In the meantime....

Happy Monday!

We don't have much to report today. The weekend was lovely, although a little unproductive. In our original itinerary, we were supposed to have left for DC on Saturday, but the van is still far from finished, so we have been hanging out killing time. 

What does that involve?.... Shooting some hoops, rescuing a turtle, looking at pictures of my new niece, and watching Davidson get eliminated from the March Madness tournament (very disappointing). 

"Okay, but what's the deal with the turtle?"

Casey found him on the basketball court. There was no water in sight, so he decided to bring him home. His name is Duke and he is about the size of a 50 cent piece (very cute). We are looking for a lake to release him in. Don't worry, we are not planning on keeping him. 

Last night was tremendously sad because we all had to say goodbye to my brother (he came to visit for the weekend again). The army doesn't let him leave the state very often, so we don't really know when we will see him again. This was particularly hard on Egg who thinks that my brother is The Coolest Person In The Universe (I tend to agree with him). Hopefully, they will let him come to Massachusetts sometime this summer so that he can meet his nephew. 

Hope you are all well.

Missing October

For those of you who are not up-to-date, we have been having some problems with the van... one main problem, actually, which is that she needs a new engine.

This is obviously a fairly unfortunate situation because replacing an engine is an expensive, time-consuming process and our time here in North Carolina is limited. 

On the other side of the coin, can you imagine our good luck? We have travelled 9,000 miles so far. If the van had had this problem at any other point at all we would have been totally up a creek. But instead, the cylinder went out in North Carolina at a time when it was possible to send her in for a week or more to get fixed without causing us any trouble at all, except the expense. It is that kind of thoughtfulness that makes October the best van in the world.

We both agreed that she definitely deserved a fancy new motor. 

The first step of the process was to find a shop that would be able to fix her. Let me tell you, finding places that will agree to do anything with an old vanagon are few and far between and the fact that we are in North Carolina (a state which has approximately 3 vanagons) did not help any. Eventually, I managed to find a place to take her in a town called Jacksonville, which is about 40 minutes away.

Step two was to locate a motor. I did this the same way that I do pretty much everything nowadays: I looked online. After finding a good company, we ordered the motor and arranged for it to be shipped directly to the shop in Jacksonville. Later, they would have our old motor picked up and brought back to them, thus allowing us to get refunded for the 600 dollar "core charge."According to the tracking information, the new motor should be at the shop by Monday.

And finally, step three was to get October to Jacksonville. This ended up being the easiest step because, as it turns out, the shop that agreed to fix her also provides towing services. So on a very sad Wednesday morning we bid fair-well (for now) to our trusty van.

If everything goes as planned, we will be able to pick her up late next week... just in time for our trek to Boston. And she should be better than ever with her brand new engine, new clutch (we originally planned on fixing the clutch in Boston, but it turns out the majority of the expense is in labor because you have to take out the engine... fancy that, our engine will already be out, so we are saving 500 dollars), and repaired exhaust leak (very minor problem).

That's how you turn a major-bummer situation into an opportunity to make the van 100 times more reliable for our trip back across the country when a very special passenger will be on board. Speaking of the baby, a couple of you asked about my due date: its May 21. 

8 weeks seems like an eternity. But we will wait patiently.

And for additional updates on the baby-front: He has begun hiccuping. A lot. It is a very strange feeling. And he is still rolling and tumbling just as vigorously as always, even though my pregnancy reading says he should be settling down now because he is running out of space. Obviously, the lack of space doesn't bother him. He kicks the most during our nightly reading sessions, I think that's his favorite time of day.

Well, I will let you get back to your wonderful day now. We are praying for spring flowers and warm weather for you.

Babies, Babies Everywhere

Guess what???!!!

I have just figured out how to import images from the internet straight to the blog. This new technological advance came to me right in time to shower you with pictures of my new niece, Alden Elisabeth, who was born last night.

Isn't she the cutest thing you have ever seen? 

Both baby and mom (Robbi) are healthy and well... maybe just a bit tired.

I can't tell you how much seeing these pictures makes me want to meet our little guy. 

8 weeks left.

I can't wait. 

See you tomorrow for the van update.

On the Up Side of Things...

After bombarding you with bad news for two blogs in a row, I thought that it would be best to update quickly with something a little more uplifting. So, I will tell you about our oh-so-much-fun day of mini golf. 

Mini golf just happens to be my specialty. Really. The competition doesn't stand a chance. In this case, the competition was my dearest husband, my dad, brother, and my brother's friend Nate, who spent the weekend with us.

On the first hole, we were all roughly even, but that faded quickly as I began to show my true Tiger skills. Eighteen holes later I had gotten 3 hole-in-ones. Casey, did not have as much luck... but he was successful in finding his ball (multiple times) in the shrubbery around the course, which beats having to get a new one. Nate was also not great at mini-golf, but he got creative points for his unique form. 

