There are toddler tornadoes, and then ...

... there are tropical storms that are game-changers for toddlers. Head over to Phase Three of Life for my guest post about our experience braving Tropical Storm Debby late last month. Meg is enjoying the tropical life while on vacation (Kristin says unjealously as she makes up words like "unjealously" and writes in the third person) and hopefully not encountering any storms aside from perhaps fruity drinks like hurricanes.

Bloggy friendship: Country is a State of Mind

A few months ago, I received a comment on one of my posts about one of our trips to Ohio. The commenter told me she was pretty sure we were from the same area - and after comparing notes, we concluded that we definitely are - we were even in the marching bands of rival universities :) I started following her blog, Country is a State of Mind, and she followed mine. She said to let her know the next time I visited my parents.

A few weeks ago, I posted about an upcoming trip to Ohio, and Christy commented to let her know if I would be free to meet up. We exchanged a few e-mails and arranged for an ice cream date. I've never met a fellow blogger except the people I already knew before they had blogs (Meg, Valli), so I was excited to get together with Christy and Blaine.

Elle and I met up with Christy and Blaine and had a blast. It's so nice to meet someone when you read about their lives on such a regular basis, and especially nice to find out that they're as cool as you think they are :) Christy is a totally normal, down-to-earth person who I felt extremely comfortable talking with, and Blaine is adorable and absolutely full of energy. I got a scary glimpse of my future as I watched Christy chase an extremely proficient walking and running Blaine all over the place :)

Here are some of the photos Christy and I took:

I guess the secret is out:
Elle and I shared a chocolate cone.

Blaine taught Elle the super fun trick of sticking
your hand in a water bottle - something she
continued to do for the rest of our trip, haha.

It's hard taking photos of moving monkeys!

At this point, someone started taking self-portraits,
and I knew that we had moved in to silly-need-a-nap-mode.

It was really neat to take some time from the general crazy nature of our trip and be able to chat about blogging, pregnancy, breastfeeding and general raising-a-babyness. It made me yearn for a real-life mommy/baby group with my favorite bloggers and their babies. (I think this should happen, don't you agree?) Elle didn't really know what to think about Blaine (she was dealing with a general dislike for grass and a growing need for an afternoon nap), but I am extremely glad we got to meet up with them, and hope to do it again on future trips to Ohio.  

P.S. Beware, oh, blog world, you're going to have to deal with a lot of posts recapping our trip to Ohio, as well as an emotional spew of posts about how my dear sweet baby is turning ONE this weekend. Seriously. Like, lots of posts about both subjects. Considered yourselves warned :)

Sea Cow Circus

What started as a blog to keep our friends and family far away up-to-date on the mostly boring happenings of our lives, with spotty posting, soon became a pregnancy journal, with ridiculously regular posting. It was started for others, but now it is largely for me - a way to capture all of the things, big and small, that we're going through. A place to record the moments of Elle's life. Her baby book has a place for all of the basic details - weights, heights, immunizations, first smile, first tooth, etc. But I can't put a video of the first time Elle rolled in her baby book. I don't go in to great detail on the sleeping patterns of three-month-old Elle in the baby book. I can, however, look back at the blog and see when Elle's first trip was and how it went. I can see what challenges we were facing at any given time, whether it be during my pregnancy or as new parents. This blog is my spot to write about Elle, vacations and anniversaries, but also the place where I pour my heart out and expose some of my thoughts, feelings and beliefs, on parenting and life in general.

Our last name has been in the Web address since we started the blog in 2007. As we've gained readers and I've put more information out on the Web, I've felt like we were borderline "too exposed," and I've often held back sometimes (I know, hard to believe, huh? What ELSE could I possibly have to say?!). But I wanted to be a little more anonymous, or maybe not be so obviously revealed, so we decided to make the switch to a custom domain.

