I Made It All the Way to West Virginia...

Well, you may have heard the news by now. The Barclay family is relocating to Lewisburg, WV. Yes, that's right. I did just say West Virginia. The one out east with lots of trees, mountains, and a rep for being ummm...a little backwoods.


Jeremy has received the most incredible opportunity. He currently works at the hospital in Lewisville, and has been there for 3 years, first as an administrative resident, and then 2 years ago he was promoted to Associate Administrator. To shorten the story, it can be very difficult to break into hospital admin world. He randomly applied for a COO (Chief Operating Officer) position in Lewisburg, WV, with the hope of at least catching the attention of someone. He was called in for an interview and nailed it.

And as for me, how on earth could I say no to that? Nevermind the financial relief and the fact that I won't have to work anymore (unless I want to and am able to find anything in a tiny town). In his field. and with his experience, this opportunity might not come around again for a while. So we are realizing Jeremy's goal of becoming a COO and anticipate him reaching his ultimate career goal of becoming a CEO in the next several years.


On with the story...we anticipate being in Lewisburg for a minimum of 2 years. The company told him it would probably be between 2 and 3 years before they would be ready to move him again. Honestly though, this town is not what I expected at all. True, we will have to drive 45 minutes to see a "real" movie or an hour and a half to get to a mall, but it is such a charming place. We are near the Greenbrier Hotel, which was built around 1775, has 3 or 4 golf courses, and a PGA championship coming up this summer. It also has an Amtrak station, so we could take a train into some of the large East Coast cities. It is a 4 hour drive to Washington DC or 7 hours to NYC. There is a ski resort about an hour away. The downtown area is fabulous, with neat shops and places to eat or drink. It also has lots of entertainment on the first Friday of the month after 5 and there is a farmer's market. During October they do "ghost tours" of the old, historical homes. There is Carnegie Hall, which brings in a lot of entertainment. There are only 3 real Carnegie Halls in the world, one being in NYC and one being in Lewisburg. It is such a neat, colonial little place.


Of course, we are sad to leave behind family and friends. If only we could take everyone with us. Our parents are already making plans to visit. The great thing will be that there are several couples our age working at the hospital and some of them have babies the same age as Noah. I do regret that Noah will soon be old enough that he could go spend the night by himself with his grandparents, but we will make the most of all of our visits. My mom is a genealogy/old stuff buff, so she is excited to see the place and visit the Greenbrier. We are planning to come home for Christmas. I fully recognize that there are going to be some hard days but I expect that we will grow as a result of this experience, and that God has great things in store.


We strongly feel that this is God's plan. Things are falling expertly into place. It looks like the moving company is coming October 26-27 and we will probably fly out on the 27th. We are getting a nice relocation package and will be taken care of for quite a while. We are staying in some type of corporate apartment until we are able to find a house. Our first little house in Flower Mound is about to go on the market!


Here is a picture of the main entrance of the Greenbrier. It doesn't do the place justice of course. It is massive. And pricey. Sorry, it rained pigs and gerbils on Saturday, so my pictures are too few and not great.


The General Lewis Inn, where we ended up meeting the CEO's wife for breakfast on Sunday. She is Jeremy's age and seems like she'll be a lot of fun.
We stopped here in the pub downtown for rootbeer. Literally.


A not so great shot of the main drag downtown.

Finally, I am one to always look for signs and make sure we following God's course. He is well aware of my need for the obvious and the chin-droppers. So, I was listening to a new album on my Ipod while sitting in DFW airport, waiting to begin our trip to visit WV. It happened to be the first time I listened to Lady Antebellum's first album, and this song comes on. Here are the words. No, I am not kidding.

"Mama said Home is Where the Heart Is

When I left that town

I made it all the way to West Virginia

And that's where my heart found

Exactly where I'm supposed to be..."

Enough said, right?

Our Little Trip to Tulsa, Springdale, and Van Buren

For Labor Day Weekend 2009, the Barclay's took a little journey to Oklahoma and Northwest Arkansas to visit friends and family. (Really, an important high school football game prompted the visit for Jeremy, but of course seeing everyone was the best part!)

