Updates...

Here's an update on some things that have been happening lately:

• Ale had a beautiful baby girl on April 1st. I've chatted with both her and Francisco a couple times online since Isadora was born and she has been sending us pictures of Isa. So far, everything is going well with both Mama and baby girl. Isa is about the cutest stinkin' thing I've ever seen! I can't wait to meet her when they are in the states for Andy's wedding.
• A good friend of ours from Chicago, Shelley, is coming down to visit us next weekend. We are pumped to have her come down. She will be the first of our friends to stay with us since we've lived in Nashville. We have a busy weekend planned, from visits to the Grand Ole Opry to hitting up the honky tonks downtown. I'm really looking forward to doing "touristy" stuff around town. And I can't wait to have a girlfriend come visit!
• I am meeting the family up in Chicago over Mother's day weekend to celebrate Andy's 30th birthday, my, Molly, and Shaughn's May birthdays, and of course, Mother's day. It will be the first time since Christmas since we've been together, and an added bonus that I get to head back to Chi-town for the weekend. I can't wait!
• Will and I went on a home tour around downtown Nashville on Sunday. The idea of the tour was to promote "urban" living. There were about 10 buildings on the tour, and most of them were right downtown. Some of the buildings were brand new highrises that have started defining the Nashville skyline, but there were several older buildings that have recently been renovated into lofts. We were especially excited to see this building...
  

...because it is soon to be our new home! Yes, the big news on this blog...the home search is finally over! It was quite the whirlwind weekend for us. To catch everyone up on the happenings: we have had a lot of disappointment on the home search lately, especially after our offer on the townhouse we liked fell through. It's very disheartening to get excited about living somewhere and then lose it.

For the past month our typical day has gone something like this: work, eat dinner, look online for a place to live, and repeat. On Friday night we were keeping with the trend, when we came across a new listing for a loft unit right downtown and within our price range! We knew better than to get our hopes up, but we did get in contact with our realtor right away. The unit was scheduled to be on the home tour, but we didn't want to wait until then to see it. LOTS of people were going to see it then and we wanted to be ahead of the game.

So we saw the unit on Saturday morning, put an offer in on Saturday evening, and it was accepted on Sunday morning! YIPPEEE!!! We're under contract! What a relief! We were in a competition with someone else who put in offer in on Saturday as well, and we won (barely)!

The building is called "Art Avenue Lofts" and it is truly right downtown, in the heart of everything. The building itself is part of the "art district" that's becoming popular in Nashville- the first floor of our building is an art gallery, and they decorate the main entrance to our place, so the artwork will always be changing. We are so excited to be living downtown! And I am especially looking forward to being in a walkable neighborhood again. I've decided that I'm just a city girl at heart- I'm happiest when I can walk to where I need to be. This place meets all of our major criteria: great location, unique floorplan, stainless appliances, and lots of potential.

Since our unit was already scheduled to be on the downtown tour it was too late to take it off, but I must admit, it was a fantastic feeling to walk into the building and hear the people who direct you on where to go announce that the unit on the 4th floor was just sold. Seriously, like poetry. We "toured" our new home and really enjoyed listening to the other tour-goers giving their approval (without knowing that we were the future homeowners!).

So, that is the exciting news! So long as everything goes smoothly with the final negotiations, we are set to close on May 14th! I know this blog is long, but really we can hardly contain our excitement, so if you're still reading, thanks for sticking it out! I don't want to post any interior photos until the walls are painted and we are more or less settled in. So, stay tuned! More pictures to come!

We are looking forward to starting a new phase, and are especially excited to host visitors as soon as we're settled in! We have lots of room, so all are invited! :)

Easter 2009

Here are some pictures from our Easter celebration yesterday at Will's dad's house. The kids helped decorate a bunny carrot cake I made- it was quite an interpretive cake (lots of sprinkles and interesting placement of the eyes, nose, and whiskers), but it still tasted good!

When you run the local McDonalds, you become something of a local celebrity. Some celebrity perks include throwing out the first pitch of the season for the Madison Little League. The Madison baseball complex was really nice, and run by volunteers. It was a fun way to spend a beautiful Saturday morning. You could tell that the kids were excited to get their season going. Check out Will's form!

We had a relatively laid back weekend. Aside from his first pitch duties Will had the weekend off, which was a nice switch. He and Cari spent Saturday morning out in the yard, clearing out bushes and old railroad ties while I gave the apartment a thorough spring cleaning. We spent the rest of the weekend out at Will's dad's house, visiting with his aunts and uncles who are in town from Michigan.

We are still searching for the perfect condo. We put an offer in on a place last week, but just learned today that the seller has decided to take it off the market. So, it's back to square one...again. House hunting is exhausting. I suppose now instead of looking for furniture deals to fill our new townhouse, it's back to looking online every night for new listings. Sigh. I'll be happy when the search is finally over.

Voy a ser una tia!

Translation- I'm going to be an aunt!

Ale just called me about an hour ago- she is having Isadora tonight! They went to the doctor for a check-up this morning and he decided that today is the day, even though she's not technically due until April 9th. Isa doesn't have enough room to turn because Ale is so small, so she is having a c-section this evening.

From talking to her, it doesn't sound like it has quite sunk in yet that she is going to have a baby tonight...but then again, does it ever feel real until you actually hold your child for the first time? Obviously I don't know from experience, just guessing.

