Wuv, Twue Wuv

Happy Valentine's Day! As I'm sitting down here to blog about my most recent accomplishment (duh) I'm thinking about where we were a year ago and how far we've come. I don't have the dates written down, but give or take a couple weeks a year ago we were sitting in the pulmonologist's office listening to him tell us that he just had another patient with Clay's same illness leave the hospital after a year (!) - thankfully without ending up needing the lung transplant she was on the list for (!!). Clay had gotten bronchiolitis, which is like bronchitis but of the bronchioles instead of the bronchi. Fairly common in children (well, decently common, though certainly not something every kid gets) it's extremely rare in adults, and while less dangerous in kids - well, the other lady who the Dr. talked about is a good example. He would be at the other end of the house, I would have our bedroom door closed, and Thomas' door was closed, and Clay would wake us both up with his coughing. In what was supposed to be his final semester of graduate school. Graduation ended up pushed back, his dissertation defense rescheduled a couple months later, etc. etc. Thankfully he had a terrific doctor and made it through what can keep you hospitalized for a year in just a couple months at home. Between then and July he finished his research, wrote his dissertation, defended his dissertation, applied for, interviewed, and accepted a job as a Visiting Assistant Prof. at Bucknell University in PA; we sold our house, bought another one, found out we were having another baby, packed up all our stuff, and moved to PA, where Clay basically immediately started work.
All before the end of July.
Clay loves his job, and got to spend a few nervewracking months looking for another (permanent) position for once this job is over. After applying to and interviewing for several different places, he just accepted a position as a part-staff, part-faculty member at Ohio State in Columbus, in charge of the Analytical Chem labs as well as teaching a couple classes. It's a bit more involved than it sounds, but that's the basics. We'll only be an hour away from *both* sets of our parents (yay!). In the meantime, I got more and more pregnant until giving birth on Monday to the most beautiful girl ever. And we're looking for houses and planning out getting our house ready to sell, planning for moving in mid-May.
Quite a year!
Beth is gorgeous - I know I'm obviously biased, but I really think she's one of the prettiest babies I've ever seen, even without the bias! Both of my kids are so awesome, I can hardly be more amazed. My family is so cool - appropriate to think about on a day that's supposed to be about love!
I'm sitting next to Beth right now while Thomas is taking a nap and my mom is doing treasurer-type stuff (for their local theater). Jenn and Henry came over earlier, which was totally awesome, and came bearing lunch, which was also totally awesome. Mom and I had just been looking at each other trying to figure out lunch since we had used the last 2 pieces of bread for Thomas' sandwich earlier and neither of us wanted to make a store run today, and Jenn called wondering if they could come by to hang out for a while. I was obviously totally thrilled, and then she goes on to ask if we wanted her to pick up something for lunch on the way. Wow! How cool is that?! Big thanks to them for saving our afternoon; not only did they solve our lunch issues (store run scheduled for tomorrow when we do the postpartum visit at the hospital!) but Thomas had waken up having a rough day, so Henry's visit really turned it all around for him. And us.
Anyway, I'm off to rest for a while, and figure out what we should eat for dinner. Fortunately, we've got lots more dinner options than lunch laying around, so shouldn't be quite the same issue!