Sarah's Trip to Jax

On October 10th, Marshall dropped me off at the Austin airport at 6:45am for my 8:30am flight to Dallas. I was flying American Airlines, the company that is having the labor disputes between management and pilots. I was concerned that my flight could be delayed or canceled unexpectedly. Fortunately we took off without any problems and right on time. Dallas though was very foggy and the air traffic controller told our pilots to not land and turn around to San Antonio to refuel. So we fly south, past Austin to San Antonio. We refuel for about 20 minutes then head back to Dallas. By this time I've missed my connecting flight to Jacksonville--great. 

American Airlines had rebooked me to leave on a 12:55pm flight to Miami followed by a connector to Jacksonville. The Miami flight didn't leave until 1:45, and I was thankful I had time to find lunch in the airport and walk around a bit. I arrived in Miami without any further issues, and made it to Jacksonville around 7pm. Grandma, Grandpa, my sister Sherri and her son Kyan were all there to greet me and take me to the house. 

Wednesday night was set aside to just relax. We had goulash for dinner and banana cake for dessert. Delicious! 

Thursday the 11th we headed out for the beach around 11:45am. It was so much fun. Here's a picture of Kyan being still for 2.2 seconds. I chased him around and we played tag. The water was the perfect temperature too. We were there for close to 3 hours. I'm very proud of myself for not getting sun burnt. 

 That night Grandma, Sherri and I played Dominoes. Sherri won by 43 points, just a few tiles, but she enjoyed celebrating how much she kicked our butts.

Here's a picture of Kyan acting like a zombie. Apparently his dad plays zombie shooter games, and someone had gotten Kyan a toy pistol so he could shoot at zombies too. Kyan, who runs at the speed of light, slows down and makes a puckered mouth expression and moves his arms up and down as he comes for you. Hilarious.

 I knew Kyan wouldn't remember me from when he was 15 months old in August 2011 when we were all in Oregon together at my parents' house. I planned ahead and brought with me a box of fruit snacks to help win him over. Success! I even got a few pictures of me holding him. We called the fruit snacks "Scooby Snacks" and he was quite attentive.

 Here's Kyan trying to mimic Grandma making a silly face. I was just so glad to hold him in my lap!

 The pregnant sisters. Sherri was almost 20 weeks and I had just turned 28 weeks. My bump looks kind of pointy, doesn't it? We're both having boys, which will bring the total count to 4 boys (Kyan, Christopher, Merrick and "Blank") and 0 girls. Sherri and Ryan haven't decided on Kyan's little brother's name yet.

 Here we are again. Wow, we are going to look so different next year with little babies in our arms!

On Friday, Sherri, Ryan, who had come down late on Wednesday night, and Kyan drove back to Charlotte. Kyan was crying in his carseat to stay at Nana's house. Awe! After they left I took Grandma to El Potro, a little Mexican buffet place close to the house that we use to frequent when I lived with them. Afterwards we went grocery shopping then back to the house.

That night my dear friend Heather picked me up for dinner. Heather was my first friend in Jacksonville. I met her at Shoney's, and she trained me on how to be a waitress. We've been close ever since. We were meeting her husband Scott at the Cheesecake Factory, but before we went there, we went to my school, the University of North Florida. I wanted to just take a quick zip around the school to see any changes and what it was like now 3.5 years after graduation. It's looking great, and the new buildings look remarkable. I'm so glad I went there. :) After UNF, Heather took me to Target and picked up a three pack of onesies that she had seen before but didn't get. The top one has a turtle on it, and reads "worth the wait." Merrick certainly is!

We arrived at the restaurant and Scott joined us. We had crab ragoon for an appetizer. Poor Heather wasn't feeling well. Her stressful job had been giving her serious headaches, so she was taking it easy, hoping it would go away. I had a hawaiian pizza for dinner. When it came to think about dessert, Scott slipped away and Heather and I looked over the cheesecake menu. Turns out they had made a selection for me! Scott came back to the table with a vanilla bean cheesecake (a whole one, not a slice) with three Bambi figurines on it. I burst into tears! It was so adorable to this pregnant lady. What's even more special is that as a child, I use to have a Bambi toy that was just like the Bambi on the cake, with the butterfly on the tail and everything. Just a few days prior I had been thinking about my favorite toys growing up and where they had gone too. I had specifically recalled my Bambi toy, and here was a replica on the cake. Cue more happy pregnancy tears! I did have a tiny slice of the cheesecake, and brought the rest home to share with my grandparents.

