Family Play Time

JOY.

We're Moving to...

!!!!!!!

After a crazy February involving a trip to Louisville, two trips to Atlanta, a quick trip to Boston, lots of phone interviews and cover letters and application essays and so. many. hypothetical. conversations between me and Clay, we accepted jobs at an awesome PreK-12 private school in Louisville, Kentucky! Clay will be 12th grade dean, teach 4 sections of 12th grade English (two sections of AP Language and two electives), and will help with the school's upcoming accreditation process. I will be the 10th grade dean, teach 4 sections of 10th grade English, advise the school newspaper, and help with a few college counseling events. And before long, Will will be able to go to school there, too! We couldn't be more excited to move to a great city and work at a great school, be close to my family, and be done with interviews! As you can see below, it was an exciting month, but it was also full of uncertainty, hard work, and stress as we were both interviewing on site, traveling with Will around the country, and trying to juggle where we each were in the process with a number of schools in different places--oh, and Clay was also trying to go to class, write paper, and read hundreds of pages every week! Thankfully, we had my friends Katie and Deanna's visit to look forward to, which provided me with a whole weekend of fun and support while Clay was in Atlanta at an interview and two job fairs, and my parents' visit at the end of the month, which allowed us to literally hand off Will after a long day of travel from Huntsville and go tutor, which we both desperately needed to do in order to keep those jobs!

We are so grateful for all of your love and support this month, this year, and always. February 2012 might go down as one of our busiest months ever as a married couple, but we were so encouraged by emails, texts, and prayers from our friends. We can't wait to host you all in Louisville once we get settled this summer!

One final note: we were SO excited to tell my parents in person a couple of weeks ago. We brainstormed all week long about how to tell them, but we ended up blurting it out in our little hallway on the way to a playground and dinner. Still, it was a classic moment: so much joy in such a small space. Will never forget it.

A Walk In Central Park with Mimi and Poppy

When my parents came back through NYC a couple weekends ago, Will wouldn't let them out of his sight. And my parents couldn't have been cuter with him, giving him sips of their milkshakes, giving him a ride on their shoulders, and playing with him in one of the many Central Park playgrounds.

Will sure is blessed with four super loving and generous grandparents!

Thanks for coming to visit us, Mom and Dad!

So glad we were able to tell you our good news in person!

Happy Birthday to our new friends!

Right after we moved here, Clay and I visited Redeemer Church. When we walked into the toddler room to drop Will off (and then cross our fingers and hope hope hope he didn't cry so much it would make ME cry), lo and behold the parent volunteer for the day was a guy I immediately recognized from my days in Christian fellowships at UVA. Meant to be.

His wife, also a UVA wahoo two years ahead of me, contacted me that week, invited me to mom's group (focus of a future blog post), and thoughtfully and sweetly introduced me to her friends and included me in playdates and holiday parties. I will forever be grateful to Jennifer. In my mind, she is an angel. And two of HER angels turned 1 last week!

"Woah!"

"The birthday party is real, Mom, but the real fun happens at the play kitchen."

His excitement over the kiddie kitchen makes me so happy. Future chef's assistant right here?

Can you tell he's eaten a few treats?

I don't want to think about what will happen when Clay realizes I posted this picture.

But I love it.

Jennifer with her twin girls! So much sweetness in this picture, I can't take it!

Library Time

Clay began his spring break in the library. He's that dedicated.

Will and I decided to play outside and thus try to tempt him back out...

SUCCESS!!

Will saw Daddy and immediately started running towards him.

WARMS. MY. HEART.

The Intrepid

It's Clay's spring break (woohoo!) and since we now have jobs (woohoo!), we suddenly had lots of time and NO interviews (holla!). So we decided to have some fun seeing some of the insanely cool stuff there is do here in NYC.

One day, we headed down to the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum.

Even more amazing to me than the grand scale of the Intrepid aircraft carrier is the fact that planes actually landed on this thing in the middle of the sea. Dang, those pilots are SKILLED.

My Top Gun. Way cuter than Tom Cruise.

We took a subway downtown, walked the four long blocks over to the harbor, waited in line for tickets, and then climbed aboard the ship to discover plane after awesome plane.

What was Will most interested in? Yup, the puddles.

I feel like I am going to hold onto the above picture for a long time.

What a special time in our lives this is.

Once again, my world in front of a huge world.

Here we are inside!

The sailors' sleeping quarters made our apartment look and feel like a palace.

God bless them!

And then Clay and I went on a date! YES! We saw "Friends with Kids" and then ate at this totally legit Thai restaurant really close to Washington Square Park, yet another one of the places on our to-see-in-NYC list.

It was beautiful. Even better was the company :-).

"Woah"

So Will's favorite new words are "woah!" and "yay!" and he says them all. the. time.

It makes us so adorably happy.

And he said them over and over again when we took him to the top (ahem, 86th floor) of the Empire State Building on Thursday afternoon, yet another one of our NYC "must-do's" before we head south come May.

Clay had never been to the top either, so all three of us marveled at the fact that we somehow became a family who lived in this majestic city. I say "majestic" because I have found myself lately loving what this city is all about: the subway, the cabs, the little markets, the endless line of playgrounds in the parks, Zabar's (why it took me so long to discover this GEM of a market on the UWS, I don't know), the constant activity and energy and talent that is New York. Perhaps it is because of the GORGEOUS weather we have been enjoying (we picked the right winter to be here!) or the knowledge that we are only going to live here for 2 more months or the sense of familiarity I now feel after living in this city for a little while...I don't know. I feel like I "get" NYC now, and thus I love NYC now, and while it might be hard to live here longterm, I am grateful for the opportunity to experience it for enough time that my morning runs and my Trader Joe's on W. 72nd and my subway stop on the 1 line really do feel familiar.

East Side

Hey! Look at those cuties!

This is just a tiny piece of the NYC puzzle. Imagine this x1000 and you'll get a sense of just how endless this city is.

love the gold roof

North (see Central Park in the middle there?)

Woah.

The cool Flatiron building. Supposedly the wind gushes are so powerful there that police once had to crack down on people trying to see a woman's skirt fly up as she rounded the corner. Also, the famous Shake Shack often seen in movies is in that park there.

Looking south (Financial district).

We are enjoying our Spring Break in the city!

Exploring our own backyard: Brooklyn!

Today=Bliss.

No job interviews, no classes, no obligations...so we decided to have some fun!

So we jumped (aka 90 minutes after starting the process of leaving and after several clothing and diaper changes for sweet Will) on the subway and headed down to the Brooklyn Bridge!

Will cracks me up in this picture: he is basically paralyzed from the four layers (the vest was just too cute and he had to wear it, but of course he also needed a coat...) and stroller BundleMe we packed him up in. Sweet thing. He is SUCH a trooper!

Children's playground in forefront. Adult playground in the background :-).

Will's got it all to himself today.

Man, we love family time. Hallelujah for family time.

Will's favorite word right now is "woah!" Picture him saying it right here.

I love this picture. Me and my little man. He looks so grown up all of a sudden, and while I can't believe he turning into a little boy, I have to confess that this age (21 months) might be my favorite so far. He is so interactive, fun, communicative, and happy!

He really is my little buddy, and I thank God every day he is ours.

Clay took this picture, and I love how he captured the whimsy of the carousel alongside the majesty of the Manhattan skyline.

Will loves pointing these days. I find myself identifying objects and people all day long,

and I love it!

Post Brooklyn Bridge and Carousel, we headed to famous Grimaldi's for some super yummy pizza. I meant to take a picture of our pies, but we ate them too quickly!

Happy Weekend!