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!

mother's day

I know that mother's day was last weekend, but I have been too busy being a mother of two to publish a post.  I really wanted to put one up though because this blog is the closest thing to a scrapbook for my family!

Anyway, we had a great day!  All the kids slept in, so much so that we were almost late for church!  Happy mother's day to me!  Church was oddly familiar for us.  You may remember that on Jay's first father's day our number got put on the big screen (the only time it has happened her whole life) to come get Charlotte, because she was a hot mess in the nursery, well..... on this mother's day Oliver's number got put up on the big screen.  It wasn't because he was a hot mess, it was because his parents are.  We  forgot to put his formula in the diaper bag!  Whoops, after a quick trip to the store we were back in service like nothing ever happened!

After church we went to the best greek restaurant in town, Stella's, to enjoy a lovely mother's day lunch.  We got to spend time with our favorite Va mommy, who helps our family out weekly!

Here are some pics from our little lunch date with the Smiths!

Hope everyone had a great day!

-melissa

a swanky cincinnati dinner party

As many of you know we are in the process of moving back to CIncinnati.  Along with that we have been very busy the past two months going back and forth between VA and OH trying to decipher job opportunities and land opportunities and housing opportunities.  We have had an absolute CRAZY two months, but one thing is for sure they have been filled with blessing after blessing.

Last week while we were in Cincinnati we closed on a piece of land that our family is really excited about.  It is just what we were looking for with just enough land, in a great neighborhood and we could use any builder we wanted.  So of course, we needed to throw our first official dinner party!

We had both sets of parents out for dinner at "our house" and had a standard swanky dinner party.  At least as swanky as you can make a one stop dinner party shop to your local Walmart.

Everyone dined on fried chicken, sweet tea and an assortment of sides.  Charlotte really enjoyed the chicken and Oliver really enjoyed the view from his blanket.

We wanted to make sure that we were the first to break ground on our new land, so Jay and Charlotte did the honors!

Many more dinner parties to come at our new place and maybe next time we will have a place to invite people in!

Hope to see you at our new place real soon, maybe we will serve you something better than a Walmart dinner!

-melissa

two months gone by

The first two months of Oliver's life is quite the contrast from Charlotte's. Charlotte spent the first month of her life in our house. As first time parents, we heeded the hospitals advice to not take Charlotte to any public places. I was more strict about this so consequently Charlotte didn't see too much of the outside world that first month. The second month wasn't much different. Maybe the occasional trip to Target or the grocery store, but most of the time just hanging out on one of us on the couch. Oliver in his first two months has clocked well over 2,ooo miles in the car including two trips to Cincinnati and back already. He's already met a good portion of his family on my side in Cincinnati, including his great grandpa Jim who passed away about a month after Oliver was born. I'll have to put those pictures up at some point. It was pretty cool. Oliver has also already slept in a hotel room, been to a baseball game and generally been carted all over creation. He is such and easy baby and we live pretty busy lives so Oliver really hasn't had a choice. He gained 3 pounds over the last month. Check out the one month pictures to compare. He is only in the 50-70th percentile on height, weight and head size, so that's pretty average, but to us he looks humongous compared to Charlotte's first few months. Enjoy the pictures. Hopefully Oliver gets to meet you at some point.