We got to visit with Jaime and Josh and Tessa one day as Josh was en route to a job interview in Atlanta. We're excited they'll be a tiny bit closer living there.

a moving story

The time has come, the time is now, Marvin K. Mooney won't you please go now!

I'm finally jotting down our move! It's probably to your advantage that I took so long, because it allows for more brevity, since I'm sure I've forgotten details.

We were sad to leave our home by the seaside in Connnecticut. We went to the beach every day that we could, including a few all day trips almost right up until packing day. Luckily we had packed lots of boxes beforehand and felt pretty prepared. Things in the packing department went pretty smoothly.

There are several friends we miss a lot but I don't think it was as sad for us as when we left St. Louis. First of all, St. Louis was the first home we knew as a family. We learned SO much in those four years...how to make friends outside of BYU, which sounds ridiculous, but you forget!, making friends as a married couple, how to choke down your new wife's cooking, how to function as an adult in a "real" ward, how to support each other in school and other endeavors, etc. There was something so finite about closing that four year chapter of medical school, our first years of being married and parting ways with those with whom we went through it. Connecticut was sort of like a chapter within a chapter of residency. I guess we just haven't closed that book yet so it wasn't quite as emotional, which is good because who can handle that sort of thing two years in a row?

Anyway, we were so grateful for all the support we got with friends helping watch our kids as we packed and then loading up the truck. The morning of the day we packed up we woke the kids up around 5, it gets light in CT around that time in June!, to have a photo shoot on the beach. Then a friend watched our cuties while we frantically packed the remaining odds and ends in boxes and Kevin started loading up the truck. Several friends came to help us and the truck was loaded up quickly. We were feeling pretty good about things when our landlord showed up to check us out and give us our deposit around 9 p.m. It was just after that when we were trying to back the truck up so Kevin could drive forward, flip around and re-attach the trailer with his car on it. Unfortunately that part didn't go as smoothly. Kevin couldn't hear me shouting "Stop, you're going to hit June's (our neighbor) car!" as he pulled forward. Crunch! He figured the same principle applied as when you're driving a smaller car - when your front wheels clear something, your back wheels will too. It was a scary feeling shouting and banging on the side of the truck to no avail and him totally unaware due to the noise of the truck. Although we were bummed about the cost incurred, we were just grateful it wasn't one of the kids in the way when he hadn't been able to hear me. Things like that just force you to be more cautious, when otherwise you might not have been. Our neighbor was so sweet, apologizing to us because she knows how expensive it is to move, and now this, etc. Such a sweet lady! Right after that a piece of the hitch just fell right off. Another neighbor was able to help us fix it (with a canvas strap, slightly unnerving) so we could still leave early in the morning and not have to wait for the Budget rental to open back up.

The next day was pretty uneventful until right after we met up with my mom in D.C. She had some things for us and we had some of her stuff too. So we met, exchanged stuff, stretched our legs and Kevin took off. I stayed and played at my mom's house for a bit with the kids, since Kevin was traveling considerably slower in the truck, with the trailer. Around 4:30 we got a call from him that he had run out of gas, 20 minutes south of D.C., in rush hour traffic. They had closed traffic down to one lane because he was in the middle lane blocking things up pretty badly and the police were coming to possibly ticket him for running out of gas. Poor Kevin was super frustrated because, if you know Kevin well, you know this is NOT like him. He does not like to drive on empty and he is still fairly certain that one second the gauge was on 1/4 tank and the next it was flashing red and he couldn't get the truck to budge. The department of transportation guy came and yelled at him because, duh, don't you know not to drive a truck with 1/4 of a tank. Plus all the people giving him dirty looks didn't help much either. They were finally able to tow the 24-foot truck with the trailer and car on the back to the side of the road. The police arrived and the officer was very nice and didn't give him a ticket. Apparently you can't just fill up a diesel tank with gas so Kevin ended up waiting almost 2 hours for Budget to come and prime his tank and then fill it so he could make it to the nearest station. And you're not going to believe this but on his way out of the station where he filled up, the tire of the trailer must have hit a curb or something because he got a flat tire. Seriously. Luckily the Budget man hadn't had much time to go anywhere so he came right back and fixed Kevin up. Kev ended up making it to our house around 11:30 and boy was he glad to be there. And boy were we glad to GET RID of that truck after unloading! After this move, it is truly beyond us that they allow people without a special license to drive something like that!

