Packing and Moving!!!

So not sure if you know this about me, but I love to pack! I keep seeing boxes that I want to take because they would be the perfect packing box!

I think I will start packing today! Let's be honest mentally I have already packed. I like to prepare ahead of time for a move so that it is smooth and seamless. Moves are never smooth and seamless, but I like to think mine are. ;) I did pack a small box last night with small picture frames in it and already labeled it for which room in our new apartment it goes in.

This is the other thing. My husband is not crazy about packing and organizing, but he gets geeked out about computer programs. The other day he used a program on our Mac called Gimp and made a scaled down version of our Chicago apartment and then measured every piece of furniture in our current apartment and made an object shaped like it, scaled down, gave it a color similar to it's current one and then we arranged our Chicago apartment so that move in day will be easy! We have a couple of options of layouts in case of plugs and heaters being in weird places, but I loved it! I didn't say a word the whole time he did it for fear that if he knew he was organizing and planning ahead he would stop dead in his tracks! :)

Here is the plan we hope that works! I'm sure it won't make too much sense, but it's pretty.
If you are helping us move, print this off and start studying!
We only have 42 more days till we put it into action!!!

I started collecting boxes this week, but did not get very far. The local grocery store saved a grand total of 4 boxes for me. So, I went to the WJU's cafeteria and talked to some of my buddies that work there and they are hooking me up next week. I'm sure it helps that I brought Norah with me!

Ahh! I love packing! I'm getting even more excited about it as I write! I can sometimes hurt people's feelings because of it though. Ask my college roommates. Every single break or weekend I went somewhere I would start packing in advance and it made them sad because they thought I wanted to be away from them. It really had nothing to do with them. I just wanted to pack and then I was anxious to unpack!

So, I am off to begin! We have a couple of cute pictures of Norah that I will tack on to the end so that your time was not wasted here! :)

Attack of the animals!

Reconciliation of the Browns and the Steelers!

Cute little ladybug outfit from Grandma McCowin!

These pj's are so stinking cute and seem like big girl pj's.
Norah was not happy about this photo shoot!

Alright, the ultimate test. Norah in her papa's glasses: Does she look more like Josh or me?

This is for my sister. Her son Caleb received this beautiful blue flowered sweater at one of her baby showers. It turned out he was a boy though so he gave his beautiful sweater to his cousin! It was a tad chilly this morning so we put her in it before she grew out of it!

Norah's Baptism

Norah was baptized on Sunday. We had a lot of friends and family come into town for the service which was fun! Norah did fairly well during the actual service. She has never made it through an entire church service so I was not sure how things would go.

When we got to the front of the church she was fine but then started to get a little fussy, but the pastor kept going and did not seemed concerned. As soon as he took her for the water part of the service she did fine. He later told us that he had two colicky children and one grandchild, so he knows how to hold a baby to calm them down! After he did the water he walked down the center aisle of the church so everyone could see her and she loved that part!

Norah's dress was my mom's baptism dress. I was afraid Norah might rip it to shreds with her fierce grip but she did great! It was really special to have her in her grandma's dress. I came across it several years ago with my mom when I was helping her reorganize their basement room and told her that if I ever have a little girl I want her to wear that dress, so it was great to have it all come to furition.

This was a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to make sure the dress was going to fit and it did!

The Elek Family!

The extended McCowin Family!

The extended Elek Family!
It was the first time Norah met her Aunt Katie and Steve.
They came all the way from North Carolina!

These are good friends from Pittsburgh. Erin and Lucy Bindewald and Allie Mollenkof!
(The picture is a little fuzzy which stinks.)

Cousins! This is the eldest cousin on the McCowin side Cora. She wanted a picture with her little cousin Norah. (Yes their names rhyme :))

Good News/Bad News

Well, we will start with the bad news first. I did not pass my test yesterday. I cut and pasted the e-mail I sent to friends and family last night. As you will be able to tell it was rough. Today is better than yesterday and I'm sure it will only get better from here on out.

"I missed it by one point again. It's very disappointing and frustrating. This is essentially my life experience with tests. As far as Chicago goes, I can still pursue social work positions, but if they want someone who is licenced then obviously I will not qualify. I will probably pursue any kind of employment at this point and see what happens. I will be able to take the test again in July and it will be easier in the end to take it in IL and not have to transfer my license from state to state.

