We Wish You a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Again, in true Allison fashion, I have been delinquent at updating the blog. So much has happened since I last blogged that I am not sure where to begin. So here it all is, in no particular (or chronological) order:

1- Just before my last day of work for 2008, I found out that I passed the exam I took back in early November! What a relief! So I now have my RAC (Regulatory Affairs Certification), which hopefully will hold some good weight in my new career once I can gain some practical experience to go along with the certification. If you are REALLY curious, and want to know what this all means, you can click on the following link:
http://www.raps.org/personifyebusiness/Certification/AboutRAC/tabid/233/Default.aspx

2- We received some more exciting news just before we headed out of town to celebrate Christmas with our families: our lot has been released! Of course, this all happened just as we and our realtor were about to be on vacation for a few days, so we have been really anxious to get things moving. We are all set to meet with our realtor tomorrow morning to go over things again, come up with our negotiating strategy, and come up with a list of additional upgrades we want in the house above what is standard. Hopefully, we will be able to sit down with the builders later this week or over the weekend to officially write the contract, sign everything, give them some money, and get started with construction. We are hoping to be under construction by the end of January!

3- The weeks leading up to Christmas were full of excitement, despite the fact that we were cramped up in the townhouse, with no Christmas tree (no room in the inn, so to speak), and really no other Christmas decorations either. It seemed sorta non-Christmasy to us. So we tried to get Sarah out to a lot of events to allow her to really experience Christmas. We went to the Apex Christmas parade in early December, we spent lots of evenings riding around looking at Christmas lights and decorations, we attempted to visit Santa at the mall (didn't go so well), we took a ride on the Santa Train in Durham, and Sarah had a Christmas party at her preschool. Since we were going to be in Charlotte on Christmas Eve, Santa made a special trip to Sarah's house earlier in the week. She baked cookies for Santa, and went to bed very willingly in anticipation of the presents Santa would deliver. She was super-excited the next morning to come downstairs to a new art easel and lots of art supplies, a new pair of Dora sunglasses, some new clothes for Emily (her bunny from Build-a-Bear), and a clothes armoire for storing Emily's expanding wardrobe! And of course, her visits to both sets of grandparents also resulted in lots of new toys and books to entertain her. She has really had a good time playing with everything!

We have all enjoyed some time off from work and preschool...how nice to have a break from the normal busy routine! We were all 3 off last week for Christmas, and we are off again this week as well. Sarah and I have enjoyed sleeping in until 8:00 each morning, so next week will be a rude awakening for us!

Hope you are all well and that you had a very merry Christmas with family and friends. We wish you all a safe, happy and healthy 2009! I'll post again in the New Year!

Long Time, No Post!

Hello everyone! Sorry if it seems like we have fallen off the face of the earth, but I assure you that we are all here and doing well. We have been incredibly busy the last month or so; hence, my delinquency in updating the blog.

Work is going well for both me and Duane. I did take my regulatory affairs certification exam at the beginning of November. Despite the months of studying, it was still an insanely difficult exam, and I feel as though nothing I studied actually showed up on the exam. So that was frustrating and a bit scary as well. It will be 8-10 weeks before I get the results back, so I am just trying to put it out of my mind for the time being...I can't change the outcome at this point, so there is no need to be stressed. Please keep your fingers crossed that I passed...I don't know if I have it in me to retake the exam, and it is a certification that I really do need for my new career. Now that the exam is over, I have had lots of time to do "real" work, and let me assure you, I have been busy, busy, busy! Duane continues to impress everyone at his job. He has gotten a lot accomplished in a short time, and as a result, he gets roped into giving a presentation about once a week. But he is really enjoying what he is doing, so that makes the presentations seem not so bad (most of the time).

In other news, we are making progress on our pursuit for a house here in Cary. We continue to be in love with one neighborhood and particular floorplan in that neighborhood, and we keep coming back to it no matter how much we look elsewhere. So a couple of weekends ago we took the plunge and put down a deposit to reserve a lot in the neighborhood. We selected our lot and paid our deposit...now all we have to do is wait until the city releases the lots to the builders, and we will be all set to officially go under contract and begin construction. They anticipated that the lots would be released before Thanksgiving, but it doesn't look like that is going to be the case. Which works out fine for us, since we have our lease at the townhouse until the end of July. We would love to close on the new house in early June, take our time moving in and unpacking as much as we can on our own, and then have the movers come at the end to move all the big furniture. While we wait for the lots to be released, we have been busy with several banks and mortgage companies, "shopping" for the company that is going to work with us the most and give us the best interest rate and incentives. I am sure once construction starts, we will get more anxious and impatient. But for now we are just happy knowing that the end is in sight, and it makes it so much easier to face spending the winter months in this townhouse.

