The Allstar Race: Dick Bavetta vs Charles Barkley

This is the video I talked about in my post on Charlotte. It's a bit long, but stick it out and don't miss the kiss at the end. :)

Charlotte or Bust?

Our whirlwind month of February is drawing to a close and SO much has happened. Tony and I returned Monday from our trip to Charlotte, North Carolina. It was a great trip for us. A nice break from the mommy/daddy adult routine that we are in. :) To answer the big question -- Are you moving to Charlotte?: Tony has a couple job prospects -- in addition to the two he recieved while we were in Charlotte. We loved the Charlotte area (as you will hear below) so we are very open to it and tried to do all our homework while we were down there because it is so far from St. Louis and expensive to make another trip. So the answer is -- we still aren't 100%, and still waiting for more direction from the Lord. And we definitely didn't have any doors close while we were there. Probably easiest to tell about our trip in segments. I'll talk about each day:

THURSDAY
Our trip started on Thursday late afternoon. We arrived at the airport knowing that our plane to Chicago was delayed. Maybe I should back up. The cost of tickets to Charlotte a month ago when I was shopping were out of control expensive. And for those of you who know me well, you know I couldn't settle for the pricey tickets. So I finagled a way to purchase the tickets and save us over $150 per ticket.

Here was our itinerary:

2/15 -- 6:20 p.m. Depart St. Louis
7:15 p.m. Arrive in Chicago
9:00 p.m. Depart Chicago
11:45 p.m. Arrive Charlotte, NC

So our flight is delayed and the screens at the airport showed we would not be departing until 7:30 p.m. which put us in danger of missing our connecting flight to Charlotte. After we went through security I noticed that there was another delayed flight to Chicago that was scheduled to leave at 6:40 p.m. So we decided to stop by the counter of that flight to see if we could get on. We heard her tell 2 people in front of us that the flight was full. We decided to go ahead and present our situation and see what could be done. Much to our delight she put us on standby for the early flight. Tony and I felt like we were on Amazing Race when they are at the ticket counters begging to get on a flight. We called all our families to start praying that we would get on. The alternative to getting on wasn't terrible -- just staying overnight in Chicago and losing 1/2 day in Charlotte. But our time was crunched and we weren't thrilled about staying overnight in Chicago. So after about an hour of waiting our names were called and we got on the earlier flight. Praise the Lord! :) We made our connection but sat on the runway in Chicago for about an hour waiting for fuel. We arrived in Charlotte at 12:45 a.m. and to our hotel and in bed by 2 a.m. We stayed downtown through a great deal on Priceline.

FRIDAY
We slept in for the first time in almost a year! :) We met a chiropractor (a doctor Tony knew who was a couple years ahead of him in the program at Logan) for lunch. It was great to talk about the Charlotte area and find out more about his practice. He provided us with a great realtor contact and we were able to meet up with her Saturday. After lunch we visited a couple other chiropractic offices. Tony spent an hour in one of them and I actually fell asleep in the car waiting for him. It was great -- a nap in the middle of the day (after sleeping in!). It's almost unheard of in a mommy's life. We got freshened up at the hotel and reviewed the results of the housing search the realtor had done for us. Then we decided to grab dinner and a movie. We ate at an awesome Mexican restaurant and watched Catch & Release (which we wouldn't recommend). But it was still a great date.

SATURDAY
We headed out first thing in the morning to visit some chiropractic offices. Because of the holiday weekend, lots of offices were closed, but it gave us time to have a nice brunch at Bob Evans before meeting the realtor. The rest of the afternoon was spent with the realtor getting an amazing tour of the Charlotte area. We were able to determine what part of the city we want to live in and visited several homes in the area. After our tour we stopped in an Organic grocery store called Earth Fare just to check it out. Very similar to Whole Foods. Back to the hotel and then to our favorite restaurant UNO's. They had a great deal for Valentine's Day that when you purchase 2 select entree's you get a free dessert. And they just happened to have our favorite entrees on the list. So we got our favorite dessert to-go and chilled out watching the NBA All-Star Contests. Did anyone else see the Charles Barkley vs. Dick Bavetta sprints and them kiss? Too funny! See post below for a clip.