I do not know what it all means...I'm not sure that it needs to mean anything I guess. Just pray for us as we make this move to Chicago and I feel like I let my family down. I know that's not true but that's what I feel. Norah just needs me to feed her, change her and put her soothie in her mouth and that I know I am licensed to do!

So, we are looking into some infant modeling for Norah so that I don't have to work...just kidding!

Thanks for loving me, I need it.

Rachel"

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Now for the good news! We found out about our apartment last night and accepted it today!!!! We are so excited! Below is a picture from the "typical floor plan" of what we believe will be our exact apartment (measurements wise).


We are so excited because this apartment will have character to it unlike this aparement we are in now that is three rectangles all connected. We will be able to go in a circle around walls if we want! I'm sure that will come in hand when we start chasing Norah!

As you can see the elevator and stairs are right across from out door which will make moving a little easier! We will be on the 5th floor of our building. I'm glad about that because it's high enough to not have to worry about people getting in the window! I know I'm crazy, but that's the first thing I thought!

If you click here you can see some pictures of the building and our laundry room and other fun things that you probably do not care about! :)

When we signed up for housing we decided to shoot for the stars and request a building with an elevator. Mostly for me because of my muscle disease and the ease that will have for me in the winter months with a baby and a dog!

That's right folks! We have a dog! You may not know this because she has been living in Cleveland with the Eleks since we can't have her in the dorm. Her name is Gizmo! Here is a picture...


This is one of my favorite pictures of her! She is a cutie and it will be great to finally be with her!

So, that's the good news! We are excited and it is helpful to have this piece of the Chicago puzzle nailed down! Good news always helps with the bad news, so the timing was perfect!

We will most likely move the first full weekend of June, but don't hold us to that yet as we have lots of details to tie up here. We will keep you posted!

PS. visit Norah's blog for a really cute video of her!

Nasal spray

I will never use nasal spray again! I used it last night at 6:30pm and barely slept at all!!!! I used Flonase (sp?) once and had nightmares all night, but I thought, this is over the counter stuff, I'll just do the minimum dose and I'll be fine.

Well, that was not the case. I went to sleep on the couch at 2:30am because being in a room with two people sound asleep does not help. I did fall asleep for a little bit at 3:30am I think. Luckily Norah slept for 11 hours and 15 minutes so that was good! I hope to sleep today while she does.

Remember the Sabbath

So I am taking my social work board exams for the second time this Wednesday. I took it the first time 10 days before I had Norah. It's a long story, but I signed up a week before I took the test and studied for 7 days straight and failed by one point. It was pretty heart breaking and my pregnancy emotions did not help the situation at all. I cried so hard I thought I was going to induce my labor!

The hardest part about it was that the test was all electronic and there are 170 multiple choice questions. When you answer #170 the screen changes and asks you if you are finished, you click yes and the next screen says, "Click Quit if you are done" you click that and the next screen popped up and said, Failed! I had no idea I was going to know my results so you can imagine my surprise! Then it said by one point and I did not know what to do. It was terrible.

I could not sign up to take the test until 90 days later, so I signed up about a month and a half ago and started studying again. Last Wednesday morning when I was a week away I started to freak out. One of our RA's Ben stopped by to visit and I was telling him about how I could not sleep and was freaking out about it. He is a psychology major and started talking to me about how the process of worrying is the same as the process for thinking positively. He told me I need to tell myself that I will pass my exam. It was helpful to talk to him and later I decided to write on all of our mirrors with a white board erase marker, "I WILL PASS MY BOARD EXAMS!" I also wrote Barak Obama's phrase from one of his earliest speeches, "YES WE CAN!" I figured while I was thinking positively I would also think positively about the candidate that I want to be the next President of the United States! :)

Anyways, it really has been helpful for me to have written this on the mirrors. Everyday as I am getting ready or just walking by, I say the phrase to myself and I have not been worrying as much or being hard on myself.

When I was in Utah I also talked a lot about this with my sister. She was very helpful too because she had also failed her exams for interpreting. She just talked to me about how looking back now she could see God teaching her things and preparing her. I know alot of times that kind of reasoning does not make sense to people and it does not always make me feel better too, but she is right. The fact that I am even writing about this publicly is a big step for me. I did not want to tell anyone when I would be taking the exam again because I felt ashamed about failing. I know that it is entirely possible that I will not pass again, but it is also entirely possible that I will pass the exam. I think the hard part about it is that I was putting a lot of pressure on myself because we are moving to Chicago and I will need to be getting a job. I'm not trying to say that I am not being responsible and studying because trust me I am!

