Nelly-Belle

Hi! A gift!

Who knows how many miles?
The odometer hasn't worked in years.
But, you helped me move seven separate times. . .

Three different state license plates,
Speeding Tickets in at least four jurisdictions;
One wreck in Atlanta and
One screwdriver left as a bonus in the backseat when you were stolen, went to see the Jefferson Memorial, and then came back to me;
At least five national parks and twenty-three different states;
Fourteen years, from twenty to thirty-four.

A great car.
You traveled!

Back and forth to Athens, hauling my laundry and everything else;
Up to D.C., across the country, way out west. . .
Over the Rockies--radiator blew out-- but you survived, delivering us
To Seattle.

You climbed up and down Seattle's hills, faithfully, year after year;
Took us on adventures in Montana and Oregon, rode the ferries of Puget Sound.
We went camping and you
Accompanied me to mental hospitals, to jails and out on the town.

You rode in style back to Georgia,
But weren't too tired for another trip to Chicago and back;
You worked for the Obama campaign, then
Moved us into our first house and brought our baby home from the hospital.

My history is your history.

How can I leave you, then,
For just five-hundred dollars
In a dealer's lot?



Good-bye, dear friend! I hope you're off to new adventures!

Mira Arrives and Rocks Our World!

So, I haven't written since I was about 5 months pregnant. While I maybe don't have a great excuse for not writing during months six and seven of pregnancy, by month eight exhaustion and holiday preparation had totally overtaken me and then Mira arrived 11 days early, so month nine barely existed (Hallelujah for that!).
Mira is now seven months old; I've been back at work for 4 weeks and Peter is back full time as well. Mira has gone to two weeks of daycare and may be working on her second illness in that time (though I really hope not!). We are surviving and learning how to be parents. For her part, Mira is a delightful person and very patient with our efforts. I marvel at someone who wakes up every single day so consistently happy and smiley and excited to go. Her little toothless grin, sparkly, wide, astonished baby eyes and constantly cycling legs, along with her wiggly excitement, are just a wonder. She can sit up now, eats a variety of foods (avocado is her favorite), makes a variety of sounds, communicates in many ingenious non-verbal ways, and loves any type of music. She has a musical laugh and the cutest-ever elf sneeze. We recently discovered that she loves to swing.
I have been inspired by a few friends to re-vamp this blog. Although it looks different, the name is the same because I've discovered that parenthood is chaos. And, as much as I have always been fascinated by chaos, it's a challenge for me. There will be lots of pictures of Mira (of course!) from now on and stories about our days together because she is such an integral part of all that I am right now. I am hoping, though, to also use this space as a virtual "Room of One's Own" a la Virginia Woolf. So there will probably be a lot more random musing and angsting about stuff in general than there was before. . . Thanks for continuing to read!

Big news, big belly. . .

Wow!  I'm pregnant!  While Peter and I have actually known this since early May, I am only now making it widely known to people outside of my family and the folks I see every day.  First, the preliminaries:  I'm due on Peter's bday (that's fun!), which is January 20th; in 2 days, I'll be 17 weeks along.  We are not finding out the gender and we are not sharing names before the birth with anyone.. . .sorry!  But, we're very excited!  It's kind of crazy to go from years and years of trying NOT to get pregnant to, all of the sudden, here we go!  Whee!

I'm getting off lucky--no puking for me, just really profound exhaustion (which I keep thinking is over, then it's not) and extreme moodiness, which I think is worse for Peter than it is for me.  We've started getting some baby clothes at yard sales and stuff and are trying to clear the back room out, but otherwise haven't done too much preparation. I just got my first maternity wear items this past weekend and by the end of August expect to not be able to wear any of my current clothing.

In other news, we are trying our best to enjoy as much of our remaining lives as a young, childless couple as much as we can.  Since May, we have been to see Coldplay and Beyonce and have traveled to Pittsburgh and New England.  Pictures from those trips are attached.  As for Pittsburgh, it was REALLY wonderful to see family and cousins who I hadn't seen in way too long and we want to give a shout out to Uncle Turk for being one of our best blog readers!  Thanks, Turk!  As for New England, we just got back last week.  The original impetus for the trip was Peter's mom Betsy's wish to have her ashes scattered off of Martha's Vineyard.  However, with 18 family members in attendance and the beautiful setting, it turned into much more of a vacation than I had anticipated.  On the way home, we stopped and saw my good friend Indu, who really pampered us!

