Exciting News!

Amanda is the new guidance counselor at Oltman Jr. High School in St. Paul Park, Minnesota! The school is part of the large South Washington County school district. It's all very surreal because she's wanted to be a guidance counselor since she was in middle school, finished her master's degree two years ago, and hadn't been able to get a job in the field she wanted. We had a discussion recently about at what point, after how many years of trying, should she focus her energy elsewhere. Soon after that conversation, she found the posting for this position, applied, got an interview...and now here we are.

The job starts in less than two weeks so we've got a lot of little things to figure out still - our daily schedules, how those fit into our daycare schedule, possibly getting another car (Yes, car, no minivan for this household!), etc. But even though there may be some uncomfortable changes, it's the kind of changes that occur when something good happens. Or as Marlo Stanfield put it, "That's one of those good problems."

I'm very excited for Mandy and extremely proud of her!

In other news...Julia got a hair cut a few weeks ago. It was quite a drastic change, but she likes it a lot and had no problem with getting it chopped off.
Here are before and after pictures of Julia in a gymnastics outfit:



Finn is still very fond of his sister, even with short hair.


I was feeling left out so I tried out some new styles. Here is the best one I came up with. And by "best", I mean worst.


And we couldn't leave without a picture of the lady with the new job!