So Much to Tell!

So, as is usual, it has been a while since I have updated. Well, there's lots to tell, so I'll get started!

1- My last week of work was pretty anticlimactic. I just packed up my 8 years worth of stuff and that was about it. Nichole organized a nice Genomics farewell party for me with cake and ice cream, so that was a nice way to say goodbye to everyone at once. On my last day there, I thought I might feel sad, but I didn't at all. So that was a good affirmation for me that I had made the right decision by choosing to leave Wake Forest for a new beginning. I will certainly miss some of the Wake Forest people, but those are the people I will remain in contact with despite distance.

This same week, Duane had a series of interview at 2 biotech companies in the Research Triangle area, so that was encouraging. He really liked both companies and felt he would be happy at either, so we were hopeful that he would get a job offer from at least one of the companies.

2- The following week we headed down to the beach for a nice family vacation before I started the new job. We went to Kiawah Island, SC, again, so I guess you could say this has become our preferred vacation spot. We hit the beach every day and took Sarah into Charleston to the SC Aquarium one morning. We had perfect weather the entire week, so that was fantastic. Sarah absolutely LOVED the beach. She played in the sand a lot and was completely fearless when it came to the ocean. She would run straight out into the ocean and would not stop until someone caught up with her and basically rescued her from drowning! She got knocked down a lot by waves, but that didn't seem to bother her. I think we have a water baby on our hands!

Our arrival home from vacation was not so pleasant. We came home late Saturday evening to a broken A/C and a broken deep freezer. Long story short, we had to endure the intense heat Saturday night, all day Sunday, and Sunday night. The repairman managed to work us in first thing Monday morning, so we had A/C by the time we all got home Monday evening. The freezer is another story. We lost a LOT of food, and the repairman will not be coming until NEXT Thursday. Our entire garage and house has smelled like rotten meat almost all week, and no matter how much we clean and disinfect the freezer, the smell comes back!!! So we have had a lot to deal with this week!

3- Immediately before we left for vacation, Duane got a job offer at one of the biotech companies in RTP. Then, while we were actually on vacation, he got an offer from the other company! Here we were just hoping for one job offer, and he ended up with two offers and a tough decision to make! After much thought, he decided to accept the job with the first company, Athenix, which is an agricultural biotech company. While he will be doing many of the same types of lab experiments he is skilled at, this will be a new experience for Duane as he has no agricultural experience. The company works on insect and pesticide resistant crops and has recently branched out into research and development of biofuels. So we are both excited about the possibilities and opportunities Duane will have with this company. He is all set to start on July 21st!

4- So all of this brings us to this week, which was my first week of work at Cato. Monday was orientation, which was just a typical day of HR stuff, benefits explanations and paperwork...BLAH! I spent the rest of the week in meetings and classes, and reading as much as I could in between. It was really neat (and enlightening) to sit in on some of the sponsor meetings and get a feel for how the whole clinical trial and FDA approval process actually works. Of course it is hard to know anything after just one week of work at a new job, but I think I am really going to enjoy working in this aspect of science.

I also got Sarah registered at a new preschool in Cary, NC. Her first day will be July 21, which is Duane's first day at his new job as well. Guess we will be doing the Lehtinen Family Commute to RTP for a while!

5- So it seems that the only thing left before things fall into place is for us to sell our house. We have 2 sets of interested buyers, so we are hopeful that we will soon get an offer from someone and will be able to relocate to the RTP area so that we are not doing the 200 mile round trip daily commute for much longer. I've only done it for one week, and I already dread it! It makes for a long day when you leave the house at 6:30 AM and don't get home until 6:30 or 7:00 that evening! I just keep reminding myself that it is temporary...the house will eventually sell!

Those are our updates in a nutshell. We have a new camera, and so we are still working on downloading our beach pictures onto the computer. Once we have that done, we'll post pictures. This weekend we are busy with regular household duties, Jacob's 2nd birthday party, and a visit from my friend Jennie! I'm just thankful to have a few days off from so much driving!

Hope you are all well! I'll try to update again soon, but can't promise anything since our lives are a bit topsy-turvy right now!

Update From the Past Few Weeks

Well, we have had some very busy weeks and weekends lately. To summarize briefly...

The weekend after Mother's Day, we attended Noah's 2nd birthday party at the Children's Museum and we also attended Megan's graduation celebration. Both parties were such fun, but they certainly made Sarah tired!

