Let It Snow!! (with one condition)

The first big snow for Cincinnati has begun. Look at the bundled up, neighborhood children sledding down the hill like a Norman Rockwell painting. Except NR didn't paint the crazed dog barking like a maniac at them.



Yup, it doesn't show signs of stopping until tomorrow night. Which would be absolutely fantastic (I love watching snow from my couch under a blanket), but Craig is supposed to be flying in from Salt Lake City tonight. I don't think it's going to happen. Poor thing--he'll just have to stay one more night where he has been staying:

Yeah, I don't feel sorry for him either.
UPDATE: Craig DID make it in last night, with no delays!!! I love direct flights!

New Year, New Baby

It's 2010. It's the year our baby is born!! I can't really wrap my head around it! He'll be here so soon.

New Year's/New Year's Eve was very, very calm. Craig's family and friends from the UK called to wish us a happy new year. I had to work until about 7:30 on New Year's Eve and even though I offered to go to a bar or somewhere more lively than our living room, Craig was happy to stay in and watch Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve. BTW--I really admire Dick Clark for coming on every year, but I really think he should maybe not do it anymore. I'm worrried about him.

As for today, it's snowing in Ohio, so while Craig is on a business trip, the doggies and I are staying in and staying warm. Is it really that wrong that I still have my pjs on and it's 1:30 in the afternoon? I fully intend on doing some things around the house, but I do not believe I need to change out of my pjs to do them.

This year I didn't make any resolutions. Craig and I hope and pray that Baby is healthy and strong, so other than that, we don't have many other wishes for 2010.

Baby, if you ever wondered....

wondered whatever became of me. I'm living on the air in Cincinnati. Cincinnati WKRP.

Yes, that's right. I remember the theme song to "Cincinnati WKRP," however it does not hold a candle to my favorite 80's tv show theme song--"The Greatest American Hero." Oh, and GUESS WHAT!! There is NOT actually a WKRP in Cincinnati.

UPDATE (9/26): There IS an WKRP in Cincinnati!! It's the PBS station--it's called something different on our awesome hotel tv lineup.

Anyhoo...it's week 2 already of our Cincinnati adventure. We are still living it up in the Extended Stay America and I am missing my DVR and cable. Hotel tv is not the best. It's great on college football game days because there are FIVE ESPN channels, but other than that, not much else. I'm starting to orientate myself with the city layout, too. I'm not as dependent on the GPS as I was last week. We, being the foodies that we are, have already checked out a couple of the area food stores. There's one called Jungle Jim's that has, literally, everything you could want, especially for international cooking. There was a British food aisle, so we loaded up on HobNobs, Digestives (milk AND dark chocolate!), squash (fruit juice, not vegetable), and PG Tips!

We went house hunting last weekend and saw some nice houses. Not OUR future home, I don't think (Craig may beg to differ--he really liked one house), but some nice houses. We are incredibly lucky that our "old" house sold so quickly--there's nothing stopping us from buying a new to us house immediately after closing. We are trying to figure out what area of the city we want to live in, but it's hard since wherever the realtor takes us, we have no idea where we are in relation to things like the interstate, Craig's work, the nearest grocery store, etc. The good thing is that lots of the neighborhoods have community pools, which is high up on Craig's must have list. The houses here are older than what we are used to, but the neighborhoods are well established and the house prices are actually not too dissimilar to what we are used to.

Right now, finding a house and settling in with doctors (for baby, my thyroid, and Craig's back) have been priorities. Speaking of babies, I'm now officially in my 2nd trimester!! WOO HOO!!! We made it!!! I'm still not showing all that much--keep in mind I had some extra padding to begin with, but my lower tummy is starting to pooch out a little. I have an appointment with my new OB/Gyn next Monday and we get to see the baby again!! Hooray! So far, so good as far as the pregnancy goes. I'm still tired and try to get a nap in most days, but still no morning sickness. The most severe symptom I have had has been headaches, but now going to Craig's chiro for that, too.

Tomorrow I get to go on a road trip! To Louisville to visit a close college friend who just had a baby! I'm excited. I haven't been within driving distance to any college friends ever since I moved out of Nashville seven years ago! Then, next month we are off to Nashville (DRIVING!) to see the Kings of Leon, the Vandy homecoming, and besties there, too!!

And We're Off, Part 2

We made it to Cincinnati!! The last two days have been pretty tough, but we are here and Craig has started his first day at work.

We basically had 36 hours of straight travels--
Monday
6:30 a.m, UK time (12:30 a.m. CST)--left Cardiff for Heathrow
9:50 a.m. UK--left Heathrow for Chicago
flights went well, except I had a pissy man behind me who kept complaining that I leaned my chair back and disturbed him. Sorry, honey, but if you want room, buy First Class.
6:00 p.m.--landed in NWA
7:30 p.m.--left Springdale with the Escape loaded up!
11:15 p.m.--arrived at Casa Sanchez (and saw my puppies!!!!!!)
11:20 p.m.--passed out in sweet, unconscious sleep oblivion

Tuesday
9:00a.m.--left for Cincinnati with my dad in tow
**This was interesting because all three of us have something going on that we had to get out every hour or so--me, pregnant (3 months!!! Second trimester, here I come!!!!!); Dad--hip; Craig--back
9:00 p.m EST--arrived at the hotel in Cincinnati (again, it really shouldn't take 11 hours to drive from Little Rock to Cincinnati, but with all the stops and an hour stop for dinner--Cracker Barrel, obviously--we took longer than the average bear)

Our trip to the UK was great!! The wedding was a lot of fun and the bride and groom were so happy! At Craig's parents' house, there was lots of sleeping, eating, and hanging out in our pajamas. I do always like spending time with my in-laws (really!) and they always make a fuss out of us whenever they see us.