That leads to the subject of this post. Today after lunch Josh had to go do housing sign ups all day, so I came home and got Norah settled down for a nap and then started studying again. I felt very burdened by it and realized that I just needed a break from studying. I realized that it was the Sabbath and I needed to let myself relax and take a break from it all. I have been fighting a cold for too long now and this morning I felt like I might be getting worse again. I needed to let my whole body and mind take a day off and do something I enjoy since I have just been studying as much as I can when Norah is sleeping.

It felt great to put the books away. I took a nap with Norah, played with her, cleaned and organized some things and ate ice cream! I did not stress out about not studying and do not feel like it will make or break me. I am not always good at keeping the sabbath, especially now that I am a mom. I don't know how you take a day off from being a mom though! :)

I know this was a long post to get at the point of it, but I have been really proud of myself for the way I can see growth in areas that have been so hard for me in the past. I hope to have a great report for you all on Wednesday evening after the test. If I don't it will be ok, after some tears of course, which is appropriate and necessary for me to cope! Thanks for reading if you got all the way through!

Goodbye Second Cup!

This was the only picture I could find quickly. :)

Our favorite and only coffee shop, as far as we are concerned, is closing tomorrow. We found out about a week ago when we returned from Utah and were not able to get there until today, due to our trip to Chicago and being ill.

The owners, who are sisters, Amanda and Jessica, are friends of ours and they got to live their dream for the past 3 years which alot of people can not say for themselves. They felt that they needed to close before they went into debt, which is a great decision. I feel bad because alot of people are upset at them because it is "ruining their monday," etc. We are excited for the possibilities for them as they will be able to do other things they may want to do. Of course we will miss being there, but they have hope to open it again when the economy is better for everyone.

We knew we would not be able to be there tomorrow for their last day, so Joshua had the idea to get a bottle of wine and toast them into their new adventures at three when the shop closed today. Norah and I hung out with them while he ran to the store. He got back right at three and when the last person left he brought the stuff in and we surprised them! It was alot of fun! We sat right on the floor in the middle of the shop and toasted and told stories. It was great! I'm pretty sure they loved it and felt honored and celebrated.

When we first walked into the shop today I completely teared up and had to hug them. I was surprised by my emotions, but it was a big part of our life here in Wheeling. These are the kinds of things that will make me sad to leave a small town and move to a big city.

Amanda and Jessica love Norah so much and she could be the one reason they consider having children down the road they say!

Anyways, I just thought I would share our joy and sadness with you all. It's nice to have a place to walk into and the owners know what you want to order. I never thought I would have something like that in my life, but it was wonderful!

Sisters

This is my sister Amanda and her baby boy Caleb! Josh, Norah and I flew out to Utah to be with her and Andrew for Easter. It was a great trip! Minus the fact that most of us were sick in the beginning.

When Amanda and I were little girls we knew we wanted to be pregnant at the same time when we were older! When she got married in 2000, and there was no one in the works for me, I figured Amanda would be on her 5th child by the time I was pregnant with my first! Well, I beat her by 9 weeks!

It was really great being pregnant at the same time. It was nice to talk about how our bodies were changing and our emotions were at Cedar Point going all over the freaking place without us!! I sent her maternity clothes when I was done with them and I just flew home with an extra bag full of maternity clothes in case Heather decides to have another! :)

I am impressed with my sister as I always am. She is a good mom and I loved being able to spend time with her in her everyday life to see how she is doing the mom thing! Her and Andrew are very intentional with every decision and action they make. I have always looked up to her and admired her and still do.

Caleb slept through the night for the first time last night!! Yeah!! We rejoice in the small things of our children's lives. Norah is oh so close to rolling over. She has done it on an incline and with the help of her Baby Einstein playmat with the little plastic things that hang down, but she is very very close to doing it completely on her own!


Here are just a few pictures. The rest our on Norah's flickr account. I'm tired and need to get to bed.

Enjoy!




Josh and I are headed to Chicago tomorrow until Sunday to figure things out for the move. He has a perspective student day all day friday. I will post about the weekend next week!

College Fun!

We decided to take a walk this afternoon and get lunch at the school's kiosk. When leaving the building this is the sign I saw posted on the front door of the residence hall!!!! I immediately knew that Ben one of the RA's did this as an April Fools Joke! I tore it down and when we returned an hour later it was back up!