Busy, busy, busy

About 60 days until we move, and life is moving at a breakneck pace. We celebrated our 3-year anniversary a week ago. LeMar was working on the actual day, so when he was finally done with his work week, we went out to dinner. He spoiled me rotten with dinner at Melting Pot, a new digital camera, framing of my most recent diploma, a Bible cover (for the Bible I got for Mother's day), and roses sent to my office. His parents gave us a Wii for our anniversary, which we've been enjoying separately since we've hardly spent time together since it arrived.

Alyssa and I just returned yesterday from 2.5 days in Atlanta; LeMar was stuck in FL working. We went up with some friends to visit Ryan's parents for what should have been the celebration of Ryan's 25th birthday. Please continue to keep his parents and sister in prayer; they are still feeling a lot of hurt and sadness. The weekend was not a downer though. We were able to share lots of good memories of Ryan, take in the Georgia Aquarium and visit their lake house.

This week we'll be looking for a new house and a new daycare in a new city. The AF has finally agreed to send me for a PhD instead of another Master's degree so we've decided to buy a house instead of renting one.

Just a few days after returning from that trip, we'll be heading north again to go rock climbing. After that we'll be spending a few weeks at home without any trips, but life is sure to remain busy. With the move looming overhead, there is a lot to be done.

Check the links to the right for pictures, I'll upload some soon.

The Slide

This video is a little old, but still good and more recent than our last video/picture update. In other news, Alyssa is well on her way through the journey of potty training. No more diapers (except when asleep)! Yay! She is speaking quite a lot including an occasional complete sentence! Books are still very popular, as is climbing things and moving things around. Life is busy here; only 85 days until our move! Please be in prayer about LeMar's employment in Gainesville. In spite of the move, we have 3 trips in the next 6 weeks: Memphis, Gainesville, and Sandrock (rock climbing).

Crazy but true . . . stories of Alyssa

Alyssa is getting big and her little personality is showing up in full force. She is quite silly, and she enjoys making us laugh. For example, if you ask her, "Who are you," she will reply, "Alyssa," (pronounced Iss-a), but when you ask her, "What's your name," she invariably answers, "Woof woof!" We don't know how it started, but it keeps us laughing and I think that's why she keeps doing it.

She LOVES books and particularly those by Dr. Seuss (or P.D. Eastman). Her favorite, hands down, is Fox in Sox. The day isn't over until we've read it at least once and frequently more times than that. Her second favorite is probably Dr. Seuss's ABC's. We also have Hop on Pop, Go Dogs Go, One Fish Two Fish . . . , and Oh, the Places You'll Go. All other books in our decent sized collection are second rate compared to these.

She is learning her shapes, colors, numbers and letters. She's doing very will with her shapes, and she's finally getting better with her colors. For a long time ANYthing we asked her the color of, her answer was, "YELLOW!" With both numbers 1-10 and letters A-Z, she's doing better at the middle or end of the sequence than at the beginning. For example, she'll say, "W, Y, and Z" (skipping X) and then continue on to sing, "Now I know my A,B,Cs . . ." What a goof!

Alyssa has shown interest in music: playing, singing, and dancing! I found a little toy keyboard for $3 at a consignment sale, and she will play on that from time to time. She's always ready to dance to any upbeat music that's on, and we frequently catch her singing bits and pieces of songs or jingles. We listen to Family Life Radio a lot and have done so since Alyssa was real little. She sings along to their jingle every time they play it, and that occurs at least once every 10 min!

She is showing sporadic interest in the potty, depending on the day. I can't really claim to be "potty training" 'cause I have no clue how to do that. However multiple times throughout the week she'll tell me she needs to potty and we're moving from actual waste deposit only 5% of the time to 33% of the time!

UF & Gainesville Trip

It was a shame, but LeMar and Alyssa had to stay in Panama City while I took the trip to Gainesville alone. I spent Thursday afternoon looking at rental properties with a real estate agent. I saw one great option, one okay option and two non-options. We're trying not to, but we're getting attached to the great option. I hope this house is still available when we move this summer. Friday morning I visited the child care facility on campus, and I was unimpressed. We've ruled that facility out as a possibility and are looking elsewhere. I spent Friday afternoon and Saturday with the Chemistry department at UF. It was the first of two visitation weekends for potential grad students who've been offered a spot in the fall class. I was able to tour the department, socialize with current and potential grad students, meet with potential advisors, and take in the sights of the city. I went into the weekend interested in two certain professors, but I left only interested in two different ones. Over the next couple of months, I need to figure out which one I want to study under, because with my short timeline, I have to know who I'm working for and what project I'm working on as soon as I arrive. Here are a couple of pictures:

Here comes February

Again, it's been too long since I've blogged. Here's a quick overview of the events from the last two months:

Dec: I finished grad school, we took a trip to CO, we returned to FL and celebrated Christmas, I was accepted into UF Grad school for Chemistry

Jan: I rung in the new year by re-reading Harry Potter #7 (finished 2 hours into 2010), we lost a very close friend of ours to suicide, my best friend gave birth to a beautiful little girl, we tried to help my coworker out by adopting her dog but had to send the dog back because all 4 of us were exceedingly stressed, I took my first business trip since Alyssa was born, we traveled to Atlanta for friend's funeral and took the sites while we stayed there for the rest of the weekend. Whew! Now you're all caught up.

It has been very tough loosing Ryan. He was a great friend, a brilliant chemist, and an accomplished athlete and musician. I miss him very much.

Being done with my master's has been amazing. I have so much more time now which I spend with LeMar and Alyssa while they're awake or reading novels, not textbooks :), when they're asleep.

I am VERY excited for the Olympics to start in less than two weeks. I will be able to enjoy them much more this time since I don't have schoolwork that needs to be done. We are also looking forward to a trip to Gainesville to familiarize ourselves with the area and preview the Chemistry department at UF.