Go Blue!

It’s been a busy week so far. We’ve spent a lot of time planning our various moves, finances, and everything else related to these house sales. We have everything pretty close to under control, but there is so much to do that it was incredibly inconvenient that a water bottle leaked onto our cell phone today and broke it…

Gabriel took his first step yesterday, but we weren’t sure if it was real or a fluke, so we were pretty convinced when he took another step at playgroup today. We’ll consider it walking when he takes two steps. He had playgroup today, and he had a blast. Jake has the coolest toys, and we think that the Chipster was extra happy to explore new stuff. He’s got the old stuff at home all figured out already. Anyway, he is getting really close to walking. It was really interesting how differently Chip and his friends are developing. He’s very mobile but isn’t even close to talking or even making meaningful gestures, whereas Jake is the total opposite. He is starting to talk already and can say "Bye-bye, dada" and knows when to clap in the "If You’re Happy and You Know It" song! Zoe is getting to be a super crawler and is a really quick learner – she learned the "so big" gesture in about 5 seconds today. All of our babies are so amazing in their own ways.

Matthew had a great softball game today. Although his having-a-busy-day wife forgot his softball gear and had to drive all the way back to Midtown during rush hour to get it, making 3 trips to LockMart today and a grand total of about 3 ½ hours in the car, he got a hit and fielded a ball in his khakis and might have to start wearing a suit so he gets some home runs. In all he was 2 for 3 with 2 singles and an RBI. He had 2 putouts; it was a pretty slow day at first base. The Intimidators, or "Intimadators" as their new, soon-to-be-dishrag jerseys were printed, beat the whiny baby and so cleverly-named Security and Fire team, 11-4.

We decided that to drive up to Michigan with the passenger riding with his knees in his chest and unable to recline, with Gabriel getting antsy was not a good idea. Besides, the whole process of selling our home is going to be difficult enough for us without having to spend 12 hours sitting in the car brooding about it. We reasoned that it would be very much worth the money to fly, especially given the price of gas. We got plane tickets on Priceline, since regular fares were through the roof and there weren’t any last minute deals through any of the airlines. Surprisingly, we have very reasonable times for our flights – evening for one and afternoon for the other.

Patty undertook a new endeavour yesterday: gnocchi. It was a simple procedure, but getting the dough to the right consistency proved to be quite difficult. It turned out pretty well, although it could have been firmer. We should not have bathed it in flour before boiling so the pieces wouldn’t stick to each other, because that made them slimy. Other than the minor improvements, it turned out pretty tasty! We will likely make gnocchi again with a couple of slight alterations to the recipe.

The University of Michigan softball team won the College World Series tonight! Woohoo and Go Blue! We’ve been following their progress through the entire tournament, and we have been really impressed with both their star pitcher, Jennie Ritter, and their freshman future Olympian first baseman, Stephanie Findley. Ritter pitched almost the entire tournament, and Findley drove in all 4 runs today with a single and a 3-run homer. They are now the first U-M softball champions in history, and in fact, they are the first softball champions in history east of the Mississippi!

It seems like nearly everyone we know is moving to western Cobb County (known here simply as West Cobb). We know a couple of people that already live out there, like two people on Matt's softball team and our financial advisor, and several people that are about to make the move. The heck with all the headlines that intown is the happenin' home destination, West Cobb is the place to be! We also found out that Cobb is building a new middle school and a new high school that should be finished in the next couple of years, which is both great for Gabe and an indication of how much development is going on there.

Here’s a bit of advice to fans of drinking water and cell phones everywhere: don’t put those two things together. It breaks the phone. On a related note, don’t call us. At least, don’t call us if you expect to hear our response. We can hear you, but you can’t hear us. For some people, that might be an attractive deal. So if that applies to you, by all means, give us a ring. You won’t hear the obscenities we’re screaming at your egomaniacal self. Seriously, though, we’re hoping to get a new phone and for the love of all that’s good and holy, not with Sprint!

Right in the Kisser!

We’ve put more photos of our new house online. They’re here.

We’ve been planning the paint colors for several rooms in our new house. Benjamin Moore has an excellent "Personal Color Viewer," in which you can choose a room and see how the colors will look. They have beautiful colors; we like the historical palette. We chose Norwich Brown for the guest bathroom, Breath of Fresh Air for Chip’s room (which will incidentally have an airplane theme), Kendall Charcoal (love the name – reminds us of Eve Kendall in North By Northwest) for the master bathroom, and Georgian Brick (coincidence, we assure you) for the second upstairs bathroom.

The Michigan baseball season ended today with a 4-3 loss to South Carolina at Georgia Tech. We walked over to see if we could watch the rain-delayed part of the game, but they didn’t cover enough of the field with the tarp and had to wait a few extra hours. Since security was pretty loose there while they tried to clean up after the storms, we took a few minutes and walked around the stadium. It's a really nice field and they were doing a pretty good job getting the drying agent down on the infield. We didn’t go back, but they only had one inning left.

Michigan softball is still going strong. They’re still in the winners’ bracket and are soon to start playing Tennessee tonight. They beat the best pitcher in college softball, Olympic softball gold-medalist Cat Osterman, and her Texas teammates, last night.

We thought we were through with the storms that have been plaguing us for a week and a half, but they’re still going strong. It stormed pretty good this morning, and it’s storming again now. We love storms, whether we’re inside or in a tent, and this is a nice treat for us.

