why i love NC (and miss MI)

Lovin' NC
happy monday! let me tell you about the most fabulous weekend we had! it all started thursday when we went over to the joyner's for dinner. they have twin girls, claire and ava, who just adore thalia! and thalia loved chasing them around too. after a lovely chicken with pink sauce dinner, we took the girls outside to play on the jungle gym:

we had such a nice time...really great people to have as friends!

we followed up thursday night with a trip to the lake on friday afternoon. it was about 90 degrees, so on april 16, we had our bathing suits and sunblock on for an afternoon of sand and water! it is amazing having such a big lake so close by. now that our boat got fixed, we can't wait to take it out there and let it fly! uncle martin and kristy came with us and we took some fun pictures which will get put up soon...as soon as chris gets them off the camera! we grilled out at the lake and uncle martin and thalia stalked a blue heron for a while. pretty cool! not so cool were all the buzzard-looking birds flying around. martin thought they were going for our chicken!

speaking of birds, thalia is taking right after her mom and great-grandpa by getting to know all the birds in our yard. the other day i pointed out a female blue jay. since she was a muted blue, thalia corrected me by calling it a "white jay" :o)

on saturday we got to hang out with uncle ronnie, martha mama, jillian and jeff. we had a lot of fun just catching up and chatting.

so that's why i LOVE nc - bathing suits in april and some great new (and old) friends!

Missin' MI

ladies and gentlemen - introducing the soon arriving new addition to the family:

look at aunt steffi's adorable bump! i'm calling the baby "tini", thalia calls it "steffi's baby". even though aunt steffi and uncle barrett aren't finding out the baby's sex, thalia's official prediction is boy. (sidebar: although lately she has been calling herself a boy! for week's now she has been calling herself a girl princess. now all of sudden, daddy is a princess girl and she is a boy! what am i, you may ask? apparently, i'm just mommy). anyway, seeing steffi all grown up and preggers is really making me miss her! i was also hoping that we may get to be preggers at the same time, but that dream is quickly fading :o/. oh well, the way i see it, steffi can get all the attention on herself now, and hopefully by the time she delivers "tini" i'll be starting to get big and then I can have all the attention :o)

spending time in michigan for greek easter also made me miss it more. funny how spending time with people makes you miss them more, not less!
and yes, we had our obligatory lamb on a spit. for the neighbors' sake we did it in the backyard though, not the front! what a trip!

chris' family came with us too, so we had a lot of fun with uncle wolt (as thalia says it) and malynn (also per thalia!)

other than that, we are just living life as happy little clams! i got to spend an entire week at home, which was amazing! the joy is quickly waning as i have to head out west tonight through thursday night. i was hoping to be able to be in town for cousin elizabeth's labor and delivery of her new baby girl, but baby girl is being stubborn and i'm likely to miss it :o( but i'll get to spend plenty of time with them when i get back at the end of the week. then chris leaves for nashville and chicago for a week. so the next couple weeks are going to be crazy. i think i will have traveled 7 out of 8 weeks, and that's not including stuff that hasn't been planned after our trip to michigan! so prayers would be greatly welcomed as we live life together in pieces. it could be way worse though! i am so grateful to have chris down in NC with me!

alright, back to work for me! hope you have a great week! and don't forget to check out the pics from boston on the right.

much love and little sleep,

c, c, and t