Amelia's first sentence

Amelia loves to brush her teeth.  I think it is because she sees the rest of us doing it.  That, and her toothpaste tastes good.  Amelia's vocabulary has really taken off, both with English and Spanish.  Most of the time she mixes them together.  Case in point:  after brushing teeth last night, I told her that we were all done.  As we made our way back downstairs, she said, "No mas brushing teeth." (No more brushing teeth)  I said, "Hey Amelia, that's your first real sentence!"  Pretty fun!

Life got really busy really fast

I kind of almost forgot I had a blog!  That is how busy things have been.  We are about 4 weeks into the Fall semester and things just hit the ground running.  It is amazing how we can go from the quiet of summer to the rush of the semester in the blink of an eye.  Ben and I are both teaching substantial course loads, so between prepping classes, teaching classes, grading for said classes, and meeting with students, we have become a bit detached from the real world.  Oh yeah, and did I mention we have 2 young kids?!  That definitely adds a little spice to life!

Lots of good things are happening though.  Probably the biggest news is that Ben submitted his application for tenure and promotion a few days ago.  Decisions don't get handed down until March, but we all have really good feelings about it.  I am almost finished preparing my 2 dissertation manuscripts for journal submission.  Ally is doing great in preschool and is involved in gymnastics and soccer (the former at a gym close to our house and the latter at preschool).  Neither program has any competitions or games to participate in right now, but I think that's totally fine because it's just about fun and learning some skills.  And Amelia is toddling around, trying to do what Ally does.  Ally seems to like having an understudy, and it is pretty cute watching them chase each other around and play together.

So all in all, life is running along, and we're trying to keep up!  Happy Fall!

A funny poem

Written by Roger, my church music director, upon reflecting on his puffy face after experiencing a tooth infection:

"My face, I don't mind it
Because I'm behind it.
It's the people in front that I scare."

Another Ally sound bite

A couple days ago, Ally was asking Ben and me how people kiss. Specifically, she wanted to know how people of different heights kiss. Ben told her that the taller person usually just bends down and kisses the shorter person. That explanation seemed to satisfy her.

I was a little curious why Ally was asking about kissing so I said, "Ally, are you thinking about kissing someone?" Ally replied, "No, I'm a serious woman."

LOL :)

Happy Father's Day!

Amelia's first haircut!

Hopefully this will reduce her tangles.

Transitions and new beginnings

We are now on semester break!  All grades have been turned in, Elon's graduation was a little over a week ago, and course evaluation results have been received.  After our crazy Spring 2013 semester, Ben and I are enjoying this different speed of life.  To be clear, we do still have work to do (he has a couple summer research students and I have a couple manuscripts to submit for publication), but there is no day-to-day class prep, which makes a HUGE difference.  We were all able to get out of town for a few days last week and we are looking forward to hanging out at the Evans family farm for a few days next month.  So yes, we are in easy living mode for a while, and most definitely enjoying it.

With end of an academic year and the beginning of summer also brings about the possibility of transitions and new beginnings.  Personally, I am leaving UNC to take a 1 year adjunct position at Elon starting in the fall.  I am excited about going to work at Elon every day and getting to know the students and the department even better, but after spending 7 years at UNC, it will be a bit sad to not see those colleagues on a regular basis.  Ben will be submitting his tenure application later this summer to hopefully make the transition from assistant to associate professor in about a year.  We just celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary last week, so now we are transitioning to our second decade of marriage (seriously, are we really old enough to have been married for 10 years???!!!).  Ally is learning how to read and Amelia is on the verge of walking by herself.  So even our girls are embarking on transitions and new beginnings, which is a lot of fun to watch.

At the same time, we are observing our friends go through similar transitions and new beginnings.  One tough part of living in a university town is that a lot of friends come and go.  We have lived here for almost 10 years, and we have seen a lot of people move to and away from here.  This summer, two of our closest couple friends are moving away; our friends the Casads who we've known since 2006 and our friends the Hubbs-Keoghs who we've known since 1999 (we went to college together and then moved here together).  They will most certainly have huge transitions in front of them:  new cities, new jobs, new church homes, and making new friends.  For those of us back here, we must transition too, to maintaining these existing friendships long-distance and to not be afraid to go out and make new friends.  Luckily for the former, email, blogs, and Facebook make it much easier than before.

So here's to transitions and new beginnings, to the excitement of the unknown, and to staying open to new possibilities!