The Chipster got a new tooth today; he’s up to 7! We'd begun to think that he might just grow up with 6 teeth. He is a southerner, after all... This tooth is his left lower lateral incisor, so now he has 3 on the bottom. It sure explains his grumpiness lately, which is good, because we were about to call the Gypsies. Guess he gets to stay for another day.

Since he's getting better and better at both crawling and standing, he's become very helpful around the apartment. For example, he likes to rearrange the closet:

unload the dishwasher:

and fold the laundry:

Notice that he's only leaning on the dryer door maybe a little bit in that last photo, if at all. He's stood up on his own a few times this weekend. It seems like he's getting more and more confident. He's also persuading us to help him walk around. He's very clever in how he does it. We sort of suddenly find ourselves walking him around but never quite know how we got there.

The best thing he does now, though, is give us kisses. He kisses us when we smooch at him and ask, but he also does it voluntarily. He still smooches with his mouth wide open, but we like getting wet noses from him.

Postscript: We just want to point out that Richard Scarry was born on this date in 1919. Best illustrator ever!

Happy Birthday, Aiden!

We have a new nephew, and Gabriel has a new cousin! Aiden Christian was born on 31 May, 2005 around 2:45 (or so) in the afternoon. He weighed in at just under seven pounds, a healthy baby boy. Tracey did wonderfully and had Jeremy and Gail at her side the entire time.

Having so recently been in this position ourselves, we know that this is a tough time for the three of them. We wish them well and are keeping them in our prayers. We can't wait to meet the newest little one and let Gabe get a look at his cousin, the only guy in the family younger than he is!

Celebration and Chip's Birthday Plans

We celebrated our contract on our new house by going out to our favorite restaurant, Baraonda for drinks and margherita pizzas. Matt had a white chocolate martini, and Patty had a Peroni in the bottle. It was fantastico! Gabriel ate his dinner, too, while we were there, and fell into a food coma shortly thereafter. Even in his sleep, he charmed the man sitting next to him.

We figured out what we're going to do for Chipdip's birthday party. We're going to have it on Sunday, 24 July. It's only two days after we start to move in, but since we're going to have movers do the big stuff, all we'll really have to do for the party is unpack the kitchen and decorate. We aren't sure about the theme, but we think it might be either trains (because he loves trains) or cowboys (because he's a country boy now!). We hope to buy a grill by then so we can grill hamburgers and hotdogs, and we'll have little snack bowls for the babies filled with veggie puffs. We'll put balloons on the mailbox and set up the kiddie pool in the back yard. Of course, the Angle Bar will be open for business, but then it never really closes. Besides the cake for Gabriel and the cake for everyone else and some favors for the guests which will remain secret for the time being, that's about it. We'll probably set the time for about 4:00 pm so that it won't interfere with naptimes for his friends and so we have more time to unpack and decorate that day. Mark your calendars!

It's Official!

We are under contract for our new house. We didn't want to blog this until we were certain, but it's official. We will be closing on 20 July and moving in on 22 July. This is the most beautiful house. It's in perfect condition; we had to really look hard to find anything wrong with it, and all we found were a couple of barely noticable cracks and a broken retaining wall, which we'll fix in the fall when the tree next to it is dormant so we can trim its roots at the same time. The house is currently owned by its original owner, an architect/city planner, who changed the builders' plans to make it original and better-planned. When we walked through with our agent, who is incredible by the way and whose contact information we're happy to pass along should anyone be looking for a realtor in the Atlanta area, he kept remarking that the builders put in a lot of thoughtful details that most don't even consider. He used to work for a builder, so he noticed many thing that we wouldn't have noticed. He gave it an easy 95 out of 100 as far as all of the houses he's seen, taking off for the retaining wall most likely. When the realtor's amazed, you know you're onto something. We were also totally floored from the second we walked into the house, and as soon as we saw the magnolia tree in the front yard, we knew that it was a sign from above. Our dream of our southern house was to have a big porch and a magnolia tree in the yard. We've got both.

Anyway, it has 3 bedrooms and one of the most spacious kitchens we've ever seen. It's on between 3/4 and 1 acre of land, most of which is woods. The guest room is spacious, and the master bathroom is amazing. The jetted tub is in front of wall-to-ceiling windows looking into the woods. The top of the shower is open so that outside light gets in - it's a brilliant design. In fact, the kitchen/breakfast area bay windows and the family room windows are floor-to-ceiling and facing the woods, also. Because the house is on a cul-de-sac, we can't see our neighbors at all from the back deck. The landscaping is gorgeous, and there are many places we will be able to plant gardens and flowers. It's a perfect southern home out in horse country. It's also in Civil War territory, near a significant battlefield of the Atlanta campaign, Kennesaw Mountain. We wonder whether there might be some war artifacts on our property. It will be fun looking!

Gabriel is really going to love this place. He is finally getting his own room [which means that we're finally getting our own room!], and he will have the woods to explore and lots of places nearby where we can go to do fun stuff. Besides the Civil War stuff, there's a Six Flags, a water park owned by Six Flags, a great park (Oregon Park), and lots of fantastic hiking [not to mention that for us, there's some great upscale shopping and a really good farmers' fruit "stand" (little store)]. We can imagine him doing his homework at the kitchen counter while Dad reads the paper and Mom bakes bread. This house is perfect for all three of us.

Here are some more photos; all were taken from the listing realty company's web site:

Living room

Master bedroom

Dining room