Noah was the best traveler ever! His napping was pretty bad the whole trip but he was fantastic on the airplane rides, sleeping and eating the whole time, both ways. (This was my first and only experience with public breastfeeding and it was really pretty easy to pull off on a plane!)

We flew into Tulsa on Thursday afternoon, rented a car, and drove to Springdale, AR, and stayed at the home of Jeremy's best friend Brian's parents, Ken and Janet. They were so sweet to have us and very accomodating of our 3-ring circus. That night, Jeremy and Ken attended the big Shiloh game (Jeremy's high school and team). Noah made himself very comfortable at the senior Nutt house...so comfortable that he pooped in the kitchen sink while Janet and I gave him a bath.

The next morning, Brian and Stacie drove up from Tulsa and took us down to Van Buren to visit Jeremy's grandparents. I have to say, the trip to Van Buren was the only non-shining moment of Noah's travels. He was really tired and fussed quite a bit at GG and Dubby's house, which is not his normal thing at all. Unfortunately, this was his first time meeting them but hopefully we'll see them again soon. I think they thought he was pretty sweet anyway!

Posing with Brian

Daddy, Dubby, and Noah

GG likes to teach the grandkids to play the piano.

Really, Noah, it's not nice to stick your tongue out at your great-grandmother.

Getting ready for his first airplane ride

Noah liked petting Candy and she did not want this baby out of her sight

Thank you Nutt's for a great visit!

Silly Little Monkey

Score!

I totally keep forgetting to post this!!

One baby, five months, a little exercising, and a whole lotta lactating later... I officially lost all my baby pounds!! This is amazing to me since I was pretty skinny when Noah was conceived. I was jogging 3 or 4 times a week at that point.

This actually was official a couple of weeks ago and then when you top it off with a stomach virus, I actually weigh less now than I did when I got pregnant. More like my old college weight. :) That metabolism is rockin!

It Was Not the "Break" I Had Envisioned...

I had just started thinking about how nice it would be if one of Noah's grandparents lived here in town so I could just drop him off with them, run errands, get some housework or shopping done, get a little time to myself....

When it hit me. Saturday night I came down with lovely stomach virus right after Noah went to bed. (Side note: What is up with these things?? I am an avid hand washer. I already had one last January or February while I was pregnant. I blamed it on pregnant women being more susceptible.) The more serious problem was that Jeremy was leaving town on business at 6:00am, right about the time Noah would be waking up for the day. He was to be gone until late Tuesday evening and my mom made plans to take off work and come stay with us.

Luckily, my mom did me the biggest favor ever. I owe her. Once again. She drove to my house at midnight and then took care of Noah for me...during the night and when he got up in the morning. I wanted to avoid getting too close to him and getting him sick. I think I am finally back to normal now. Thank you Mimi for saving us.

Today I am getting a whole day to get some things done. :) I have been neglecting the blog lately, so this was high on my list. Unfortunately, my computer still refuses to recognize that the camera is plugged into it, so I can't upload my photos. And I've been too lazy to try to do it from Jeremy's Mac. Soon!

Five Months Old!

And I haven't managed to post anything about our trip last weekend, but it's coming. I promise. Just need to collect a few pics from the Nutt House and find a little time....

Noah is doing so well these days, despite a few hiccups. Unfortunately, we had a sudden change of babysitter so he is now staying with a new one, away from home. This week has been an adjustment with me getting up earlier and leaving way earlier just to drive him 5 miles to the sitter but it seems to be going pretty well. She only keeps "teacher's kids" and has just her 2 year old plus one other baby to watch. I love my job. I love that I only work part-time so I can have time with Noah and I love that I work part-time so that I can get out into the real world some too! It helps me appreciate my Thursdays and Fridays at home.

We finally shanked (am I using this word right?) the old random 2:00am feedings and Noah has slept from about 7:00pm to 6:00am the last 2 nights in a row without making a peep! Its amazing. Now I just have to retrain my brain to stop waking up at 4:30 to listen for him. The only difficulty is that he doesn't go back to sleep until 7:30 anymore and is more tired during the day because he still does not nap well. Maybe I have just had it in my mind that all babies nap for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. I really, really want him to. The best we get is 30 or 45 minutes for each nap, occuring 2 or 3 times a day. I keep hoping that this will be fixed somehow, maybe now that he doesn't sleep quite as long at night, but no such luck yet.