Tim and I started to brainstorm a new name for the blog. I wanted something timeless, something that I wouldn't get sick of, something that was a bit more mysterious than our current name and we wouldn't feel compelled to change again in three years. Tim threw out random words, slow to embrace the concept of what I was going for. I threw out one-liners from favorite TV shows and inside jokes. And in the end, Tim pretty much produced our new name, which is whimsical, memorable, quirky, timeless and meaningful to us: "Sea Cow Circus."

*pauses for chortles, head shaking, eye rolling and general "Wha?!" type responses*

Tim read once that "kale is just slow lettuce." He told me this fact. Repeatedly. We find this random tidbit funny. So I threw out "kale is just slow lettuce" as a blog name idea, and then it kind of evolved. Manatees eat kale. We live in a part of Florida closely associated with manatees as well as a well-known circus family, we love aquariums and manatees, our life is a circus ... and the name makes me envision cute little sea cow families with a mommy and daddy manatee pushing a baby sea cow (or cows) in a stroller. The photo in the new header was actually taken along the (wait for it) Manatee River.

So there you have it - our new home is seacowcircus.com, but if you type in our old blog address, you'll get here, too. Please be patient as we work out the kinks with links and our redesign - this will likely be an on-going process as we play around and learn a bit about our new home :)

Minimalists prepping for change

Hi all! I had mentioned a major blog change a few weeks ago, and the time is nearing for the big upheaval. We have a redesign, URL change and all sorts of fun background info nearly ready to roll out for you all ... and I'm hoping that everything is moved over by the end of next weekend at the latest.

In the meantime, our blog is very, very ugly basic. And things might be a little out of whack for the first few days following the move and redesign. I ask that you're patient and ignore the hideousness that you might see while I'm too lazy to fix everything just before revamping the whole blog the dust settles. From what I understand, changing the URL should provide minimal disruption if you're a Follower or if you type in our current blog address - you'll be automatically redirected to our new address. But if you have us in your Google reader, please manually type in wolfrumchronicle.blogspot.com and then bookmark the new address it automatically redirects you to.

Thanks, everyone, for reading and following us to our new, permanent blog home :)

Random randomness 5.20.11

What the ...: I ran a 5K two weeks ago. It was a gorgeous morning to run, and the course started and ended at a beachy, water-front park on Anna Maria Island, which is uber cute. Despite the fact that I had only gotten four hours of sleep the night before, I was eager to run and push my time (largely because I needed to get home fast, shower and head off to a bridal shower I was cohosting, but I digress). There were probably 250 runners, and as the pack started to break up a bit, I realized something about a woman running in front of me: She was barefoot. I've never seen it, and I maybe could have understood if it happened on a beach course, but this was road. Asphalt. Florida pavement.

Bizarre.

The view before the race.

She ended up finishing the race, and I really can't imagine that was a comfortable (or healthy) way to run, but maybe she had a purpose or was trying to make a statement. There was another runner who was wearing a veil. I asked her why she was wearing the veil, thinking maybe she was getting married that day, which would be really cool. But apparently she was engaged and planning an August wedding. Her maid of honor was running with her and suggested they run a race the morning of the wedding, too ... Still kinda puzzled why the veil was a key part of this May race, but an interesting people-watching moment regardless.

I'm old AND lame: For my birthday last month, I got some money. And while I'd love to blow it on all sorts of fun stuff or stash all of it in our savings account, I thought carefully about how to designate each dollar. One of my chosen purchases? Electric toothbrushes for Tim and I. They've been on my Amazon wish list for months, and I finally decided that they'd be worth the investment (I mean, if you've got good teeth and gums, surely you're saving on dental care in the long run, right?). Lest you all think that I'm a hopeless cause, please know that I did order a new pair of sandals (they were desperately needed, as sandals are year-round attire in Florida) and buy some makeup. The rest, though, *did* go in to savings.