So, in case you are curious about the details of the house, here's a quick summary: It's 3300 square feet on 0.24 acres (which is a pretty large lot for the Raleigh area). Downstairs is the formal dining room, the office, a large family room, an eat-in kitchen, the laundry room, a full bathroom and the master suite. Upstairs is the bonus room, 3 bedrooms, and 2 full bathrooms. So it's PLENTY of space for the 3 of us, Mr. Winston, and any subsequent Little Lehtinens that may one day be added to our family (no plans for that anytime in the immediate future). Here are a couple of pics:

This is a cut-off picture of the model home. We will be building this same house.

This is a picture of our lot of dirt. It's a nice flat lot (the mound at the back will be leveled).

As for Sarah, which is really why everyone reads this blog anyway, she is doing great! She talks all the time, and we can carry on complete conversations with her now. It is so nice to be able to understand everything she says, and for her to be able to communicate things with us rather than having to guess what's going on all the time like you do when they are infants. She's a real little person now! She has been extremely healthy since we have moved here...she has her first little cold now, but nothing that gets her down. So we are so fortunate in that respect. We are still battling with the whole potty training issue. She can basically change her diaper on her own, but she refuses to do anything on the potty. Today she spent the morning in "big girl panties", and sitting on the potty, but no progress. She just peed all over herself and the floor each time, and Duane and I ran ourselves ragged wiping it all up. So we are on a break for now, as she is clearly not quite ready to do this. We will keep trying, but we are not forcing the issue...no point in all 3 of us getting frustrated and still not accomplishing our goal! As a quick re-cap, in October we did take her to a pumpkin farm for the day one Saturday and she had a blast. And she really got the hang of trick-or-treating at Halloween as well. Since we don't really live in a neighborhood, we took her to trick-or-treat at the mall. The stores were giving out candy and stickers, and there was a kid's music group there and a magician there for entertainment. So it was a good time. We re-used the bumblebee costume from last year since it still fit her...it was funny to see how much more grown-up she looked this year compared to last year. We do have pictures from the pumpkin patch and Halloween that we have not downloaded yet (slack, I know). I'll update this post with the pictures once we get them downloaded on the computer.

We are looking forward to a little break from the norm next week. We will be visiting all the family and enjoying lots of yummy food! We will be headed to SC on Wednesday morning to visit Mimi and Papa and Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Marisa. Mimi and I will do our usual Black Friday shopping, and then Friday afternoon we will head to Charlotte to visit with Grammy and Paka, Aunt Kristin, Uncle Mike, Madison and Brady. Hopefully our friends Jennie and Julia will be able to fit in a visit with us as well! We'll be heading back to Cary Sunday morning so we can get ready for a week back at work and school!

Hard to believe that the Holidays are already here. Hope you are all doing well and are taking time to enjoy the season. I won't promise to update soon, as I would just be setting myself up for failure with that promise. But I will TRY to squeeze in another post before Christmas!

Happy 2nd Birthday to Our Baby Girl!

It has been a couple of weeks since my last post, and what a busy couple of weeks it has been!

We celebrated Sarah's 2nd birthday (Sept. 29) for an entire week! She had an Elmo cake on her birthday (made by ME!), and we attempted to take her to Build-a-Bear but she got a little overrwhelmed and could not make any decisions. Mimi and Papa came for a visit on Thursday and spent the day with Sarah on Friday. They played together at the park and went out for lunch. That evening, we attempted Build-a-Bear again, and although things started off shaky, she eventually selected a bunny and even chose some clothes, shoes and ear-bows for her. The bunny's name is Emily...Sarah named her all by herself! She LOVES Emily and treats her just like a real person! That Saturday, we went to the NC Zoo in Ashboro. We met up with Grammy and Paka, Aunt Kristin, Uncle Mike, Madison and Brady, and our friends Jennie, Julia and Julietta. Sarah had a blast at the zoo...we stayed until it closed only stopping for a lunch-time picnic and birthday cake to rejuvenate us! Sarah got lots of nice gifts from everyone. She sure is a lucky girl!

