So, as most of our fair readers know, we've moved. Most of you also know it was a decision based entirely on school district. Well, it became a lot more than that when we spied this cute li'l number (3540, to be exact). I'd just like to tell you that our new house is so "us" it is crazy. We have and will have many projects, as it is a twenty five year-old pad, but we will do each one lovingly, knowing that our sweat equity is going into something fantastic! So, besides the excitement over that (and being in the home stretch of another semester at SPSU), I am truly overjoyed and hopeful of the direction in which our country is headed. The win for President-Elect Obama was not just one for him, Democrats, or even our country. The world is celebrating this victory with us! We are on the path to regaining our respect and credibility globally, and that is, in fact, something we were never safe without. It is indeed a time for celebration!!!! Just wanted to share. :-)
Valerie gets a demonstration of Maya’s skill in relieving lower back pain.
I realize it's been quite a few days since my last post... about 4 if I count correctly. So what's been going on? Well... not a whole lot, and then again, quite a lot. We listed the house again, so there was an amount of work to get some things photographed, set up virtual tours, etc. That's out of the way (now sell, you!)... then there's the constant cycling that we're doing. We've reached a bit of a groove with our routine that includes cycling everyday (so much so that my Achille's tendon is a little sore).
Things at work are pretty exciting. Today marks the 1-week-until-assimilation-begins countdown. That is, on August 1 I will become an Oracle employee. We've had a few meetings about it, and from what I can tell, this transition will be well-managed and the end result should be a fantastic organization. I'm happy to be a part of this company as you can probably tell.
The kids are doing well, and we are prepping for their 2nd birthday which we are celebrating a few days early on Saturday. We've invited their friends (ok, really our friends who happen to have kids about the same age) to Kangazoom for some jumping, cake and juiceboxes. Yummy! Vicki is flying up from sunny Ft. Myers to hang for a week while Chris is working in France, so that will be nice to have some additional adult company. I also have a quick jaunt out to Orange County as well.
After that, we've got a trip to the Georgia Aquarium with Shelly, Paul and their clan, which should be really fun. We haven't been for about a year and a half, and we just got annual passes so that will make the trip quite easy. On a side note, they just announced a swim/dive program where you can pay some coin ($300!!) to dive in the big tank. I'm not sure it's worth $300, but I may ask for this for my birthday + Christmas + Father's Day gift, hint hint if you're reading this.
Then, we finally have a trip back up to Charlotte to celebrate multiple birthdays and see everyone up thattaway.
I guess now you can see why I haven't posted recently!
We drove up to meet Papa in Anderson, SC to have a bit of a picnic and send the doggies off for doggy day camp. Mimi was working :( but we'll see her on the flip side! Thanks for lunch, Papa!
Love,
Maya & Devin
Today we met up with Valan and checked out Piedmont Park with the kids. The weather was pretty decent: slightly cloudy, around 80 degrees. Nice for biking around and letting the kids get all over themselves. The Park has a fantastic playground and lots of wide open fields. You can imagine that the kids were overjoyed, and overtired and overhungry. We stopped for salsa at Willy's -- well, the kids mostly ate salsa but we had burritos and PB&J sandwiches as well. The day was lots of fun: plenty of kids, dogs and all sorts of people running about. We'll definitely do it again.
I have a map of Points of interest (POIs) in Piedmont Park if you're, uh, interested. Check them out here.
This morning the weather was fantastic, so we ate breakfast out on the deck with Papa, Dad, Maya and Devin. It was a rather nice morning, so nice in fact I had to break out the D50 for some pictures! Watch the slideshow below, or just click on it to go to the album and browse the pictures.
It's [the day after] Boxing Day, and that means a return trip to Atlanta from Sanibel. We had a good visit, even though it was bittersweet having to see Steph's grandmother in the nursing home. We were able to get in to see her quite a few times, and each time she was elated to see all of us, especially her great-grandkids! I was happy to be able to help out the family by moving furniture into her new home and helping get the old house ready for sale.
Speaking of, if any one is interested in some prime real estate in Sanibel Florida, on a canal with a pool and grandfathered-in fully-paved driveway and cement block construction... let me know.
The icing on the cake was when we stopped by to say our goodbyes to Grandma Olson. I had Maya on my shoulders, and we were seated on Grandma's bed, and Maya reached out to her great-grandmother for a hug. That was awesome! Oh, and the first time Maya said, "I love you" was to her great-grandmother the previous day. I didn't actually witness that myself as I was hanging a curtain rod, but I heard it was pretty sweet. And we also learned some other neat tidbits of information. Stephanie's great-grandmother Amanda was also a twin - boy/girl, just like ours, and the only twins ever in the family. But here's the rather neat part - Amanda was born on July 28, 1877 - 129 years before Maya and Devin to the day! I just think that's something awesome and special.
So we made the trip back last night in record the usual time, only 12 hours! Actually the trip was pretty good, we had about 2 hours total for stops (dinner, snack, gas, pee). So that puts actual road time at 10 hours.
-- Insert Sleep Here --
It's now 10am, and Stephanie should be checking Devin into Scottish Rite to get his tubes put in. Actual surgery time should be at noon. Right now, as I'm typing this, Maya is still asleep (!) which is pretty incredible. I think she definitely takes after her mother in that regard; she has gotten to the point where I have to wake her up to get breakfast :-) Devin on the other hand, is like me and is up at the crack of dawn most days. So keep Devin in your thoughts over the next few hours, since he will be under for this procedure. But it's all out-patient, and he should be back home by 3pm I'm hoping... the Doc says it should be like flipping on a light switch for him, and I'm thankful for that. The little guy needs to be able to hear properly! On a related side note, he has finally started to repeat words like "Hi" and "Up", which is great!
Maya on the other hand has continued her education by learning how to ask for "hup" (help) when she needs something (like assistance getting up onto the sofa) and by repeating "pweez" (please) ad infinitum when she really, really wants something. We have already started with Miss Manners training for Little Miss by requiring that request words (e.g. help, up, cracker) must be followed by please. We'll see how that works out :-)
While typing this I just texted Stephanie to see how things are going...but I haven't heard back so she probably has her phone buried in her purse, left it in the van, or is busy checking in our boy. I'll update this again with news. TTFN!
Anyway, pictures of the Reedy Creek Inn are available here. Enjoy!
