Grace's First Visit to God's Country

Hello all - Mike here; I know my wife said it would be a while until she blogged again, so in the interest of keeping her honest, I decided to write today's...and besides, we had some really good pics today. On top of the surprise of free wireless in our hotel room, we really have no excuse for missing a blog entry today.


Before our final trip out of Athens, my Bud and fellow Hokie, Shawn, stopped by for a quick goodbye.


Here we are, in downtown Blacksburg at the University's entrance. Lola's Hokie Bird costume may not have been much of a success in Athens, but we MORE than made up for it here at the home of the Hokies! We're used to Grace being a semi-celebrity wherever she goes, but today brought on a whole new level - paparazzi!!!




Keep in mind this is just a sampling of today's craziness. So many people came up to us asking to take pictures, that I probably don't want to know how many Facebook pages we're gracing right now (no pun intended). Cicely and I lost count of how many girls gushed at 'how cute' she was, how many parents asked us where they can get the same costume for their kid, or how many drunk guys yelled out 'DUDE, THAT'S AWESOME!' But in all modesty, it WAS awesome!


Here are the Augustines in front of the drill field, with Burruss Hall in the background.


Heading to the game.


Nosebleed seats.


I may have been a bit too loud during our first touchdown. She got used to it by the second quarter.


By the end of the night, we had another true Hokie football fan in the Augustine clan. She'll be matriculating in the fall of 2027 - we can't wait!

Watch Carefully

The lesson for the day is: Watch your baby carefully!

Even though we babyproofed as much as we could, our sneaky girl found a way to pry off the outlet covers. She also crawled into the bathroom, pulled up on the toilet, and dunked her left hand into the water.


Tonight is our last night in Athens. Tomorrow we head to Blacksburg, or "God's Country" as Mike likes to call it, to take Grace to her first Tech game. Then it's back to Jacksonville for a week to finish up work on the condo and receive our household goods before going to Virginia Beach for a few days. Needless to say, I won't be blogging until the traveling calms down a little. See you back in a couple weeks!

Woman on a Mission

The dreary weather continued today, but Grace and I braved the drizzles because I was a woman on a mission. My goal was to find our holiday outfits because we need to get our family portrait done soon. I had to find Grace's dress first. After all, she is the star and her daddy and I are only the background.

Apparently, I've waited too long. I scoured the mall but all the cute dresses were no longer available in her size. I remembered seeing a dress I liked at TJ Maxx a few weeks ago and I was sure that would be gone too. But I stopped by TJ Maxx anyway and, luckily, the dress was still there. And in her size.

Once Grace had her dress, back to the mall I went, this time dragging Mike with me so we could shop for our outfits. I found a blouse on sale that would make a good background for Grace, but my picky husband couldn't find anything he liked. So I decided he would just have to wear one of his suits.

Mission accomplished!

We met Mike for lunch and this is a shot of daddy 'watching' his baby girl. While she grabs a napkin off the table and eats it.

Everyone always says that Grace is my mini-me, but I think daddy and daughter look alike in this picture. I love the look of determination on both their faces- Daddy determined to take the napkin away and Grace determined to keep it.

My little dressing room companion.

Another Cracker Barrel Kind of Night

Because it was a rainy day and we were stuck inside, the highlight of my day was eating dinner at Cracker Barrel. I always seem to crave comfort food whenever it's dreary out.

I didn't even take any good pictures today, but I'll get in trouble with the grandparents if I don't post any, so here they are.

Trying to bust out.

Her gums must be super itchy because Grace's new thing is using me as a teether whenever she can. When she's tickled by something, she'll grab onto my shoulder and chomp down. When she's trying to get up, she'll pull up on me and bite my knee. I won't even start with the nursing.

If I don't give her the Pebbles hairdo, she pulls out her hairbow.

Getting into trouble under the end table.

I Never Thought

When I married a Navy man, I knew my life would be forever changed, but I was willing to go along for the adventure. But I never thought...

I'd put my baby to sleep in a bathroom,
I'd be on my hands and knees scraping glue off the floor,
eat pizza cut by a utility knife, or take extra spoons from Arby's in order to feed our child her baby food.
This weekend gave a whole new definition to the term 'roughing it'. We're still in the process of fixing up Mike's former bachelor pad so that it'll be ready to be our family home. In the meantime, whenever we're in Jacksonville, we're basically living in a construction zone. Couple that with the fact that we don't have any of our stuff yet and we might as well be camping. We even sleep on an air mattress!

