Saturday, May 29, 2010

Summer is here!!

Oh the joys of summer!!!
(Welcome to my fridge)



I ran to Target to get a very small pack of pull-ups (Jack is almost 100% dry through the night, but not quite) and they had watermelon on sale for $2.99... ANY SIZE!! So, I couldn't resist


The boys devoured the watermelon... until we realized we were sitting right by an ant hill. We got attacked and quickly ran inside and threw the boys in the tub!

A few weeks ago Jack and I got to go on a special mommy/son date. We went to pick strawberries at Waller Family Farms. We got our flat, $1.35/lb
They were very yummy!!

Happy Summer everyone

Friday, May 28, 2010

We miss you Daddy!!

We were very lucky to spent time with John for one week between graduation and when he left for DC. Granted, things were a little nuts because we were moving out of our apartment and into our subletters. Our house was a crazy mess as we tried to fit everything we own into the bed of his mom's truck and a 5x8 trailer. On top of that we were organizing for 3 different locations.
1) what goes to AZ
a) what can go in storage for the one year John's doing his clerkship
b) what can we live off of for one year
2) what do we need for the summer/what can fit in the trunk of our car
3) what does John need for his summer in DC
I know there was a method to the madness and some day I'll have enough energy to write it all down, but for now: it's done, we're where we are and it's over... thank goodness!! Anyway, the day we were packing the truck of course there is a HUGE rain storm. John ran out to cover everything with a huge tarp and Jack decided he needed to help too!! So, they all played in the rain. It was so much fun (despite what Jonah's face might be telling you)!!
Jack, John, Jonah
This next part is mostly for John. I know you're missing their faces, so here are a few to hold you over until we see you next.
Jack
Playing in the rain!!

In his goalie stance. Making sure daddy is watching him!!

Since we've moved into our friend/subletter's place Jack has LOVED playing with Ethan's toys. He literally spends hours on this bike all day long.

Never a dull moment

You say WHAT??!?!


One of the many BBQ's we enjoyed in our backyard. Like father like son.
One morning after finals we ate benyas as Rue Cler


JONAH

Jonah enjoyed a few strawberries at our local strawberry patch!!

Bottle goes in mouth= hand goes into hair.

Jonah is a drool machine. Jack asked me the other day, "Mom, why does Jonah always dribble on me?"

Lately he does this face when he REALLY wants something BAD!!

Jonah, up close and personal!!

Playing with daddy is so much fun!!

Jonah has always liked his daddy, but he became daddy's boy when I went to NYC for a weekend. Jonah can't get enough of him now!!
We miss you Daddy :-)

Jogging...

So, I know I'm behind on about 8 months worth of pictures (Christmas-Graduation) but, they are all coming soon. John is working in DC this summer while I stay here (in Durham) with the boys. So, hopefully I'll use my time well and get all caught up!! For now, this post is dedicated to my wonderful hubby. I know how much you're missing the boys, so here they are!! They haven't changed much... the whole 6 days you've been gone!!

Jack insists on wearing his "goo goo goggles" in more places than just the pool! He told me "They MUST be worn especially while jogging!"
To keep myself busy, healthy, and ready for my 5K in a few weeks, I've been jogging everyday this week with my boys. I L.O.V.E my double jogging stroller ($50 on craigslist) but I'm afraid my boys don't like it as much as I do. They usually start off OK, but around 1.5 miles, they get a little anxious.
I was reminded very quickly why I bought and made good use of a gym pass last semester. I do NOT get a good workout with these bundles of joy. Jack and Jonah might be cute, but they aren't the best work out buddies.
Jonah wants to get out and either run the opposite direction (and looks back every few yard to see if I'm watching/following him) OR he wants to be held OR just sits and watches bugs crawl around him. But SCREAMS if I put him in the stroller.
The other day Jack was begging to jog along side of my (he surprisingly does very well. Either I'm really slow or he's really fast... maybe a combo of both) Anyway, after 1/2 mile I forced him back into the stroller (keep in mind no bribery or positive motivation would persuade this child at this point. He was tired, hungry, and hot). So I buckled both kids into the stroller and I took off running. They screamed for the entire mile back to the car... It was so ridiculous. I kept wishing that either 1) John was here so I could run in peace and quiet or 2) I wish I hadn't forgotten my IPOD!!
Jack is a BIG helper these days and insists on doing most things all by himself!! On days that Jack insists on pushing and Jonah insists on being held, I make good use of my time by putting Jonah on my shoulders and doing lunges or calf raises. It works out quite nicely... My favorite are the faces of other people jogging or biking by.
After a particularly hard battle with my boys on the jogging trail I brought them home, threw them a bone, and sent them off to bed (what nursery rhyme is that?) Anyway, 20 minutes after I put them down I came downstairs, plopped myself down on the couch with a cold, yummy strawberry banana shake and heard outbursts of laughter. I went upstairs and this is what I saw!! Jack had crawled into Jonah's crib and Jonah thought is was the coolest thing ever. They were having such a ball. I'm thankful the Lord lets me hear their precious little giggles on days that I'm so frustrated with them. It definitely helps puts things in perspective and I am so grateful for the Lord knowing what I needed in that moment!! Little giggles fill my endurance canteen more than just about anything!
Well, that's about it for now. LOTS more coming soon.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Before we part...