After mini golf, we moved to the driving range where we bought a bucket of 400 balls and spent the next hour trying to hit the guy in the cart whose job it is to pick up the balls. It was at this activity that Casey excelled. It is not easy to hit moving targets 300 yards away... that takes real skill.

Although I could not hit the ball nearly as far as the guys, I think that I did pretty well for a girl who currently resembles Violet Beauregarde from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

By the end of the bucket, the guys decided to try to hit the ball Happy Gilmore style (taking a running start). It was very amusing to watch. Sorry I didn't take any pictures.

Also, after about half a million phone calls, I think that we got everything in line for fixing our van problems. But you will have to wait until tomorrow to hear the plan.

And one last thing: I have just found out that my sister-in-law has gone into labor. So please, if you could, take a minute to send her and her baby good energy, strength, and calming thoughts. I hear that labor is not very much fun.

Hope that you are all doing fantastic.

Love and Hugs.   

Two Bads Make a Mini Golf

It was terrible.

I can't even tell you... 

The game started really well. Everything pointed to a spot in the sweet sixteen for our beloved Blue Devils. But the second half of the game told a different story. As we watched the slow collapse, depression set in. Then heavy drinking (not for me, of course). In the end, we were left feeling betrayed and confused. Who would we root for now? 

We still don't know... maybe Davidson.

Next year, Duke will not disappoint us.

Next year, they will have one more fan (the baby). And my mother won't be in Haiti visiting my sister during the opening games, thus depriving Duke of her energy and focus.

That will make the difference.

Until then....

More bad news. I feel like that is all that we have been giving you lately. Isn't that terrible? The next blog will be uplifting. I promise.

So here is the latest of problems:

On the way home from golfing last week, the van had some kind of malfunction (I wasn't there, only Casey and my dad). So this last weekend my brother (master of automotive repair) came over from Fayetteville and inspected the van. After a quick run to the store to get some sort of fancy diagnostic implement, he came up with his verdict.

"Well, it looks like you need an oil change and a new engine. Besides that you're good."

Oh no. Turns out, one of our cylinders is dead. This is apparently a very large-scale problem... an engine being a relatively important part of what makes a car function. 

And because walking to Boston does not sound appealing (I would have to carry the bird cage the whole way), we will have to come up with an alternative plan. We just haven't yet. 

But we will and when we do, we will let you know. In the meantime, we are off to go play mini golf and try to forget about out troubles. 

Love you all. 

A Tooth Fairy Failure

I will just go right ahead and say it:

Casey's dentist appointment did not go very well.

After examining his tooth (what's left of it), the dentist determined that he was going to have to get an "implant," which is a fancy way of saying "a procedure that will cost quite a lot of money." Dentists preform these operations when they have kids that are beginning college or they decide to go on month long cruises in the Bahamas.

But unfortunately for this particular dentist, we do not have time to get the implant done here, so we will be funding the vacation of a dentist in Boston instead. So, for the mean time, Casey will look like this (see pictures 4 and 5). 

But wait, there is more bad news. Casey had another tooth that needed to get a crown (remember his root canal in Louisiana... well that never got finished). It turns out that they have enough time to put a crown on that tooth (appointment scheduled for March 28), but while they were priming that tooth for the crown they noticed that the tooth next to it had a large crack in it and, you guessed it, that tooth needs a crown too! 

So it looks like we are going to be supporting the ADA for quite a while.

And poor Casey doesn't get to eat anything hard or chewy until the end of March. I guess it is a good thing that we are in one of the seafood capitals of the US.... 

Well, we are off to dinner now. With enough wine, Casey should be able to forget all about his dental problems.

Love you all.

Sunday at the Aquarium

Good Morning!

This weekend was particularly fantastic because: 

1. my brother drove over from Fayetteville to visit 

2. we got to go to the North Carolina Aquarium

The aquarium had just undergone a 25 million dollar renovation and was truly something special. However, our new camera has one major downfall, which is that it is exceedingly bad at taking photos inside without the use of a flash. In order to take pictures into the tanks you cannot use a flash, so most of the pictures did not come out very well. And a couple highlights (including the octopus) did not come out at all. 

Sorry. At some point, hopefully within this century, we will buy a better camera. 

And in other news:

Tomorrow, Casey has his first dentist appointment. For those of you that don't know, a tragedy occurred during our stay in Fayetteville. At the time, the subject was too tender to mention on the blog, but after some emotional healing, Casey feels that it is now okay to let you all in on his great loss. 

Here is what happened: halfway through a spicy hot wing at the local Chili's, one of Casey's teeth decided it had had enough of life and broke off at his gum line. It was a terribly sad moment. A moment which was only made worse by the fact that the gap left behind is visible when he smiles. 

So tomorrow, we are beginning the, probably very lengthy, process of fixing his tooth. We have no idea how they are going to do it, but (thanks to Katie) we do have faith in the American dental system. Nonetheless, please send Casey some tooth-healing energy tomorrow at 11:20 EST. And don't worry, there will be tooth pictures to come.

Love, hugs, good teeth, and pictures of octopi. 

-the travelers