It is so hard for us to believe that our sweet baby girl is already 2 years old! We took her for her two-year pictures today, and she really looks like a little girl now. She is so independent and opinionated. Right now she talks and sings all the time! She is learning how to use her manners by saying things like "Scuse me mommy (or daddy)", "I welcome" (for you're welcome), and "Bless you mommy (or daddy)." On the other end of the spectrum, she has also learned to send herself to time-out when she does something naughty! She can pretty much sing her A-B-Cs correctly, and she is working on counting to 10. Her new favorite songs to sing are Rock-a-Bye Baby, Baa-Baa Black Sheep, Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, and Where is Thumbkin. She is growing up so fast! Speaking of growing, she had her 2-year checkup a couple of weeks ago, and her annual ENT checkup last week. She is a very healthy girl! She weighed in at 25 pounds (20th percentile) and was 32 3/4 inches tall (25th percentile).

Those are Sarah's recent updates. As for me and Duane, we are good too. Both busy at work, and anxious to get out of the rental townhouse and into our own home. With the economy the way it is now though, we're planning to wait things out a bit to see how things progress. Oh, and for anyone interested, I did get the lab results back from my physical a few weeks ago, and everything checked out great...I even have LOW cholesterol which is great news! So it was nice to get a clean bill of health and not have that to worry about for a few more years!

I'll be busy the next few weeks studying for the regulatory exam that I have to take for work, but I'll try to post again before the exam! Hope you are all enjoying the fall weather!

Doctors, Tutus and Picnics...Oh My!!!

The title of this blog sums up our activities last week and weekend. Not sure if I mentioned it in a previous blog or not, but my New Year's resolution for 2008 was to get a physical. I decided that it was important to get a complete blood work-up so that I will have some baseline numbers established in my early 30s. I am not a big fan of doctors in general, mainly due to all the drama I experienced in college dealing with my heart arrhythmia. So I am proud to say that I faced my fears head-on by going for my physical last Friday. I really liked the practice and the doctor I saw. They all made me feel comfortable, which is important for me given all of my anxiety and phobias. I went back for a fasting blood draw on Monday of this week to assess cholesterol, glucose, thyroid, liver function, and kidney function. Should have the results from the blood work any day now, so hopefully all is well and I can say I came out of this medical experience on a positive note!

Saturday, Sarah paraded around the house in her ballerina tutu and matching headband. She even attempted a pirouette or two for us. Guess she must get her dancing skills from her dad, because as most of you know, my ballet career was short-lived due to my lack of gracefulness and inability to do a cartwheel (still can't do one to this day, by the way).

After church on Sunday, we headed to Pullen Park in Raleigh for my company picnic. Despite the intense heat, we managed to have a nice time. Duane enjoyed meeting some of my coworkers, and Sarah enjoyed playing with the hula hoops and bubble machines. We took her for a ride on the train at the park, and she also enjoyed a ride on the carousel. After all the heat and activities of the day, she crashed in the car on the way home and proceeded to nap until 5:30 that evening!

So far, this week has been pretty typical for us. Sarah seems to have a bit of a cold right now, but it is certainly not slowing her down at all! Without sharing all of the details, she has been making some progress with potty training. She has successfully used the potty twice in the past two weeks: once at home and once at preschool. They continue to work with her each day at school, so hopefully she will get the hang of it soon! Her vocabulary continues to develop each day it seems. Right now she enjoys singing her A-B-Cs and counting, although the letters and the numbers are not always in the correct order! She has also recently discovered M&Ms, and she LOVES them!!!! Guess we hid the pleasures of candy from her long enough...there is no turning back now. At least the M&Ms have been somewhat educational...she names the color of each one, so it is a good way to practice her colors!

No big plans for the upcoming weekend. We'll probably just take it easy and maybe look at some more potential neighborhoods. If the weather stays on the cooler side, I am sure we will take a trip to a park so that Sarah can enjoy some play time.

Hope you all enjoy these last few days of summer! More updates to come!

Our Labor Day Weekend

We had a very fun and action-packed Labr Day weekend. It all started with our nearly 6 hour drive Friday evening from Cary to Anderson, SC. We left Cary at 6:45 Friday evening, and finally rolled into Mimi and Papa's driveway around 12:30 am Saturday morning. What should have been a 4 1/2 hour drive was painfully extended due to 3 or 4 standstill traffic jams we encountered on our journey. Sarah held up pretty well through the trip though, despite the fact that she didn't really nap at all on the way down. Everytime I would tell her to close her eyes and go to sleep, she would just say "No eyes Mommy, no eyes." It was pretty cute! She was excited to see Mimi and Papa when we finally did arrive, so she got her second wind and stayed up until about 1:00 am!!!!