Another big change for us is that Matt and Woody moved into our downstairs apartment at the beginning of June and are officially Atlantans.  As I write, they are preparing to move out to a more permanent, private space, and I will miss them (though they'll only be 3 miles away!)  It has been so nice seeing so much of them this summer and I'm thrilled that they both have found jobs in this evil economy.  

Work-wise, Peter and I keep trucking along.  Not too much new on that front.  

So, I will try to blog about life and pregnancy as it seems appropriate, without oversharing or being too ebullient.  You may see an ultrasound picture here.  I promise that I will not put any pictures of the umbilical cord or placenta up after the birth (I actually heard of someone recently who did this--eew!).

Anyway, hope all of your summers are wrapping up well!  Call anytime and give us an update--if we haven't talked in the last month or so, chances are we miss you!

xoxox, r&p

Pictures, roughly from top to bottom:  fireworks over East Point; Peter with Gram in Slippery Rock, PA; Peter near the Gay Head cliffs in Martha's Vineyard; Good times with the girl cousins in Monaca, PA; Deborah H. serves up lobsters from the grill (yum!); Brunch with Indu in Boston; Happy Birthday, Woody!; Hiking on the Chatahoochee with Sarah and Andrew; Me, a little belly and the Pittsburgh skyline; Peter on the ferry. 

Our Spring!

Spring came to Georgia in fits and starts this year, going from very cold and snowy in March(!) to warm and back to cold and rainy. The good thing, though, is that we are not in a dire drought, as we were at this time last year when we were contemplating our move to Atlanta. Peter and I celebrated the start of spring, the end of the GA legislative session, and an early third wedding anniversary in the N. GA mountains. We rented a cabin in the little town of Cherry Log and retreated for a long weekend of hiking, reading, sleeping in, hot tubbing and no TV--it was wonderful! As soon as we got back, Peter started a new job. He had been dissatisfied at MALDEF because of the lack of clients and found a great opportunity at a small, boutique immigration firm that caters to the Latino community and accepted the position with some doubts because he had worked at MALDEF for such a relatively short amount of time. However, a few days later, all of his doubts were erased when the national head of MALDEF came to Atlanta and closed the office! Suddenly, Peter was the luckiest individual among his colleagues, who were stuck looking for a job in a terrible economy--how lucky we felt! He has now been at the new place for about 5 weeks and is starting to settle in happily!

We also celebrated Easter with my mom and dad and had our first year with 2 passover seders to attend, both through the wonderful temple that Peter recently joined. After that, Peter's dad John came at the end of April. The lead up to his visit was a flurry of furnishing the house so that he'd have somewhere to sleep beside an air mattress. We are now the proud owners of a fully functional guest room with a REAL bed (not a futon!), as well as a real dining room table--it's all making us feel very adult. Come visit and check them out!

John was our inaugural over-night guest to stay in our guest room and we had a fantastic time with him, showing him our new town and home, as well as some distinct Atlanta sites, such as CNN, the MLK memorial, the Cyclorama and Buford Highway. On his last night in town, my parents came up and we made mint juleps, watched the Kentucky Derby and had a nice meal together at our dining room table (our first dinner there!). After John's visit, Peter traveled to Wisconsin, along with his brother David and sister Victoria to visit their Grandma Betty for mother's day weekend, while I traveled the short 45 minutes to Peachtree City to be with my mom.

Aside from all of our travels and family visits, I have discovered this spring that I love gardening! We live right near a very cool community garden where we took a lesson on spring planting at the end of winter and now I have used what I gleaned there to establish a garden of bok choy, broccoli, chard, squash, radishes, collards, tomatoes and a struggling jalapeno plant (I think it's been too cold for it). I am loving seeing the plants grow and check on my garden pretty much every day before and after work.

So, that's it for now. This coming week, we are headed to Pittsburgh to visit my cousins who Peter has never met, as well as my grandmother and aunts. After that, Matt and Woody are scheduled to arrive in GA and start their lives here living in our basement--yay! Now that I'm out of the winter doldrums, I am going to try to keep up with this blog a little more. xoxo, r:)

Pictures, top to bottom: Peter w/ Grandma Betty; Robyn with our two dads John and Wilson at our new table; Peter and John in front of the house; Robyn and John on the back porch; Robyn's garden; John reading the paper in the dining room; Robyn with Pico and Isabelle on the bed; Kathy and Wilson on Easter weekend; Robyn on the porch of the Cherry Log cabin; Peter inside the Cherry Log cabin.

Snowy Day in GA!

Who would have thought?!?!? Snow on March 1 in Georgia!