Thanks and Praises and Prayer Requests

You probably noticed the blog's been a bit quieter than usual. That's because life's been a little louder than usual, and blogging couldn't be a priority.

Jon left for DC on Sunday afternoon. Although he's with us for a day or so now, when he's not in Roanoke at a conference, he'll be leaving again Sunday for 3 more weeks.

The daycare situation is going smoothly as far as the kids being safely brought there every day. But they're not coping all that well. Adele is particularly affected. It probably doesn't help we've been getting to bed later than usual. All the evening routines are bumped forward since I'm on my own. But we're getting through. I have some ideas to make next week smoother. We'll make it.

This is the first day I've had even a moment to think about blogging. So enjoy some pictures of two weeks ago! We woke up to this on April the 9th:

God thinks he's funny.

Anyway, it didn't throw off our groove! Robert Randolph and the Family Band still played their long-anticipated show at 8, and our babysitter was on time.

That show rejuvenated us so much. Jon & I used to go to Robert Randolph shows in college and before kids, so this was an excellent way to celebrate 10 years of marriage. I might have danced on stage... I might have danced myself shaky for hours...

Hope you like pictures of gorgeous musicians!!

His theatrics were unreal. Anyway, it was a much-needed night of pure good feelings. It felt more like church than most church. Thanks be to God.

Speaking of church, though, I do love the Eastertide banners in the Children's Chapel:

In other news, I spent about a week in a sling! After returning to work on Monday the 11 I noticed tingling and pain shooting down my arm, and centered (apparently) in my shoulder. The next day I could barely use my left arm, which made captioning... difficult.

I survived. Did you know there's an osteopathic doctor's office on VT's campus? He looked me over and proclaimed "cervical radiculitis" to be the matter and sent me home to apply warm compresses and with a PT guide and exercise strap.

I'm in waaaay better shape this week, again, thanks be to God!

Last Friday was Bring Your Child to Graduate School Day! Miles prefers to go to first grade than to be a tagalong with me, but Adele was all for a day on campus.  

She even rode the bus in with me.

There was a parade, a picnic, and speeches by people at the university who are working to increase affordable childcare options for graduate student families.

here she's decorating campus with her mere presence <3 td="">

She loved feeling like a big shot, meeting Mummy's professors and hanging out in the office. I loved being able to spend more time with my baby. She revealed her most current career aspiration to me: she wants to "fix light-bulbs." That's right, I'm the parent of a future electrician! We've got it made!

After a day of quality time with my daughter, I got to get some in with my son that evening. It was boys' night out at the elementary school!

The DJ-ed event had dancing, carnival games, a bounce house, and his favorite teachers to hug. I love having a kid who hugs his teachers and wants me at his school dance. 

I watched him whip and nae nae, I watched him boogie to Uptown Funk, and he and I led off on the cha-cha slide, real smooth.

He can go ahead and take his time growing up. I like six!

Last Saturday was the 3.2 for 32, the 5K to commemorate the 32 students and faculty lost to violence in 2007. This is my third year doing it, and my last as a townie, so it was really meaningful I got to run it. The entire family came:

Miles had a sweet encounter with the Hokie Bird

Unfortunately for Jon, who was going to walk with the kids, Miles kind of freaked out at the starting line and they ended up just walking around on the drillfield until I made it to the final stretch. These kids need to get some training in before we attempt a 5K again!

I had a great time, despite that my list running excursion of more than .5 miles was last year's race. But I came armed with a Beyonce workout playlist on spotify, which was more than enough to keep me running the whole time, and even helped me gradually pick up my pace until the kids met me for the final sprint.

The weather was gorgeous, and the band was playing, and it was an all around great day to be a Hokie. 

Sunday, we spent a couple of hours at the International Fair. I think this is our third year in a row at that festival (I'm kind of a creature of tradition and ritual).

Adele got henna-ed at the Muslim Students Association table.

We had Turkish and Saudi food and played dreidel and got the kids' names written in Arabic and played with Chinese dance fans.

As usual, it was a feast for the senses.

This week. It's been a predominantly successful campaign, with a few... bumps.

I had a disastrous trip to Kroger when we ran out of bread. I was late a couple of times to pick up the kids due to parking mishaps and traffic. I missed garbage day. I got a parking ticket the one day I forgot to use my daily pass.

But, the kids were fed, and they slept, and they got to school on time every day, and I came to work (at the pre-established time) every day, and I laughed at the kids' jokes (sometimes) and I read to them and never once left the stove top on. Victories, all.

I have really enjoyed taking Adele to preschool, more than I expected to. We get there early and soak up some sunshine...

And I've met the class hamster and seen the class tadpoles. There have been gifts to this solo-parenting season. 

Pray for us, friends. We are in mortgage purgatory. There was a miscalculation, and a mistake, and a misunderstanding, and the result is we have to go about applying for a mortgage in a different way if we want this house. Which we do. We've had it inspected and it's OUR HOUSE now, as far as I'm concerned. So pray for us. This semester brought every curve ball it could carry and we're getting tired. 

