Dearest friends,

As we sat there in aunt dippy's car, waiting for the rain to stop we were talking about how lucky we are to have such great friends/aunties in our life.

Lauren, you don't know how helpful it was for you to come to whole foods and cart baby around just so that I could run around like a crazy woman. It was so wonderful to have you there as a sounding board.

Erin, you gave me your car without a second thought! And I already have 5 different things I have to go out to get tomorrow! What a blessing you've given us.

Thank you friends for offering us your time and gifts and love so that I could get this party ready for these boys. We all love you and appreciate you both so much!

UNBELIEVABLE

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SO last night on facebook they announced that Dance Trance was opening a DC location!!!!! i couldnt believe it and i literally screamed out loud and scared the bejeeses out of chris. so i wrote to DT and they gave me the email of the girl who is forming dance trance here. i emailed her this morning and told her how excited i was and how i'd love to help out.

SHE JUST CALLED ME AND ASKED ME TO BE AN INSTRUCTOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

she sounds so awesome and she is a lawyer who works for the AALU. her husband (just got married in october) looks completely awesome too. look at his bio on linked in - ben sands. started a company helping 20 and 30 year olds define their career path and grow professionally.

i already love her and he looks super nice. they are older (30's) and she said she is looking to settle down and start a family - thats why she purchased DT now.

so no location set yet but she's already contacted georgetown and is contacting GW today. she is going to bring me in on the conversation in hopes that we can teach it on campus in the fitness center. HOW CONVENIENT IS THAT?!

she just got a dvd of 12 dance trance routines so we are going to get together and learn them together. im so freakin pumped right now. yay for ew friends and dance trance!!! God is so awesome!

you'd never believe it

so ive been running lately. i still think its torture, but the weather has been so absolutely gorgeous here i had to get out and explore. since we can't afford gym memberships or dance classes right now, i figured i might as well make it a workout, so i grabbed the iphone and headphones, put together a workout playlists, and hit the sidewalks. yesterday i discovered a path in the huge stretch of woods behind our apartments, and then i ran through a neighborhood that is our area. reminds me of highland but alot less hills (works out well for my beginner running legs). anyways flowers are all in bloom here everywhere you look, so here are some little pretty pics i captured from my run yesterday after work.

Yay! You blogged!

I present to you Rhodes' last can of formula (hopefully).

want to know what i'm up to today?

this is what my screen at work looks like.  today i am editing the page numbers in our bible studies (which includes left justifying what was right justified and moving those little blue boxes with the numbers to the center).  it is the. most. boring. work ever.

that, and reading blogs.  this post was great.

i need a little excitement in my life today :)

so, matt's mom and grandma have been staying with us the past 2 days.  here are some highlights:

*they brought their own toilet paper...each of them. separately.  not knowing that the other was bringing it too.

*they also brought their own breakfast, drinks and have YET to eat dinner with us at home (i cooked, they went out to eat)...i think they don't want to be a bother

*they also packed, literally, 4 full-sized suit cases each (for 2 days). and had a bag with round about 20 pairs of shoes in it.

*matt's grandma gave us advice about landscaping our front yard...then went out and bought us 10 shrubs and a garden hose.  i woke up this morning to her and carole out front in their bath robes watering the shrubs. 

they are hilarious.  and really are sweet as can be.

i can't wait until friday breakfast with you guys!!

Flowers, leprechauns, and crappy cars

Well here goes - first blog post! Thought i'd start with some introductory pictures of where i've been living for the past 3 weeks. You'll see our building below and chris walking to our car in the parking lot after that. EVERYTHING is in bloom here and it's completely gorgeous. I actually went running 3 times this week - complete torture but the best way to see all the gorgeous houses and enjoy the perfect weather. More picture on the inside of the apartment to come.











Saturday in good ole irish spirit we went to a st. patricks day parade with some friends that chris went to Beeson with. The parade was in a small town outside of DC and was
precious. Lots of local flavor - my favorite was the 2 local irish dancing studios and chris's was of course the bagpipes (see below). It was really good to hang out with people we had a "history" with and we spent almost the whole afternoon with them. Look forward to hanging out with them in the future! Getting a haircut this Wednesday which I COULD NOT BE MORE EXCITED ABOUT. Desperately needed (see horrible bangs in picture).














