Kiersten, Baptized

We knew baptizing a 2-year-old would be different. Interesting. She didn't disappoint. We called her on everything that happened. The clinging to daddy, not wanting to go to Pastor Rob, the dislike of the water on her head. What we didn't count on was her calling out for Elmo during the prayer. She always manages to surprise us.

The Season is Fast Approaching

Settling into my job at OMS. I should find out within a few weeks if I'll be there next semester. My biggest wish is that if I AM back, they'll make the position a permanent one, rather than an interim. Benefits, sick/personal/annual leave would be a nice thing to have. I've basically had mandatory perfect attendance!
We had our last nice, sunny, warm weekend last weekend. I took advantage of it & snapped a pic of Kiersten in the church garden. Unfortunately, the camera battery died before Susan could get a family pic. D'oh! Next weekend she'll be baptized, so I'll make sure the battery is full-up for lots and lots of pics!
My little girl is growing in every way except size. Her vocabulary is expanding, her curiousity is blooming, and her imagination is really kicking in. The other day she was even using different pitch-leveled voices, speaking for a frog on her keychain. The conversation went something like this: (deep-voiced Kiersten):"Hi, I'm a frog." (high-pitched Kiersten): "Hi, frog, I'm Kiersten". I almost fell out of my chair. Hilarious! I cannot wait till she really gets into make-believe play. I just wish we had a bigger house so we could set up a play room for her.

Halloween!

What a nasty day, weather-wise! Had a nice afternoon with Dean & Phyllis. She went straight to Phyllis without a fuss - awesome! Then we headed to Jonesborough for their storefront Halloween candy giveaway. We had to wake Kiersten from her car nap, so she was groggy for the first few minutes & still didn't want to walk. We hit a few stores for candy (the sidewalk was CROWDED!), then headed back home. Next year she'll pick out her own costume & will, I'm sure, be a lot more excited about walking around!

Labor Day Weekend/Kiersten's Bday

Well, it came & went with a wimper. We were so busy still unpacking that, unfortunately, we almost forgot it was her birthday weekend. She seemed to really like the cake & the Elmo & Big Bird toys that were on it. And of course, chocolate is her favorite flavor!
The house is starting to look like a home, and it has actually FELT like a home since we got here. We're so happy to be here! So looking forward to spending lots of time on our porch, watching leaves change color and getting Kiersten into the culture here. LOVE THIS AREA!!

What a week!

I am TIRED! We started the loading of boxes & "stuff" last Friday. Hard to believe today makes a week. We've been in the house since Sunday, and I've been working since Monday. Must say, it's wearing me down.
I have, at the moment, 3 85-minute classes. I start with 8th graders, have a 40 minute break that will become a duty next 9 weeks, then I have 2 classes back-to-back, 7th graders, then 6th graders. Then I have planning beginning at 1:45. Planning! I've not had a planning period in 3 years! It's nice! On September 14th, the regular schedule starts, and I'll have 6 40-minute classes, plus a reading class. Not sure what exactly I have to do in there, but it begins at 7:45.
Kiersten's birthday is Sunday. So hard to believe she's going to be 2. Seems like we just celebrated her first birthday! We're having her party tomorrow, complete with a Sesame Street cake. I'll hopefully remember to post about it Saturday night or Sunday afternoon. Looking forward to seeing mom. It'll be a while before she comes back up, so we're going to make the most of her time.
Off to class now!

Summer's ending...new life is beginning!

It's going to be an interesting year. Instead of getting a classroom ready and picking out a back-to-school outfit, we'll be moving boxes and setting up house. We've finally made an official decision to move to the Asheville area. While we don't have teaching jobs yet, we're going to be subbing full-time in Henderson County, and will also be offering our services as sub bus drivers for the county. It's going to take some creative budgeting, but I think we can do it. Hopefully we'll have a divine hand in helping us settle and find jobs within the year.
We went to Susan's house last weekend to begin our job-search. We thought it would serve us better to actually be IN Asheville to look around for available jobs and housing. We were offered positions as brass instructors at a local music school. While at the moment there is no pay, we'll be actively recruiting, and will hopefully pick up a few students to supplement whatever we make subbing. I've included the pic Susan took of us before we went to see the owner & the guitar teacher. We don't often get pics of just the 2 of us, so it was nice.
We'll be going back to Asheville/Fletcher next week to visit some houses properly, not just driving almost aimlessly as we did last week. Mom's going with us this time, since she'll have a stake in where we live. We're very lucky to have her joining us! Absolutely no way she'll live that far from her grandbaby!

