The kids are still alive.... We promise!

this is nate

K, so it has been almost 2 weeks since you've all had to come over here only to be disappointed with the Pro's and Con's of our kids. Like I said, they are still alive and kicking (and screaming and whining and crying and squealing and all that fantastic junk that we sign up for when we decide to have kids.) In case none of you could tell, we were having some rough times and all the reassurances were nice. So thanks.
I don't really know what to talk about now. Since the Summer-O-Fun ended a month ago, Zoee is still learning to live with rules and bedtimes and somewhat regular meal times and being told No. And Gus is starting to crawl. He actually started a couple weeks ago and still isn't actually crawling, but he's getting really efficient at scooting around on his belly and getting anything and everything that means the world to Zoee since it's on the floor and he just wants to check it out... with his drool. And nearly every... single... thing... in this house means the world to Zoee so she has some pretty rough days defending what she thinks is her territory, even if it's something of Gus'. So all that has been pretty irritating to live with in our little house. Since we all made it back from glorious Huntsville, we haven't left town once, we haven't really done much other than swim and try to stay inside with our puny little A/C. We try to stay home during daylight and go out once it starts to darken, but that gets cut short cause Gus goes to bed at about 7:30 or 8 every night. So we haven't been doing anything.
One point of excitement that I need to fill some people in on is that we have put in an offer on a house we know of and both really really like. Stac has known about the house for quite a while now; it belonged to a friend of hers and they've been trying to sell it for a while now but (just like everyone probably knows) houses aren't selling very well here, let alone for what people are trying to get out of them. So they're been losing mucho dinero on this house and finally the bank approved a short sale on it and that was enough to get us to take the bait. It's in really good shape with lots of upgrades already in it, it's much MUCH bigger than this little house, 4 bedrooms, big big family room- really it's ready for us to move in. They've already said that they are good with the offer we sent over, but now we're waiting to hear back from the bank on what they think of our offer. We were told yesterday that it'd probably be a couple more weeks till we hear back form the bank. So we're waiting. Oh, the difficulty in all this is that they're no longer offering people the first time home buyer/down payment assistance programs out there (thank you Bush), so this is all gotta be closed by the last day of September. It's kinda a rush, but the house was really easy to like and agree on. Before all this happened, we were only looking at houses that already had multiple offers on them cause they were such good bargains. It's tough being a first time home buyer. We just wanna get us a home to call ours.
What else??????
Training at the jail is still going really good. I really do like being in the jail; it's a lot of fun. I've only got 4 more weeks of training to go till I'm on my own... but no tour from under the microscope. I have and 18 month probationary period that started when I started in March. So until next September I have to be really on top of my game so they have nothing to fire me for. From talking with a lot of people, they really hate to have to do that with as much time, money, and training they've put into me thus far. But once training is over, I'm still not off the hook. Stac asked me one night last week if I missed being at Mix. I told her Not really. But there definitely some things about being there I do miss. Mainly this: the securing of knowing that what I'm doing is right and I'm good at it. There's a lot of confidence that builds when you become comfortable in what you're doing, who you do it with, and when you know you're good at what you do. That, I really do miss. It's been kinda rough going into something that is so new and foreign to me that puts me completely at the bottom of the learning curve. But as hard as it has been, I do really enjoy every day of it so far and and really really glad that Stac has been there to support me in it. It hasn't been easy, but we're making it there together. (Man, that is some really corny stuff!!)
I think that'll do it for now. Something new for everyone out there. I'm sure I missed something really important that I just can't think of right now. And if I did, then Stac will have to correct me.