There has been a few changes in our family in the few months. First of all we found out we are pregnant with our 4th and final baby due July 4th. I guess if this is our last we should go out with a bang, fireworks will do! Hazel's pregnancy was hard and I really wanted to enjoy this last one, like I did my pregnancies with the boys, but so far this baby has other plans. It makes me wonder if we have another girl joining the family. I'm really lucky though the baby is fine and Kurt has been amazing like he has with every baby and took over everything I couldn't do because of the horrible morning (all day) sickness. Things are getting better thanks to some great meds that work most of the time, hopefully I'll enjoy the next 5 1/2 months. We'll find out the baby's gender on Feb. 20th.
The second major change is a double shot for Kurt. At the beginning of the month he started 2 new jobs. That makes 3 jobs right now for him. I'll start from the beginning... Kurt has a side job teaching classes to prepare people for the CPA exam for a company named Becker (similar to Kaplan or Princeton Review, but live classes). A few months ago he got an email asking if any of the Becker teachers would like to teach any classes for DeVry University (Becker's parent company). For the last year or so, Kurt's been seriously thinking about getting into university teaching by starting small and working his way up to where he'd be if he had finished his PhD. So when this came along we knew it was an answer to his prayer and it just fell in his lap. When he had his interview they basically hand him the job. The nice thing is that he only teaches one class at a time, once a week, so it is way more predictable than the Becker classes.
The second job change is his main job. Kurt left public accounting a year ago because he was working 48 hours a week, felt like he was never home (also because of Becker and seminary), and was told he needed to work longer hours for his next promotion. This last year has been great for our family. It's been wonderful to have him home every Saturday (before he worked at least 4-6 hours every Saturday) and home by 4:30 on week days. He did a ton last Summer in the yard and the kids can't wait for him to get home everyday and play with them. We feel like we have a family again instead of just a family on Sundays and holidays. But the downside is that he has been really bored because they didn't have a lot for him to do (they need his brain but the typing ability of a monkey). This might sound great to some of you but Kurt has been busy for the last 10 years and gets bored easily if he feels like he can do more. His old company has wanted him back since he left and has come to him multiple times with different offers. The problem is that they always said they'd consider him part-time because he's only willing to work 40 hours a week. But then in late Nov. a new set of partners came to him with an entirely new direction. CliftonLarsonAllen brought in Kurt as a "thought leader" consultant to help their clients understand and deal with any new laws related to taxes and tax-exemption. The immediate issue is a group of rules created by the Affordable Care Act (Obama-care) for hospitals. So, he's home about the same amount of time, but busier while at work and much happier overall. The fact that he got a promotion, raise, office with a nice view of a park, and a secretary didn't hurt either.
We have been very blessed and we realize it everyday. We thank the Lord for everything and know that without him none of this would've happened. We wonder what this new year will bring, good or bad, we're sure it'll be interesting.
