Nashville Bound

As the days are inching closer to "The Big Move" I'm beginning to feel a bit reminiscent on the past year and a half that we've been here in Columbia.  Don't get me wrong, I said reminiscent not sad.  While I admit that Jarrod and I have nicknamed the state Missery instead of Missouri, a lot of good has come out of us living here. (Sidenote: we thought we were being all cool and creative with the nickname until we found out that lots of people use this name.) I've gone over the good of Columbia, so I won't bore you with it again for all of those that stay updated on my blog (thanks by the way) but I will say, it is going to be hard leaving the apartment that we brought Jesalyn home to.  This is the place we got her nursery all ready for the biggest blessing we could ask for.  Picking out the bedding and finding pictures to put in her room, wondering if she would like them.  This has been the only home she knows.  I know she's only 6 months and will probably forget it all, but that's kind of the point.  She won't even remember this place she once called home.  I also wonder how she is going to do sleeping in a new place every night.  I still remember the day we moved into our apartment here.  It was soooo much bigger than the one we lived in in Nashville.  The day we moved in, we stood in the middle of the living room doing twirls, yelling at the top of our lungs "look at how much space we have!"  This was our first home as a family, the place the two of us turned into three.  I don't know that I'll cry but it won't be a complete breeze locking that door for the last time. 

    What will be a breeze though, is driving down I-70 for the last time.  In fact, we might just do a happy dance =) Don't get me started on I-70, don't even get me started.  Jarrod says that it's called 70 because 70 percent of the time, you run into a wreck while driving on it.  He's not kidding either.  I don't know how many times we would leave to head home and be making awesome time only to get caught in bumper to bumper traffic because some crazy St.Louis driver didn't look before he merged lanes (no offense to those of you that live in St. Louis.)  I'll keep this post short, but here are some pictures of the memories we've had in this apartment.

What are WE doing this weekend?

Packing, and lots of it!!!  This is what my house looks like right now.

                                Daddy and Jesalyn taking a break:

The Sacrifices Parents Make =)

Jarrod and I got a gift card for Christmas this past year.  This was we were originally going to put it towards:

But instead, this is what we bought today:

Since we are moving next weekend, we are worried about the long drive with Jesalyn in the backseat.  Anytime we go somewhere, one of us sits in the back with her because she tends to throw tantrums if everything isn't just perfect for her.  But since one of us is going to have to drive the moving truck, she's going to be back there by herself.  So what do we do?   Buy her some entertainment.  Think she's spoiled?  Ugh.  I never thought I would be one of those moms =)

Move over Madonna!

So the other day, Jarrod and I found Jesalyn laying on the floor like this.  Apparently she was born in the wrong decade. She obviously feels much closer, fashion wise, to the 80's.  So we took a photo shoot =)

Click here, open in another window to get full affect of photo shoot

"Strike a pose!"

"Strike a pose!"

"Vogue"

"Vogue"

My Very Own Wolverine

Last night we had a minor disaster in the apartment.  At least I qualify it as a disaster.  So, we're moving right? Well, last weekend Jarrod and I got a good jump on the packing. Yes, I get very nervous and tense when I have a deadline to meet, and I may or may not get really grumpy and pushy. So, we got some boxes and started loading up things from the walls and the dishes we don't use, etc.  We felt very accomplished to get as much done as we did.  Now, because I am the way I am, I'm still like "don't get all excited yet, we still have soooo much to do!"  Because I know I'm...ahem...not very nice.... when stressed, I decided to continue the packing during the week by myself in hopes that Jarrod would see what I was doing and want to help. Now to the disaster. 