 Here are Heather, me, the flowers Scott brought me and our Bambi cheesecake! I felt so loved. I have my huge "I can't control this" smile on my face.

Heather and Scott, who are big Disney fans, also got Merrick a Bambi toy with moveable head and legs. Again, cue the happy tears. I love it so much! That night I was blubbering to Marshall how wonderful dinner had been and how sweet Heather and Scott were to me and baby. He wished he could have been there.

I don't have any pictures of Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, Grandma, Papa, and I drove to Cassadaga, Florida for psychic readings. I had a reading with Ginny, whose strength was astrology based. I already knew a lot about myself from my astrology chart, but it was a good affirmation and reminder about why I am the way I am. Grandma and Papa saw Ronnie, and were really pleased with their readings. I wanted one too, so I paid for a second one with Ronnie. During an opening prayer, he said that the room got very crowded; I had lots of spirits on the other side watching over me, but only two wanted to talk and come forward. One was my great-grandmother Kestine Marie Fischer Thiele, and the other was my great-aunt Patricia Blatchford, my grandmother's sister. I felt very honored that they wanted me to know that they were watching over me. There was more to the reading, which I took notes on and got to record on my phone, but I won't post about them here. All good stuff though. :)

That night I met up with Dan, who is Marshall's best friend from the Navy. I got a little lost getting to his condo. We went to Friday's for dinner, and got to catch up. We went back to his apartment, and goodness gracious, his cat Potter looks like a baby cougar--he was so big! Dan and I were talking, and I kept imagining Marshall there with us. He and Dan use to spend a lot to time together, just hanging out on the couch, watching movies, talking, playing video games, etc. I decided that I would work some magic in our budget and have Marshall come visit Dan for a weekend as soon as possible. Dan was all for the idea, and we have a tentative plan for him to come to Austin in March during Marshall's spring break. Marshall will be flying to Jax late on Thursday, November 29th and coming home on Sunday, December 2nd. He and Dan will have a great time together.

I had sort of talked to my friend John about picking me up on Sunday morning for breakfast and taking me to the airport, but he never responded to any of my texts while I was in Jax. Oh well, his loss. My grandparents took me to the airport, and I made it back to Austin on time without any issues. I had a fantastic trip with family and away from work. Everyone is so excited for us and our new baby. I feel incredibly blessed and loved.

Nursery

 Here's what our nursery looks like at the moment. This is our second living room. To the right of the Pack 'N Play is the dining table and then the kitchen. The two boxes to the left of the glider are baby's new swing and Rock 'N Play. Marshall wants to hold off putting them together until later so that they don't take up so much room and the cats don't cover them in hair. 

 Do you recall my last post about the Etsy pictures I made? Here are they are, all framed and adorable!

 Here is the forest poster I too picked up at Hobby Lobby. I really love it because the highlights in the water at the bottom match the backgrounds of the bear, owl, and deer pictures. 

 Our little forest corner! I love it so much. Marshall has to rehang the curtain over the window still, but we're in no big hurry yet. 

These little Bambi figurines were a gift from my friend Heather and her husband Scott. I think I might get a shelf or ledge of some kind for the wall and move them there so they won't get knocked over. For the time being, they look adorable on the dresser. 

Super cute DIY from Etsy

3 Etsy prints for $48 plus shipping from Australia.

 Super cute DIY pictures inspired by Etsy.

We are doing a forest theme for Merrick's nursery mainly because we wanted to keep the deer motif going. With under 3 months until show time, I really needed to dive into nursery decorations otherwise baby would probably be staring at a big yellow wall forever. I was browsing online and came across an Etsy page with the most adorable bear, owl, and deer pictures for a nursery. I was turned off my the price, but completely in love with the images. I decided to go to make a plan and head to Hobby Lobby.

I analyzed the patterns and colors of the animals and bought the corresponding paper. I chose the foam letters with a sticky backing, and they turned out great. The originals from Etsy are 11x14, and mine are 8x10, so I couldn't do the large and small fonts. Plus, I didn't find two patterns of letters that I liked together. 

