Turtle Hunting

We do this in the woods behind our house periodically. Jake saw a turtle ONCE and now Abby is determined to find him again. He is very sneaky. The mosquitos always find me before we find him!

Here we are!

SO, we made it to NC. Whew. The last week has been such a blur. We celebrated Jake's birthday, had several good-bye parties and did our final packing. But nothing can really prepare you for a 11 hour day of moving with 2 small kids. Yes, 11 hours. The truck arrived at 9am and didn't get done until 8pm. And that's not including all the stuff we loaded ourselves in the moving POD last month. The crew was slow. And inexperienced. And it was hot - 95 most of the day. And despite all the wonderful support by our neighbors and friends in the home stretch, by 6pm we realized we really needed to get the kids fed and on the road so we left.

I will not bore everyone with the details, but suffice it to say we got a call while on the road to NC that made us believe we would not be seeing our possessions the next day as planned. And we didn't get to NC until after 10:30pm. Bedtime on moving day #1? Midnight!

Moving day #2 was a bit better. Started with a call from the driver asking for our address, which he had lost. But proceeded with much better pace and by 4pm we were unloaded, had tipped our new crew of very young and energetic movers, and could see that our new house was marvelous.

Now, we've been here 4 days. We've been to Lowes, two bookstores, Ace, the public library, the kids' museum, tons of restaurants, an outlet mall, a frozen yogurt place, a new pool complex, and thanks to Grandma Lynne's arrival by plane yesterday, Mike and I even got a date night out last night and listened to live music downtown. What a treat! We are happy about our location and all the services that are close. We are not happy that the garbage disposal and the dishwasher seem to have broken after the first day. Or the fact that one of our cats is literally sick with stress and we had to rush her to the vet this morning. Each day we fight to figure out what we can get done, and who does what as we deal with visits from various utility people daily. Mike, heroically, spent nearly a full day running the internet cable between our offices through the attic so we can both work. The kids are whacked out. Going to bed at 11 pm and then not napping the next day, hysterical with fatigue.

And then, we have a moment, like the one pictured above. Mike bought Abby a picture book about some fish at the bookstore and read it to her tonight. There's a word joke in it and every time he read it, she burst out with belly laughs - she got her first pun! It was delightful to listen to and clearly delightful for her too - she made him read the book 4 times and then sat up and said "That is so funny! and slapped her knee.

Yes, sweet Abby, it was. And we hope that you and Jake get lots of belly laughs from our new life here.

And now, to the Beyond!

Ok, so there are some big changes afoot here. I've spent the last 6 months working up to our big moment and it is NEXT WEEK! The grand experiment of living in a rural lake community in central Virginia is coming to a close. So my blog, News from the Lake and Beyond is about to go strictly To the Beyond. I have been holding interviews with key advisors to this momentous 5 year experiment and here are their comments:

Husband: "Yeah, we liked it here a lot. Good friends, nice community. Everyone here is polite. Will really miss our wonderful block neighbors and all the places we go for food: Albemarle Bakery, Feast, Integral Yoga, Mona Lisa, Cunningham's, the Indian place up past Target (which is closing down), Martha's Cafe (closed down), Wild Greens (closed down), the Bagel place (closed down)... (Long pause.) Come to think of it, lots of stuff has closed around here recently, hasn't it? Anyway, change is good. I like change."

Offspring #1: "Mommy, you're going to paint a tree on the wall in my new room, right? Just like the old one. And I want to go see Zaboomafoo at the Lemur museum!!"

Offspring #2: "New HOUSE! New HOUSE!!!"

Furballs #1 and #2: (Why are you moving everything around? Don't you know we don't like change?) thought sleepily while proceeding to undertake catnap #17 on a 102 degree summer day.


I started this blog 4 years ago with the intent of documenting our quest for a great quality of life while living somewhere where we could afford to spend a great deal of time with our young kids. That certainly was not possible on Long Island, where we had lived before. Prices were high and quality was low. Well, I think this lake thing turned that all around really well. I have to give it 5/5 stars. We've loved our home, our community, our little town and especially our college town nearby. I've gotten to work part-time and also basically be at home with my kids nearly full-time before they went to school - how amazing is that? I feel so lucky to have made that work.