PLUS we got our first baby presents!!!! We got the baby a small stuffed dragon, Craig's parents got us a stuffed animal from the London Zoo plus a teddy bear and some onesies and a hat; Craig's materal grandmother gave us clothes; Craig's paternal grandmother gave us a teddy bear and a Winnie the Pooh onesie. I was really suprised, actually!! I hadn't even considered buying clothes yet for the baby, but we won't see them again before the baby is born. I'll post pictures when I can of the prezzies!

The ball is rolling

Our house is officially on the market. We signed the paperwork last night.

AND, the Weed Killers came on Tuesday. Debbie (you remember her) told me they would be at the house before 10 a.m. on Tuesday. Having explained to her yet again that I would not be at the house, she repeated they would be there before 10 a.m.

I pick up Craig'ums at the airport, we head to Starbucks for a bacon sandwich (OMG, have you had one of these? They are completely addictive), then head on home. We pull into the driveway at 9:59 a.m. And who comes right after us??? The Weed Killers. To their credit, the weeds are dying off already.

It's so nice having Craig home again. I've missed him!!! Of course, he leaves again on Monday for another week away, but still I get him for this week.

Busy times

So, met with two realtors yesterday who came and took pictures of the house to put in their database (thank God these are not the pictures that will go on the internet because my house is not ready to "show" yet.). Both of the realtors were not optimistic of our chances of making any moola on the house due to the market here and the fact that the house next door to us is a foreclosure. We are hoping to break even. This after the fact that we bought the house for almost $50,000 LESS than what the original owner paid for it. Glad we are not that poor bastard. But, still, rolling in wads of cash is not in our foreseeable future.

On the bright side, we are going to Cincinnati this weekend to check it all out. We are meeting with a realtor there too to look around at the neighborhoods. The following is an illustration of the difference between (the darling, charming, sweet, intelligent, thoughtful) Missus and Mooner (Actual conversation mind you):

Me: When we look at neighborhoods, what will we be looking for? Here are the some of the things that I would like: I think a nearby park and walking trails would be nice. We need to look at the school district just in case we have a little Mooner baby and we are still around here when It begins school. I think we should look for a house with not a long commute to your office. It would be awesome if the community had a farmer's market nearby.

Him: I would like to be able to walk to a bar.

There you have it, folks.

We haven't put the house on the market yet--the realtors will get back to me tomorrow on the listing price. Then, with the relo package Craig got, if the house does not sell in 90 days, the company will buy it out. Which takes the pressure off. That is sooooo much easier than having to wait until the house sells to actually start your life in your new place, as my friend S. knows.

This past week was my dad and my sister's birthdays!!!! I went down to spend some time with them and had a really good time. On Saturday, Sister, Nephews, and I went to the downtown and looked around. It was a lot of fun and once I get the pictures from the weekend, I will post. The Nephews were REALLY cuddly this trip. I LOVED IT!!!!! Lots of "I love my auntie" hugs and kisses.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Well, we made it!!

Craig's family landed (almost) on schedule, had about two hours downtime, then off to my parents' house we went (who, I forgot to mention, were flying back from San Diego that day as well).

We set off at 4(!!!) in the morning to drive down to Destin. It took us 14 hours to get there due to two traffic jams that we ran into, but Craig's niece took it like a champ!! Actually, they all did. Jet-lagged and all.

More on the trip later, complete with pictures.

But, the big news of the week was that Craig got a promotion at work!! HOORAY!!! The job is in Cincinnati, so we will be moving pretty soon. He doesn't have his start date yet, but it's coming.

As for me, I really have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I am super excited for Craig because (1)it IS a promotion and he will be a manager now and (2) he really, really wanted this job. **For those of you who know me in real life, please don't publish anything on Facebook--my work doesn't know yet and Craig's co-workers don't know yet and I have a few of our work friends on there.

Purely from a selfish point of view, this move is not a good thing for me. I LOVE (really love) my job and there was a really cool job opportunity that just became available that is something I have been looking for since I graduated from college. I was so excited to apply for that job, but now, obviously, I can't. On the other hand, I would have to leave my job (at least for a little bit) if I got pregnant.

Plus, even though we are three hours away from my parents and sister/nephews, this is the closest I've lived to them in 15 years. With my parents' health issues and our trying to have a baby, I was really looking forward to having them close for (hopefully) a grandchild/niece/nephew/cousins. I know that's sounding selfish considering Craig's parents are all the way in the UK.

Another thing, I struggled really hard to make close girl friends here and now that I have them, I am going to leave them. Yes, yes, I can always keep in touch with them, but that's not the same as organizing a girls' night is it? Granted, many of them are now pregnant and things would change anyway. Plus, in Cincinnati, I will be closer to two of my best friends from college so I will get to see them more that I do here.

But, Craig and I have both wanted to explore the US. Living in a small town where we are is really not what Craig signed up for when he made the move to the US, so I KNEW this was coming and I was wholeheartedly in agreement. What I didn't figure on was how comfortable (for the most part) I would feel here.

One of the things I will not miss about the small town is the closemindedness and judgements that people have here. That has been one of the pitfalls of this place. So, I will be interested in moving "North" since that is not a part of the country my little ol' Southern heart has ever experienced (well, other than the three years in England). :)

Ultimately, I know this move is a good thing, so I will come around to being as excited as Craig is. I think going to the city and looking around and exploring it will help.