Never Send To Know For Whom The Bell Tolls; It Tolls for Thee

Mark has recently gotten to join an elite tier, or so I'll describe it, at work where he is next in line to the throne. I mean, this group is the only pool from which general managers for his retail big box company will be culled.

There is one store opening currently, and this is diametrically across town from us. Across town sounds cosy, like a short jaunt, or a brief drive. This drive, in reality, would be approximately 30 miles, with a Mapquest-generated driving time of 35 minutes. This is the best-case scenario. The store is on the very southeast fringe of the metro area, and he would have to drive on two very congested highways, one of which is a toll road. I'm estimating about 45 minutes to an hour each way which would take him away from the house about 12 hours a day. And the toll is $2 each way, so it will cost an extra $1000 per year to drive to work. Mark says that the company also says that you must stay in a particular store for a minimum of two years, unless there is a "considerable" benefit to the district.

He really thinks it will be beneficial to his career to put in an application for this opening. I hate the idea of it, but he says that unless he is promoted, we won't be able to afford to live on just his income alone. I want him to do what's best for him in all capacities. I want him to enjoy his job. I want him to be home enough to see the Manling growing up. I would even go back to work part-time in order for him to be able to be at home more. I feel trapped between two bad alternatives here. I hope that we get a good sceanrio here.

In other news, we have embarked on the quest to improve the front patch of dirt. We are not going on a vacation in two weeks, but are staying home and building a retaining wall, new stairs, and a flagstone walkway! What fun! Mark has been just itching to get started on making the front look less the Oklahoma Dust Bowl, and more like the front yards of the rest of our neighborhood. We made a deal that we would do the front yard improvements, and then start on the kitchen remodel.

I had an electrician come over to quote out running electricity to the garage, installing some ceiling fans, and putting a second(!) outlet in the Manling's room. I also asked him to do a rough quote on the electrical work involved with the kitchen remodel.

I got the quotes back today and I am quite surprised at how much it will cost for this one aspect of the job. I can see our home equity from the refinancing trickling away. I just have to keep telling myself that it will make the house more comfortable to live in as well as raise the value upon resale. I just dread getting the plumbing estimate, the windows plus their installation estimate, and the cabinets plus installation estimate. What really worries me is the "incidentals" on top of those.

Happily though, the Manling is a great, thriving, happy baby. Tomorrow he will be offically 8 months old. How quickly time flies! He has been growing and devloping like mad this month. Some new foods for him were beef, chicken, turkey, barley, apricots, and lentils, among others. He continues to eat everything wonderfully, except he shows a reluctance to cooked carrots still. He must pick up my dislike for them.

He has not crawled yet, but is desparately trying to do so. He started out the month by doing push-ups like the downward facing dog yoga position as you may recall. He balance soley on his big toes, which over the course of the month turned red, lost some skin, and are developing the first sighns of callusing. He has progressed to getting on all fours and rocking back and forth. And he has figured out that rolling over will increase his mobilty, reach, and viewpoints and will tumble over as needed. The boycott was ended about two weeks ago. He spins and shoves himself backwards and wriggles, but no crawling. I am not pushing him because I know it is only a matter of time before I will need to babyproof the house.

This month we discovered the Manling loves the water. Since the bathtub has become functional again, he no longer bathes in the kitchen sink. The extra room in the tub allows him to splash, eat bubbles, and play with his duck. He puts his mouth and chin in the water and doesn't mind when I pour water over his head. One sad thing, though, is that we were doing bubble baths regularly and have had to cut back on the suds because the soap was inflaming his uncut boy parts. We bought a small wading pool and he flopped around in it. We went to D's pool and bobbed around in there for several hours. He definitely enjoyed himself. I did too, despite having to buy a new swimsuit top since my previously too large bikini now looks like the smallest of pasties!