Because I'm old, I'm loving this: This primer rocks. I saw an ad in a magazine for it a few months ago, had a few coupons and bought it on sale, figuring I didn't have much to lose if I didn't like it. I big pink puffy heart it. It makes my face incredibly smooth, and it feels so soft and silky going on. Sometimes I'll just put my moisturizer, primer and a dust of powder on, and I'm ready to go, sans foundation. It lasts a long time, too - I'm just now starting my second little jar.

Texts you don't expect to receive from your husband while at work: "What are you feeding this child?! Another huge poop just happened."

Birthday bonanza: Happy birthday to my beloved sister Marti and dear friend Meghan! (You can read more about them in a birthday post from two years ago here.) Our friend Kelly is also celebrating her birthday today at work with Tim (with these yummy cookies - one of her favorites, muah hahahaha).

Pear-fectly unacceptable: I have developed quite a love/hate relationship with pears. I'm not a huge fan of the fruit myself, but Elle L-O-V-E-S them. My problem is that they stain cute baby clothes like nobody's business. I've had great success getting all other stains out of Elle's clothes since birth ... except the pears seem to have outsmarted me. (Cantaloupes are problematic as well.) Elle always seems to be wearing cute, white onesies when she eats pear, and the stains are a light brown. Not. Cool. The stains are hard for me to see *before* washing, so by the time the clothes are washed they've been pretty set, but I'm going to try to be a bit more proactive on the pesky buggers.

Best trainer ever: I was playing Zumba for Wii yesterday morning while Tim and Elle were in the other room. Tim brought Elle in and told me I was getting a standing ovation for my performance. I turned around and saw Elle Belle clapping enthusiastically. Quite the encouragement to continue my workout :)

Ch-ch-changes: Just a heads up, abundance of faithful readers: We're going to be changing our blog name, address and design in the next few weeks. I'll give more of a heads up before it's about to happen, because things will likely be kinda wonky for a few days as we make the switch, but typing in the old address should automatically redirect you to the same page, old links should work the same, etc. I *think* the only thing that changes is you might have to update the site if you read through Google Reader, but again, more info as the time approaches. I'm excited :)

Squeaky Sophie: As I mentioned in a previous post, Sophie was missing, so we ordered a replacement Sophie. (Amazon's price on Sophie is the lowest I've found, and free two-day shipping because of Amazon Mom? Thankyouverymuch.) Replacement Sophie's squeaker is in hyper drive. The old Sophie squeaked, but you had to definitely squeeze her to produce noise. If you look at Replacement Sophie the wrong way, she squeaks loudly. If you breathe in her vacinity, SQQQUUEEEEEEAAAAAKKKKKK. Elle finds this amusing. (And judging from the consistent, enthusiastic squeaks I heard from Elle and Tim playing while I was trying to sleep yesterday morning, Tim finds this amusing as well.)

Thoughts and prayers: A little baby girl is in the hospital and facing an uphill battle. The baby is the daughter of two people I work with, and while I don't know them personally, their story has hit me hard. The baby was born when the mom was 23 weeks and 6 days pregnant - viability is 24 weeks. She's teeny tiny and fighting hard but has already had several procedures and surgeries and is being closely monitored for various complications. Her parents are essentially living at the hospital, immersed in the beeps and hums of the monitors and machines keeping their daughter alive. Her mother has only been able to hold her twice - in the more than five weeks since she was born. Twice. If you have any extra thoughts and prayers to spare, please consider sending them to this family.

Wheeee, blog award!

Valli, the fabulous writer behind The Eminent Stylings of Tenacious V, has awarded me my first blogging award! Thanks, Valli :) I've known Valli since our junior year of college (when we sat in Dr. E's newswriting class, I think?) and fought to stay awake/sane. She was one of the fabulous dormmates mentioned (and now that I've updated the post with a photo, pictured) here. We spent plenty of time together in the wee hours of the morning putting out the university's newspaper as well. It's been great to reconnect and follow her path through post-college life (including motherhood!) not only on Facebook but also on her blog.

