Jessica Writes

Sorry I have been such a slacker in updating. I’m going to attempt to get back on track as soon as life settles down. If it ever does. In a nutshell, things are great. We got here without incident. Chris and Simone (doggie) made the 1,100 mile drive just fine and the rest of us flew (Reed, mom, Maggie (kitty) and myself). The cat made it great and Reed was very good on the plane. He is getting to be a flying pro! I think he has flown five times now.
We moved in on Thursday. The only moving casualty was Reed’s picture frame that said “Born to be a Tiger fan.” That sort of broke Chris’ heart. But everything else seems to be ok.

But let me tell you something far more important. I can’t get this thing out of my mind. The first time we came to Denver, we were greeted by a statue that freaked me out. I have a past history of certain large animal-like things freaking me out (ex. the Flying Predator at the Nashville Predators game).
Every time I go to the Denver Airport, I try to get a picture of this freakish giant blue wild horse with glowing red eyes of death. But my iPhone can never capture it. So, alas, I turned to Google to find a picture. I found out more about the scary horse — there is a curse behind it!

Look at this thing. Really, how does that translate into “Welcome to lovely Denver, the glorious Mile High City?

“Here’s what the blog Roadside America says about this horse (ok, it’s a Mustang. We are in the wild wild west now.)

Luis Jiminez’s mustang statue would have been controversial even if it hadn’t killed him. The 32-ft. tall fiberglass, unholy blue horse with red eyes had long ago been commissioned for the entrance of Denver International Airport. In 2005, the horse broke loose from a support in the sculptor’s studio in 2005, pinning him against a wall. Enroute to the hospital, he died from his injuries. The Jiminez family finished the sculpture, but the “curse” element will be hard to shake off as time goes on for this one.”

Yes, I’m channeling Yo Gabba Gabba. It’s actually very fitting for my last day at work.

Goodbye Song

My sweet neighbor called on Thursday and asked if we wanted to participate in a yard sale with her on Saturday. It was short notice, but we knew we had a ton of stuff that we didn’t need to be hauling halfway across the country so we decided we were in.
We stayed up late Friday night hauling things out of the attic and labeling them. Our house looks like someone ransacked it — that someone was us. Bright and early at 6 am, we lugged our zombie bodies out of bed and began setting up for the big sale. Of course, the yard sale professionals were out and poking around at our stuff before we could even get it all set up.
I am convinced that yard sales bring out a certain kind of folks. Very special. Different.
There was the one lady who approached my neighbors house asking if their dog, Amos, was for sale. She didn’t seem to be kidding.
Then there were the people who bought things even when they didn’t know what it was. Wonder if they are a candidate for “Hoarders.”
Or the very pregnant Asian lady who wanted to get an impromptu tour of our house because she was looking for a new house. She was very concerned about the trees in the backyard — it was too shady — and asked if it was illegal to cut them down.
Then there was the master yard sale queen disguised as a sweet innocent elderly lady. She bought a ton of stuff but haggled for everything — old people could literally rob me blind and I would happily oblige. She even tried to haggle us out of our stackable washer and dryer which we weren’t even selling. If she would have tried a little harder we might have sold them to her! Oh, and she walked to our house from several blocks away, and sweetly convinced us to deliver everything to her. Not sure how she got that one past us!
All in all we made a little bit of money and got a lot of stuff out of our house — which was a huge deal. What we didn’t sell went on the truck for the Disabled American Veterans.