I started Saturday afternoon and finished Sunday morning. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. On Monday Hobby Lobby's picture frames when on sale, so I bought three funky styled ones. I also found a beautiful forest poster that I had matted and framed, and the blue, green, and orange papers bring out the same colors in the poster. I'm so excited, but the only problem is how do I position everything on the big yellow wall? Wah-waw...

No More Texas Summer Heat?!

We may not have to spend another summer here in Texas!

The foundry in Spokane, Washington that we want Marshall to work for after graduation (May 2014) offered him a summer internship for 2013. In fact, they REALLY want him to do the internship. 

We met Ed, the General Manager of Spokane Industries, on April 30th, at a Foundry Education Foundation (FEF) banquet in San Marcos; he sat to Marshall's left at our table. After completing this summer's internship at Denison, Marshall wanted to contact Ed about employment in the future. He left some messages, and apparently Ed got them. He passed Marshall's name along to the Technical Director Rod along with our story of Marshall being in school and us genuinely wanting to move to the northern Idaho area upon graduation. He really liked that Marshall was "stable" and had a family. 

Well, on Tuesday (I think it was), Rod called Marshall but had to leave a voice message. He explained who he was, that Ed had given him Marshall's name, and overall a very inviting message about wanting to see what they could do for Marshall. He left his direct phone number (no more leaving messages with the secretary) too. They were finally able to speak on the phone Friday afternoon, and that conversation definitely set us on a trajectory to change our lives forever. 

The foundry has zero robots, and Rod was quite interested in Marshall's experience with them from his Denison internship plus the extra curricular involvement he's doing with them right now with Dr. Amari on campus. Rod offered him a summer internship for 2013, and Marshall explained that he'd be interested but did come with some baggage with having a wife and baby. Rod's reaction--"Bring them; we love families!" They would set us up with accommodations and wage, and baby and I could go up there too--spend the entire summer together in the area we eventually want to move to. How much more amazing could this get?! 

Marshall's going to send Rod his resume, which I'm sure will make him like Marshall even more considering his military and computing backgrounds. Rod wrapped up the conversation by saying that he definitely wants to keep in touch with Marshall and build a relationship with him through 2014. Wow!

We went out to dinner to celebrate and talk about how this will affect our future. We see nothing but positives here. After Denison, we decided that we would not move there or take any possible job offer from them upon Marshall's graduation. We discussed what to do about next summer, and decided that if Marshall had an opportunity to do an internship out of state, we would have to all go together because I didn't want to be left here alone in Austin to raise baby during a very critical time in his development. Not to mention how lonely Marshall and I were without each other even with visits every 2-3 weekends. The only way all of us could go together would be if we found someone we trusted to house-sit for us, and we couldn't think of any viable solutions. We decided that Marshall would stay here in Austin and hope that a local opportunity for an internship would arise probably in a non-foundry industry. In the very least, we could raise our son together and he would program full time for income. Now, by going to Spokane and getting our expenses paid for plus a wage comparable to what Denison paid him, going up there sounds like the best option. We're going to talk with cousin Mitchell, who is a year younger than me, and who just moved to Austin 3 weeks ago and has been staying with us, if he would consider staying at our house for next summer. 

I texted my Aunt Lorraine, who lives in CDA, that I had good news and wanted to call. Uncle Jet and Grandma Barbara were also on speaker phone when I shared with them the news of the day and that we might be up there for the entire summer next year. We had planned on going there for a week in early August. It's going to be so amazing living closer to them; my heart rejoices because I love them so much, and they will be such a positive influence on Merrick. They were all really excited! Uncle Jet asked how me coming up for the summer would affect my job, and I said that we plan for me to be a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM) after baby is born. Then thinking about it more, this would be a really good reason why I couldn't come back to work for Pentagon. My FMLA leave will be from December 21st to mid-March, but then if I went back, it would only be for 2 months and then I would be gone for the summer. 

All this excitement is the reason I'm awake at 5am on a Saturday. Can you blame me? :)

Goodbye Summer 2012

With the last few hours of summer remaining, I'm thinking about how nice the weather has been here in Austin for the last week and am so grateful that fall is officially starting today. Hopefully we'll get more rain, but if I may make a request Mother Nature for it to be during the week so we can do weekend house projects, that would be splendid! 