Ale's mom and sister, and Francisco's parents aren't going to make it to Puerto Montt in time for the birth tonight, but they should be around tomorrow. I hope that abuelos and tias present = fotos para nosotros!

Keep Ale, Francisco, and baby Isadora in your prayers tonight!

And congrats to my Chilean familia! I love you guys! No puedo esperar cumplir a Isadora en octobre!

I really wish I had more interesting things going on in my life to blog about! Lately, though, not much has been happening, and I don't think this weekend is going to be much more exciting.

I spent yesterday afternoon at the dentist. I cracked a tooth awhile ago and this week I've had a horrible toothache, so I scheduled an appointment. They decided it was best to pull the tooth, which then led to a 3 1/2 hour ordeal. It took multiple rounds of novocaine and numbing cream, 2 doctors, and a dental assistant to get the darn tooth out! They finally got it removed, and I can't even begin to describe the pain I'm in. I've been in bed since about 6 last night, surrounded by my pain pills, antibiotics, gauze, and an ice pack for my face. Blah. The doctor said I will be feeling pretty crappy for at least a few days. I'm sure the few days of pain is going to be worth it to not have to deal with toothaches anymore, but currently it's hard to focus on that.

Tomorrow we are taking Will's dad and sister to look at 2 of the condos we like. We are getting close to making a decision and are curious to get a couple outside opinions. Hopefully we'll decide which one we like best soon and get moving, literally!

Hope everyone has a less painful, more exciting weekend! The meds are kicking in, I'm off to sleep again.

Thankful

It is almost starting to feel like Spring! The weather has definitely been milder the past few days, and flowers are starting to pop up in our yard...which is surprising. I didn't know this yard was capable of having flowers.

This weekend marks the one year anniversary of Shaughn's accident. It still scares me to think about how close we came to losing him. I am thankful everyday for the guardian angels who watched over him that night. And I am extremely thankful that his neck is completely healed- no paralysis for our Shaughn-man! Just wanted to take a second and thank everyone again for their thoughts during Shaughn's rough time last year. The prayers definitely worked! He is doing well in Houston, taking classes and hopefully feeling settled and at home. I'm excited to get down there soon for a visit- I still haven't seen Andy's townhouse!

Will has to work all weekend, so I don't have much planned. I followed through with my goal of getting a library card, so every Saturday for the past few weeks I've borrowed a few books to read during the week. I forgot how much I enjoy reading! I pretty much have been devouring each book in about a day. Again, I'm always looking for suggestions if anyone has a favorite. I have no idea what to get when I'm there. I just walk up and down the aisles looking for a title or cover to jump out at me. It seems I'm drawn to two types- fluffy British romantic comedy books (Think Bridget Jones' Diary) or historical books. I am trying to read an even amount of fluff and true stories...that way my brain won't turn to mush, at least not completely.

Another goal I've kept up with is returning to the live music scene! Last week Will and I went to see Eric Hutchinson, who as usual, was fantastically entertaining. Sunday night we are going to see Joshua Radin. He is another favorite of mine. I fell in love with his music a few years ago, and he's touring right now to support a new album. I'm looking forward to hearing his new stuff live. It feels so great to be seeing concerts again. I'm glad I have started paying better attention to who is coming to town!

I took Will to a Predators game on Tuesday for his birthday present. We had a great time! I have only been to a couple other professional hockey games before Tuesday, but I was very impressed with Nashville's between-periods entertainment. While the zambonis were re-icing the rink, they had figure skaters dancing around while a live band entertained the crowd. It was awesome! I should expect nothing less, though, being in music city. After 6 months we are finally starting to feel like Nashville is home. But we are still looking forward to getting out of this basement!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Happy Birthday Will!

Lots of birthdays lately! Today Will turns 29. We celebrated last night at Kobes, a Japanese steakhouse, with Will's dad, sister Cari and her boyfriend Curtis. We've been trying to go there with Cari and Curtis since we moved to Nashville, so it was nice to finally get to go! After dinner we enjoyed Will's funfetti cake for dessert. Isn't it nice to know that funfetti cakes are great, at any age? :)




Look at all that smoke from blowing out his candles!

I'm so happy to have Will around. He makes me laugh everyday..sometimes at him, but most of the time with him. I LOVE his adventurous spirit. He and I have had the opportunity to travel together a lot, and our list of places we'd like to visit keeps growing. I love that he values his family the same way I value mine. We're both happy to be closer to our loved ones, even if we don't see them as often as we'd like. I hope you have a very happy birthday, Will! I know that you really want a house for your birthday, so here's hoping that happens very soon!

Here are some of my favorite pictures of the birthday boy:






















At the Guinness factory in Dublin. This picture still cracks me up every time I look at it!



















Bartending at The Field in Kilkenny, Ireland. The owner of the bar pulled him back there to pour his first pint.




















Walking near The Organ at Giant's Causeway.
















I just love his face in this picture!














At the Rockies NLCS game shortly after we moved to Denver














Our infamous Cubs/Cards rivalry















Moving from Chicago to Denver. Everyone loves a trucker's hat and Slim Jims when you're on the open road!














ARRRR!! Pirates in coconut bras at Jimmy Buffett in Vegas















Just one mushy one...because I like it! Kylemore Abbey in Ireland