We just got home from a “scouting” trip to Denver. It was a whirlwind of house-hunting , confirming Reed’s child care and getting my health screening (I am pretty sure they drew enough blood to map my DNA or clone me).
It’s been a long time since I’ve been a renter. I had to remember that we weren’t buying the houses and townhouses we were looking at, so they didn’t need to be perfect — rather they just needed to be acceptable for a year.
We narrowed our search down to three areas close to the Children’s Hospital: Lowry, Stapleton and Park Hill. After stalking the listings on Craigslist like a desperate ex-girlfriend, I finally found a list of decent-sounding listings in our price range and somewhat near the size we needed.
The first house we looked at was on a picturesque street in Park Hill. Think Fairfax Avenue near Vanderbilt. Gorgeous old homes that were very well maintained. The 1920s tudor we toured was stunning from the outside. But the inside was practically gutted — apprently the landlord recently suffered some internal flooding, of all things, in the kitchen which caused them to take eveything out like flooring, cabinets and doors. Needless to say we were over anything related to floods so that pretty much ruled the house out for us. That and the steam heat — I would really be up for Mother of the Year if allowed a toddler to be around those scalding pipes.
The second house was in Lowry, a very adorable family-friendly neighborhood. It was gorgeous - open kitchen with beautiful granite, tons of space, pretty hardwoods downstairs. It was around 10 years old. It was awesome. But, the price was a little more than we really wanted to spend considering we still have a house to sell. So, we sadly walked away from that home knowing we really needed to find something else that would work for us.
After a zillion phone calls and backup plans, we finally saw a lump of properties on Monday afternoon in Stapleton, my ideal neighborhood. It’s a huge community with tons of families. It’s called a sustainable community because its built on the land that used to be the Denver Airport and the builders use green materials. It also boasts a ton of parks, greenway space, playgrounds and swimming pools. Its really a cool place if you have a family.
After looking at a townhouse inhabited by a bachelor, his son and a large dog, we just couldn’t get past how freaking dirty they were and it just totally turned us off. We then went to a single family home that I had only seen an exterior picture of. It was the house that I had set my sights on a couple of weeks ago when searching the Web, and I felt that it would work. Right size and right price. When we walked in, I knew it would be a good place for Reed and for us. It’s not filled with upgrades and the master bath is pretty small, but all in all, it felt like home. It faces an open couryard and is insulated by a couple other houses on the courtyard. It has an alley entrance to the two-car garage. And, its just a block from a great little playground for Reed. There were kids all over the place and I know he will love living in his new home.
I’m so excited that things are falling into place. The family I had found that needed to add another little one to their nanny share (it’s where two families share a nanny so the prices are lower) is awesome! Their son is Reed’s age and they have an adorable little house for the kids to play in all day. The nanny seems as sweet as can be and seems to do a lot for the kids like take them to the zoo, the library and teach them all the things that you would expect a great child care provided to teach.
We couldn’t find a good daycare that didn’t have a waiting list to be on the waiting list so we felt really lucky to stumble on this arrangement.
I think things are going to work out just fine. The big thing is finding someone to either buy or lease our house. That is something I’m a little nervous about!

Here’s a pic of the rental:

Well after months of being seemingly too busy to update my little blog, I thought it was time to begin posting again. We have some news: we are Denver-bound. I can’t believe we’ll be moving away from our beloved Nashville. I have a great opportunity to work at one of the best Children’s Hospitals in the nation at The Children’s Hospital of Denver. I’ll be starting a job in mid-June as their new communications manager. It’s exciting and a little nerve-wracking to go from a place I’ve lived for most of my life to a place I’ve only visited twice. Chris is very excited about this opportunity as he’ll be much closer to the company he has been working with for the past 9 months, and there are some amazing opportunities in the area of technology in Denver and Boulder.

I’ll try to make regular updates about our upcoming move here. The plan is start working there mid-June, so we are going to begin a whirlwind of activity trying to get ready to get from here to there and all the numerous things that will entail.

Please start planning your vacations now and come and see us!

Reed turned 1 on Oct. 3. It’s kind of hard to believe, but there’s no turning back now. He has changed and grown so much in the past year.
Now:

Then

We had a great little birthday party with family and a few friends. All was well until we got a parting gift — 8 of the 12 were stricken with a nasty stomach virus! Here are some party photos:

Reed’s cake matched the party decorations and the “zoo” theme:

Reed and Tristan had a good time playing together:

Great-grandpa Reed and Reed have a special bond:

Cake time:

Reed really was not a fan of the cake and we had to force him to touch it. He didn’t want to eat any:

Ooohhh presents:

Thanks for the awesome cart, Aunt Carrie:

Lights out:

The folks at Wild Wasabi loved his bib!

I forgot to post this picture of Reed during his nasty virus that made him rashy. This was about a month ago. Poor thing still smiled!

I cannot believe I am more than a month past due to update the blog. So much for my moment-by-moment account of my dear firstborn’s life!

I’ll try to play catch up now. Reed is crawling like a maniac and pulling up on everything! He has begun cruising this week and can sidestep down our large ottoman pretty quickly.
He has 10 teeth — two of which are molars that are coming in now and bothering the heck out of him.
He is saying momma, dada, da (for dog) and lots of other sounds. He says momma repeatedly when he is upset.
He cackles and giggles and laughs like Bevis of Bevis and Butthead (huh-huh-huh-huh-huh).
He likes to blow raspberries on your arm. And laughs back when you laugh at him doing it.
He loves to eat Mum Mums, cheerios, chunky baby food and cheese. He also likes puffs and yogurt melts.
He smiles almost all the time, and it is easy to take him places. He loves to flirt with people and look at them.
He is still madly in love with Simone and she tolerates him ok, but runs away from him a lot when he chases after her.

Below are some pictures from our summer. We have done a lot!

Playdate in the park with Tristan (one of my work friend’s little boy — 20 days younger than Reed)

July 3 lunch date with Grandmommy, Granddaddy and Great Grandmommy on July 3

Riding in my basket

First time in the baby pool

Gatlinburg walk