Erin and I are planning on driving up to Peoria for labor day weekend (driving Fri and Mon, in town Sat and Sun).  We are not going to come back for Thanksgiving or Christmas, but if anyone wants to come down for the holidays or otherwise, we’ve got plenty of room.

It is a strange feeling moving into the stage of living in this house where things are mostly in place and we slow down in our moving activities.  Work is going well, but the pace is incredibly slow compared to what I was used to…that’s been nice so far.

I replaced the motherboard in Erin’s computer since the previous one got fried.  The old one withstood a power surge and kept on running about 6 months and suddenly just stopped working.  Now Erin’s back up and running again with her computer.

I’m in the process of organizing my bookshelves…now I have Erin’s school books in addition to my own to find a location for.  I may end up building a new set of bookshelves to spread the burden.

I mowed, weed-wacked and fertilized the lawn for the first time this weekend.  It’s about 1 hour to mow the lawn using side discharge.  I actually ran out of fuel about 5 minutes before I ran out of grass…but I hadn’t filled the tank as high as I could have.  The lawn looks a heck of a lot better now that it is more even.

Those bricks that Erin put in on the front walk look really good too.  She put those in over the course of 4 hours in the sun.  That was a long afternoon.  The builder’s wife came by afterwards and was really impressed with the look, so Erin may have started a trend on new houses.

I uploaded some pictures from our trip to Davidson Space Center today.

Well, the movers came yesterday and we were on the red-eye out of Seattle at midnight.  I can’t believe the time has passed so quickly.  It seems like just yesterday that I was here in Alabama interviewing for my new position.

It was very hard to leave our friends and the place we’ve called home for 4 years.  We will miss everyone, but remember that we have plenty of room for visitors.

We’d like to thank Erin’s parents for helping us make the move and thanks Brian, Chris and Paul for taking all of our flammable unmoveable materials and extra beer.  Remember, we always have kareoke to remember you by!

We will try to upload some pictures of our house later this week.  As most of you know, we did the interior design very quickly.  Good news!  So far, to our amazement, it actually looks nice!

Thank you all for everything, Nick and Erin. (PS come visit)

Well, we got our official delivery dates from the moving company the other day. That has caused a few changes….as a result, we got to move up the closing date. The builder is confident he will be done by then. We also finalized out flight arrangements, rental car, and hotel for Alabama. I can’t believe it is coming so fast….there is still so much to do. I am sure it will all get done though. At least my parents will be both out here and down there to help this time. Hopefully it will go better than the move out here…although it really couldn’t go much worse.

Erin and I went to Avenue Q this weekend and loved it! It’s Sesame Street for mature audiences. I didn’t stop laughing for a couple of days.

As a side note, I had some minor surgery on my right big toe to remove ingrown nails. It’s going alright so far, still numb.

Well, Nick is doing much better.  He saw the doctor today for his first post-op visit.  The doctor said he is healing well and removed his stitch and the rest of the pieces.  He is really starting to feel better and notice a difference.

Also, we got our official moving days.  The movers will come pack our stuff on 7-17 and load it on 7-18.  I can’t believe how fast it is coming.  Hopefully we will be able to fly out on 7-19, but we won’t know that for a while yet.

Nick’s surgery went well today, the doctor said his septum was “very” deviated.  He is home now and sleeping on and off.   When he isn’t sleeping he is watching world cage fighting.
I know Nick hasn’t had a chance to update much since we got home.  Yes, we did buy a house in Athens, Alabama, which is about 25 minutes from work for Nick (and right outside Huntsville).  I think I have sent the pictures to everyone…but if I missed someone I am sorry…just let me know and I will send them to you.

Erin went to an ENT today to get ear tubes put in. Since she’s had so much trouble with the ears on flights previously, she didn’t want to mess around with them any more. We are currently looking at about 8 flights within the next 2 months, and based on our trip to California, she would have been absolutely miserable without some sort of treatment.

Ear tubes are really just being used to address a symptom of the real problem, her sinuses…so she still needs further help clearing those out, but we’re going to have to rely on the doctors she’s seen her whole life back in Illinois for that.

Now that she’s got the tubes, she notices a bit of echo.  The procedure was painful at first when she got numbed up and she’s had a bit of pain since then, but it’s under control.

I’m sure everyone who reads this will love to see some pictures of me on the crutches and my foot after it started swelling and bruising.

  Pics on page 3 and 4 of the 2008 album.