New News

So to those who have loosely been following our comings and goings it may seem like we just moved...yeah, we did. We sold our house in Raleigh, NC in February and moved into this awesome west Nashville farmhouse. In May a tree fell on the awesome west Nashville farmhouse and we had to move, rather suddenly and unexpectedly, into a somewhat less awesome house in Belle Meade. In late July we moved out of the Belle Meade house back into the farmhouse. And now, in less than three weeks, we will be moving again.

Yeah. We just can't get enough of the thrill of packing up boxes and misplacing key components of furniture and electronic equipment that has to be disassembled each time we move. Actually, this time we are moving much farther than our previous moves. We are moving to California over Labor Day weekend. Good times. We are actually pretty excited about living in the Bay Area, but less excited about being so far away from family and uprooting ourselves once again.

We are so sad to be leaving Nashville. It has been such a rich six months. We have completely fallen in love with this city. We have become friends with the most interesting and cool kindred spirits and packed our time here with unique-to-Nashville experiences. We knew that we probably weren't going to be here for very long but we had no idea it would be so short!!

We really have no regrets. We made the most of our time here and lived it up to the fullest. We're leaving "wanting more" which is a good thing I suppose. We are moving with Ryan's job, so a new position with the same company.

We are not going to start Oliver in preschool in September but hopefully we'll be able to find or form a Joy School group. If not I plan to keep the boys busy with swimming lessons (Oliver is a fantastic doggy paddler already), speech therapy for Oliver, and hopefully teaching Ollie to read and ride a bike. Those are my pre-baby goals. We'll see how those go. I realize I don't have any goals for Elliot...potty training seems still really far out on the horizon. He is not even a little bit ready. Hmm...maybe I will just indulge him and let him make the most out of these last few months of being the baby in the family.

Speaking of babies...the other news is that we are having another BOY!! We are really excited. No firm ideas about names so we welcome any suggestions. I found a doctor out in Walnut Creek who is actually also a certified nurse/midwife. Although she has an MD she practices a midwifery-centered model of birthing. Which means that she is very pro-natural birth which is something I'd like to try this time. She also was finishing her medical training at University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1976, when I made my grand appearance at the hospital there. There's a chance she even observed my delivery since my mom said there were A LOT of students and residents at my birth. In any case, I thought that was an auspicious coincidence.
So that's what's going on around here. A lot of change. Hopefully relatively painless transitions. Elliot is screaming his blessed little head off so I better go give him some "nuggles". Why won't that kid go to bed?!?! Why is there always such bedtime drama?!?!

Happy Birthday Abby!!

Happy Birthday Abigail Alice Daisy Ford Winkel, MD! We love you! We also want to give a warm welcome to the newest member of the Ford/Winkel clan. Folks, meet Kermit:

Fresh from Michigan --whence all Winkels hail--, this little woodle (part Wheaton terrier, part poodle) is hypoallergenic, cute as a button, and probably as close as the Halverson boys will ever get to having a pet. Sad but true! We'll have to renegotiate in a few years but for now that discussion has been tabled. We can't wait to meet Kermit in the flesh and see his antics for ourselves.

Speaking of antics...Oliver learned that he could operate the elliptical trainer and has been really going to town on his new workout regimen. Ryan teases me for what I wear to the gym (you mean my Umbros and nasty old t-shirts from college don't look cute?!?) but I assure you I have never worked out in saggy Lightning McQueen underoos.