Gen wo lai (which is "come with me" in mandarin. This translation brought to you by "Ni Hao Kai Lan" which is one of Jesa's cartoons) as I tell you the story.  So, I'm in Jesalyn's room right? I'm taking down all the pictures and such off her walls.  Well, there is this tin "thingamajig" with a cute saying on her wall that I can't reach because I'm super short. Instead of calling Jarrod in there to get it down for me, I decided to take matters into my own hands.  I'm an independent woman right? Well, I got the tin down, but probably not in the best way possible.  I didn't feel like dragging a chair from the other room in there so I took one of her books and ever so gently pushed up on the tin to take it off of the nails and it fell, landing on a shelf underneath it.  This shelf was obviously not hung very well, because when the tin (not weighing even a half a pound) fell on the shelf, the shelf came tumbling down.  I had already emptied the shelf, and it didn't break. That's not the issue. The issue is what the shelf fell on. I had just cleaned off one of her tables and moved her lamp onto her dresser. This dresser happened to be right under the shelf.  This lamp also happened to have an energy efficient light bulb in it.  The lamp fell to the floor and light bulb shattered!.  My mind immediately went racing back to a show I had watched about these light bulbs. About how much money you can save using them, but if you ever break one, you must be very, very careful because they contain mercury in them.  Something else you should know about me. Not only do I get really tense when stressed, but I get really tense when it comes to anything medical. I'm not bad enough that I would call myself  a hypochondriac, but let's just say when I called my mom and said "I need you to tell me that I'm going to be okay and I'm not going to die," this wasn't the first time. ...lets just say I flipped out a bit. I immediately told Jarrod what happened (who was, of course, completely calm about the whole situation.  I'm so lucky to have him.) Next, I looked up on the internet how to clean up this shattered glass and poison laying in my daughter's room.  If your curious, you can find it here.  We needed some gloves and other things, so I drug my daughter and husband with me to Wal-Mart (plus, I wanted to get everyone out of the poison filled apartment.)  When we got back, Jarrod got himself ready for the clean up.  He could tell I was still pretty tense about the mess so this is how he dressed himself.  

 

There were no hazmat suits at Wal-Mart so this would have to work.
He nicknamed himself "The Gray Ninja"

  He warned me though that if the mercury seeped itself into his skin, he might possibly turn in to some kind of superhero with super powers.  I told him as long as those super powers involved adamantium (Nerd alert! See below for definition) that would be just fine.  It's a well known fact, that my superhero of choice is Wolverine, which has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Hugh Jackman plays his character, absolutely nothing!!! =)  So, long story short, we got it cleaned up, after throwing away several blankets that had pieces of the light bulb on it.  The break was next to her crib, but we didn't see anything that landed on it.  I'm still tempted to just toss everything, from crib sheet to bumper pads.   She probably won't be sleeping in there now until after our move now anyway.  

*Adamantium is a virtually indestructible metal alloy that Wolverine has put into his body that makes him super strong

 

Our trip in Pictures

Busy little bees

So what have we been up to?  I'll give you some hints.

Needs some more help? 

 Still stumped? 

 

 Last Hint:

 

 

Yep, you've got it.  The Pruitt's are moving!  I had a job interview in Nashville last week and they offered me the job.  Boo ya!   We are moving May 1st so the next 2 weeks are going to be crazy!  We've moved before (from TN to MO) but we didn't have a 6 month old that needs are attention every waking hour.  So, needless to say this should be interesting.  Our lease here isn't up until July, but the apartment said they might have someone to sublease it, which would be amazing. Fingers crossed!  We've found a place in Nashville to live already. It's right down the road from where we use to live so we know the area, but I'm still a little nervous about not seeing the actual apartment before moving in.  We had a bad experience when we first moved into our apartment here in Missouri. One word: FLEAS.  One more word: EVERYWHERE.  But anyway, we are super excited about moving, not so much the packing and traveling with a baby, but we'll be glad when we get there. 

...oh yeah, if you didn't get the Benadryl tie in, Nashville is known to be not so nice to people with allergies. Something I'm going to just have to get over with.

Ton 'O Pictures

A little late, but we've been busy (check back later to see what we've been busy with.)  Here are some pictures of little Jesalyn on Easter break in Illinois


       Grandma made Jesa's first Easter Basket. Flower shaped cookies. It was so cute

Hanging out with Aunt Nell:

She also tried peas for the first time. As you can see below, she did not like them:

Wordless Wednesday

Notice the drool all over the onsie. I sure hope these teeth come soon

 

Reading "The Little Engine That Could" with grandma