We spent Memorial Day weekend mostly in Anderson visiting Mimi and Papa Bagwell and Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Marisa. Sarah enjoyed walking around downtown Greenville, especially the Reedy River Falls Park. She was fascinated by the children's fountain area, so we spent a bit of time there. We also went to the Greenville Drive baseball game. It was our first time visiting the new baseball park, so we all really had a nice time. Duane and my dad were able to enjoy watching the game while my mom and I chased Sarah around inside the children's playgroud that is inside the ballpark. After the game, Sarah enjoyed a HUGE milkshake that Papa bought her, which she continued to slurp on for the entire car ride home! We returned home late Sunday evening so that we could get some household chores done on Monday before heading back to work on Tuesday. Later Monday evening, we enjoyed a cookout with several friends. The kids all enjoyed playing in their little swimming pools and playing on Noah's new swingset!

Yesterday it was back to the usual routine with work and daycare. I am really starting to wind down at Wake Forest, which is kind of a weird feeling. I don't have much to do now, so it makes for some long days at work. I need to start cleaning out my desk soon...I certainly accumulated a lot of stuff in 8 years time!

As for Duane's job situation, he has 2 upcoming interviews. One is tomorrow, and the other is next Tuesday. So we are hopeful that something good will come out of these two interviews! Next Wednesday I am taking the day to drive up to the Durham area to visit several daycares...hopefully we will be able to get Sarah into one of our top choices in the area without going completely broke (daycare costs A LOT more up there than it does here in Winston-Salem)!

We haven't had any activity as far as selling the house goes, but we have an open house scheduled for this coming Sunday, so we are hoping to at least get some activity through here and see what people think. This weekend is also my farewell party for work. My boss is hosting everyone at his house for dinner, which is awfully nice of him. So we have another busy weekend ahead!

I am home sick with the stomach flu today, which has NOT been fun. I am looking forward to feeling better soon...I HATE being sick. We'll try to update soon and let you all know how Duane's interviews work out...keep your fingers crossed for all of us!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Happy belated Mother's Day to all the mommies out there who read this blog! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and celebrated your special day with your children.

Things are clicking along here, pretty much the same as usual. No bites on the house yet, although we have had quite a number of people tag it as a favorite on the Listingbook website. So we are hopeful that we will get some traffic through here sooner rather than later. We think things were slow this weekend due to Mother's Day and bad weather, so hopefully we will get some potential buyers in here next weekend to take a look. One positive outcome from all of this is that our house has never been cleaner than it is now! It is kinda nice!

Saturday we took a day trip down to Charlotte to visit Grammy and Paka Lehtinen for Mother's Day. We took Grammy a plant for her yard. We also got to visit with Aunt Kristin, Uncle Mike, and Sarah's cousins Madison and Brady. Sarah enjoyed playing outside on Madison's swingset...she took her first ride on the big girl swing! She also played in Madison's playhouse. When we are finally settled into a new home in the Research Triangle area, we are planning to get Sarah a nice swingset. Looks like we may be investing in a playhouse, too!

Sunday was a nice Mother's Day at home. Sarah and Duane surprised me with some Krispy Kreme doughnuts and a nice skirt and shirt for the summer. It was pretty bad weather for most of the day Sunday, so we had a low-key day at home.

This week we don't have any real exciting plans. Duane found out today that he has two phone interviews this week (with two different companies), so we are keeping our fingers crossed that these phone interviews will lead to some on-site interviews and eventually a job offer. It will be a big relief to finally know that we both have jobs in the same part of the state!

This weekend we have a few festivities to attend. Saturday morning is Noah's 2nd birthday party, so Sarah will get to have fun with her friends at the Children's Museum for the party. Then Saturday evening, we have my friend Megan's graduation dinner party.

As usual, we'll try to keep you posted on any updates or exciting news. Hope you are all doing well!

So Many Updates, So Little Time...

As is the norm for our lives lately, a lot has happened since my last post.

We completed lots of little projects around the house over the past few weeks, and we interviewed several realtors. In the end, we decided to list our house with the realtor who was our Buyer's Agent when we purchased the house. So as of yesterday, our house is officially "For Sale." All of the realtors we met with seemed to think that we will have no problem selling it, so we are hoping that we will get lots of activity over the next few weeks and that we will have it sold sooner rather than later. Keeping the house clean, tidy and decluttered at all times is going to be a task in itself...especially with a shedding dog and a busy toddler in the house! Today we officially put Mr. Winston back in his kennel, which is what we will have to do daily now that we could potentially have house showings in the middle of the day. He remembered exactly what to do, and it didn't seem to bother him at all to go back to that way of life! Sarah was also intrigued by the kennel...she spent most of her time this morning playing in the kennel before she left for daycare!

