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Sunday, July 2, 2017

Nora is 17 months and talking

We've hit the stage of a new word or two or three a day!! It's so fun communicating with our sweet red-headed toddler. My greatest surprise is just how proud and rewarding it is to watch Kathleen as big sister in action: teaching, reading, and protecting.

Comprehensible words include:
Mom, momma
Daddy
Hi - Bye
No
🌃 Night night
Hat
Ball
Up
Down
Mine
What's that
Yay!!
Eyes
Nose
Mouth
Ear
Teeth
Head or Hair
Toes
Apple
Animal
🦉 Owl - hoo hoo
🐕 Dog
🐢 Turtle
Ice
Hungry
Eat
Bubble
Ouch
Hit
Bite
Choo-choo

Also, Nora loves to eat bananas. We call her our little monkey and if you ask her what sound a monkey makes it's the cutest little "eeek eek" sound you've ever heard.

Love our girls.

Saturday, July 1, 2017

"I am the sum of all my stories"

After two and a half years of not blogging I'm committed to writing down our stories here again. It brings me joy - the exact theme of this blog - and it is a service to my family to preserve our memories.

What's new for us in the past 31 months you might ask?

We moved from Henderson back to Durham for Calvin to work at McMannen UMC in December 2014. Calvin left McMannen and his work as a pastor in the United Methodist Church in January 2017. He is now working to start our family business Three Bean Properties.

We had a miscarriage in February 2014, ectopic pregnancy in September 2014, and unplanned successful pregnancy in 2015 which brought us dear sweet Nora Jane on January 29, 2016.

I left working at The Duke Chronicle in August 2014 and when we moved back to Durham I began looking for work again. I joined The Daily Tar Heel February 16, 2015 as the Advertising Director. It has been hard work the past two years with lots of changes. I am hopeful for the school year ahead and eternally grateful for the most recent investment in a Southwestern Sales Coach/Consultant for me and our team.

Kathleen graduated Kindergarten at Holt Elementary Language Academy. She had the best teacher, Mrs Scott, with 29 years experience teaching Kindergarten. Kathleen enjoys learning and made straight A's in the last quarter of school. I'm so proud of that because I know she worked hard for it. She loves learning Chinese and we love the year round school schedule. Kathleen's currently in gymnastics as her Friday extra circular activity. She wants to go to the Olympics. She absolutely adores horses and she just finished her first full day summer camp experience at Camp Chestnut Ridge. Kathleen loves camp which makes us happy because we do too. In May celebrated her 6 yr old birthday there with the horses!!

From August 2016 - May 2017 we had a dear friend Cici Du living with our family. Cici is from China and graduated from UNC in 2016. She landed an amazing job at Participate in Chapel Hill and got her work visa in April. She's still in Durham and we're so happy to still have our family friend close by.

My mom and dad moved to Durham in October 2015 and just purchased a house 10 minutes down the road from us in May 2017. They have been absolutely amazing full time caretakers for Nora. We love having them so close. Living life with my parents is so good. I have no idea how we used to manage with them an hour and a half away. Pop Pop's Cafe is always open upon request and Mamaw will make dessert!!