Nims Family Update

We're back... It has been over a year since our last post and A LOT has happened since then. Olivia Joy Nims joined our family on January 16, 2012. Soon after, Luke got a new job, that will be in Johnston, Iowa, so we are in a big transition period at the moment. I resigned my position in Powhatan while on maternity leave so that the kids and I could get to Iowa to look for a house and live with my parents while Luke travels back and forth between his old job in Virginia and new job in Iowa. Here is a review of the last week...

Thursday, March 15

After a week of tearful goodbyes, packing, cleaning and dr. appointments for Olivia, we the kids and I boarded a plane in Richmond and headed west. We got a direct flight to Chicago where my mom was waiting to pick us up. I decided that without a layover, I would attempt flying alone with a 2 ½ year old and 8 week old. Thankfully, Grayson LOVES flying and did a great job. It helps that The Lion King was loaded on the iPad and just happened to be the same length as the flight! Olivia slept the entire time so she was a very good traveler too.

Saturday, March 17

In the meantime, Luke and friend Kyle headed to Iowa with our vehicles. In one pickup Luke pulled a trailer full of random stuff we would need until we got into a house in Iowa. Kyle drove the other pickup along with Waylon. Then, on Saturday, the whole family headed to the Des Moines area to being looking for a house. It was a quick trip since Luke and Kyle needed to head back to Virginia to be at work on Monday morning. We looked at 6 places, none of which we were excited enough about to make an offer. House hunting would continue the following Friday (keep reading for those details!)

In the meantime, the kids and I started getting settled at my grandparent’s house. My parent’s house is in the middle of a remodeling project (planned before we found out about our move!) so we won’t be able to move in with them for a little while.

Tuesday, March 20

The kids and I headed down to Iowa City to meet Aunt Holly and Cousin Tate at the Iowa City Children’s Museum. The boys had a great time running round, going down slides and playing with trains. Next we headed to Tate’s house to stay the night so we could be in Iowa City for Olivia’s orthopeadic doctor appointment on Wednesday morning.

Wednesday, March 21

Good thing Aunt Holly works at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, or we would have gotten VERY LOST on our way to Olivia’s appointment! We met our new doctor, Dr. Dietz, who came recommended by Aunt Holly and Olivia’s doctor in Virginia. We liked him a lot, however, didn’t much like the report we got…

He decided to do an x-ray so we could really see how the hips are doing. The x-ray showed that her hips are “located” however they are very shallow. He was very surprised by this since she has been in her harness since birth. He said she would require more time in her harness for everything to continue to grow the way it needs too. She will continue to stay in it for 23 hours a day for at least 2 more months. We will see the doctor again in a month, then a month after that she will have another x-ray.

We spent the rest of the week at Tate’s house. Grayson really enjoyed having a friend to play with. However, like family does, the boys had their moments where they didn’t get along the best! It was typical 1-2 year old stuff, but kept Holly and I on our toes. Uncle Ryan was in Des Moines that week for some work training, so I think Holly and Tate liked having the company.

Friday, March 23

The kids and I headed to Des Moines for some more house hunting. We met Uncle Ryan for lunch after his training was done. While we were waiting in the parking lot of Fazoli’s I was explaining to Grayson that we were waiting for Uncle Ryan and would have lunch with him. Grayson got a huge smile and said, “I so cited.” Which I am pretty sure translated to, “I am so excited!” After lunch we met my friend Liz and her son Easton, who is less that a year younger than Grayson, and started our house hunting. We looked at 4 houses, one of which I LOVED. Grayson and Easton enjoyed running around in all of the houses… HUGE THANK YOU to my friend Liz, since she kept the boys occupied while I was able to actually look at the houses! Olivia just hung out in her carseat, so she was pretty easy to handle.

Saturday, March 24

We headed back out to look at 4 more houses on Saturday morning. This time my mom joined us, along with Easton and Liz. After the second house we looked at that day, Grayson said to me, “I want to go to MY house.” Poor guy… my kids deserve some serious gold medals when we get through with this transition! One of the houses we looked at was the one I had liked so much the day before. It is in the small town of Adel, west of Des Moines. Although it is in town, after doing a Skype tour with Luke, we decided that it would be a fit for our family and an offer would go in on Monday morning. On Saturday afternoon we started back up to northeast Iowa. We stopped in Gilbertville to visit my aunt and uncle and have some supper.

Sunday, March 25

Thankfully we didn’t have much planned for this day, and was a somewhat a “day of rest.” I did get my application submitted to the Waukee Community School District. They have four 4^th grade positions open for next year, so I am hoping that a call for an interview will come soon. That is the only district in the area that has any openings right now (that apply to me). Hopefully more will pop up soon.

Which brings me to today… After an extremely crazy week of travels we have done NOTHING the last two days, and have loved every minute of it. We received a counter offer on the house in Adel so Luke is still “in negotiations” with that. Our house in Virginia is going to be shown to a couple for the second time today… hopefully at least ONE of these situations goes our way today!! Luke will be coming to Iowa on Friday this week, since he will have to be in Des Moines for his new job for a few weeks. Then he will head back to Virginia to the old job to tie up loose ends, and hopefully be back in Iowa for good after that!