Cooper Updates

Hey everybody,

I have not posted any news from NE Iowa for a long time; sorry! Our worlds have been pretty crazy lately.

Jack and Lily seem to be passing sickness between each other way too much. We've probably been on 6-8 rounds of antibiotics (combined total) for ear infections or strep since November...they are my children, aren't they?! Jack got another set of tubes put in at the end of February. He seems to be doing pretty well since then. He's got a bit of a cold now, so we'll see if it turns into an ear infection or not. Hopefully not. He also had what they think was an extremely mild case of chicken pox. I'm still not convinced that's what it was, but we kept him home nonetheless.

Since Jack got tubes, though, he has become MUCH more vocal. He has mastered several words: mine, no, go, mama, and finally began saying dadda a couple weeks ago. Sometimes he even puts words together. His favorite seems to be: "Go Away".

I'm down to 27 (I think) days left in the school year. And it's a good thing...high schoolers are kissing in the halls and middle schoolers are starting to get stinky and hormonal. It's time for them all to have a break from school, I think.

Our district is closing the Junior High in June, and on August 1 hope to open a new 5-8 facility. I just went on a tour today, it's pretty amazing. All of our kids, 5-8, will have an iPad2, and the place is state-of-the-art. The district's 5-6 building was flooded in 2008, so FEMA is providing funding for a large share of the building. The 5-6 grade students have been in a make-shift school in a strip mall since the flood. The "school" has worked, but the walls don't go all the way to the ceiling, so you can hear things across the building. Apparently band time (remember 5th grade band??) is pretty loud and painful :P)

Well, I've got to go meet with another teacher, but wanted to give a quick Cooper update.

Hopefully spring will be here soon. Lily was excited to see snow on the ground Saturday morning, but I'm hoping we're done with the snow!!

Love you!

Sarah

Inside House Pics

Here's a few pics of the house...

I still have boxes in all the rooms. I'm kind of glad it's going to rain this weekend (at least Saturday), so I can focus on the inside of the house instead of spending all weekend outside. Looks like Mom & Dave will be able to come visit next weekend, which will be a big help with some of the items that I need assistance with. In addition, Mom will be able to help me some plant identification. Yay!

My New House

I've closed on my new house and moved in 2 weeks ago last Thursday. It's hard to believe it's already been 2 weeks.

The house was owned by the same woman for 25-30 years who is now in a nursing home (sounds like she is in her 90's and has dementia now). The daughter gutted and updated the kitchen & bath, cleaned up the basement, refinished the hardwood floors & had it painted nice neutral colors. The main thing I need to do is to get someone in here who can help me with better closet configuration. The master bedroom closet has one short rod on the side of the closet and two-thirds of the closet is empty space. There are plenty of other little to-do's, but that seems to be the highest priority right now.

I'm still working on unpacking. It's hard to figure out where I want to put everything. I have less closets (and they aren't configured well) than I did in my apartment & a smaller main bathroom (go figure), so I am still trying to figure out where to put things.

Bailey seems to be adjusting well. Sometimes she gets a bit vocal, but not like she was the first night when she started talking at 4:30am and didn't stop until about 7:30am. I was exhausted and really wanted to sleep in, needless to say I think I finally got up around 5:30. To counter her early morning meowing, I went to bed Saturday night (2 days after the move) at 7:30pm and slept till 6:30am. I felt like a new person when I woke up and didn't mind that Bailey was doing her morning wake up call!

Without knowing it, I picked a great house for gardening. I saw the house on Sunday, went back to the house on Monday (an inch or two of snow on the ground both days), put in my offer and my offer was accepted with a little negotiation on Tuesday. We did the inspection 2 days after my offer was accepted which was also 2 days after the 2 feet of snow we received with the blizzard. I couldn't see the yard at all.

The previous owner has tons of perennials planted, a few crocuses, a clump of daffodils, hostas and ferns, and a lot of things I am still trying to identify. I think I have hyacinth coming up, and I was told there are peonies. I think there are geraniums and there are 2 or 3 types of plants that are planted all over, but I haven't figured out what they are yet (going to have to dig through my gardening books to see if I can get any ideas - one might be the peonies). I think I found the bleeding heart today. There at least 5-6 roses, 2-3 lilacs, a forsythia, and a couple other bushes I haven't figured out yet. Apparently one of the roses is an edible rose and the seller & her daughter used to make Rose Jam out of the leaves.

The yard/grass needs some work, I see dandelions, creeping charlie, and clover. I borrowed my neighbor's weed killer today and sprayed the weeds in the grass that I am seeing right now. Need to get to the store and get some of my own. Dad got me a reel mower for my birthday & house warming, so I'm all set for mowing the yard and I think it will only take about 15-20 min to complete. Although, I am tempted to hire someone to do the grass and get it back into top shape this year, while I take care of the garden.

Hopefully everyone can come to Chicago for a visit!