I have been busy at work trying to tie up as many loose ends as possible with papers I am writing before I start my new job at Cato. On top of that, there is lots of paperwork and red tape to go through with the NIH in order to terminate my grant early without penalty. So I have been working on that as well. Earlier this week my boss informed me that he is planning a nice "Bon Voyage" party for me, to be hosted at his home, which is extremely nice of him. So I guess that will wrap up my time here at Wake Forest.

Duane continues to actively search for positions in the Research Triangle area. He attended a career fair in Durham last week, so we will see if something comes of that. Otherwise he has been busy in the lab working on experiments and writing some papers.

Sarah continues to do well. She is officially over her separation anxiety, so we have no trouble dropping her off at daycare these days. With that finally behind us, I am dreading the transition to a new daycare...hopefully we will not have a major setback! Sarah's latest obsession is Elmo (who she calls "Eh-Mo" with the emphasis on the Mo). She thinks my laptop computer at home is strictly for Google Image of Elmo! She will drag the computer over to one of us and want someone to pull up pictures of Elmo. She will sit there and stare at them and squeal with delight for quite a while! I broke down and got her an stuffed Elmo last week, and now she pretty much won't do anything without Elmo in tow. She has also begun referring to her little blankets as "Bobbys." So every night when she goes to bed, we have to round up Eh-MO and all three Bobbys before she will even think about getting in her crib. Oh well...whatever keeps her happy at night! With her recent Elmo obsession, I decided to take her to Sesame Street Live, which we will be attending in a few weeks. This show is all about Elmo, so I figured we can't go wrong with that as long as she is not over Elmo between now and then!

Over the weekend we celebrated Duane's 33rd birthday with a cookout and cake! On Saturday we had several of our friends over, which was nice. Sarah had fun showing Noah and Jacob all of her toys...they entertained each other pretty well and allowed the adults to actually talk to each other. Duane spent Sunday afternoon helping build Noah's swingset, which will be his 2nd birthday present from his parents. Danny, Billy and Duane actually managed to get the entire swingset assembled in just one day...all of us wives were sufficiently impressed!

We have several fun trips planned over the next few weeks. We are going to Greenville over Memorial Day weekend to visit Mimi and Papa and Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Marisa. Assuming the weather is nice, we are planning to take Sarah to the zoo and enjoy some time in the nice downtown area. And Papa has ordered a new swing for Sarah, so she will get to enjoy swinging outside while we are there! In June we are heading back to the beach for a week of family vacation before I start the new job. We will be going back to Kiawah Island June 7-14. We are really looking forward to seeing Sarah enjoy the beach this year. She really liked it last year, but it will be so much more interesting this year now that she can walk and talk! We are hoping that Mimi and Papa will get to join us for a few days while we are there.

Guess those are most of the updates. We will try to keep you posted as events transpire. It is getting harder for me to post regularly with all that is going on right now, but I will do my best. Hope this post finds everyone healthy and enjoying life!

Recent Updates

We've had a busy couple of weeks around here!

I formally accepted the job at Cato Research, Ltd., in Durham, which is a great opportunity for me and our family, but it has complicated our lives considerably. I have quite a bit of work that needs to be finished up at Wake Forest before I begin the new job, so Cato was kind enough to offer to push my start date back by a whole month. So my new official start date is Monday, June 16th.

The past couple of weeks we have been busy at home trying to get the house ready to sell. Last weekend, Mimi and Papa Bagwell came up for a visit, and we put them to work! With their help, we were able to get a lot done. We got some new plants for the beds in our front yard and the planters on the front of the house, we dug up a tree that was diseased and laid some sod in its place, we rearranged the living room furniture and got rid of one of our sofas, we rearranged Sarah's bedroom, and we made a few purchases to decorate things a bit more. This weekend, we had planned to begin painting the back porch railing, but our plans have been foiled once again by the threat of storms later this afternoon...I think it has rained for the past 4 weekends! At any rate, all we really have left to accomplish is the porch painting and spreading some fresh mulch, and we will have the house ready to sell! We are planning to meet with several realtors over the next few weeks before we officially list our house.