SUNDAY
On Saturday on our tour with the realtor we passed this enormous church. We decided to visit it on Sunday. It was called Calvary Chapel and here are the pics of the outside. Had to take several angles to get it all. :)

It was okay -- a bit older congregation -- definitely a nice place to attend -- we took 2 escalators to get to where we sat. :) ha ha. After church we went to lunch at Red Robin, which was right next to our realtor's office. We lucked out and had our order messed up so got my meal for free. It was nice to be able to eat for less $$ than we expected. :) After lunch we toured more of Charlotte with the realtor and ended the day at a new home development. We had no idea how all this works, but we took tours of the models they had and were surprised to find out that buying a new home in Charlotte would cost us less than buying one of the older homes. In Charlotte old=expensive. We left the realtor's office with our heads swirling with all the info we recieved. Got dinner to-go at a neighborhood pizza place called: Fuel Pizza. It was delicious! After such a busy day I think I fell asleep by 9:30! :)

MONDAY
Monday started bright and early w/ checking out of our room and heading for an appointment Tony had with a chiropractor. While he was at his appt. I visited a couple apartment complexes just in case we have to get temporary housing before moving into a house. And I found the one that I would want to live in if that were the case. After Tony's appt. we headed to another chiro office. After that we drove back to the new development we had looked at the day before. We decided to price a home out to get a realistic idea of what the cost would be to start new. Here is a link to the floorplan we like: http://www.eastwoodhomes.com/activePics/Mitchell.pdf The only modification we would make is on the second floor. There is a loft area that we would close off as a separate room. It would be our office area.

We decided that since we were in town, we would also go ahead and choose all of the flooring, counters, cabinets, etc. so we could see it in person and not have to make those sorts of decision without being there. If we end up in Charlotte, I think this is the option that we will go with. I posted all the pictures of the home below. Since returning from our trip I found out that the same builder is opening a new development in one of the subdivisions we looked at houses in. It was a great subdivision w/ a pool, playground & tennis courts. So as long as the pricing stays the same we'll probably opt for the new development which has better amenitities and is a bit closer to the city. Here are the pics I took:

Picture of outside of home

View of Living/Great Room from the door
Second view from front door of LR, Dining area & Kitchen

Front door & stairs

Standing in LR -- part of kitchen on left, 1/2 bath door, you can also see laundry room coming off the kitchen this door also leads to the garage.

Picture of eating area & kitchen

Stairs coming up looking into Bedroom one.

Upstairs full bathroom

Bedroom 1
Bedroom 2

Loft Area (which we will close off as a separate room)

Master Bedroom (several angles below)

Master Bathroom (hooray for the tub!)

Picture of tile I picked for bathrooms/laundry room. Kitchen & dining area will be laminate wood flooring.

After taking care of all the home stuff we rushed to the airport and headed home. It was a quick -- hassle free flight on the way home and we were so glad to see Kaiya. Although she grew over the weekend! She had fun w/ her Aunt Bekah & my parents. I'll post pics they took at the playground in the mall later. This has been quite enough for today! :)

Boot Camp Update

I figured it is time for an update since I ordered my dress for Bekah's wedding last week. And I'm happy to say that I ordered a size smaller than what I tried on at Thanksgiving. I think I might have floated out of the store. :) These past 2 weeks have been so busy that I have falled off the boot camp wagon, but I climbed back on it last night. It was encouraging to see the difference it made in just a month. Anyway -- I definitely recommend it -- it has tons of variety, I think there is like 200+ different workout combinations that you can do. I even got Ruthie to do it with me and she liked it. So that's the update... I need to write a ton about our trip to Charlotte. Hopefully I'll be posting that later today...

Weekend in Ohio

Ruthie, Kaiya & I hopped on a plane and traveled to Wooster, Ohio last weekend (2/9-2/11) for my grandma's memorial service. We had good travels and I've posted some pictures from the airplane below. Kaiya was good on the plane, particularly the times she was asleep. She had fun looking out the window and pointing to things down below.

Once we arrived in Ohio we spent time with family (most hadn't met Kaiya yet). Friday night we looked at old family pictures and other clippings my grandma had saved over the years. We did our best to organize those and I brought home a big envelope of pictures to scan so that multiple family members can have copies. That will be a good project for me here at work. Bekah, Brent & Ruthie occupied Kaiya while I went through pictures.

The burial was Saturday a.m. and then we went to my dad's cousin's for a family brunch. Kaiya & Miranda (my cousin Shannon's little girl) got more friendly with one another and these are cute hug pictures. :) All of the following pictures were taken at lunch.Who's this handsome guy? My Dad of course!!! (you can pay me later Dad).

Rachel & Mom (I'd say one of the best we have!)

