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. 

Birthday Blog--What a year!

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33!

I sit to write this blog on the eve of my 33^rd birthday. For my birthday last year, I was going out to dinner in Seattle with Peter and our good friends Steven, Emily and Jules. Afterwards, we went to see the Pogues. This year, I am feeling a little homesick for my friends in Seattle—we are so new in Atlanta that we don’t yet have a gang with whom to celebrate our occasions like birthdays, so it will mostly be a family affair this year. (And, unfortunately, I will also be working some this weekend.) Now, don’t get me wrong—we have had an amazing year and I wanted to move to Atlanta to be closer to family, to be in a place where we could afford to buy a house and to be out of the cloudy, drizzly weather of Seattle. And, I have all of that. Still, I can’t help but miss all of our dear, fun friends there, especially at a time like a birthday.

Since I last wrote, a lot has happened in Peter’s and my lives. First, we bought a house and we moved in last weekend! We are delighted to be homeowners and the house is adorable! We even have some pictures up on the wall and have started to make it feel like ours. Plus, we are in a wonderful, neighborhoody part of the city of Decatur called Oakhurst, where we are able to walk to cafes, bars, restaurants, and the subway into the city. Neither of us has to have a car to get to work at this point, which is such a relief after our 1.5 hour commute each way for the last month from PTC.

Our journey to getting the house was a little fraught, however, in the week leading up to closing. Because of the crappy, ridiculous, totally unnecessary and preventable (if only we had had competent leadership these last 8 years!) state of our economy, Peter and I learned that the Federal Reserve had put a freeze on all federally-backed cash accounts, about two days before we needed to access ours to get our money for the downpayment! After a frantic appeals process, our financial advisor was able to free 90% of the amount we had requested—still leaving us short by about $5000. We ended up having to take out an additional, last minute loan from the bank to cover that shortfall. Crazy! We had the money and weren’t allowed to use it b/c the government was afraid that there would be a run on the banks! So strange that it was easier for us to get a loan than it was to access our own money. . . we did close on time, but not without a lot of stress—we were literally sitting at the closing table, 20 minutes after the closing was supposed to start, not knowing if the money would arrive in the closing attorney’s escrow account or not. Suffice it to say, I do not want to move again for a VERY long time. An amusing side note to this whole fracas is that I got to talk personally to GA’s republican Senator Saxby Chambliss on the phone because I had called our legislators to see if they could help us and he was nice enough to return my call. He couldn’t do anything, but it was fun to actually talk to a Senator.

Enough about finances and politics! After we got all of that squared away, Peter left for California to see our young nephew Ben, who had to have brain surgery to remove a tumor. He came through the surgery beautifully, thank goodness and we are all very much relieved. While in Cali., Peter also got to celebrate his sister Victoria’s fortieth birthday with her. Yay, Victoria!

After a week in the west, Peter then flew to Roanoke, VA, where he met me and my parents and the whole rest of my extended family on my mom’s side for my cousin Brian’s marriage to Olivia. We also got to meet Kyle and Annika, my cousin Vonnie's two twins who are just so fun and beautiful! My mom, dad, Peter and I then rode all the way back to GA smooshed into my mom’s tiny Saab, which was funny until it became almost unbearable.

Finally, when we moved into our house, we welcomed Pico the kitten into our family. Isabelle is still working on truly welcoming him, but Peter and I love him. I have never had a kitten and it is amazing how much energy and how little fear he has! At the same time, he is equal parts cuddly and clumsy and SO tiny. He has perfected the art of scaling my bluejeans and then climbing onto whatever piece of furniture or counter I happen to be standing next to. He does this to compensate for his almost-total lack of leaping ability at his age. I can’t wait to see him grow!

As for the rest of it, we are still settling into jobs and trying to find friends—let us know if you see any! So far, my job is fun and I even got to go interview witnesses in South GA by myself, which was a hoot. Who knew that there was a town called Santa Claus, GA (with streets named “Reindeer Way,” “Elf Drive”, for example), or that Waynesboro, GA is the bird-dog capital of the world?!? Now I do. Peter is still evaluating his. So far, it’s been frustratingly slow, coming from the public defender pace that he was used to. Hopefully, it wil pick up when the legislature is in session.

So, that’s pretty much it! I’m 33 today and am excited to see what shape our lives take during this next year in our new home. As always, please be in touch, visit, call, or email if you can! And, go vote November 4!

Xoxo, robyn:)

Pictures, top to bottom: Pico asleep in a packing box; Me, cooking in our new kitchen; Peter in the dining room; Peter and Ben, post-surgery; Happy 40th, Victoria, in Santa Cruz!; Me and my cousins Vonnie and Lauren; Our new dining room; Our new living room; Brian and Olivia--Just Married!; My mom and her two sisters Aunt Tata and Aunt Jan; We meet Kyle and Annika!; Pico perched.