Before John and I parted for the summer we decided it would be a good idea to go on one more date. Graduation was done, the move was done, most of our friends had left for the summer, life had slowed down... for a moment.
There is a darling little "drop-in" center. We had a coupon for 2 free hours (but they also accepted 2 kids for 1 hour) so we went to check it out.
It was awesome. The kids loved it. It's just a huge indoor play ground with endless toys, movies, and other kids... Oh, and there were a few adults there as well :)
So, we used a gift card left over from my birthday (thanks Hailey) and ate dinner at one of our favorite places, The Melting Pot.
Not a bad way to spend the "last" night together before we split for 6 weeks.
May 24th-July 3rd... here we go!!

Monday, May 17, 2010

Moving Day!!

Well, it's moving day. We did it. Something I swore I would NEVER do on graduation weekend, MOVE. But, that's life. You graduate, you move, RIGHT? I must say, it was much more pleasant than I thought it was going to be. When you have 6 people helping, LOTS can get done. Kyanne and Mom Gochnour took the kids to Costco and the park to get them out of the house while John, myself and my parents worked like wildfire!!

Thankfully, I was able to do a lot of prep work for this move. When we made the decision months ago to move graduation weekend, I started packing, cleaning, de-junking right then. I had an entire storage room (just off our back patio) full of boxes all ready to go. So, by the time graduation came around we didn't have anything but the "last minute" stuff to do. I did NOT want packing to keep us away from any "graduation" festivities that John wanted to be a part of, so we didn't let it!!
That did leave for a pretty busy day on Monday. The big decision was what size trailer to use? If we were going straight to work for a firm, they would have moved us. That's right, come into our house, put everything in boxes, put it in a truck, and drive it to our destination. BUT since we're doing a clerkship, we had the pleasure of doing it ourselves. We decided to go with the smaller trailer. It was about $500 cheaper than the slightly larger one and since we don't really own $500 worth of "stuff" we decided we could toss or sale whatever didn't fit. Between my Dad's amazing tetras skills and Suzanne's moving expertise, we all made a great team. They loaded the trailer while my mom and I taped the last minute kitchen stuff.
Just our luck, it started POURING while we were loading things. Thank goodness John was watching the clouds very carefully and had (mostly) everything covered before the real rain came down.
Well daddy was wet, so the boys thought they should get wet too. Jonah really liked it a lot more than he's showing in this picture.
Nothing like a nice warm bath after cold, wet rain... earrings and all!
Kyerin and John Moody (and their new born Morgan) had been all week at a beach house in Florida and stopped to pick up Madi on their way back up to Shipensburg, PA where they're living right now. Soon after they got there, I had to rush my parents and Kyanne off to the airport. I got home and the 2 Johns (with Suzanne's guidance and suggestions of course) had loaded everything into the truck. I could NOT believe they fit every piece of furniture we talked about taking... EVEN the green "scotty" chairs.

I like to call this next situation a "funny marriage moment". Every marriage has them, these "miscommunications", these "why couldn't you read my mind" moments. Well, this was a pretty memorably one in our relationship. A miscommunication that we are now able to laugh about and something we did not realize until we finally walked about it weeks later, after the truck was gone and even unloaded in AZ. Anyway, once we decided to go with the smaller trailer (IN MY MIND-- John claims I never said it out loud) I let those chairs go. I was fine to leave them in NC and sale them, toss them, give them away. They were gone in my book and I was pretty excited to just get new ones some day. BUT as soon as we decided on the smaller trailer John had determined (also IN HIS MIND) that he was bound and determined to somehow fit those darn chairs in (since he was feeling slightly to blame for the smaller trailer because it was cheaper). Well, when I came home from the airport and saw them in the back of the truck, I thought "Why the heck is he trying to fit those chairs in? Haven't I made myself clear that I DON'T want them anymore?" But I didn't say anything because they were already packed well in there, moving is stressful enough, I didn't to discuss, conflict with one more thing, and Suzanne (for whatever reason) really wanted them in as well... So whatever. Together John and Suzanne worked their magic and got the chairs in, even though I thought it was a waste of moving space. So, there's the story of those ugly, greasy, Scotty chairs!! I wish SO badly that we would have used that space and brought the unbelievably comfortable blue Lazy Boy chair we left behind. I would SO rather have had that chair that I've nursed all my newborns in... but, I guess that's a mute point now, ha?? The green chairs are here, and now it will only cost a fortune to get them reupholstered...
After the rain storm the neighborhood geese (from the near by pond) came looking for lunch in our backyard. I think they found something yummy.
The Moody family left pretty quickly after the loading was done but it was so fun to see them and meet sweet little Morgan.
Amazing. It was packed to the brim AND beyond. By the time the sun set, we had every tarp, rope, cord, and box in tow. Suzanne wanted an early start on her drive across the country so we wanted everything to be ready for her to leave as early as she wanted.

