Thanks Taryn!

Our friend and neighbor, Taryn Baker, was sweet enough to take some photos of us this last week. I think they turned out awesome! I can't believe we are leaving Nashville in 3 days!!! We are so excited to see family and friends, but are so sad to leave the good friends we have met!

Down and Dirty

Yes, this is a children's play area in Nashville, and yes, it is intended to be a big muddy area. Who really thought of this idea??? Certainly nobody with children who was actually responsible for doing their laundry. Isaac now has a pair of brown socks instead of all white ones. I wasn't going to let him get in, but he headed to the water and slipped in the mud and his feet went out from under him. He thought it was so funny. It was a hot day and all his buddies were there, so he really had a blast. Luckily some friends had a towel and a clean diaper because I was unprepared. He rode home in the bike trailer with nothing more than a diaper and a helmet. At least he had fun!

Next Stop, L.A.

So it is officially official...FINALLY!  Lance was offered a job at the University of Southern California Hospital as a transplant pharmacist.  Woohoo!!   I never envisioned us living in L.A. let alone ANYWHERE in the state of California, but here it goes.  He won't be able to start until he receives his California pharmacist license, so we'll be vacationing in Utah for the next few months until that happens.  We'll see most of y'all soon!

Dress Up

Maybe it's better NOT to exercise in Nashville

There's more than one way to get your heart rate up I learned this morning on our walk...I was walking to the park with Isaac at about 7:45 am when a nurse/CNA?? (she was wearing scrubs) fell asleep at the wheel and drove up onto the sidewalk we were walking on.  It was almost dream-like, totally surreal that a car would be speeding towards us like that...had someone hired a hitman?? was I imagining I was in a movie??  Anyhow,  I pushed Isaac out of the way, accidentally tipping his stroller over, and I must have partially fallen too because I had dried grass all over my right leg.

When she got out of the car to make sure we were all right she said, "I saw you walking, then I must have nodded off" which would maybe explain why she headed straight at us (it was the last thing she was focused on before falling asleep??) or more likely there is a slight curve in the road that she missed and came straight up on the sidewalk.  She had a few flat tires from hitting the curve.  She was apologetic, said she'd had a rough shift, but I'm not sure she grasped the concept that she could have seriously injured us at the speed she was going.  I was shaken up pretty bad...I had sewing machine legs like I used to get rock climbing and called Lance who was in California still and bawled to him on the phone as I explained what happened.  I am so glad it happened on the ONLY area with a sidewalk near us or we would have been toast.  It gave me just enough time to get us out of the way.  We definitely have someone watching over us!

UP the stairs

Sticks

 

I'm pretty sure this is Isaac's favorite toy right now...the broken handle of a dustpan.  Go figure.  Isaac is growing up so fast!  He gets so excited to be outside that he will go get his shoes and go to the back door.  He unfortunately tantrums when we have to go inside, but I guess what's wrong with a healthy love of the outdoors?  It has been pretty hot here in Nashville.  We went to the pool for the first time this season and Isaac could not get enough of it.  He is a little too brave in the water for me.  Isaac has a few new words and I think 'wawa' is his favorite.  He sounded like a broken record when I took him on a hike around Radnor Lake.  We love our little guy!

Fun in Chattanooga

I feel like I had a good reason for taking his overalls off at the time...who knows. We had a fun time with Grandma Venita in Chattanooga a few weeks ago and are looking forward to more summer water fun!

Is it hot in here?

Granted, Isaac has been out in the sun a lot lately, but he also has had himself a little fever today...again. It has only been a few weeks since his last fever. Let's hope this is short-lived so tomorrow goes smoothly until Lance gets back from Detroit. Speaking of Detroit, Lance is gone at his second job interview (the first one was in Houston a few weeks ago). The solid organ transplant pharmacist jobs are few and far between (numerically, temporally, and geographically speaking). Who knows where in this country we'll be come late summer!

Bye, Grandma!

