Moving out and moving on

After a week of barbeque, Chaz's family, the adorable nieces, and Tinkerbell parties & rooms, we got back to Ames on Monday morning only to have to pack up and move out. That's right, the next phase of our life is beginning. It's hard to believe we're leaving Ames, especially when I've been here for five years. This begins our transition to South Korea (or hopefully). Oh yes, another piece of news (which I'm pretty sure most, if not all, of you have heard). Chaz and I plan to move to South Korea to teach English. Exciting, scary, and wonderful all at once. For this next month we will live nomadically traveling from my parents' home to Ames to Minneapolis to live with friends and family and be able to say goodbye before we leave for one year. Here's the breakdown of our transition:

Last week we spent an entire week at my sister-in-law's place. It was an excellent week spent with the nieces, the sissy, and Chaz's mom & stepdad who we haven't seen in a year. The nieces had their huge 2nd birthday party with Tinkerbell decorations, cake, Ricky's ribs from Memphis, and an inflatable jumpy castle. We also helped decorate the girls' new room, and it looks just adorable.

We got back to Ames on Monday, and my parents came yesterday to help us move out. 7 hours later, the cattle trailer was full of our junk and on it's way back to Eastern IA.

Today we still have to clean the place, and get rid of some stuff we don't want.

Tomorrow we're heading to Minneapolis to visit Adam & Kara (hooray!) and celebrate my birthday.

After that, as I said, it's home to my parents house (I never thought I'd be in that position again), and then going between there, Ames, and Minneapolis. I'll continue to update as our transition goes on!

Another cute video...(at least to me)

Last week Chaz, April, Grandma Betty, Loréal, the twins, and I took a roadtrip to Omaha filled with Papa Chuck, zoo animals, pizza, swimming, and driving. It was a good time, and of course, I got excellent video of the twins. I wanted to share my favorite Livi video from the weekend.

As you recall, Livi has had a trach for awhile, and she hasn't really been able to talk until recently. She's figured out that if she plugs her trach, she can talk. So now she talks like crazy. Mostly it's "Dada, dada, dada, dada," etc. The girls also have been taught a bit of baby sign language (mostly the word "more"), so they're able to do a bit of communicating via that. Good news is: Livi gets her trach out next week! The doctors said she'd be ready for them to take it out, and the surgery is scheduled for the 14th. Hooray! This is just in time for a visit from Mama Penny and Black Daddy, as well as in time for the exciting two-year birthday bash.

Enjoy our conversation with Livi about her bath time and eating:



I love aunt-hood!

Summer Sickness

What's probably the worst thing to have happen in the summer?
You get sick.
What happens to me EVERY SUMMER?
I get sick.

Seriously, though. I rarely get sick during the winter, but without fail, every summer a bomb goes off and I'm laying in bed with aches and chills and a raging fever with the sun shining and the birds chirping outside and about a million wonderful, beautiful things to do beckoning me. Thursday and Friday I was completely out of commission: no eating, no moving, just laying on the couch watching Create and checking my temperature every hour. Chaz took good care of me, but it just so happens that as I get sick, my wonderful husband decides he's going to become a social butterfly. He's out on the town with friends, and I'm eating crackers and drinking 7up to Baking with Julia Child. I digress...I'm still recovering from the illness, but I'm definitely on the upswing.

Saturday I was able to make it to Rachel's wedding in Eastern IA. I had intended on just going to the wedding (since it would be the first time I moved since Thursday morning), but I was enjoying myself so much that I decided to go ahead and also attend the reception. While I was at it, why the heck not eat a full meal and then dance myself silly? I may have overdone it just a teensy bit, but come on, how often do I do that? heh, heh. The wedding was beautiful, and the celebration was awesome! Great times with old friends that I tend to forget how much they mean to me.

Tonight I'm just feeling glorious. Stim & Keven took us out for an AMAZING meal at The Café! We NEVER get to eat the way we did tonight. It was a beautiful time with food that tickled our tastebuds and conversation that kept us laughing.

So now, with belly full, I'm off to gargle salt water (to take care of the sore throat), pop some Vitamin C, and sleep away the rest of this sickness!