Wyatt

I had to wait until it was officially announced (kind of like Prince George) but here is his name. Doesn't my sister make the cutest babies?

The newest member of the family has arrived!

After much waiting Baby Boy Williamson was born today at 9:12 am, 7 lbs 7 oz, 20.5 inches. Mom and baby are doing well.

Official!

First unofficial week

I started going to work this week. So far so good. I've only been on campus 4-6 hrs a day and I'm commuting at off times so it takes just about 15 minutes door to door- not bad at al!  I am really enjoying working with my new colleagues and they are very helpful with sharing outlines and old slides as I start to prepare my material for the term. I'm ending the first week with dinner out with Mike. Oh, and we finished painting the living room and dining room and hallway (mike really did the bulk of it) so i'll post pictures soon.

Last morning in Chapel Hill

This should have been posted on Aug 6th but didn't work so I'm posting it now. Sorry for the confusion.

We are on our way out of town but stopped at Weaver Street for our last coffee and biscuits. I knew this day would come (surprised I got to stay this long). Thanks everyone who made the last 11 years awesome!!!!

Pictures of the house Part 2

The Family Room
This is one of our favorite rooms in house but we didn't love the wallpaper!
Before

Here I am removing that ugly paper.

And the finished walls and room (for now.  We eventually want a new couch).  And we need to paint the wood trim.

Pictures of the house! Part 1

I know you have been waiting for pictures of what we have been doing to the house.  Here you go!

After 1.5 weeks of intensive work we have stripped wallpaper, patched walls, sanded, primed, and painted.  We even did a little demo work and removed some upper cabinets in the kitchen.  Our last major project is going to be painting the living/dining room and hallway.  Oh yeah, and the trim but that is going to have to be a little bit at a time kind of project.

Here are some kitchen before, during and after. The before pictures are from the real estate website so it's not our stuff.

During: notice we have removed the cabinets:

And the after pictures! We have new handles on all of the cabinets and drawers as well as the new lighting.  We need to paint the window and trim still but a huge improvement!

Cali the trooper

We've put Cali through a lot in the last month. First there was a growing pile of boxes in the house, followed by nothing in the house, 2 days in a car, 820 miles on the road, and an overnight in a hotel. She was an amazing traveler. Mike and I were so pleased with her and how she behaved. It did take a toll on her just like us and she was exhausted at times. Here is a picture of her sleeping in the car with her head resting on my shoulder.

But now that our furniture has arrived she is feeling better.

And she is only exhausted from playing endless fetch in the back yard.

We hope she is happy now that we are getting settled in our new home. No more moving for a long time!

No Internet yet!

We have arrived in Naperville and are settling into the house.  We won't have internet until Monday (I'm at Panera now) so I will update pictures then.  We have been busy taking down cabinets and priming the remaining cabinets and walls.  Oh, and I hate wallpaper!

Moving Day Part 2

Man, that took forever. Despite showing up at 9:30, the movers didn't leave until 7 pm!  There were no problems but one of them was a talker and that made him super slow at packing the kitchen. They didn't start loading the truck until 2:45.  Nice guys and the real hard worker is driving the van to IL so I'm feeling much better about the whole move. Now we can't wait to get on the road and to the new house.

I'll leave you with a picture of our stressed out Cali who has been making physical contact with one of us since we picked her up from Rob and Erika's.

 

Moving Day part 1

Cali is at Rob and Erika's house. The movers were on time and working! Mike and I are just sitting here watch people move us- this is awesome.

So Tired....

It has been a long week.  Not only has it been exhausting saying goodbye to everyone but all week I've been packing and I feel like it will never end.  First I had to organize and pack up my desk and bench at work.  Then I had to go through the 200+ vials of flies and organize them.  Lastly, the apartment.  I felt like we had done a lot up to this week but we still had more to pack.  We packed all day and I'm happy to announce that we are finished.  Well, except the kitchen but I'm having the movers pack that so that means we are finished.  The only problem we've encounters (so far) is that the two people we had lined up to look at the dryer never showed so now we have a dryer that we have to get rid of some how tomorrow.  Not exactly sure what is going to happen but for now I'm going to go to bed and I will worry about it in the morning.