Saturday morning she spent some time swinging outside with Papa, and we also took her on a short wagon ride in Mimi and Papa's neighborhood. Uncle Jimmy and Aunt 'Risa came over around lunchtime, and we all ran some errands together before heading to the SC Upperstate Fair for the evening. Sarah had a great time at the fair...she LOVED riding all the kids' rides, she enjoyed all the animals in the petting zoo, and she even took a pony ride! Here are some pictures of her enjoying her evening:


Riding the carousel with Papa

Posing in the stroller with Mommy

At the fair with Uncle Jimmy and Aunt 'Risa

Riding the Treasure Hunt ride with Mimi

Riding the firetruck with Daddy

Pony ride!

Getting kisses from the llama

On Sunday we just took it easy. Sarah wanted to go on the swing again, and wanted Papa to push her so high that her toes touched the leaves of the trees. She would say "I touch the trees, I touch the trees!" And then she would giggle so much when Papa would push her and her toes would touch the leaves! I guess she enjoyed it a little too much because she suffered from motion sickness and got sick in the swing! So after we got her cleaned up and calmed down, she crashed for a LONG nap! We just hung around the house most of the day and rested and visited...it was nice!

Monday morning we headed out early so we could have time to stop off in Charlotte to visit with Grammy and Paka. We arrived at their house around 11:30, and had a nice visit and lunch with them, Aunt Kristin, and Sarah's cousins Madison and Brady. My friend Jennie and her daughter Julia stopped in to visit as well, and it was GREAT to see both of them! We hit the road again around 3:00 to finish the drive back to Cary. Luckily, the traffic was not bad at all on Monday, so we got back home around 6:00, which gave us plenty of time to unpack and wind down a little before starting our week.

The short work week was nice for all of us. Duane and I had typical work weeks, and Sarah had a pretty uneventful week at school. She spent most days in the 2 year old classroom, and she will officially be moving up to that room next week. She seems to have adjusted really well to her new classmates and teachers, so we are thankful for that.

This weekend will likely be uneventful as well. We are expecting bad weather from Tropical Storm Hanna tonight and tomorrow morning. I am supposed to head to Winston-Salem in the morning for a hair appointment and to visit friends, but we will see if the weather is on my side! Sunday will just be typical for us: church, grocery shopping, and laundry to get ready for next week!

That's all the updates for now! I'll post more when we actually have something else that is somewhat exciting to report! Take care!

An Attempt to Post Semi-Regularly!

In a vain effort to update you all more than once a month, here is a SECOND post for the month of August!

We continue to get settled into life in our new "home." We are trying to make the best of our return to apartment life. While we both mostly gripe about how much we hate this situation, there are a few things that are nice. For example, no yard work, no real home maintenance other than some light cleaning, and cheap rent which is allowing us to save more money for the purchase of a new home. In short, there are minimal responsibilities.

Last weekend, Mimi and Papa Bagwell made their first trip to Cary for a visit. We really enjoyed their visit. We took them with us to look at several new home communities in the area. We looked at a couple of neighborhoods that we really like. One of the neighborhoods will likely have sold all of their homesites by the time we are ready to begin construction in early 2009. But the second neighborhood still has plenty of homesites remaining and we actually like the builders for that neighborhood better, so we are hopeful that something will work out in our timeframe. We will still continue to actively look at neighborhoods in the area. I think we have decided that we definitely want new construction, so that helps us narrow our search a bit. That and cost...BOY, is real estate more expensive here than we ever imagined!

We also went to the Cary Lazy Daze festival with Mimi and Papa on Saturday. There were lots of booths of arts and crafts, live entertainment, several children's areas, and plenty of food. Sarah seemed to enjoy walking around and people-watching, despite the heat! Papa managed to snag her a firegirl hat, which she enjoyed wearing the rest of the afternoon!

So far, this week has been a pretty typical week for all of us. We are headed to Anderson and Charlotte for Labor Day weekend. Mimi and Papa want to take Sarah to the Upperstate SC fair Saturday evening, and on Monday we will be visiting with Grammy and Paka Lehtinen in Charlotte before heading back home to Cary. We are looking forward to having a long weekend and a break from the usual routine.

Hope you all have a fun and safe Labor Day weekend. I'll attempt to post again soon!

Attention Duane's Buddies...

When Duane left Wake Forest, he also left his e-mail address book! Since he no longer has access to that e-mail account, he is unable to get in touch with any of you. So here's the best way to reach him:

duanelehtinen@gmail.com

His cell phone number has remained the same.

He'll be waiting to hear from you all with updates!

And Graham...what happened to your blog?