This weekend we need to come up with a plan to tackle which house projects before baby comes and which ones to do afterwards. We also need to start thinking about more long term house projects in preparation of selling our house in just under 2 years, for example, replacing the bathroom sinks. Good thing I'm awake so early on a Saturday morning so I can get a head start on brainstorming, yes. #sarcasm

Dinner Party

Just a little blurb that we're hosting a little dinner party at our house next Saturday night. I want Marshall to meet some of the friends I made over the summer, and their significant others, so while we're having a vegetarian potluck, we'll play Apples to Apples and probably Cranium too. :)

This means my house will be clean by 5pm next Saturday, hehehehe. I think today I will put up my fall decorations too.

What's New in the World of Baby Prep?

So far Merrick's stash of essentials for his nursery is coming along nicely. I haven't worked on any "baby stuff" in about three weeks, but I will be taking some time today to do so. Since my first initial haul from Craigslist, we've also found these items. 

I went to pick up the teal Bumbo seat (I have the seat belt repair kit, but haven't installed it yet) from a Craigslist ad, and really hit it off with the mom and her 11-month daughter Chloe. She also gave me a really, really nice play mat with lots of dangling attachments and music box for free, answered a lot of my questions about cloth diapering, and sold me their glider for $20. Quite the find if I do say so myself. The Boppy (u-shaped pillow) and wedge came from another deal where I picked up 4 trash bags full of baby boy clothes for $60 (size 0-3 to 2T). I bought the boppy for an additional $3 and she just gave me the wedge, which will be great for baby to sleep on in the pack 'n play.

We have some clothes for baby now, but it's only about 30% of the stash I want to have. My friend Candice is meeting with a coworker who recently had a son to pick up all the clothes that he's already outgrown for me. Merrick also already has his first leather jacket thanks to Marshall's parents. :) My mom sent him a super soft panda blanket that he will love.

I was asked if we had decided on a color scheme or theme for Merrick's nursery. We've decided with a forest theme so we can stick with greens and cute little boyish animals like deer (a must), owls, bears, foxes, raccoons, moose, etc. One of my tasks for today is to brainstorm some ideas for wall decorations with this theme.

A little over a week ago Marshall and I went to a cloth diapering class at the birthing center because we are interested in cloth diapering for our children, but wanted to get some questions answered first before "diving right in." I think the most challenging aspect will be what seems to be a lengthy washing process. A cold rinse followed by a hot wash, another cold rinse then drying? Something like that... We'll have to buy special detergent too. All of this is very manageable, and well worth the extra time.

When I put my thoughts on paper, this is what they look like. I'm not sold on prefolds. I'm not convinced that the snappy (T-shaped tool to keep the diaper together instead of using pins) would do a good enough job keeping the diaper together on a very active baby. Plus, they look so ancient. I understand that economical benefit of using prefolds, but for some reason my mind is saying 'naye.'

I am interested in the Kissaluvs size 0 fitted diapers though. I'm optimistic with all the positive reviews I've read and seen about this brand. One thing that was mentioned at the CD class was that although the majority of one-size diapers, which are designed to go from newborn to potty-training (7-38 pounds), can fit on a newborn, they are often bulky and probably don't have all the specifically-designed features a cloth diaper made specifically for a newborn (5-15 pounds) do. This thought also has me thinking of pursuing a rental service I recently discovered. 24 newborn Kissaluv diapers for a 3 month period for $100 ($175 but you get $75 back when you return them). They will be used, but I'm confident in good shape and condition. 24 diapers is about a two day supply since I'm told to expect newborns go through  roughly 12 per day. Hopefully we will receive other diapers that we have on our registry, and we can try out those brands on Merrick at the same time as the Kissaluvs, perhaps when he's 10 pounds or so. I really want to avoid buying lots of diapers ahead of time, then finding out they don't fit him very well.

After the Kissaluvs, I want to have pocket diapers. They have a pocket for inserts and extra absorbency. They will dry faster than the All-In-Ones, which don't have a pocket but the inserts sewn into the diaper. I want to get as many fleece inserts as possible as they absorb more than the typically microfiber ones do. The bamboo and hemp ones are also very nice.

I'm also going to be spending time today updating our baby registry, which is not an official registry, but an Amazon Wish List. I like the Wish List because I can include items from different websites. Here it is if you'd like to take a look: Baby R's Wish List.