Big Snack!

Abby's head cold morphed into an ear infection. Such pain! Such crying! Not fun at all. We got her on antibiotics finally, last night.

Poor Abby has not eaten anything but soymilk for days. Today I took her for a stroller walk and on arriving home, she asked for a "big snack."

Happiness is your first taste of cheese and crackers after 3 days of not eating!

Busy March

It's been quite a week. Jake and Mike went down to NC to look at houses and schools and Abby and I busied ourselves with playgroup and a great but very rowdy visit to the new Bounce N' Play in town. She had a blast and it ended up working nicely for all since I had urgent cell phone calls all morning over terms of my new contract and she was pretty happily occupied.

I also took advantage of the boys being gone to paint the hallway upstairs. No fingerprints anymore!

Abby and I also did a special girls' night out dinner at Appleby's - our second - it made her so happy! She keeps talking about how she had "apple juice at Abbleby's!" Next time maybe I'll just take her out for juice. My 2 meals there have been less than stellar.

Then 2 days later she woke up with a 104 degree fever and I spent all night up with her as she cried and coughed. She's coming out of it now, thankfully, and the doctor said it's just a bad head cold.

Jake is finally all better from his bout with pneumonia. He's taking the idea of moving very well so far; liked the school he visited and seems excited about the move!

We are still keeping our house immaculate for potential buyers - a lot of work!


Here's Abby last week before she got sick...
And at the Bounce N' Play:
The toddler area was perfect for her. She was happy in there for almost 2 hours!

Wanna Buy a House?

Ours is officially for sale! The listing is here. It is a bittersweet time. I've gotten a nice offer from Duke to continue to work part-time in a faculty role (control over my schedule and summers off!) but with stable pay and full benefits. And after commuting there two days a week and causing huge disruption to the family, this is not something I can refuse. And I actually love the work I'm doing there - great people, great projects. It is a fabulous next phase for me.

We've looked around enough to get excited about living in Carrboro/Chapel Hill. It's very family friendly, with fabulous public schools, the best in NC. But I'm sad too about ending my 5 year stint at the Lake. This is where I reveled in the idea of us both working part-time from home while raising our babies. Jake was 1 when we moved here, and in the first week I went for a stroll and met Melissa K and discovered the amazing moms I now count among my very best friends. The support and community we've found here have simply been incredible. And C'ville is so very beautiful, with the lake to enjoy in the summer and the mountains nearby and the casual, friendly, low-stress culture of a still very rural college town.

But, school beckons for the kids and it's time to organize a new phase for us. We're totally excited and hope we can have a nice, smooth transition this year for all. Jake is sitting next to me as I write and when I asked him just now what he thinks about our move, his answer was "Yay - we're going to buy a new house!" Everyone is ready!

If you clean my back...

Snowy golf course

This was the view from my hotel room this morning. It dusted snow in Durham last night and all the schools opened 2 hrs late. Madam, we are in the South!