two flights, a contract and explosive residue!

For years I have been saying that I wanted to teach college... in the future... when I thought it would be possible.  In December I heard of an opportunity at CCU and although I thought it was a long shot I decided to first figure out what a curriculum vitae was and then try my hand at writing one.  By trying my hand at writing one, I really mean Jay and myself pored over a computer for hours one night figuring it out together. Anyways, several months later I was given the opportunity to have a phone conference with part of their eduction team and I was thrilled.  It was scheduled for a Friday night and I was going to be ready and available no matter what!  Now, some of my family members will say that I had the good old fashioned flu that week and some say that the week of my big interview I was having the you-are-about-to-have-a-baby-flu, either way I was dead dog sick that week.  So much so that on Friday I refused to eat just about anything due to fear of getting sick during my phone interview.

That night was a big night for our family.  I had a great conversation with the two people that were interviewing me, we finally got to celebrate Jay's birthday dinner and I began the process of bringing our son into the world.  We ended the night by timing my contractions.  Oliver was born the next morning!

Well two months later, serval trips back to Cincy with the presentation of a social studies methods lesson and several interviews later and a flight back on Thursday night with Oliver in tow I was officially hired and signed a contract with CCU yesterday.  It was a great feeling and I am so excited to be  member of their team this coming fall.  Now, all I had to do was get me and Oliver back home to Charlotte (thanks Smith family for always being there for us!) in one piece without disturbing too many people on the airplane with an infant.  On the way out to Cincy he was wonderful, but I have learned as a parent never to assume anything when it comes to children!

My parents and Jenanne dropped me off at the airport in Cincinnati and I was really looking forward to flying through security as I had done less 24 hours before.  I knew that by carrying Oliver on in a baby carrier that I was subject to a hand swab to test for explosive residue....but seriously I had no worries there!

So I make my way through security and luckily the airport was fairly empty for a Friday night.  I follow one of the guys on duty over to the machine that they swab your hands with, he places it in the machine and after about thirty seconds the machine lights up with a big red light that says TEST NEGATIVE...EXPLOSIVE RESIDUE DETECTED.....really?!  That is actually what I said when the machine started going off.  The guy informed me that I probably had just touched fertilizer earlier in the day and I replied that I wasn't sure if it helped me much, but I definitely hadn't touched any fertilizer that day!  To make a long story short, I got to tour some back rooms at CVG, got to chat with some really nice ladies and then they evidently decided I was no threat to fly the friendly skies and let me and Oliver go on our way!

What a whirlwind of 24 hours! Two flights, a contract and explosive residue!  -melissa

here are some pics of our little traveler on his first two flights!

thanksgiving wrap up

In the 8 years that Melissa and I have lived in Virginia, I think we've traveled back to Ohio 6 of those 8. It's always a short trip because Melissa has to be back at school by Monday, but it's always a trip well worth the 16 hours of driving round trip. And this year was extra special because Melissa's parents have finally moved into their new home, a log cabin. I'm sure we'll have more pictures down the road, but this will give you an idea of  how beautiful their new home is.

Even though their cabin is amazing, a toddler can still get cabin fever pretty often so we were sure to take walks every day. Here are a couple shots of Charlotte on our walks. She is such a happy little girl.

Trying on mommy's sunglasses.

The pigtails are a new thing for Charlotte and I think this shot just screams all girl.

Doing a little posing work.

As most of you know Melissa is pregnant and is due in early March. Before our 20 week ultrasound I asked Melissa if she was OK waiting few more weeks and having our families all find out at the same time at Thanksgiving whether Charlotte was going to have a brother or a sister. She agreed and I thought that having a cake made with blue or pink batter would be a great way to do that. Come to find out, its tough to find a bakery that will do that, so a big thanks goes out to Busken Bakery of Cincinnati who let me know that they could do a layer cake with blue or pink icing in between the layers. Works for me! So we invited both sides of the family over to Melissa's parents cabin and had the grand reveal. Also a big thanks to our friend Jamie in Virginia who we entrusted with a sealed envelope from the ultrasound so she could contact the bakery and let them know what color icing to use. Here's a shot of the cake. It turned out nice.

Here is a shot of the reaction when we cut into the cake...

And a quick confirmation with the actual ultrasound for extra assurance...

And as you can see below, the icing is blue so we are glad to announce that Charlotte will have a baby brother named Oliver James Hess next spring. It was a great way to share our news with the family. We took a vote before we cut into the cake and the majority said it would be a boy and they were right. So now we have to decide if we'll just dress him in all of Charlotte's pink clothes or if we'll spend some money and get some boy clothes :)

On Friday we headed over to my parents house for a a little bit of time with Grandpa, Tiki and cousin Honor. Dad went out on Thanksgiving morning to do some door-busting, which if you know him, is very strange, but he picked up a new toy for Charlotte and Honor. See below...

This is her "I'm in a biker gang" face.

Charlotte and Grandpa thoroughly enjoyed themselves. That little 4 wheeler could really haul.

And some playtime with cousin Honor thanks to a construction site nearby.

Meanwhile back at the cabin, Charlotte's other grandpa seemed to be quite smitten with Charlotte as well.

Melissa and her mom set up the Christmas tree on Saturday and the kids got to put a few ornaments on the tree. I caught Benjamin like a deer in the headlights on this one, but you get the idea.

Charlotte enjoyed the ornaments too.

I love the glow on her face in this one.

We hope you had a great Thanksgiving in 2012. Our family has had a great year and we have much to be thankful for as we head into 2013.