I think the best thing here has been the moms I've met. I have NEVER felt such a strong sense of community, anywhere. I know I can pick up the phone or dash off an email (just did one last night to a mommy friend who works at Monticello and gave us great advice for going there later this week) and I will get support, humor, friendship and wisdom. I've had people cook for me when I had a newborn, show up at my house at 2 am to watch my other kid when my water broke, help me get my child to the emergency room in the middle of a snowstorm, sit with me week after week watching our toddlers play and give me advice and guidance about this crazy parenting business. They gave me sanity when I thought I had none left. I have to admit, I have never lost the feeling that most of them do the mommy and homemaking thing just a little bit better than me. I think I'm a great parent, but an average homemaker. (And am lucky to have a husband who does so much so that together we can be great.) Anyway, I am in awe of these women, honestly, and I will miss them tremendously. I am just really really glad Facebook will let me watch their kids grow and that we are moving close enough to try to bait them to come visit!

So, why move to the Beyond? Because we're realized we're ready for the next phase. Both kids will be in school and my work at Duke is tremendously satisfying and stimulating. And I want to spend my worktime working and my family time with family and cut out the 8+ hours a week of commuting. Because we're hoping that the new community we're moving into will include some of the southern charm we've found here and add in a little urbanism and more options for fun and culture (which I really do miss). The summers here are fantastic, but the winters can get a little bleak (should we go to the Virginia Discovery Museum, again?) And because in the long run, working there, getting our benefits paid, and going to the fantastic public schools there will save us money. And we are nothing if not practical to the core.



I also think every move to a new place includes a bit of dreaming, a bit of hoping for something different. And what do we hope to find in the Beyond? Good friends, growth, astonishment and multi-dimensional, multi-cultural wisdom for the kids. Social and intellectual stimulation for us. A mix of urban and rural activities. Baseball games in Durham, boating on Falls Lake, dinner in downtown Carrboro over burgers and beer, closer exposure to the offerings of two amazing universities, maybe even some wonderful dinner parties with social entrepreneurs. This will, in fact, be the first time in 10 years that I will live close to where I work. That will be interesting in and off itself, as my two selves start to merge. I may actually have to start wearing make-up to the grocery store, in case one of my students appears!

So, armed with mascara, my new GPS, and an incredible amount of STUFF we seemed to have filled our house with in the past 5 years, off we go to the great white beyond. Or perhaps it is the great blue Beyond, given that NC, like VA, is a nice shade of blue these days. Off to a new blue state, kids and cats and husband and PODs (i and real) in tow, I am off.

To infinity, and... !!

A Fabulous Fourth

Abby the fish

Little Maeve's first lake swim - she loved it!

Happy friends!

On the Rail Trail

Abby and I ended up doing a small hike on the very shaded and pleasant rail trail today. I haven't been on this trail in at least a year, maybe two, and it was with Jake. I told her we might see a cow, to get her out of the car and on the trail. Well, from that moment on, we were "looking for cows" wherever we went, despite the fact that the resident cow who used to graze in the lawn near the trailhead was decidedly absent, and for all I know could have been for years. We had a snack, saw ants, spiders and butterflies, listened to birds, crickets and frogs, and studied seed pods and bark and the tiny heart-shaped leaves that make up clovers. It was so delightful. And Abby's solution to the missing cows? She decided an old tree stump was a pretend cow, milked it and gave me a "cup" of milk. And then cried at the top of her lungs when she realized we were actually leaving without seeing a real cow.

So, 2 lessons: one, take Abby on more nature hikes because she LOVES them, and two, don't mention livestock unless I'm SURE there will be a sighting!!

I finally solved the distress by offering, once the crying stopped, a lunch out that started with a strawberry milkshake. Pure bliss!

Happy Boy at the Museum

The Summer of Motion

I don't know how to summarize the chaos of the past few weeks - it's been a blur. We bought a house, went into contract on a house, hired a contractor, hired movers, have been packing like lunatics and have nearly filled a POD that's been sitting in our driveway for a month. We've thrown away stuff, given away stuff, stuffed stuff with newspapers- how in the world did we get all this stuff? I went to NC to weeks ago and signed Jake up for school in between meetings and running around town to pick out new carpets. I then spent 3 days in NYC last week where it looks like I successfully raised some money for our center and helped pull off an amazing 2 day conference we've been planning for half a year. Lots of satisfaction from that. Back at home, we did spend 3 hours last weekend with friends at the lake beach, which was the most fun I've had in weeks, and then had to suffer as Abby cried at the top of her lungs from exhaustion and my back turned bright red from its first exposure to open air since last August. I couldn't sleep I was in so much pain - and that is with SPF 50 sunscreen! This week, we're packing, working, dealing with various and sundry emergencies and decisions (home inspection results, last choices for contractor work), getting our moving date set for mid July and most importantly, I've been doing lots of research on pools in Chapel Hill - once we get settled I want to go sit at a pool with the kids for a few weeks!! Then, finally, it will perhaps feel like summer!

Throwing Rocks

At the waterfall outside my duke office yesterday.