We'll here we go...

This weekend will be our third and final caravan up the road to move to Morgantown. So far we have gotten the bathrooms, office and part of the kitchen painted. We have two bedrooms, living room and den left to do. We have some how, in a two bedroom apartment, accumulated enough to fill a three bedroom house with both a living room and a den with little trouble!!  I just keep using this video for my moving inspiration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x3W6hutEj8

I promise to post an update WITH PICTURES as soon as we get a little bit settled. :)

Its official - we own a house!

We, after much frustration and searching, have found a great place to live, in a good part of town, and we got a good deal on it!

I will have to post more pictures as we have a chance to get in there and paint, put stuff on the walls and generally spruce it up a bit.  We are VERY excited and look forward to the official move date, July 17th!

Moving to Morgantown

So, here we go - our biggest adventure since we've been married - off to a new state, town, university.

Julian has an opportunity to do research with the Mary Babb Randolph cancer Center at West Virginia University. it is a very exciting thing for him and we are looking forward to the change. We are a bit apprehensive about leaving Blacksburg because we love the place and people so much. This will be the first time Julian has lived out of state and away from family but it will be nice for us to be together in a place that is new to both of us.

I have not found a job yet but have had some good discussions with the folks at the foundation there and hope an opportunity will open up for me once they have finished up this fiscal year and the finances look a bit more encouraging on their end. In the meantime, we will take a leap of faith and go and hope we are provided for in the meantime!

Mega-update and some flower pictures.

I promised myself I would blog every Thursday - to make Thursday my day of correspondence in general - as that is the day I try to send mail to everyone who needs it, particularly Harris (who is into "NEED"ing things these days).

But with 5 weeks of almost constant travel for work, I've gotten precious little correspondence done. Here is the basic update on life and then some photos from our much needed outdoor adventure this past Sunday.

Us
Julian has a three game winning streak with lacrosse, all of which I missed due to work travel. :( This most recent game against East Rockingham was a pure disaster. The guys were flustered because the other team decided last minute that we were to wear white jerseys instead of blue so I was calling everyone at 7am to tell them to wear white. Two guys never got the message and had to go back for their jerseys which got the schedule out of whack. When we got there the field was a dust bowl and we all choked and sputtered thanks to 30 mph wind gusts and the dust. We lost the game 16-8, I think... I have tried to rid it from my memory.

I have been battling a terrible cold that I just can't beat for almost four weeks now. I got sick while traveling to DC in the middle of April and cannot get rid of the cough and general physical distress. All I want to do is sleep. BUT, that doesn't get prospects visited so I must solider on.

The Family
Julie and Allen just celebrated their second anniversary - congrats to you both! I owe them something cotton to celebrate it.

Matthew is finished with this semester of classes and despite having a lease on an apartment in Morgantown, he is at home with Mom and Dad for the summer so far for want of a job.

Mom and Dad are in the process of loving a "fixer upper" in Raphine for their new nest. it is pretty exciting and I hope the summer brings lots of opportunity for progress.

Harris turned THREE (can you believe it) this past week. He is perfect in absolutely every way and has a vocabulary that is astounding. He loves to tell stories all about his day and anything he wants, he emphatically "needs" it!  "But I NEED an em (M&M), Meena!"

Our Adventure

We went to Sunday School on Sunday but then bailed on church to get outdoors (our little secret). These pictures start by showing our church sign flower bed which we tend and have filled up with free flowers which have been given to us. The irises in the middle are too tall to be in front of the sign and I will take them out eventually but this is the first year the rhizomes have been big enough to bloom since being transplanted so it is exciting. Then we went to a local garden in town which was donated to Blacksburg by a man who collected iries. How lovely!

Then - we headed into the hills, to the Blue Ridge Parkway in search of Lady Slipper orchids in bloom and what do you know? We found them.

It was a WONDERFUL time!!!

Secrets...

I have to post something so I don't fall into the negligent blogger category...... but I can't be 100% open about all the exciting stuff that is going on in our life right now! (No, I'm not pregnant) So, know that life is crazy busy, hectic and exciting all at once.

We did get to spend about 4 hours with Harris yesterday as they all came through on their way to Philly to see Scott's parents for Easter. That was really wonderful but I am sad because he's growing up so fast. He can say just about anything he wants to and if he doesn't know what you're talking about, he just acts like he doesn't care! He is boldly declaring that "Uncle Jules is #1" which has been a goal of our since he was born, though in his world #8 is the most fun so he also declares that "Boy is #8!"

Nothing else to report, I suppose, but life is moving along like we had hoped it would. :)

Unsettled ...

We have survived our first two scrimmages and I survived being "box coach" (barely). Being the box coach means being in charge of subbing players on and off the field, making sure the right kids are on the field at the right time and not too many of them. You can only imagine the challenge. For the second scrimmage, Julian enacted a plan to make each player responsible for their own substitutions which rendered me useless... and I like it that way. If Julian's true assistant coach, Rob, can make the games in the future, I can continue in my normal role of person-who-chats-with-the-parents. I applied for a CFNRV grant for $1000 to purchase new equipment for the team so we will see in May if that was a success.

We hosted 4 college kids for dinner last Friday as part of the RUF progressive dinner. They had appetizers and desserts as a big group and then split into smaller groups for dinner. It was nice to have company in the house and encouraged me to do a bit of the spring cleaning. It also made us rework some of the furniture which makes the apartment feel new-ish and springy after the past almost-three years of the same ol' thing. If I were good at taking pictures when I ought to, I would have taken one of the group to insert here ___.

We are feeling a bit unsettled as this summer will bring us round to a full year since Julian has taught and I'm losing enthusiasm with my situation at work. We are feeling very needy (at least I think WE are but I know I am...). We need: a suntan, to see Harris, to get some good mail, fresh berries, calm nerves and a van trip.

Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. (Ps. 27:14)

Is it summer yet?

Ugh... What a crazy three weeks it has been....

In addition to the copious amounts of snow I blogged about in Feb., shortly after the start of practice, the Blacksburg High School gym collapsed on itself. This had about 22 of our 34 players out of school for a week and now they are going to school at the Blacksburg Middle School from 2-7:15pm. You can only imagine the havoc this has wreaked on our schedule.

Games have been rescheduled for 8pm weeknight starts or weekends.practice is happening twice a day from 10-12noon for the kids who are not in school and 3:30-5:30 for the kids who are in school during normal hours. Julian is dead tired and we are a bit worn out from needing Plan B...er C... ugh...Plan D? A few of the kids have quit already but the unfortunate thing is that because the games are rescheduled and the snow is still on the ground, we will be playing games with fewer kids than we had planned on having, when they haven't even seen lines on the field yet, or played together as one group.


On top of the craziness of lacrosse, I have transitioned into a new/old job. I am doing what I have been doing (major gifts fundraising) for the College of Agriculture four days a week and still for Vet Med but only one day a week. I have had a good three days of it so far and everyone in CALS is wonderful but I need prayers for endurance as these next few months will be very, very busy.


Cheer up, Charlie... right?

First day of lacrosse practice!

Today is the first official day of lacrosse practice for Julian as a head coach! We are excited but realizing all the intricacies that come with the added responsibility of being the boss. We also have been slammed by over 35 cumulative inches of snow this winter, with about 9" still on the practice field. So today, we'll have Julian and 34 boys out in the roller hockey rink in Blacksburg, shoveling snow and doing drills (while I sit in the warm-ness of the indoors). Here we go!