Valli has awarded the Versatile Blogger Award to me and my little corner of cyberspace.

Here are the rules:
*Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them in your post.
*Tell us seven things about yourself.
*Award fifteen recently discovered new bloggers.
*Contact these bloggers and let them know they've received their award.


My seven things (I tried to think of some very random, not widely known points about myself, but I apologize if they're woefully lame!):

1. I love to cross-stitch. For a while (mostly from college until about a year after I was married), I was constantly stitching samplers for close friends and family members to mark their weddings or births of children. I'm currently working on one (slowly, but surely) to record Elle's birth details.

2. I have an intense fear of having my pelvis broken.

3. I never flew until I was 23, when I flew from Kalamazoo to Pittsburgh for a job interview. Now I fly 3-5 times a year, and Elle will have at least five trips under her belt by the time she's 14 months old.

4. I dated Tim's cousin Jeff before I dated Tim. Tim actually set us up. Our "first date" was Jeff, me and Tim at Damon's. Romantic, eh? :) Tim is almost 13 years older than me, and at the time, neither of us thought the other was romantically interested in the other, and Tim thought there was no way I'd date someone that much older. Tim deemed Jeff and I a perfect match because we were about the same age and "equally lame." (Yes, I'm serious.) So Jeff and I went on a few dates, and he's an awesome guy, but I knew that I really had feelings for Tim. (And eventually, when I told Tim this and he confessed that he felt the same way, HE was in the awkward position of explaining to Jeff "Hey man, I know I fixed you up with Kristin, but we're kinda going to see if there might be something there between us, OK?" at the family's Thanksgiving dinner.) I honestly thought the whole family was going to hate me and things were going to be awkward for Tim forever (he and his cousins are pretty close). But now we all joke about it. For a while, the running line was that "so-and-so was 'next'" to date me. I absolutely adore Jeff's wife - we get along really well and enjoy picking on Jeff and Tim. And Tim and I love spending time with Tim's cousins and their wives.

5. Tim and I broke up twice while dating. We long-distanced dated for almost three years (living anywhere from 2.5 to 5 hours apart until I moved to Florida and he joined me two months later) at the beginning of our relationship. I broke up with him once, he broke up with me once. Both times were for about two months. Luckily, we saw the error of our ways and reconciled both times - and now, the rest is history!

6. I never drank alcohol until the day I turned 21. Like, not even a sip. Mostly because I've always been a) a goody-two-shoes and b) stubborn. Once I was close to making it to my 21st birthday without major temptation, I figured I should just hold out so I could say I'd done it and it would make the actual birthday much cooler. It was definitely one of my most memorable birthdays, full of good friends and lots of laughter, and although I had four mixed drinks and four shots over the course of the night, I wasn't wasted at all, thank goodness. We spread it out over a long period of time and had plenty of food along the way :)

7. We had hermit crabs as pets when my siblings and I were younger. I used to name mine after my favorite baseball players. At one point, a crab I'd named after then-Seattle Mariners players Alex Rodriguez and Joey Cora stopped moving for a few days. I chalked it up for molting, a normal, skin-shedding process for hermit crabs, and waited for him to come back to life, renewed. After a few weeks, I knew it wasn't just molting. He was dead. I buried him in the woods behind our house and painted a rock, writing out his full name (which I can no longer remember, but it was something like Alexander Joey Cora something something Rodriguez) on it as his headstone.

Now, 15 fantastic blogs I've discovered in the last six months or so:

BeakTweets

Country is a State of Mind

Our Little Lifesicle

It's a dog lick baby world

E-Tells-Tales 

Stilettos and Diapers

Angie All the Way

Loving the little things

Life on the Terrace

Domestic Jenny

Wilson's (almost) Irish Twins

Two Boksen Babies

Krystal's Kitsch

Littlest True Blue

The Power of the Pink Lines

Photo cards for the win

Let's be honest - if I sent a Christmas card this year without a photo of the baby, people would be disappointed. And to further that honesty, because of said baby, I don't really have the time to write out cards. So photo cards are fantastic for two reasons: They're personal and fun, and they save time while still delivering our holiday greetings to friends and family.