As for Sarah, she continues to do great! We THINK she is almost over her separation anxiety issues. This week we had 3 good days of drop-off at daycare, so we have our fingers crossed that we have overcome that obstacle. She continues to amaze us with her vocabulary, which expands by several words each day it seems. She is learning to count to 3 (her favorite number is two), and she is beginning to learn some of her colors (blue, yellow and purple). She still LOVES doing her puzzles, reading books., and playing with her Little People figures..those are her favorite indoor activities. She has been requesting to watch her "movies" less and less, which does not disappoint either of us since we have almost every one of her videos memorized! Since the weather has gotten warmer, Sarah's favorite activity is playing outside. She plays outside quite a bit at daycare, and she loves to walk around our yard and play in her sandbox when we are at home. In fact, she throws a tantrum when we tell her that it is time to go inside! The tantrums are quite loud and dramatic (she is definitely a drama queen), and can get on our nerves, but we are certainly thankful that she enjoys the outdoors and exercise! In other news, we don't think it will be too much longer before Sarah is ready to begin potty training. She is beginning to let us know when she has a wet or dirty diaper and she is showing some interest in the toilet. Of course, this could just be a phase...we'll wait and see.

Guess those are all of our updates. For the rest of this weekend, we will be trying to make some more progress on sorting through things and reorganizing inside the house. Next week I will be busy all week with the annual Junior League of Winston-Salem rummage sale. While this week is always fun, it is also very hectic and tiring for me since I am there every evening after work until 10:00! So I am sure I will be pooped by next weekend...we'll see how much I am able to get done around the house next weekend!

Hope you all enjoy the rest of the weekend and have a great week next week. We'll keep you posted!

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!

Nothing Out Of the Ordinary...

So last week was just another typical week for us. Work was work. It was Duane's last week before transitioning to his new lab, so he was basically cleaning out his desk and meeting with his boss one last time before being done. As for me, I had my typical work frustrations, but I won't elaborate on that. I never heard back from my interview at the CRO in Durham, so yesterday I contacted them. Turns out, they decided to interview more candidates (not sure why this was surprising to me), so I should get an update by the end of this week or the beginning of next week. We'll see...I'll keep you posted!

Last week was good for Sarah as well. As I have been saying lately, her vocabulary is just exploding, so it has been a lot of fun listening to what new words and sounds she discovers each day. It is getting too difficult to remember all the words she learns each week so that I can pass that news along to all of you. So I'll have to start just hitting the highlights. Last week, Sarah started telling us when she wanted us to sit down with her on the floor. It is really quite amusing. She'll go over to the floor, squat down and tap the floor while she is saying "Sit" over and over. That is our cue that we need to stop what we are doing and go sit down because she is ready to play! She has also learned to say "No" which makes life a little more interesting now. And she has learned to say "more" when she wants more to eat, drink, etc. So she is definitely learning how to communicate her feelings and desires with us!

The weekend was a mixed bag of emotions - fun, celebratory and sad. On Saturday we met up with several other couples and their kids for breakfast at the new IHOP in Clemmons...oh, the excitement in our lives! After that, we all headed to the Children's Museum so the kids could play. They had a blast! Sarah remembered where all her favorite spots were, and she was not nearly as reserved and timid as she was the last time we were there. They all played until they were exhausted...Sarah fell asleep in the car before we even got out of the parking lot! Saturday evening we headed over to some other friends' house for Tim's surprise 30th birthday party. Sarah did pretty good in a house full of strangers, so we were proud of her for that. She has been going through a bit of a clingy stage, which we are told is due to separation anxiety that typically occurs between 16 and 19 months of age. Sunday morning we received the sad news that Duane's childhood friend, Jon Brown, had passed away. He had been battling leukemia for about 18 months, and the doctors decided back in November that there was nothing else they could do for him. So he went home to spend the rest of his time with his wife and baby daughter and other family and friends. It was sad news to hear, especially when something like this happens to someone so young. This was his second battle with leukemia...he first got sick when he was in college but was able to get a bone marrow transplant at that time and was able to recover. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, especially his wife and his daughter.

In other news, Sarah is sick again with another cold. She started feeling puny on Sunday, and she developed a fever, so I have been home with her yesterday and today trying to nurse her back to health. She seems to be feeling much better today, and so far no fever today, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that she is able to get some good rest and recover today so that she and I can both go back to our normal schedules tomorrow.

The rest of the week should be typical for us. This weekend Mimi and Papa Bagwell are coming back to see us! Duane and I are going to the last Wake Forest basketball game of the season, so they are going to watch Sarah while we go enjoy the game. Otherwise, nothing exciting is planned. I'll update again next weekend, as usual. Enjoy the rest of the week!