the last big item that we did was tuckpointing the front of the house.  tuckpointing is an expensive task, but one that we were worried would get flagged during inspections.  the front of the house needed to be repaired, so we went ahead and had that done proactively, so that we could be in control of the process (vs waiting for a potential buyer to start making demands).  the tuckpointing, along with the roof, were the last big items that the house needed.  we felt good knowing that we would be listing a completely renovated and upgraded home.

other than that, we had some minor painting throughout and a few small touch up items.  and then we had to deep clean the entire house...

up next - listing!

the short version - we now are living and working in ohio.

 the slightly longer version...

mike and i had always thought that "someday" we might return to the columbus area. we both grew up here, our families were still here, and many of our good friends lived here. when we found out we were pregnant with wesley, we decided to give st louis a few more years, and figure out how to do this whole parent thing before trying to change cities, jobs, houses, and everything else. we found a fantastic daycare, we had friends with young kids in st louis, and we were able to host many out of town guests. things were good. 

except... there was my job. i didn't talk about my job much on here, mostly because there wasn't much to say. it was fine. not great, but fine. my career has always been a big part of who i am, and i had lost a lot of my passion for the profession. last june i passed my final exam and became a registered architect, and i had hoped that the new position might give me new opportunities with my company. not so much. not wanting to deal with changing firms for only a few years, i decided to just wait and see what we decided to do about a move. i thought that i would have a difficult time finding a job that got me excited again, so i decided that in the meantime, i would start making connections with firms that i was interested in that were located in ohio. i thought it might help to have a few relationships in place if/when we did decided to move in the future. 

meanwhile, we experienced our first christmas with wesley, having to travel from st louis to columbus to be with our friends and family. on our (long) drive home, we discussed how difficult it was to travel for every big holiday, and how it would just get worse when wesley got older. we wanted santa to come to our house. we wanted to be able to enjoy leisurely visits with our friends and family instead of always having to cram it all in to a few days. we wanted to be able to save our vacation time for actual vacations and not just for the holidays. we also were realizing how difficult it was to find babysitter options, and we hadn't done much without wesley. having to basically rely on times when our family came to visit us before being able to leave wesley for a few hours was not ideal. we were doing fine on our own, but having other people around and available to help sometimes sounded really good.

a few weeks later, in early january, i can across a firm that was looking for an architect in the columbus area. i didn't think that i was really qualified for the open position, but when i ended up stuck at home for a few days because of the snow, i decided that i might as well update my resume and portfolio and send it to them. less than 24 hours after i sent my initial email, i had a phone interview set up. in the few weeks that followed, i had several more video interviews, and all conversations were leading towards potential employment... starting immediately... in columbus. i also began talking to a few other firms, just to make sure i was exploring all of my options. on valentines day i had my final interview with the first firm, and was offered the position. 

mike, realizing where all of this was headed before i even acknowledged that this could actually happen, decided to update his resume as well and started looking for a job in columbus. he had some interest, but was a few weeks behind me in the job search. we knew that realistically, we needed 2 of 3 things to fall into place before we could make a move. we each needed a job, and we needed to sell the house. we started having a serious conversation about how long we could live apart (since mike could keep his job in st louis until finding something new), and we also started talking about what we needed to do to sell the house. 

(selling the house - that's a long long story that i will write about in another post)

so we took a leap of faith and i accepted the position in columbus. luckily for me, the firm's "immediate" time frame was not as immediate as i had feared, and they allowed me to wait until the end of march before starting. 5 weeks sounds like a decent amount of time for a transition, until you start to realize how much you need to do to your house to prepare it to be listed, how much time it takes to pack all of your belongings, and your husband needs to find a job. and oh yeah, you have a 7 month old.

in the last few weeks before our big move, mike suddenly had multiple interview requests. he talked to a few companies, and things were going so well with his conversations that we both felt comfortable with him quitting his job in st louis even before things were finalized with a position in columbus. this allowed him to move back to columbus with me and wesley, and i was so grateful that we were able to come back here together. he finished up his interviews and accepted a position at an accounting firm, which he started about 1.5 weeks ago.

