Sorry it's been a while...

...but things have been very busy around here! Since there is so much to report, I'll give you all the condensed version.

The first and most exciting piece of news is that I GOT THE JOB IN DURHAM!!!!! I am really excited about the change, and Duane and I are both looking forward to finally transitioning to the Research Triangle area. As of May 19, I will be working for Cato Research. Between now and then, I have a lot of loose ends to time up at Wake Forest.

Since one of us now finally has a job in the Research Triangle area, it is time to get the house on the market so I will not have to commute the 200 miles round-trip each day for too long! We have a few minor things we want to do to the house before we officially meet with any realtors, so those repairs and touch-ups will keep us busy over the next few weeks. Hopefully we will be able to have success at selling the house over the Spring/Summer and we can at least move to Greensboro or Burlington (which would be about a 40 minute commute for both of us) temporarily until Duane is able to secure a job in the Triangle area. At that point, our plan is to move to the Durham/Chapel Hill/Cary/Apex area.

As for Sarah, she is changing every day, so there is no way I can fill you in on all that she has been doing over the past few weeks since my last post. So I'll hit the highlights.

1- Sarah gave up her pacifier over the long Easter weekend. We took it away from her Thursday night, and she has been paci-free ever since! The first two nights went really well, followed by about 3 terrible nights, but it has been smooth sailing since then. So I am glad we have that out of the way!

2- We spent Easter with Grammy and Paka Lehtinen and Uncle Mike, Aunt Kristin, Madison and Brady. Sarah had fun visiting with everyone, and she enjoyed playing with Madison! She had fun at her first Easter Egg Hunt (which was inside Grammy and Paka's house), and she was a natural at picking up the eggs and putting them in her basket. We did capture the egg hunt on video, and I've uploaded a short clip of that video for your enjoyment. She was worn out after 2 long days of excitement!

3- Sarah had her 18 month check-up yesterday. She weighs 21 pounds 13 ounces (25th percentile) and she is 31 inches tall (50th percentile). She got her last 2 booster shots, so she won't need anymore shots until she is 5 years old (except for the annual flu shot)! Yay for no more shots! She has 2 of her incisor teeth left to break through the gum and we'll be done with teething until that last set of molars comes in around age 2-3 years old. So we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel with teething as well!

4- As for vocabulary, she basically learns a new word (or several words) every day, so I can't possibly keep up with her language development. She enjoys telling us "No no" while she shakes her finger at us...we try not to laugh at this, but it is so darn cute! She still enjoys naming all of her face and body parts, and she has a few new animal noises that she has added to her repertoire (the monkey, the lion and the tiger). The past few days, she has enjoyed learning the word "turtle" which she says very clearly and distinctly as "tur-tle." She basically will try to repeat almost anything you say to her.

5- She is also doing all sorts of other fun things. In the past few weeks, she has become interested in singing the A-B-Cs. Anytime the song comes on her CD in the car, she says "A-B-C." That's as far as she can get right now, but it is pretty cute to hear her get all excited when the song starts! She also has a new favorite video (which she calls her "moo-mees" for movies). It is called "The Laurie Berkener Band." Basically, it is a band sort of like the Wiggles, but not QUITE as annoying. On the video they sing songs and dance around, and Sarah loves it. She tries to mimic the dance and there are certain parts of the songs where she sings along. Her other latest activity is doing the hand motions to "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." I am assuming that she has learned this in her preschool music class at school, because I don't do the hand motions with her at home. But one of her music CDs in the car has the song on it, and every time it comes on, she starts doing all the hand motions for the spider, the rain, and the sun. It is really cute! Besides these new activities, Sarah still enjoys her puzzles (she is a pro at those now), reading books, playing with her kitchen, and doing art projects (especially anything involving paint). She is a typical busy toddler!

Those are our updates, in a nutshell! At the moment, I am sick with something nasty that resembles the flu if it is not actually the flu itself, so I am not getting much accomplished so far this weekend. Next weekend, Grammy and Paka are coming to stay with Sarah while Duane and I take a trip to Grandfather Mountain/Blowing Rock for a long weekend. We are staying at a nice little Bed and Breakfast up there, so it should be fun (hopefully I will be feeling better by then)!

Hope you are all doing well! Sorry for the lapse in posting...I had been doing so good for a while. I'll try to post again next weekend or early the following week to update you on our trip, our crazy and hectic lives, and of course the latest in Sarah's life!