Two years ago, Tim and I sent out Christmas cards with a wedding photo and a photo of us with the cats in front of the Christmas tree. Last year, we sent out traditional cards but included a photo of our first ultrasound in many of them. But this year? There's no question - we'll be sending out a photo card with the cutest baby ever on it.

There are a lot of companies competing for Christmas photo card business, but this year we'll be using Shutterfly. I've made photo books with Shutterfly in the past and plan to use them for some of our other photo-related Christmas gifts this year - the quality, prices and service are excellent. And their marketing department must be full of geniuses - they're offering 50 free holiday cards to bloggers. Do you know how many blogs I read that have mentioned this promotion? Answer: At least a dozen. The innovative approach certainly opened my eyes to their photo card products and won me over.

They have some of the most modern card designs and one of the widest selections I've seen, and I'm excited to send out our cards. The only problem? Choosing a design. As some of you know, I'm very picky about my designs, and I don't want something that will look like everyone else's or look like the same card I sent two years ago. I want something fresh and fun.

I love the whimsical look of this design, the classic elegance of this one, and the multiple photo format of this card.

Or maybe we'll do something fun like this:

Guess you'll have to wait and find out :) There are sooooo many ways to feature the world's cutest baby, so this could be a challenge!

Wheee!

I NEVER win anything. But I got an e-mail tonight that I won a tote bag from a fellow blogger. Made a night of laundry and cooking a little bit brighter :)

Time

When you're pregnant or trying to get pregnant, the clock is completely skewed. I've realized that even more as we're heading in to the final weeks of this pregnancy. I've been amazed at how time has dragged and flown throughout this entire process, and when you think about it, it really starts wayyyyy before you even find out you're pregnant.

For most people, you spend a good portion of your fertile days trying to not get pregnant. (High school, college, before you meet the right person, etc.) Then you meet your soulmate and start to think about adding to the family. So you switch gears and try to get pregnant. For some people, this doesn't take long, for others, it can take years. You might just throw caution to the wind, or you might chart and test, test and chart. Then, if the stars align and you succeed in getting pregnant, you try to stay pregnant. I think the time when you start trying to get pregnant goes only slightly slower than trying to stay pregnant. For multiple reasons, most of them completely uncontrollable, you battle through the "safe period" of first trimester, when you have very little reassurance aside from perhaps nausea or other symptoms that things are going as they should in your belly. You can't feel the baby yet, you don't really have a belly, and you live in constant terror that something could go wrong. (Well, I live in fairly constant terror, but I *am* a worrier, after all.)

For me, first trimester dragged on because of the nausea, too. I was exhausted, sick and miserable for about the first 14 weeks of my pregnancy. I swore that if that feeling lasted the whole pregnancy this would be an only child. I prayed each day that it wouldn't start, and when it inevitably did, I prayed for it to end. It finally did, so there is hope for a future sibling for Elle, and it feels like so long ago I can't vividly remember the horrid times. I still remember being miserable, but it is no longer the only thing I remember from the earlier months of this pregnancy.

After you've waited impatiently for first trimester for end, you want the second trimester to last forever - you get your energy back, most people's nausea subsides, and you enjoy the cute, comfortable pregnancy stage when you start showing, you start feeling little kicks and you feel like you've got all the time in the world and the worst is over. The only way this trimester might drag is if you have complications or when you miss your alcohol and caffeine (sigh).