as for our house - the house in st louis was listed towards the end of march and (spoiler) we are currently in contract on the sale of the house. we are living with my parents until we get things finalized with the house(s). (spoiler #2, we also are in contract on a house in columbus)...

so that's what has been going on, and the reason why i have not posted anything for a few months. it's been a crazy ride, but we are so grateful with how everything has worked out, and we are looking forward to getting completely settled here in ohio.

eating/sleeping:  wesley continues to get 3, 5 oz bottles at daycare and nurses 3 times a day.  he loves all foods that we've given him.  we've offered him both pureed food and some soft solids (avocado, bananas, cooked sweet potato wedges).  he also started eating some puffs, and oatmeal in the mornings.




misc.:  we spent 10 days in ohio at christmas and wesley loved it all.  i think his favorite part (besides all of the attention), was the wrapping paper and the boxes.  he was spoiled and recieved plenty of toys and new clothes. 




he continues to love all of the pets.  murphy still gives him unlimited kisses, so we have to keep an eye on murph when he's around wesley.  i'm pretty sure he would just keep licking wesley if we didn't make him stop :)




wesley's friend lana had a ball pit for her first birthday party, they were so cute playing in it together!!

i'm ending his 7 month post with a few photos from christmas.  i was going to do a separate christmas post, but since it's already march...  probably best to just insert them here :)

wesley will be 7 months tomorrow, so i'm almost caught up... :)

stats:  wesley ended up having a dr appointment a few days before he turned 6 months, and he weighed 14 lbs 11 oz - a skinny guy!  he was still wearing 3-6 month clothes at 6 months, although we started switching out a few things like pjs with feet, because he was getting to be too tall.  he's in 12-24 month socks, he has big feet!

eating/sleeping:  wesley's bottles are still the same - 3, 5 oz bottles at daycare.  we did start on some solids a week before he turned 6 months, he was so interested in what we were doing at meal time, we thought it was time for him to try it out.  we started with some wedges of sweet potato, and i was impressed with how well he ate them.  he also had some banana, and pureed apples. he likes everything we've given him so far.


we were finally able to get wesley to nap in his crib at home on the weekends, which has been really nice and i think he sleeps better when he's in his crib (instead of in our lap, or in his swing).  he still doesn't take as long of a nap for us on the weekends as he does at daycare, but he seems happy and sleeps well at night, so we're ok with that.

milestones:  wesley started sitting up for longer periods of time unsupported, and moves a ton!  he has figured out how to get around by rotating on his stomach - he spins and spins until he's where he wants to be.  he also figured out how to get up on his hands and knees and rocks, but hasn't moved yet.  the biggest milestone of month 6 was probably his first teeth - he got 2 bottom teeth over thanksgiving.  he seemed to be really uncomfortable and was very fussy, but went back to his normal self after the teeth finally came through.


misc.:  wesley flew for his second time at thanksgiving, and did great on the plane. he also did great on our return drive from columbus to st louis.  he's been so much fun lately, he's really interested in toys and loves to play. 


we went to ted drewes to get wesley's first christmas tree.  he really liked to look at the ornaments and the lights.   


this was our christmas card photo, such a happy little guy!

the bucket had overflowed, but the mattress saved us yet again, catching most of the water.  the already damaged areas were now worse, including the area around the window, but i don't think that friday's melt/rain caused any new damage.

the adjuster was finally able to come out yesterday and get up on the roof.  apparently the roof membrane above our back porch had been blown back, and was sitting in the middle of our roof, exposing the porch and the roof above the guest room.  everything should be covered by insurance (minus the deductible of course), we are just waiting to hear back with their estimate.  besides the repairs to the roof/ceiling/floor, we also will have to replace the bed and the mattress, the rug, and everything that was stored under the bed, which includes the leaf for our dining table, an extra box of hardwood flooring, and the crib rail for wesley's crib. 

while a pain to have to deal with all of this, we are very thankful that should all be covered by insurance, and that this happen to the guest room and not any of the other rooms in our house. 

so that's the current house adventure, i'll keep you posted...