That night Suzanne slept on our air mattress (best I've ever slept on). We left it out for John to use all summer while he lived in an unfurnished apt all alone in DC. John and I slept on two toddler/crib mattresses on the floor. It was hilarious!! Lets just say this, they aren't the best quality of mattresses. When Jack layed on them, the almost sunk to the ground... imagine what happened when John and I layed on them!?! I sleep curled up in a ball anyway, but John' s feet were hanging off the edge big time, and we were sleeping on a tiny blanket with just a sheet on top of us...oh it was so funny. The adventures we live through. That's what makes life so fun!!

Hats off to the amazing packers and HUGE thanks to my amazing mother in law who willingly drove all of our stuff across the country for us.
Jack was a little worried to see all of his toys go, but got really excited when we told him we were moving into Ethan's house for the summer.

He thought he should drive with Baba Gochnour!
Later that night the Pelfrey family came over to say good bye. They were headed to Dallas for the summer internship (hence we're subletting from them) and we would be gone before they got back. It was a sad day, mostly for the mommies because I'm pretty sure the boys had no idea what was going on. They just thought it was another play date!!
Ethan and Jack-- Best Buds
Jonah and Liberty

The next morning, breakfast was quite adventurous. Scraping by with a few spoons and bowls we had thankfully left out, eating on boxes... all that good stuff.
Cleaning off the fridge. We found this sticker chart and Jack really wanted to take a picture with is before I threw it away. Jack stayed dry all night for 3 weeks. He earned car after each week... BUT he hasn't been consistently dry since then, so I'm not sure what to do now?

John went to campus to start his BAR study and I moved all of our stuff over to the Pelfreys house where we are spending the next couple months before we move to AZ. That night we put our boys to sleep in their new beds and sweet Lauri Leslie came over and sat with our sleeping boys while John and I went back and cleaned. It was spotless when we were done!! (and YES, we did get our entire deposit back a few weeks later... $300). The hours spent cleaning were well worth it.

WOW, I'm glad that is over. Trying to organize what goes to AZ, what can go untouched for a year vs. what will we need to get into once we're in AZ. What stays for the summer (what will fit into our trunk), what stuff are we going to sale, what food/spices will I use this summer, what should we leave aside for John to take to DC (living in a completely unfurnished apt.) etc. etc. etc. It was WAY too much brain work! But we did it all with not a single breakdown (that I can recall) and we're still in love!! So, hats off to us :) The Gochnour family has one more move under our belts!

Happy moving!!

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Commencement

Well, we weren't tired enough after 3 long days of graduation, so we went to commencement Sunday morning to give us one last fill. We went before hand to take pictures of the graduate that we refused to do the day before because it was SO blasted HOTTTTT!!! Sunday AM was much better.
John in front of Duke Chapel
The whole gang!! Thanks everyone for coming all the way to Durham, NC for the special weekend.
Glade, Carol, Melanie, John, Steve, Kyanne, Suzanne and the kids Jack, Jonah, Madisyn




All of the Magnolia Trees were in bloom.
Yes, their flowers are HUGE... Jack thought they were pretty cool!!
John had to leave us so he could get in line and walk in the procession with all the other graduates. Instead of going all the way home, we brought breakfast with us and ate it in the back of Steve's truck. Banana Muffins and Yogurt... Mom's cooking always tastes better :)
The weather was pleasant most of the morning... thank goodness for the sporadic breeze. The boys did surprisingly well the entire time. They're such troopers. After every single page in my planner had been colored in, all of the muffins were gone, and the people around us were slightly annoyed, we left! Thank goodness we got to listen to the main speaker because he was inspiring!! Nobel Peace Prize winner ("for their efforts to create and economic and social development from below") , Muhammad Yunus spoke. He founded the Grameen Bank in Bangladeshi which helped poor people escape poverty by teaching them sound financial principles to help themselves. It was a very good speech.
After the speaker was over my I took my parents and the boys to church. John's family hung around and waited for John. They picked up his diploma, walked around campus, gave him a ride home, went to the DUKE bookstore... then we all met up in the afternoon for a quick trip to the Duke Gardens before John's dad had to go home.







The gardens were in full bloom and absolutely gorgeous. We walked a new path and found a pond with LOUD croaking frogs and cute little turtles. It started pouring while we were there, but we didn't seem to mind. It was beautiful.
That evening we took John's dad to the airport.