Then third trimester hits and you freak out because you realize "Holycrapababyiscomingandwe'rerunningoutoftime." By some evil twist of fate, your energy might drop around this same time, and since you're quickly becoming the size of a small blimp, it is harder to motivate yourself to do anything more than scoop some ice cream in to a bowl and settle in to a depression you've created on the couch. There is also a rush of excitement with the third tri terror, because you realize that sooner than later, you will meet the little bugger who has been worrying you to death and kicking and poking the crap out of you. (But this also results in more terror because you realize you're going to have to PARENT and TAKE CARE of this baby, which will be much more challenging when it is out of your safe, controlled womb and in the big, bad real world.) When you get to the near-end of third trimester, you can feel two ways (I alternate between the two on an hourly basis): 1. Relief that you likely still have "x" amount of weeks of 2. Panic that you might only have "x" amount of weeks.

I am fully aware that I could go in to labor in about 12 days and have a full-term baby. However, for my sanity, I choose to focus on the fact that I am likely to go another 2-5 weeks without going in to labor. I am completely OK with that, because physically, I am still relatively comfortable, and while I am getting more excited and anxious by the day to meet our daughter, I have plenty to keep me busy and know she's in a good place right now.

I think if I were having complications or was physically uncomfortable or completely bored out of my mind, this time would be dragging. But I am in the "third tri flies" camp - it seems like just yesterday we had hit the halfway point of this pregnancy. It seems like just yesterday that 40 weeks would never arrive. And now the 40-week mark seems like such a moving target, and we've done so much to prepare for this baby. If she arrived today, we'd be fine, but if she took another two or three weeks, I'd be down with that, too. We've packed the last 35 weeks with renovations, improvements, appointments, classes, tours, tests, showers, laundry, purchases, trips, lots of "firsts" ... and now we're nearly at the end. I am actually at a point where I'm relaxing - because at this point, there isn't much that *has* to be done, and there isn't much that I can do to prepare. The fear of first trimester seems so far away right now. The energy of second trimester is a distant memory. Instead of making lists appointments to schedule, tasks to complete and items to buy, we're going over the "must text when Elle arrives" list. Packing the hospital bag. Enjoying a few last nights of just relaxing on the couch or sleeping through the night (well, *some* people sleep through the night - others must wake every two hours to pee. But still.).

This blog is almost two years old, and I know, the majority of the posts have come, fast and furious, in the last 8 months. I have no doubt that the next two years will pass equally as fast as the last two. And these next 2-5 weeks?! Holy. Geez.

A circus story

I moved to western Ohio for my first "big kid" job at a newspaper soon after graduation from college in 2003 ... and that's where I met Tim. Our desks faced each other, and for six months, we traded jabs, sarcastic remarks and a constant stream of "I hate yous." On the day I resigned from that job to take a job in Michigan, I told him I'd had a crush on him the whole time I'd worked there. Long story short, he had similar feelings, and we spent almost every minute of my last three weeks there in each other's company.

We dated long-distance for the next 3.5 years, including when I moved to Pittsburgh and our commute o' love went from 2.5 hours to 4.5 hours.

In early 2006, we took a vacation to Florida to check out some spring training games and the beach. 

Vacation! Pass-A-Grille Beach, March 2006.

We interviewed for some jobs, too, and I got hired at the paper I worked at until September 2011. I moved to Florida in the summer of 2006, and we both knew this was a "make it or break it" point in our relationship. Luckily, Tim applied at some nearby papers, moving down for a job at a different paper two months after me.

Finally! We were united :)

On Veteran's Day 2007, Tim surprised me with brunch at a swanky beach-front hotel. I kept thinking he was going to propose - and was anxious during the entire brunch. After brunch, though, we went for a walk on the beach ... and he popped the question.

Engaged! St. Pete Beach, Nov. 2007.

I said yes, of course, and spent the next year planning our wedding, which was held outside of Columbus, Ohio, 369 days later.

Married! Gahanna, Ohio, Nov. 2008.

I moved in to Tim's condo after the wedding, and we lived the life of newlyweds (plus two crazy cats, Mario LeMeow and Sidney Pawsby), traveling, finding our groove as married folk, working hard and loving life.

