Just in case you wanted to know....

What I've been up to.

And I want to photo-dump big time, so here's a recap of the last few months.

I never updated on the actual moving part of moving....

 

In November (how is it already almost March!?) the GIANT moving truck {don't worry it wasn't all for us} pulled up ready to be filled with all of our stuff. SO MUCH STUFF. Seriously... how!?!? Mind boggling I tell you, we just got rid of SO MUCH STUFF in our yard sale, and still had twice as much stuff as we'd like.

Once the truck was loaded like a game of tetris, we hit the road & made a pit stop at my mom's for the night. She had Lucy for the last few weeks while we were packing and trying to sell the house. Poor thing was so confused when we up and left again the next morning. 

Then the next thing we knew the giant truck was back to unload it all. 

  

And here we were. Home sweet new home. We made do with what furniture we had available.... a futon & camping chairs. Unforunately, this house isn't big enough for our furniture that we had in Nashville. So we had to sell it all.

  

THEN a few days later we got BACK in the car and went to Black Mountain for a conference with our region. It was weird being there, but I was glad to connect with fun friends... like Kristy & her baby Parker and sweet Shannon.

And then we climbed back over the mountain to finally pick up the dog, and stayed for a night or 2 in Johnson City.

 

Then Lucy came back with us.... let me tell you, she STILL doesn't like our house. This first picture I captured during her nightly pant session when we go to bed. Who knew a dog panting in your ear could be unnerving when you have to hear it for 2 hours when you're trying to fall asleep? She eventually stops. She has at least stopped trembling with panting now, and has cut her pant time down significantly. I don't blame her, our old house had AMAZING windows that went to the floor. Her bed was right under the window sill. Now she feels like she's stuck in a windowless box. I'm pretty claustrophobic, so I'm sure I'd hate it too if I were only 2 feet off the floor.  

Then we celebrated Thanksgiving by ourselves. It was a lovely giant meal that we had to eat for days.

We got a few days in to just enjoy our new fun yard & the greenways of Raleigh.

Then I took a last minute trip back to Nashville to take care of the last few things before we closed on selling our house. That was..... hard.  

AND THEN...... 

As soon as I flew back in to town, Jules picked me up & we went to see the So You Think You Can Dance tour in Durham. It was wonderful. I LOVE the show, and they did most of the dances from this last season and then some. LOVELOVELOVED it. 

And Christmas season was under way.....

and we continued to get to know our little area. Santa made a pit stop at our local coffee shop. This house packed more inflatables than ever should have fit. 

Before we headed out for the holidays, one of our dear friends from EA came to spend Christmas with us, and we went to get REAL Chinese food with old friends. 

The next day we set out and made it to the end of the street before we had a flat. Boo. 

We finally made it to Columbus where we spent time enjoying our family there. Austin (our nephew) wanted to be like Lucy and drink from the dog bowl. It doesn't help that my brother in law encourages such behavior on a regular basis ;)

We spent a day at the national air force museum in Dayton. Adam has talked  about it for years, and I never imaged it would be so awesome. I could have spent days reading allllll about the last 100 years in aviation.  There were so many planes of all shapes and sizes, many that have flown in wars. If you're ever in ohio and not too far, it's definitely worth the drive..... 

which we made back to Columbus in a snow storm. Not fun.

Our friend made the whole fam real Chinese food that was delicious! 

We opened presents..... and we got our most awesome gift- the segway tour AND in return, we finally got Alex back after his years of re-gifting. These aprons have now been passed on to the other Mr. & Mrs. Strouths. 

Then it was off to East TN. I haven't been in Johnson City with my dad on Christmas day in 12 years so it was such a blessing to be with him. 

I also got in some good time with my Mama & dear friends like Jami. 

AND then to a big student conference to bring in the new year. 

As soon as we got back, it felt like I turned around again to head to Denver for... you guessed it, a conference. 

And 2 days after I got back, 2 of my best friends Eve & Marisa (and Tyler too) came to visit for my bithday! It was wonderful! 