He can now sit up by himself for a few seconds at a time before he throws himself over. This is a brand new thing I discovered last night. Check out the pics. And last Sunday, he managed to flip over from back to tummy for the first time!

We have discovered that Noah has some allergy issues, which seems to be why he has been so hoarse the past couple of days. It's funny when he tries to squeal and shriek (which he does a lot) and it makes him much more pathetic when he cries. :) I took him to the pediatrician on September 1st to have the allergies checked before we flew (yes, I am that mom I guess) and he weighed in at 15 pounds 8 oz. No well-check this month so that's the best I can do for stats. Somehow, we ended up with a boy with light brown hair and hazel eyes. I don't think he has the blue eyes I prayed for anymore. :) I still hold out hope that his hair will turn blond since Jeremy and I were both so blond as kids.

Last night, after bathtime, Jeremy and I were getting Noah lotioned up and ready for bed, and Jeremy was making that "wet razzing" sound (as the What to Expect book calls it) and Noah was imitating him to the best of the his ability. We laughed and it was so cute, it almost brought a tear to my eye. He is just so sweet lately. He gives me hugs around the neck (at least I call them hugs) after I get him out of bed and he actually cuddles with me every now and then! He also pulls my hair and tries to eat my face, but oh well. I just pretend he's trying to give me a kiss and hasn't quite figured it out yet.

Catching up!

Obviously things have gotten a little busy (hmm...frantic?) at the Barclay household lately and I have not been able to post anything in the last couple of weeks.

I have been back at work for 2 weeks, which has been going very well. Noah has been having fun with his babysitter, Ashley, and her son, Zachary. The whole arrangment has been working extremely well until we found out this weekend that they will be moving back to Michigan very soon due to some difficult circumstances, so now we are scrambling to find a new babysitter. Having to get Noah up, ready, and dropped off somewhere will sure make mornings more complicated. But we'll make the best of it.

Noah is now eating sweet potatoes, carrots, avocado, and bananas. He is beginning to get the hang of eating now. He loved the super sweet bananas but had a hard time settling down for bed afterward, so we will save those for breakfast next time! So far, he has liked everything but seems to have a little trouble with the carrots. Maybe it is the texture, not sure. I started adding a little formula to each bottle to begin the transition. My current plan is to stop breastfeeding completely by 6 months but I have a nice stash of frozen milk to carry him for a while too. (And, honestly, I think it has helped him sleep longer too.) Just when it finally became easier, breastfeeding became even more inconvenient with my work schedule. Noah can actually finish nursing in less than 30 minutes now! Sometimes it only takes 20, if he's not fighting with me too much! It's a little stressful with all the planning and preparing I have to do for my work days.

We weaned Noah off his 2:00am feeding and he can now make it from 7:00pm to 5:00 or 6:00am. Not that I don't have to get up and give him his pacifier or rock him back to sleep some. Night wakings have become a problem the last couple of nights. I'm praying its just a short phase and we will soon be able to actually enjoy the loss of that feeding! Naps are still only 30 minutes to an hour, 3 times a day. I know the pediatrician wasn't worried about it but Noah's mommy would really like it if he would take a couple of 2 hour naps everyday!!

Noah is able to roll from his back to his side now. Pretty soon he'll be flipping over onto that tummy! If I leave him laying on the floor, I sometimes come back to find him facing 90 degrees in the other direction. He tries so hard to sit up and to crawl. I'm sure that strong will and determination will get him there soon. Wonder where he gets that from? ;) His excited squeals, shrieks, and belly laughs are too cute.

Lots of traveling! Last weekend we visited Mamaw and Papaw in Wichita Falls and Noah traveled well and slept great. We are excited about our trip to Tulsa and Arkansas coming up this week. A little nervous, but hopeful it will go well. It will be Noah's first plane ride. Any tips? I'm concerned about feeding him and how in the world we're going to be able to check enough baggage to get all his stuff there. Another post to come about that one!

Happy boy!

Yummy sweet potatoes!