Mini family update

Carl's month-long hiatus has come to an end as of Monday. He started his new rotation affectionately dubbed "radi-holiday" (radiology), due to the let's say, flexible schedule that they keep. We are definitely not complaining. We like those docs in specialities that think more along the lines of Pathologists. Carl has been getting off in plenty of time to continue to pick up Lily from school around 4:30 which both of them clearly love. During the rotations that have desirable schedules, my life becomes so blissful. It is so nice not having to contend with tired, hungry, cranky toddler at the end of the day while I'm trying to finish up my work and shut down the building. Carl can also run to the grocery store or pick up any little things as needed; it really makes all the difference in the world. Carl also makes dinner on most nights when he gets home early; this is the point at which my life gets blissful, heaven really. With Ingrid taking care of the dogs (meaning I don't have to walk Terra during my lunches breaks!), I feel so free. Well, almost.

Carl has finished the last of his interviews. We ended up picking eight programs at which to interview: Wash U, Iowa, Indiana, U of Chicago, Johns Hopkins, U of Maryland, and two Kansas programs. We have gotten really positive feedback from everyone so far, so we are really optimistic about getting into one of our two top choices. Looks like we will become midwesterners once again this summer!

We had three real estate agents come over and look at our house last week. They all gave suggestions for improvements before putting it on the market and offered suggestions for a reasonable listing price. We had a clear winner for the real estate agent that we wanted to go with. Her commission was just slightly higher than the others, but we feel that she had the most accurate assessment of the house and ultimately has the resources and expertise to sell the house most quickly for the best price. Fortunately, we have very little to do to prepare the house besides some cosmetic touch-ups, continuing to declutter (yay for rented storage space!) and the heavy duty cleaning. Unfortunately, the small things really add up to keep us busy during the majority of our weekends, which will only get worse before it gets better. We plan to actually put the house on the market sometime around the beginning of March. We fully anticipate running into some bumps along the way in this whole process; we just hope that the bumps don't turn into mountains!

Lily continues to amaze us with her ever-expanding knowledge of the world around her. She now recognizes several letters, some numbers and a few words by sight. I love her use of phrases like "get out of town". I love her spunky personality. I love her observations and opinions. I love the constant commentary, the singing, and the incredible imagination. I just love this age. I feel like a broken record sometimes, but it really does just get better and better.

And that's life with us right now!