-jay

jay and charlotte on vacation

It's beach time. My parents planned on getting a house down at the beach earlier this summer. My sister, her husband and daughter came down and it was Melissa's second week back at school so it meant that Charlotte and I went down for a couple of days to enjoy the sand and the sun minus Melissa. I wish she could have been there, but we managed to get along without her   :)   Just wanted to share a little bit of our trip. We only were there for a few days, but Charlotte had a lot of fun with her grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousin that is just six months younger than herself.

The house next door had this awesome weather vane. I have always loved the shape of a whale and I admittedly took way to many pictures of it. Here was one I took the first night we arrived. The colors are so awesome.

It was really nice going down to the beach this time of the year, because there are not as many people around at all. We had a great house with a great view. But don't just take my word for it...

The dunes in between our house and the water were great and the house had a long and narrow walkway to access the dunes and water. Charlotte loved running down the catwalk every time we would go outside.

A few of the shells that families gathered and lined up over the course of the summer season.

Did I say that I like whales?

Now for wildlife. I have never seen so many dragonflies in one spot before. They are beautiful creatures. It was tough to get close and I never had the right lens on hand, but here's a look at one little guy that took a break from his flight to rest for a bit. Ah, the beach is so relaxing, even for the bugs!

Cool aloe-ish kind of plant. Hello depth of field.

Apparently there are deer at the beach too. At first glance I thought it was a baby, but dad says that's as big as they get around the beach. Bambi made her way through the dunes. Strange juxtaposition if you ask me.

The path in between the walkway and the beach. One of the coolest beach houses I've ever stayed at.

This little beauty is my niece, Honor. She will be a year old next month. Charlotte loved playing and talking with Honor and it gave me a good idea of how she'll be when we have our second in March 2013.

I loved this shot.

An aerial view of her precious curls. She is beautiful, huh?

Another favorite of mine. We took a lot of walks on the beach and there's nothing better  in my book than a dad and his little girl.

The water and clouds look fake to me, but they are real. I need to move to the beach.

Charlotte and her "Tiki" having a fun walk together. Check out Charlotte's face.

More walking, with me, my sister, her husband and their daughter in the foreground.

Charlotte loved watching all of the different birds that fly around the beach. I also caught her digging for buried treasure at one point while bird watching.

Pointing at a bird up in the sky that flew away.

Waving bye-bye to a bird that soared down the beach.

And a couple of my favorites to round things out. I love watching this little girl grow and even though we had other family with us, it was fun to go on a trip, just the two of us. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

san francisco

So, it has been a long time.  A real long time.  Neither one of us has posted for almost a month now.  We have had one crazy month, with traveling all over the place, dealing with our house being on the market, summer colds upon summer colds and little C popping a whole mouth full of teeth at once, we have been busy.  I can honestly say that I have ignored this blog, all the blogs I usually read, facebook and the internet all together pretty well for the past month.  If I could not do it from my phone, it did not get done.  I know my poor laptop feels neglected.  I am normally pretty adamant about trying to do a post a week, but I will admit it has been kinda freeing not worrying about it. One of our biggest highlights over the past three weeks or so has been a trip that Jay and I took to San Francisco, by ourselves, without baby!  We had a great time and really fell in love with the city, got to try some fun restaurants, see some great sites and catch up with an old friend.  Here are some of our favorites from the trip...

The city was prettier and cleaner than I think either one of us  was expecting.

We got the best tour in town from Stephan.

Stephan was a groomsman in our wedding and Jay has been talking about going out to see him for years.

He even had three bikes that we could ride around town, it was perfect!

The first time that I had seen the Pacific, it was a bit chilly!

Some credit should go to Jay who offered to ride the bike with no gears through this very hilly city.

For the most part we rode through Golden Gate Park and saw all of the interesting sights.  At one point we were forced off of the streets because a Hare Krishna parade was coming down the street.  I didn't mean to be disrespectful, but it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen.  The people seemed to be really into it though!

Some golden gate shots.

And our standard hand shot that we take everywhere we visit for the past eight years.  

I was surprised at how windy it was. There are no pictures of me that were acceptable because I am wrapped up like I should have been in that parade at Golden Gate Park. 

We love visiting as many national parks as possible.  Checked off our list...Muir Woods and the redwoods.

They were actually so big and close, they were difficult to photograph.  Here is a shot of Jay with some of the big girls, so you can see just how big they are.  They really were very beautiful.

On the top of both of our lists was of course, Alcatraz.  We knew that we needed to get tickets at least a week in advance. When Jay went to order them they were sold out about a month out.  We were both totally bummed, but because Jay is totally awesome and persistent he somehow scored us two tickets one morning.

They ship you over on a huge boat.

And we had to sit on the very top to get the best views.  Good thing I came prepared with my windbreaker.  It was needed and used.

Views from the boat ride.

Old apartment buildings and homes where workers of the prison and their families once lived.

A standard cell.

Ruins of where the warden once lived with a great view of the city.

One of the cells that actually had a successful escapee! 

A street car ride was a must, more expensive than a taxi, but a experience that I had to have!

A view of the super cool gears that run these things up and down the hills.

Manly men of Fishermans Wharf.

Sea Lions on the pier.  My favorite was the one on the bottom right.

I named him Freddy Mercury, he reminded me of him, don't you think?

Although our summer has been jammed packed, it has been a memorable one!  Hope you are having a summer full of memories as well. I forgot how much I enjoy blogging and chronicling our little lives, I think my sabbatical is over!

-melissa