AND THEN we went to Spain. And then I went to another conference. And then Adam left. And then And then And then........ I'm ready to SLOW down. March is looking promising. 

Congrats if you made it this far. 

Our new nephew AUSTIN and our time in OHIO!

Okay here we go. I've got a bout 9 bajillion pics uploaded and I'm ready to pump out a BUNCH of posts. Half of those pics might be in this post.... but what are you going to do when you meet your first nephew!? 

I have been DYING to be an aunt for years. I have a 17 year old step-sister. Adam has ONE brother. That's it for us. After 7 years of marriage, I thought it was way past time for said brother {Alex} & his wife {Amanda} to hurry up and have a baby!

And then in April, Austin Alexander Strouth was born! 

They lived in Chile. We live in Asia. We figured out that we were 1 longitudinal line from being on complete opposite sides of the world. SO we met Austin via skype, and patiently waited to meet him in person. 

At the end of July, we all went to Ohio to visit Adam's fam, and we FINALLY got to meet our darling nephew. 

We spent about 10 days in Ohio, mostly visiting with family and passing the baby around. 

Here are some LOTS of pics from our time there.

Adam is still quite satisfied with a dog in his lap. 

We spent lots of time enjoying each others company at home & at fun places like the Dublin Irish festival.

The day after we got there, Adam turned: 

Yay happy birthday to my love! 

Grandma finally got to meet her first great-grandchild! 

We went on lots of walks...

I think we might need to get a moby-wrap for Lucy....

Gave Austin lots of baths

Hello little peanut. 

You can't use your sleeping baby for a pillow BUT you can use your sleeping dog. Reason #419 that Adam is content with a dog. {read: ADAM is content with just a dog...}

We spent lots of time with their Grandama, Aunt {Ardie} & Uncle {Dave} & cousins {Ashley & Andrea}. 

I think Adam was trying to prove a point with his desired stage in life......

But is more than happy to play with his nephew & make him smile...

as long as he gets to give him back when he starts crying. 

This is maybe one of my favorite pics of Lucy. How funny is this? 

Handsome Strouth men...

Austin rockin his "sun suit".... 

After church on Sunday, we went back down to Grove City to spend more time with the family. Uncle Dave asked if we wanted to go down to..... {I keep calling it Commerce Junction}.... Commercial Point... to watch the go-cart races. Um heck yes. 

What's not to love about going to a small town where they shut everything down to make a go-cart course through the town? 

I mean its no nascar, but it was entertaining enough! 

Austin, however, did not like the noise so much. 

So we headed back to their house to play some wiffel ball. 

I knocked a few out of the park. 

And then the boys got a little more intense with baseball....

so I just practiced taking some action shots. 

The night before we headed home we drove down to Cincinnati to go to a RED's game! 

Austin had a fantastic time. 

But then these started looming overhead....

and they entered a rain delay. So we moved to higher grounds and waited the rain out. 

An hour and a half or so later, the game continued.... 

and we were sure that Austin would zonk in no time. 

But nope. He was having too much fun watching the game.

And flirting with his Aunt Haley. 

We had a great time, despite the rain .

And just before mid-night, we made our way back towards our favorite bridge....

....over the Ohio river to the Kentucky side that Adam and I walked over numerous times when we had Bengals season tickets for a few years. 

We got home at 2:30ish {am that is...}, got up the next morning, packed, hit the road (the same one we drove down and back on the night before), made a quick stop by Grandma's to say bye to her and Aunt Ardie.....

And we were on our way home! 

We made a pit-stop in Louisville to see my friend Lesli {I mentioned their parenting story here & here} and met BOTH of her new babies! Greer came home from Ethiopia in March and little Charlotte was born in May! They've had their hands full. Charlotte fell asleep before we could get a pic with her, but we snagged one with sweet Greer. He is the cutest! 

So that was our trip to Ohio in way too many pictures. 

It was one of my favorite trips to Ohio. We weren't rushed, had lots of free time, and spent most of it with family. It was a good does of quality time that will hopefully hold us over for the next year! 

We miss you guys already! 

Joyfully Loving our Nephew,