"It's gonna be a bright sunshiny day."

Friday morning in Pueblo brought us to another elementary school visit, and to another house. We found time to pay a second visit to our favorite house, where we confirmed that this was our first choice. At least we had no disagreements on that point?

Pueblo is transformed in the sunshine!

We had recorded this video for the kids on Thursday morning at the Children's Museum. I'm including it so you can feel our excitement. 

Once again, we got up so early we ended up with extra time. One more trip to solar roast coffee, a few more pictures at the Buell Children's Museum. 

We can't wait to visit museums again! Blacksburg's a little wanting in museums and zoos.

we drove past the zoo and caught sight of some zebras, kangaroos and ostriches.

There's this park in Pueblo; we could see it, but we couldn't get a great picture. But it's right next to the zoo and has little permanent carnival rides that cost 25-50 cents a ride! I can't wait to make memories here!

Back we went to our favorite house that morning. I am superstitious and do not want to link to the house we chose. But here is view from across the street:

In the afternoon, we paid a visit to the Episcopal preschool. Adele has been saying she wants to attend this preschool ever since she learned there was such a thing. It's a charming little school, and since they have an afternoon program three days a week, we should be able to send her there next year.

Even the playrooms have stained glass:

Stained glass everywhere at Ascension. It's a joy to my eye.

In the afternoon, we started the drive back to Denver. We found the scenery improved by sunshine:

Having been informed that the trading post at Garden of the Gods was the best place to get Colorado tee shirts, we took a detour in Colorado Springs.

Our brief visit contained some majestic views:

We caught sight of a few mule deer:

There was so much glory. We cannot wait to bring the kids here! but first we'll have to get used to an altitude of 4,692 before we go hiking at 6,035!

We spent Friday night at my cousins, Joel and Bri's, beautiful home. We haven't seen much of them during their years in Denver; I'm very excited to spend more time with them out west. They gave us dinner and let us sleep in their bedroom, and they celebrated with us as we submitted our signed offer on our favorite of the houses we saw!

I need to tell you if you are used to a different sort real estate market, that I've been watching Pueblo's for months and I have learned that we can't afford to deliberate and ponder. Houses are posted and are sold in 2 weeks, on average. The house that was our favorite had been on the market for a full three weeks, which is an eon in Pueblo's booming seller's market.

We saw the house on Thursday and again on Friday, readers, and we made an offer Friday night, for the asking price, signing it on the iPad from Joel and Bri's house (you also can't afford to bargain in Pueblo. Someone will have undercut you).

On Sunday night, we got the news that the sellers accepted our offer! We bagged a house! We'll give the address when we move, and take pictures when we arrive (though some of you have seen it) but it's a sweet 3 bedroom house with a small yard that's across the street from a great elementary school (the school we liked better of the two we saw) and is a little more than a mile of very bikeable road to Jon's library on CSU-P's campus! This aspect of the move is working out better than we could have dreamed.

Saturday morning before dawn, we were off to the airport to return our rental car and get ourselves on another plane.

Our flights were all on time and none were cancelled. We rather thought the flight from Philadelphia
... to Baltimore was going to kill us. It was a tiny plane, and there was a lot of wind. A lot of wind. I pulled a muscle clinging to my seat. But we made it, and saw both the Rocky Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay from the air in one day.

But our day was not over. By 5pm we were reunited with our car and began the drive to Rochester. Had to stop for ice cream to keep from falling asleep. 

Being Rochester in April, of course, we had to deal with a couple inches of snow pelting us from the PA/NY border all the way to Dad's house. We arrived at 12:30 and woke up to this:

Leah and Matthew received us so graciously and provided a filling and delicious breakfast. Eventually, Dad joined us and we had a really lovely family party before loading everyone into the Versa and beginning one more long drive.

The other of Leah's long-suffering kitties

I'm so grateful for the prayers and support from all you folks. This is real now. Pueblo is not an abstraction. We have an address in it. and we have friends there.
You might not know this, some of you readers, but my parents spent several years in Colorado. Actually, mom kind of fled from her broken heart to Colorado and to a hippy, motorcycle-riding boyfriend out there. She fell in love with the skies and the sunshine and the freedom she felt there.

It's been hard for me over the years to be moving farther and farther away from my people, and from where most of my memories of mom are grounded. But as we walked among the mountains and the enormous western sky, I remembered her love for those landscapes. "Bright Sunshiny Day" was a favorite song of Mom's; whenever she heard it, she'd sigh and look faraway and say, this always reminds me of the sky in Colorado... It's become my anthem this past week. God is mysterious. I would not have thought I could feel so close to mom in a cross country move. But I do.

It really is going to be bright.

Back in Virginia, spring is dragging its heels. But we know what we have to do in the next two months; it's just a matter of getting it done.

We can see all obstacles in our way.