We're Here!

We're here in Nashville and and we love it!

Two weeks feels like two months -- we've made fast friends and live on an incredibly social cul-de-sac littered with children and friendly dogs that Madeline and Maple follow around happily. Rob loves his new job, and my social calendar already feels so full that some days, I just don't have time to open boxes.

We are enjoying the South. I guess every place has a personality just like people, and Nashville feels warm and inviting. Since we arrived, meals and homemade pound cakes (yes, plural) keep appearing at our door, and living here seems easy -- we've already found babysitters, dog sitters, doctors, restaurant and grocery stores. Rob and I kept asking ourselves if we'd landed in Pleasantville. Everyone here in Middle Tennessee goes by their full name -- two of our neighbors are also named Rob, but they both go by Robert. We hear new names too -- there's a Grayson, a Stader, a Wils and a Drake...all on our street. I can tell we're near the Bible Belt -- the other day I passed a yard sign that screamed "Jesus Loves You!" before I realized it was advertising a window and siding company.

The move itself went as smoothly as we could hope for. We had a motley crew of packers and movers -- tatooed and missing teeth -- but they turned out to be sweet guys, cuddling with Maple, showing us pictures of their kids and belting country music ballads while they packed. Of course even the best move has its curve balls. On our last day in Peoria, I woke up and noticed that my legs were green. Thinking it was related somehow to my pregnancy and circulation, I called my doctor, who promptly told me to go to the emergency room. Everytime I mentioned the color of my legs, I would get the same alarmed expression, and before I knew it, I was carted off in a wheel chair, dressed in a hospital gown and hooked up to sensors. Long story short, my brand new dark wash blue jeans had dyed my legs (the doctor swiped my leg with an alcohol swap, which promptly turned blue, and suddenly it was comedy hour behind our curtain) -- a much less dangerous diagnosis than cyanosis, which often ends in amputation. Besides that adventure, the heartbreaking good-byes (I thought I might die listening to Madeline's forlorn calls for "Papa") and the flu bug Rob got on move in day (thank you to our friends Paige, Jeff and Jackson who came to our rescue), everything went quickly and drama-free.

We're grinding through unpacking the boxes. If unpacking were some sort of tv game show where you have to locate items in five minutes or less, I think I'd do okay. Parts of the process are really exciting -- what isn't fun about putting together a new home? -- but other parts (the ones that require organization, like finally tackling a drawer full of lone socks that may or may not have a match) are beyond boring to me. Feels like being banished to arrange and rearrange the Tupperware drawer.

So don't be shy -- come visit! Rob's family comes next weekend and Andrea and Kyle arrive the weekend after! Tomorrow, we'll drive to Champaign for our annual Illinois football game with my best college girlfriends and their families. We can't wait!