(In the end, the damage we did to June's car ended up being EXACTLY the same amount as a check we got from our realtor since Kevin works for UNC and UNC has a deal with Fonville Morrisey, the real estate company. The Lord is aware of us!)

We have SO enjoyed this house and our neighborhood thus far. We joke that the woman who lived here before may have turned into a cat by night, there was so much cat hair that it literally clogged and froze up our air conditioner. Slightly gross but other than that we haven't had any trouble and are enjoying doing some small house projects (mostly painting with tons of help from my mom) before the baby gets here. We painted the baby's room yellow and the kids' room a teal-y blue and I'm having a great time decorating and trying out millions of ideas I've been ripping out of Pottery Barn magazines for years.

The day after we got here our neighbor brought us a HUGE meal and apologized that it wasn't homemade, as she and her husband were headed out of town the next day. When Kevin brought it in to show me he just said "Welcome to the South" and I think that sums things up. People here have been so friendly and welcoming. We meet someone new and really nice practically every time we go to the pool, which is often. There are also LOTS of kids and LOTS of residents here. We feel like we struck gold. It has been so nice having family near by (the night we got here Kevin's mom had a beautiful "G" welcome matt waiting on the front porch, tons of food in our fridge, TP and soap in the bathrooms!) and having Matt and Doreen in our ward to introduce us to people and also just let us in on what's going on around town and in the ward. Now we've just got five weeks before Baby comes to finish completely settling in:) And that's the short version of our move:)

It's that time of year again!

Our Bailey cousins came to visit! After a crazy, crazy Christmas trip where they got stranded in the airport with five kids on Christmas night, the executive decision was made the Baileys would shoot for a summer trip instead from then on. Perfect for us now that we live here and got to visit with them the whole time!

We went to Durham Life and Science Museum and had a blast. Peter especially loved these huge drums. He's our music guy. Always finding the beat and dancing around. So much fun! I'm excited to see how this develops!
Jillian and Ryen playing dress ups

Jillian slept over one night with the cousins. When I got there the next morning she and Ryen were dressed up as the Lemonade Lillies. Those Baileys are sure creative!

The Stand

Dancing and cheering to attrack customers

How adorable are these boys?

Pool time

A strange brown and white polka-dotted species we found outside!

She loves her Auntie Em!

Sandbridge 2010

Paige, Martha and Jillian

This was a perfect house for us, right on the beach with this fun covered area to dig in under the porch when it was very hot. The kids had fun with the cousins and it was a treat to see the Zimmermans we rarely get to see.
Jillian and Aunt Lisa

Mom and Peter

I hardly pulled out my camera on this trip. I was too exhausted running after kids being 8 months pregnant and not having Kevin with us. We thoroughly enjoyed the company of family and some bonus beach time.

does anyone have a brilliant, or even slightly well organized, system for organizing their pictures and videos? i am going crazy, so much so that I'm doing absolutely nothing about it, with all these pictures! sometimes i try and upload them and print them, then sometimes i don't for long periods of time, so then i just have random periods of time printed. ideally i would like them accessible so that we can look at them. (but let's be honest, i'm never going to scrap book them)our computer is getting too full so i need to back them up and get them off of the computer so it's not so slow but then we won't have any pop up on our screen saver of when the kids were babies, that time we..., etc., ya know? just wondering if anyone has a good system to help hold my insanity at bay. also, does anyone know of an online site to print from where i can just upload my whole file? that would be awesome instead of doing it picture by picture like i am now. thanks.

If I didn't already like it here...

this place would change all that! I love this farmer's market!

If I didn't already like it here...

this place would change all that! I love this farmer's market!

Swimming!

Jillian TOOK OFF with swimming lessons this year! When she started she could put her head under water with much cajoling, was very hesitant about jumping off of the side and rarely would, and didn't know how to swim. After just one week of lessons she was beginning to get the hang of things! By the end of the summer she was running and jumping off of the side and swimming over 10 yards out to me. She can float on her back and tummy (referred to affectionately as the starfish float), push off the wall and swim almost half the length of our pool with her head under water most of the way (the torpedo), swim on her back and at the end of the summer was improving her stroke-stroke-breathe technique. It was fun to watch our girl improve! We hope she can do the Under 6 swim team next summer.