In late November of 2009, we found out we were going to have another life to love: We were pregnant!

Pregnant! Six weeks, 1 day, Dec. 2009.

The next nine months were spent planning, saving, reorganizing, preparing - all for our little bundle of joy, Elizabeth, nicknamed (among other things) Elle, who was born on July 31, 2010 - on my parents' wedding anniversary (let me tell you - none of my siblings can top my anniversary gift, and I like it that way).

Hours old! July 31, 2010.

Elle has made our life infinitely better, as well as more complicated and simpler at the same time. We've been very blessed, and Elle is pretty much the cutest, most stubborn, smartest, sweetest kid you'll ever meet.

November 2012.

In November 2012, we found out that our family would be growing in July of 2013. We found out in February that we'd be adding a baby boy to our brood.

Wesley was born on July 15, 2013 - a little bit overdue, a whole lot anticipated. He instantly fit in to our hearts and arms, although we're still trying to figure out what life as a family of four is supposed to look like.

Wesley, less than a day old.

He adores his big sis, and she adores him right back - we can't wait to see the bond between them grow over the years.

We're not sure where life will take us next, but we're excited to face the adventure together :)

July 2013: A family of four!

Woop!

I have nothing grand to say, but this is our 100th blog post! (I think that's 98 of mine, 2 of Tim's ...) And it's just about a week short of when we started the blog (July 20, 2008). Here's to another fun-filled 100 posts :-)

Thanks for reading!

Wonder, a prayer request and a new blog.

Happy Easter, bloggerdom!

I am still shaking my head in wonder after talking to my 11-year-old brother about his college fund and higher education plans. He plans to pursue education and attend Ohio State. Or Mount Union. He wants to stay in Ohio - "keep the tradition alive." And eventually, he told me, he wants to get his master's degree. I suggested that he go to Mount for his undergrad and then maybe OSU for his master's, or vice versa, and he asked, "Uhhh, Bug? What's undergrad?" I explained to him what undergrad was ... and found myself in awe of the entire conversation. A few years ago he was going to all of the alma maters of his immediate family (and then some) to pursue numerous degrees. So I guess it's good that he's narrowed things down, but still ...

If any of you have a moment to send a thought or prayer their way, my best friend from first grade is dealing with a medical crisis. Her husband, Jon, went to the ER on Friday night. The doctors haven't been able to find much, and he was tested all day on Saturday, including getting another CT scan and a spinal tap before they would transfer him to Duke (they live in North Carolina). Jon's family is with them and Nikki's family arrived to be with her and their kids on Saturday night. Nikki and Jon have three young children. This, from Nikki, on Saturday night:
"Jon has some facial paralysis, headaches & weakness on his right side. We came to the ER last night & they have done tons of tests. They are transferring him to Duke where there is a neurologist on call. All signs point toward a stroke but they can't find any bleeding. Please just keep us in your prayers."

And as promised, my new blog (in addition to this one, so don't worry about me going anywhere, faithful readers!) is here. Posting will begin today. Bookmark it, share it, comment on it, etc. It's going to have a lot of cool stuff. Meghan is swamped with fundraising and training for her hike next month, but since I have a lot of making up to do on the baking front, I do not think your baking blog needs will be neglected. And when Meg's done with the hike, watch out, world. Baking bonanza.

Special bloggity news

Greetings, half dozen loyal readers. We (well, *I*, I guess) have some blog news to share: Tim might - just might - blog about his experience at the last Florida Reds spring training game. I'm working on him, but really, who could tell the story and capture the memories better than him? (Aside from the fact that I was not there and the Reds realllly aren't *my* team, so this honor should really fall to him.)

Alllllsssooo, I have a new blog that will debut on Easter Sunday. Excited? You'll have to wait for details. But I think it'll be fun, informative and full of conversational writing and interesting photos!