Stuff

I'm slacking off again. Almost a month since the last blog. We've been pretty busy, celebrating our anniversary just a few days after Father's Day. Then we went for a week to Richard's dad's house to spend the 4th. Very nice. Got good & baked there! I'm going to include a pic of Kiersten on Papa's boat. It's the first time she's been on it since she was just under one year old. She LOVED it!
We then took care of my grandma (Abuela, or "Bella" to Kiersten) while mom & Elsa went to California to see Carmen & her family. It was interesting to watch her interact with Kiersten. They seemed to enjoy each other, except first thing in the morning, when Kiersten woke up. She wakes up grumpy, like me, and grandma is pretty loud all the time. So, when grandma would say good morning to her, it was pretty loud, and she didn't like that.
Today is Andrew's birthday - we'll be spending tomorrow with him, as he has to work all day today. He'll go out with his buds this evening. So hard to believe he's 25! Do I feel old! I'll get pics posted tomorrow or Saturday from our day at MB!

Father's Day & a bit of excitement

Unfortunately, we didn't have the large crowd for Richard's day that we did for Mother's Day. Luckily, it didn't mean less adoration for his 2nd celebration. The pics were taken at the end of the day, before we went home. We asked him to choose his menu for the day, and I think we went through 2 or 3 menu choices before it occurred to him that he'd love to have a Puerto Rican menu. No problem! We had arroz con garbanzos, pork roast, tostones and maduros. I finished it off by making quesitos with guava paste & cream cheese. Now for the culture lesson: quesitos are a PR dessert that we discovered at the Miami airport, and found again on the island. It's a puff pastry with cream cheese filling, and sometimes can have another filling (i.e., guava paste).
Later that night mom called to tell me that the across-the-street neighbor's car was on fire! Wow! The local FD took almost half an hour to respond! The nearby town of Hallsboro answered the call first, and because they were called after the 3rd try to the Lake Waccamaw FD was not answered, they didn't get there till 20 min. after it all started. Because the car was so close to the trailer, the siding melted & then the house caught fire! Luckily, it only got the front corner, and no one was staying in that room. Needless to say, we're a little wary now of the FD here & hope & pray that we don't need them late at night!!!

The Oreo - It's Instinctual!

Kiersten was given an Oreo this weekend as I was making an Oreo Eclair Cake, and this kept her little fingers out of my work. Next thing I know, Elsa asked if we'd taught her how to eat them, because there she was, pulling it apart and licking the cream! Richard & I hadn't eaten Oreos around her since she was too little to imitate us, probably around when she was maybe 3 mos old.

Goes to show....eating an Oreo seems to be an instinctual act, not to mention a messy one! lol.

One more milestone.....

Richard converted Kiersten's crib to a daybed a couple of days ago. So far, so good. She's not fallen out (yet!) and each morning, she greets daddy at either the side of her bed or the door. She LOVES climbing in and out (hence the foot stool close by).

She also can place her shapes into the proper slots on her Laugh n' Learn Playhouse (squares in a square slot, triangle in the triangle slot, etc). This one almost brought me to tears, as I first noticed it when she wasn't even looking. I asked Richard if he put it in there, and he said he hadn't touched it. It's like she's just putting them in there with no fanfare, as if it's just something else she does, and has no idea how cool that is. Of course, we had to show Abi as soon as she got here yesterday!

We're super excited around here lately. School will be out for the kids on Tuesday, and the teachers' last day is Friday. Then I'm home for another 2 months! I can finally spend more time with my little girl & hubby.

Things to do on a Memorial Day Weekend....

