended up having a hard time being productive.  Playing with Dad in the living room isn't nearly as fun when Mommy is sitting across the dining room trying to get work done.  I'll be glad when spring rolls back around and I don't have to worry about less productive days due to weather at least.  By afternoon on Wednesday, Noah was sporting a massive 'tude, excusable only because I found him with a 103 fever.  Some how sympathy for a sick baby has a way of making you blind and deaf to annoying little wee man behaviors.  He got extra love and some Tylenol and an early bedtime.  

By Thursday morning, the fever was still hanging around and since I teach Tuesdays & Thursdays now, Tim bit the bullet and stayed home with Mr. Sickpants for the day.  By afternoon things were looking up and we thought we were out of the woods.  No fever near the end of his morning nap Motrin dose lulled us into a false sense of security.  By evening the fever had returned and he was up and down screaming on and off 4 times in the two hours after bedtime.  Finally he settled and fell asleep until 1:30am.  A quick pacifier run allowed us to sleep until 3am when all hell broke loose.  He fussed from 3 until 3:30 when we finally decided that there must be something more serious going on than a lost pacifier...keep in mind the boy has been sleeping straight through the night with NO PEEPS for weeks now (due to a bit of sleep training upon the onset of separation anxiety).  Tim and I decided that he must be in need of another dose of Tylenol and perhaps a bottle.  We were seriously surprised when we got a thermometer reading of 104.3 and a practically cooked baby!!!!  I spazzed a little and called the pediatrician's emergency line to see if anything needed to be checked out immediately.  They said Tylenol and sleep and a visit to the doctor's office in the morning.  The removal of some layers, a cool washcloth and some Tylenol later and we now had a small man in the bed with us.  He woke up on an off every 45 minutes or so until we gave up around 7:30.  We were in the doctor's office by 9:30 and with a negative rapid strep test, perfect looking ears, and a diagnoses of a sore throat virus, we were told to give him some extra love, let him sleep, and to push the juice.  Which is where we are right now! :)  He is currently napping, its 2:45 now and he has been down since 11am!!!  Sick much?!?  Hopefully it will break in the next day or so, Nana Lou misses the little boy and has requested a weekend update to make sure she can have him back on Tuesday.  Isn't nice to know that the person we have decided to trust with our wee man cares enough to want running health updates and assurances of his safe return on Tuesday morning!  

I know Nana Lou will probably never read this blog, but I feel like it is my duty as a caring mother to express how extremely lucky we have been to find her.  Leaving Noah with someone else was, and is sometime still, heartbreaking, but knowing he is loved just as fiercely at Nana Lou's as he is at home is a level of comfort that I will never have enough gratitude for.  We love Nana Lou and will take the time to give her a call on Sunday to let her know how her "favorite baby" is holding up! :)

I have lots of adorable pictures coming soon.  We have had some technical difficulties with the computer that I use to upload (never fear, the external hard drive where they are stored is JUST FINE!).  I promise as soon as Tim figures out the issues, adorable pictures will follow.  For now, here's hoping for a more upbeat and less dramatic post next time!