Cross that off the list...

When we found out we would be leaving our little college town, we made a list of things we should do here before we moved. With the exception of Alan graduating and eating at Cafe Rio a hundred more times, we crossed the last thing off our list. We finally ate at J Dawgs today. I don't know how we made it our whole 5 or so years living here without going there once, but somehow we managed.

I had a beef dog and Alan had a polish dog, both with the special sauce. It was pretty good for a glorified hot dog stand. Better than a regular hot dog, for sure.

Even Elsie liked it. She had several bites of both of our dogs and actually swallowed it. That's saying a lot.

Sadly, Alice didn't get any. Maybe someday, Alice...

Today's post

It's late and I just remembered I haven't posted anything today. We spent the afternoon working on Alan's creativity project and it kind of took over everything. It's turning out pretty cool. Not how we originally planned for it to be, but still pretty neat. I'll blog about it more when it's finished.

Alice laughs

Alice had her first laughs today. She first laughed at Alan when he was getting her dressed. He was tickling her and telling her she wasn't as chubby as she used to be, and she looked up at him with the biggest grin and let out a big giggle. Then later at the store she was laughing up a storm watching from the snugly as Alan bobbed up and down to get the groceries from the cart and put them on the check out stand. No videos of it yet, she doesn't quite perform on cue like Elsie does. We'll catch it one of these days.

Two months

Two months old today! We celebrated by going out walking with Katie and Olivia. It was a big deal; we haven't gone in over two weeks. Alice is getting bigger and stronger. She can hold her head up and pushes on things with her legs to stand up. So far her favorite things are getting her hair washed/brushed, watching Elsie run around from her swing, and trying to shove her entire fist in her mouth. She doesn't like getting her nails cut, Elsie laying on top of her, or pooping.

Much to my surprise, Alice has started sleeping through the night. And I mean ALL night, like 7pm to 7am, not the "sleeping through the night means a 5 hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep" like the books talk about. She started sleeping this way on her own with no training from us a few nights after I came home from the hospital. I have no idea what I did to deserve such a good sleeper, but I'm very grateful. I'm fully aware that this will only last until the next growth spurt, but we're happy for it now.

Mmmm, blanket...

Sometimes change can be good

Today we went from this...

...To this!

It doesn't fit quite as well in our current apartment, but it will fit beautifully in our new place in Wisconsin. It also has a middle leaf and two more chairs that aren't show in the pictures. Hooray for a new table and chairs!

Moving on

It's probably a mix of a lot of things (post baby hormones, weaning off the surgery drugs, and I think I'm on my period), but sometimes I get so sad that we're finally leaving this phase of our lives. For Alan's creativity project this semester, we're kind of doing a recap of our married lives in college. We're still not quite sure how the finished project will be, but we're looking back on all the different places we've lived in the last 3+ years.

Our first home together

When Alan and I got married, we still had a lot of school ahead of us. We knew that we were going to be poor, struggling college students for a while, and that was ok. Together, we have worked as a high school tech guy, an alarm reprogrammer, a salesman, a lifeguard, a research assistant, and a stay at home mom. Alan has changed his major and planned out several different career paths before we stumbled into his current job offer almost by accident.

Our apartment in Arlington, VA

I have been really spoiled these last two semesters. Alan didn't have that many classes left, so he only had to take 12 credit hours each semester (12.5 this semester; he wanted to take a bowling class). He has been able to be home with me, Elsie, and now Alice a lot this past year. Getting a real job means back to him being gone all day. But it also means no homework in the evenings. Everything has it's ups and downs I guess.

Our apartment in Kent, OH

We grew a lot through all of our moves. We were able to spend a summer in the Washington D.C. area, a summer in the Cleveland Ohio area, and six weeks in Virgina Beach. It is hard and stressful to pack and move across the country. We found out first hand just how fun it is to drive a tiny Suzuki Swift, stuffed the the brim with all our stuff, across the plains of Nebraska with no cruise control and no AC. I don't know if I can ever think good thoughts about that state again.

Our apartment in Virgina Beach, VA

Despite how sick of it I am sometimes, I'm going to miss our little college town. I will miss walking around on campus with the girls in a stroller and seeing at least a couple other moms with kids out for a walk (we walked around Kent State with Elsie in her stroller and got the funniest looks...). I'll miss the mountains and always knowing what direction I'm heading. I'll miss Cafe Rio. I will miss walking around our malls that have stores entirely devoted to church ties. I'll miss overhearing people talk about visiting teaching and hearing stories of people using their temple recommend as a valid form of ID. I'll miss being so close to the temple.

The sidewalk in front of our current apartment

Most of all I think I'm going to miss Alan's family. His parents have always been just a half hour away. I have loved getting to know my in-laws over the years and seeing them fall in love with each of my girls. I loved knowing that they were so close and we could call on them if we needed them. I loved celebrating holidays and birthdays together. We've been able to go to his younger brothers' school concerts and games. Both sets of his grandparents live just twenty minutes down the road and we've had many dinners and family gatherings with them. We've been able to live just down the street from his older brother Craig and his wife for a while, and now his younger brother Kyle and his wife.

It's hard to say goodbye. But I know that this move, this job, is the right thing for our family at this time. Change is hard, but it doesn't have to be bad. And even though we'll be leaving behind a lot of things and a lot of wonderful people, we will still be together as a family, just me, Alan, Elsie, and Alice.