Thank goodness. We're back online. Cable, internet and phonelines. YAY!
Let's see, to catch up on the past two months in one or two posts... ;) the move was pretty good- the best out of state move so far actually. We tried to sell off and get rid of a bunch of stuff to only make one trip, but we ended up having to make two, which sucked. Then there was drama with the rental truck and Doug's paycheck arriving late, but other than that, everything else went pretty smooth.
My family drove down to Rome and helped with the packing, and thank goodness for them or we would have been in big trouble. Doug's Dad and uncle came and helped too, and that was awesome. Then we trucked on up the road and unloaded in Clarksville with the help of my family. Doug and I drove back the next day and did the rest on our own (Natalya stayed with her g-grandparents). :)
I am so happy to be back in TN. I see my grandparents at least once a week, as well as my Mom and my Dad and grandmother about every two weeks. I have needed several things since we moved and my grandmother and grandfather have come over to watch N so I could go take care of things.
It's good for my grandfather too. Over the past ten years or so, he doesn't get out as much, besides grocery trips and trips to Lowe's, that's about it. SInce we've been here, he and my grandmother have been to my house (about 45 minutes from them) three times now. I am also closer to help them out which is nice. We are looking forward to go over to spend the night with them and keep my grandfather company in a week or so while my grandmother goes out of town.
My good friend and ex-roommate from college lives about five-ten muinutes from me, and she has a 3.5 year old DD and a 6 month old DS and we've gotten together a few times to visit and the girls play pretty well together, not to mention that Natalya loves to hold "baby Ethan" ;)
As far as work, Doug's job has its ups and downs. Some weeks are great and some are really crappy. The week after Christmas was awful. He had one load in five days. If dispatch had told him that there was that little freight, he could have stayed home an extra week, but instead he ended up sitting at a truck stop in Indiana for 5 days freezing his toes off (almost literally, it was in the negatives there at night and he was sleeping in the truck). I am trying to get some things rolling for me, but it's a slow process. I am looking into doing the tutor.com thing now that we have internet, and possibly picking up some photography jobs, but we'll see how that goes. I am also awaiting a callback from my friend's husband to do some sales for him, which will hopefully be a good opportunity.
Natalya hates it when Daddy leaves and every time is worse. This time she refused to take naps the entire time he was here and then yesterday when we took him to his truck she started getting upset and saying she wanted daddy to come home and not go in the big truck and so on. Not even the distraction of an offer of chocolate milk worked. :-(
Lacey, our oldest setter, who is about 14 years old, had an incident right after we moved. I thought she'd had a stroke and was freaking out. It turned out to be an inner ear infection which was affecting her balance. She couldn't walk or stand without falling down and was moving to the right. She scared the crap out of me and I thought I was going to have to put her to sleep. Thank goodness it was minor. She is doing a ton better now.
Natalya is thriving. She is "reading" her books- some of her favorites she has memorized and will sit and turn the pages, reading the words, pointing out the words as she "reads". Next step- label everything in the house. She is almost totally pt'ed and usually wakes up dry from sleep- both naps and nights. The downside to this is events such as last ngiht when she didn't want to go to sleep so she told me she had to go poop- and then sat on the potty for thirty minutes. I finally gave up and told her to go poop or go get in bed, I was going downstairs. Eventually she went pee, then we finally got her to bed. Fun. She also LOVES public restrooms (gross) so she always wants to go when we're out which is really annoying. In fact, we were on the way home one day and she said she had to go pee. I said, ok, we're almost home and she said, no, I want to go pee at the pet store. (??) Restaurants are impossible because she wants to keep going to the bathroom. When Doug was home, we went to Applebees and used a gift card he got for Christmas, and we took turns taking her to the bathroom, we each took her twice and then I finally had to put my foot down and tell her that was it.
She has also discovered winking. She completely cracks me up b/c she'll turn her head to the side and wink one eye at you until you notice. Then she'll grin and be on about her business.
She is also smart as anything. I swear I'm in big trouble because she comes up with things that completely shock me. Like today she started taking her shirt off. I asked her why and she said "it's dirty". I said, where's the dirt? She said "here". I looked where she pointed and didn't see anything. I told her to leave her clothes on and she disappeared. I tracked her down and she was taking off her clothes. I asked her why she took them off and she said "they're dirty!" I asked her again why they were dirty. Then I asked her Where the dirt came from and she said "the ground". She says things like this all the time.
She recognizes about 20 of 26 letters and recognizes when there are two or three of something right away. (Mommy, look, three birds!) She doesn't need to count them to know. Sometimes she knows four too, but usually has to count anything above that.
I need to get a video camera so I can catch her in action. She's such a nut! When we take her in public, people think she's at least three, if not older because of her vocabulary and pronunciation. Her memory is insane too. She got a new ABC book for Christmas which I absolutely love, and recommend (it was just released so there are few pics on the internet, it's called Animal Babies A to Z by Chuck Murphy, http://westfield.com/product_details/show/18 ) and she knows and can even say almost all the animal names, including vicuna (with a ~ over the n, spanish pronunciation) and quetzal. At least we know she got my verbal skills! I love Doug but he has trouble with the English language. ;) (he readily admits this)
She loves animals too. This house has woods at the back, and we put up a bird feeder and get tons of birds, lots of different kinds and she recognizes most of them! Mommy, a daddy cardinal. Mommy, a chickadee. Mommy, a Tufted Titmouse. and so on. Taking her to the pet store to buy crickets is an hour long procedure because we have to look at annd pet all the animals (and I am highly allergic to rabbits, much to her dismay because she loves them).
The house is great. It feels more like home already, more so than the house in Rome ever did. Something about that place always felt 'off' so it just didn't feel like home. I like it here, Natalya likes it here, and Doug, well, he feels like a visitor when he's home, but we're working on that.
I am sure, more to come later. :)
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