The memorial service followed the lunch and it was a good time of hearing sweet memories of Grandma Haun. The polkadot pictures are right after the service. Kaiya had lots of wiggles to get out after sitting still for an hour. She loved moving from chair to chair and then once she wore out, she was happy to sit with Aunt Ruthie and cousin Miranda and listen to stories.






A few more snapshots of our trip: Kaiya thought my cousin Lauren was great. When Lauren's family first arrived and we were saying hello, Kaiya reached out to grab Lauren. We all shared a laugh because Lauren is not a kid person and she said that normally kids can sense it. Well, apparently not Kaiya. Every time she saw Lauren she pulled out a big grin and wiggled a bit to try and go to Lauren. Tony and I cracked up at home when he was holding Kaiya in the kitchen and Kaiya reached out and pointed at Lauren's family picture on our fridge. She got this huge smile on her face and said - oo ooo! Maybe it's the purple hair? In any case, it's sweet.

Kaiya & Mama in the swimming pool at the hotel

(Blowing zerberts at Grandpa)

Turbo Nap

This gave me a little chuckle the other night. I gave Kaiya her after dinner bottle and she layed in the living room by herself and drank it. I was getting my dinner ready in the kitchen and had just sat down to eat when I heard a big belch. I got up to get her and bring her over to the table and when I walked in the living room this is what I found: She was completely passed out! She's like a drunk w/ the formula. I snapped a couple pictures and then about 1 minute later I looked over and this is what she was doing: I guess she just needed a turbo nap to get her through the rest of the night.

Kaiya's new thing: Waving Bye-Bye

This is so much fun. It started about 2 weeks ago. She waves bye-bye when someone leaves, or when she thinks she is leaving. Or if mama is talking too much and she is ready to go. This weekend she learned that waving bye-bye can also mean waving hello. So everytime I pick her up from the sitter she waves at me from across the room. And it's a full-fledged Queen Elizabeth wave. Full wrist motion -- we love it!

These were taken on February 3rd at A.J.'s 1st birthday. It was a Pooh Bear Party so you will see all of us with our Pooh ears on!
Rachel, AJ, Hannah & Kaiya
Nate, Maurine & Hannah Free (Nate is in school w/ Tony).

Fun in the bath

I wanted to capture a couple pictures of Kaiya's bottom teeth before the top ones take over. She has cut one top tooth so far and from the way last night went, I'd say she is working on the other one. :) These pictures were taken in a bath a few weeks ago. You may notice the scum on the side of the tub. I'm not the best housekeeper in the world -- not by a mile -- but that scum has a good story with it. And after her bath we got rid of it. :)

A couple of weeks ago I was babysitting AJ and trying to get Kaiya a bath before bed too. I thought I could manage the two of them in the bathroom, however AJ went straight for the toilet (nevermind the toys on the floor) and lifted the lid up. And I quickly realized that I wouldn't be able to do it. So after washing AJ's hands I passed him off to Tony who was studying and rushed to get Kaiya sudsed up and out of the tub. We pulled the drain and then carried on with our night. The next few mornings Tony complained that the tub was draining really slow. By Friday it was really having trouble. So while in the shower I grabbed the plunger and plunged away on the thing. :) No luck. I mentioned to Tony that the tub is really clogged and he suggested that maybe one of K's toys went down the drain. I'm doing a mental inventory on all her bath toys and none of them are small enough to fit down the drain. Except for her washcloth!!! We sprint to the bathroom and start looking for the washcloth. Oops... It's gone. And I've plunged it even farther down the drain! I rigged a coat hanger and tried my best to get it out. Finally we called the landlord. He came over on Saturday morning with all his fancy plumbing tools. Within 2 minutes he located and retrieved the nasty washcloth. In the process of yanking it back up, drain scum sprayed on the tub. I rinsed the tub out before putting K in it, but missed the side. Note to self: ALWAYS take washcloth out of the tub before pulling drain. Bet we won't make that mistake twice!

But really --I love these cheesy grins she gave me.

Best Christmas Present

This present has provided us lots of entertainment since December. The wonderful activity table. Not only does it provide us with entertainment, but it also serves as part of our barricade to keep Kaiya trapped in a smaller space, without worries of her wandering places she shouldn't in the house. In the pictures I think you can see drool running down her chin. That is the precursor (right use of word?) to her top tooth that broke through 2 weeks ago. These pictures were taken awhile ago and I'm still catching up.

Just a naked baby picture. Getting PJ's on after her bath.