We were lucky enough to have Grandma Venita stay with us for the last week-and-a-half. It was so fun to have her here. Isaac is going to miss her (as are we)!

Flying Squirrel!

Okay, this is a random post, but we had all just gotten back from a bike ride when we heard some crazy noises from our rain gutters (our unit is 2 stories).  We looked up and saw a squirrel going wild running around inside the rain gutter (only his big fluffy tail was showing) when he suddenly made an unexpected departure.  He started falling, spread eagle (or flying squirrel style?) until he hit the ground right in front of us.  He landed on his feet, but I'm not sure who was more stunned, him or us. 

I grabbed Isaac because the squirrel was obviously stunned after his 2-story plung to the pavement and he just stood there for a while and had no idea where he was going.  Our storage closet was open outside so I guess he figured that was the safest and most comfortable place for him to die (or that is what I feared) so he ran in there.  I kept checking every 15 to 20 minutes to see if he had left the closet (he was curled up in a ball on the bottom shelf), but he wouldn't budge.  I tried poking a prodding him multiple times, but he refused to move.  After several separate attempts he finally moved, but he ran to the farthest most inaccessible corner of the closet instead of outside like I planned.  I could just imaging finding the dead rodent when we started packing up in a few months (or even worse, smelling it first).  After a few hours Lance was able to get him out.  Just as he was finished putting back all of the things he had to take out to get the squirrel out, the squirrel ran back in again!  It was only a few more minutes before Lance finally got it out for good.  I'm glad he won't be dying in our closet;  it was certainly a very unfortunate identity crisis for a regular squirrel to think he could fly!

Fall Creek Falls

We had a mini vacation a few weekends ago. We took a hike in Fall Creek Falls State Park and saw several waterfalls. Even though it was over 80 degrees the week before we went (and we had to start up the A/C for several days), it felt pretty frigid in the humid 40s during out hike on Friday, and we managed to get rained on, too.



Lance and Isaac crossing the very bouncy suspension bridge.



 Fall Creek Falls, the tallest waterfall east of the Rockies at 256 feet.

It was nice to spend some time outside as a family. I don't think we will miss the residency schedule in the future!

Tennessee Aquarium

We spent the second day of our vacation in Chattanooga, TN. It was a great day to spend indoors because it was pouring rain outside. Luckily, the Tennessee Aquarium was on our agenda. It was very impressive! We enjoyed touching sturgeon, horsehoe crabs, stingrays, and butterflies. There was so much to see and do there!

Lance 'caught' a butterfly in the Butterfly Pavilion!
Those blurs on the right are actually fish. There were 2 divers in the tank and they kept swimming up to Isaac and making faces at him throught the glass....Isaac thought it was the best! What a fun trip!!!

Singin' in the Rain

We had a pretty huge rainstorm today (that included a tornado warning). Before the worst of it came through I let Isaac play in the rain and puddles to his heart's content (well, almost...we had to go inside SOMETIME). It makes me so excited for summer. I hope there is a splash pad around here somewhere!

What a Mess

How could one chocolate graham cracker make all of this mess?

Personal Hygiene

This is what Isaac has been up to lately...so much to teach, so little attention span!

Isaac Walks!

This is about as far as Isaac can walk without a crash landing. He is getting better at it every day!

Still my baby...

Sometimes Isaac seems so old to me, but he's still just my baby! Isn't he
cute?!

Isaac goes down the slide

Isaac is so clever.  I just put him on the bottom step of the playground equipment and he climbs up all of the stairs up to the slide and he goes down all by himself.  He can't walk yet, but he figured out that he can go down the slide just like he does the stairs at home.  In this video I had to point him in the right direction because he was a little distracted, but usually he just goes straight to the slide.  We have had so much fun at the park with the warmer weather!

A Grand Day Out

It was finally nice weather again, so Isaac and I took the bus to the downtown library for storytime...he enjoyed riding on the eggplant toy they have there. Next we took the 2-3 mile walk to daddy's office to say hello. It was a great day to be out!