Saturday night we headed to Georgetown for a famous "baked and wired" cupcake and for dining on the waterfront. Cupcake was delicious but dining on the waterfront didnt happen thanks to the outlandish st. patricks day celebrations. We were however entertained by DC fire department - never saw any actual flames but there were at least 10 firetrucks which rushed to the scene and ended up shutting down all the streets in georgtown. we ended up making ourselves comfortable at a sidewalk cafe and enjoying the hustle and bustle.

sad/funny story - when we were leaving the parade saturday chris goes to open the door to my car and the handle just breaks off into his hand. my car is officially a piece of crap. it was so ridiculous we thought it was a joke. it was the last straw for us so it looks like we're going to be selling it and chris is going to drive the camry up here after his next trip to nashville. RIDICULOUS. NEVER BUY A HYUNDAI!!!

3.14

Happy Pi Day!

Lonely nights.

I'm having a little trouble sleeping tonight because sgt. pepper found mouse on our stove.

Perfect night for Caleb to be away- wait, nope, not at all. Anyone know how to catch a mouse?

P.S. I got Rhodes's cold and had a fever today. But we spent most of the day napping, cuddling, and watching kipper and straight eye for the straight guy, so we both feel much better tonight. With the exception of some extra creatures. Terminex is getting a call very early in the morning.

Late nights with baby...

Last night Rhodes woke up screaming and coughing at 3:30... I went in to check on him and he had a fever of 102.5. We called the after hours clinic and immediately jumped in the car without a second thought. Apparently us getting in the car was a little premature. She gave us some things to do. So we were up til about 5:30 or 6. Sweet Rhodes was so patient as Caleb and I fretted over him. Us parents had trouble sleeping after that- we were just so worried and freaked.

Poor lil buddy slept til 9 and is just lounging watching kipper while we wait to hear from the doctor this morning. Thankfully his fever is going down.

Important piece of info about babies that I learned from the after hours nurse: if a baby has a high fever, you're not supposed to attack it from the outside (stripping him down, and a cold rag), but the inside (so lukewarm baths and cold drinks).

That is right...

I'm just now in bed. Rhodes is sick with a runny nose and horrible sounding cough and wheezing. I believe we'll be heading to the doctor tomorrow.

Caleb's concert was great but I couldn't be more glad that this weekend is over.

Looooong weekend, that is not over...

Oh my... I'm tired. Between musicians staying up late and Rhodes waking up early, and grey haven, thrift shopping... Ughhhhhhh.

But I did find our dining chairs at southeastern salvage! We need 8 of them so we decided to buy them one by one. Here's the first one:

We went to Target last night and started getting the boy some spring clothes. We had to go to the toddler section which was surreal.

The next article we buy for Rhodes will be Toms:
http://www.toms.com/youth/tiny/chocolate-canvas-tiny-toms

Because you ask...

Both of you have mentioned me blogging in the past two weeks, and also seem interested in what my daily life looks like. So I made this blog solely to share with the two of you what I'm doing. I insist you don't share it with many others, it is intended for you and you alone. Think of it as an extension of my breakfast updates.

I'll go ahead and share what I've done this week, because it's been a doosey.

It's spring time (with the exception of today- Lauren, it's 48 degrees outside). But most of this week was rather warm, so we started creating plots for gardening. We have a shloo of things to do before the boys' birthday party (taking place in the back yard) and 22 days to get it done.

I will say, Caleb's biopsy couldn't have come at a worse time, because he's not technically supposed to help. But I have had an "I am woman" feeling as I till and pull up tree roots.

I'm not quite sure how this blogger app works yet, but hopefully you'll see attached images.

Thanks to Rhodes taking one long nap this week I was able to put together 4 plots for flowers and 2 for gardening.

Other events this week:

Rhodes and I went to the zoo with Jess and June Heine and Rhodes actually saw animals which was a huge. The zoo is no longer completely pointless, but actually fun. Except for the roosters roaming around. I hated that.

Caleb has a show every night this weekend (Matthew Perryman jones at a Bryan photo, grey haven, and a show at workplay). I'm going to all of them. We actually have regular babysitters now which is a relief, and money to pay them, which is a bigger relief.
Side note: Caleb was on bham mountain radio last night and I went with him. Matthew Mayfield was there. It was a bizarre experience.

I was supposed to go thrifting today, but plans changed so we're going tomorrow. I'll be sure to let you know if we find anything worthwhile. Now, I'm going to go clean up the remains of our oatmeal pancakes (Lauren, you were missed!)- the other attached pictures are of nap time, which right now is from about 10:30/11-1 or 2. It's wonderful.

Hope you enjoy my gift to you! If it's unnecessary, let me know... maybe give me a week or two to test it out first.