We have packed quite a bit into a couple of days here. Mom came home early, on Thursday. She just left a little under an hour ago, and as soon as she pulled out, Susan pulled in!

We went to Myrtle Beach on Saturday to hang out with Andrew. After noshing at GB and getting caffeinated at Starbucks, we headed out to do some window shopping. Then Andrew & I got our hair done. After that, we went to Broadway at the Beach, where we had another carousel ride and ate at Chicago UNO. Unfortunately, not impressive. Long wait, messed-up orders. Luckily, we had our little entertainer keeping us laughing and making funny faces & gestures. After we were through there, we went back to Market Common to get the ice cream mom had been chanting about all day, from Cold Stone. Then, with an exhausted Kiersten, we headed back to Columbus County. Poor thing didn't get to bed till about 11:30, and we followed shortly!

Sunday was much more local. Stayed in Whiteville to run a few more errands, and mom found a Dora slip & slide. Once that was set up, after a little prodding, she was off! I'm going to try to include the video. Too hilarious!

We have a countdown to the end of the year, of course, and to the (hopefully) imminent haul to the mountains. We move mom out of her apartment in Coats in a few weeks. To paraphrase Dr. Seuss, "Oh, the furniture we'll move!"

Mother's Day

HA! It's only been a week or so - go me!

We had a fantastic Mother's Day weekend. On Friday, mom came down with both Elsa AND grandma. Grandma immediately demanded to see "la baby", so we went over not long after they arrived.

On Saturday, Kathryn & Susan arrived. PARTY! We had a nice afternoon with Kathryn, and after Susan represented our families at Miki's baby shower, she came right on over. Sunday proved a beautiful day, despite earlier predictions of bad weather. We dined outside, under mom's carport & had another great afternoon. We really hated to see all the moms go, but as it was Sunday & everyone had to be at work the next day, it had to happen. Susan, however, stayed with Kathryn & Chris (Swanny), so she got some extra time in.

We are truly blessed to have such wonderful, caring mothers. I know both Richard & I hope to be as close to Kiersten, and possible other children, as our moms are to us.

I am lucky to have a beautiful, happy child. She made my Mother's Day so absolutely awesome. Of course, without her, I'd not be celebrating it, but she makes it so special. Words cannot express how much she means to us.

Yet another stretch of time...

Maybe one of these days I'll actually make posts more than twice a year!

So much is happening these days. Richard & I will most likely be moving to the mountains next year. It's been very hard telling the "kids", but it had to be done. No way was I going to just leave them hanging next year if I wasn't in the classroom on the first day. We didn't plan on moving yet, but things have been put into play over which we really had no control, so off we go....

Kiersten is growing so much and is still such a clown. It's so amazing to watch her actually comprehending and processing information. Like just yesterday, when she was handing me something and said, "Daddy", shook her head and corrected herself by saying, "Mama". After years of having only dogs to raise, it's so cool to see a creature who actually is learning more and more each day. She's at her curious phase, pointing to things and wanting to know what they are. She now has 12 teeth with 2 more coming in. Hard to believe she'll be 20 months on Tuesday. It really doesn't seem that long ago that I was pregnant with her. She's such a daddy's girl - daddy above all. As soon as he's in the room, all others are invisible. Except maybe Abi. At the moment, mama is 3rd banana. But I'm hoping that will all change this summer once I'm home with her full time. I cannot wait!!

Last weekend we stayed in Harnett County with mom & went up to Raleigh, where we went to the Fairgrounds Flea Market & Pullen Park. We had a great time, sweating in the sun at both places. It was nice to just peruse the shops at the flea market. We'll probably go back another day when we're not on a schedule (mom & Elsa had to get back for the military ball). I really enjoyed showing Pullen Park to Richard. Jason & I went there as kids on school field trips & it was pretty much like I remembered. We basically went that day to ride the train & the carousel. It was Kiersten's first time riding either. She loved riding on the carousel. She was smiling and giggling the whole time! Mom & I have talked of going to Carowinds at some point this summer. Maybe. I've included our "family picture" of us at the carousel.