But despite all these challenges, I'm still glad I came along for the ride. Mike and I are having a good old time and can thankfully find humor in all this craziness.
We accomplished our goal of getting Grace's room finished so the poor child won't have to stay in the bathroom anymore.


MONDAY

She had a great time crawling in and out of the duffel bag this morning.

A quick nap before heading out to the zoo.

But when we got to the zoo, all she was interested in was trying to eat the leaves.

Downtown Athens

We finally saw sunshine today so we took advantage of the great weather and walked around downtown Athens. It made me nostalgic to see all the college students walking around and it was fun to see all the differently decorated bulldogs. Grace would squeal with delight and giggle every time we came across one.

The Arch at University of Georgia.

Silly girl trying to help me with laundry folding.

If you look carefully, you can see her two front teeth.

We're off to Jacksonville again tomorrow to continue work on the house. Our time is winding down in Athens and soon we can really call Florida home.

Quickest Meal Ever

After a busy day of appointments for all the girls- doctor's appointments for me and Grace and a maintenance check up for Ruby the Volvo- Mike and I decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner at PF Chang's. I was looking forward to enjoying some chicken lettuce wraps and Mongolian beef. It had been a long time since I've had some PF Chang's.

Grace, however, had a different agenda. Usually when we're out and about, I glow with delight when people compliment my well behaved child. Tonight, I cringed with embarrassment as my daughter threw her food all over the floor and shrieked and cried at the top of her lungs whenever I tried to move utensils and plates away from her to prevent them from crashing to the floor. Even my fail-safe method of nursing to calm her down did nothing to stop the madness.

Before our meal was brought out, we were already asking for the check. And once the food arrived, I couldn't choke it down fast enough. All I wanted to do was get out of there because I could feel the eyes of our fellow diners staring over in our direction and judging us as bad parents with no control over their child. I knew they had to be thinking, "You shouldn't be taking your baby out to a restaurant if you know they can't behave." And with my apologetic smiles, I was trying to convey that this is the first time she's behaved like this. Honest.

Our entire time at the restaurant, from the time we walked in to the time we were headed back to the car, lasted a grand total of 35 minutes. I've spent more time at a Taco Bell! Maybe our days of leisurely meals at nice restaurants are over. But I'm hoping tonight was just a fluke. Still, I'm a little nervous to try again any time soon. Perhaps we need to just stick to Chick-fil-a for a while.


Grace had her 9 month check up today. This is before her shots...
And this is after...

Enjoying the Mall of Georgia.

Grace gets lots of comments about her full head of hair, but one down side to that is this- major bird's nest tangles!

Lazy Day

Any plans I had for today were cancelled because of the non-stop rain. Grace and I had a lazy day and stayed in our pajamas. I'm hoping for some drier weather tomorrow.

On another note, Grace's top right vampire tooth has officially come out and the left one is almost there. She now has 5 teeth!

Homeward Bound

Jacksonville, Florida is where we will call home soon and we got the chance to see it over the weekend. I've been so excited to see what it was like, especially since Mike loves the place so much.

Even though we were there for only one full day- Friday and Sunday were travel days- I have to say, I think I'm going to like it there. Our neighborhood is beautiful, the weather was perfect, and there was lots of shopping nearby.

Here's our weekend through pictures...

Florida bound! Grace doesn't look too excited about the six hour drive...

Grace took her first ride in the Camaro and loved it!

Helping dad shop at Lowes.

Mike and his buddy, Dave, starting to tear out the old carpet in our condo. After he's done with the new floor, we'll post the pictures!

Tonight we went out to dinner with the Cagles and enjoyed the novelty of fried hamburgers. Actually, Mike enjoyed it and I was a little unsure. But I tried it anyway, just to say I did it, and I am starting to regret that decision. I am now sick to my stomach. It was an experience though.

As if a fried burger wasn't bad enough, they also do fried desserts- Oreo cookies, Twix, and Twinkies.

Hanging out with Caran and Shawn.

Just Like Old Times

Matt, Mike, and Wendell

Five years ago, these guys were taking a class here in Athens. I know I've said it many times, but it's such a small world when you're a Navy family. Here they are again, five years later- just like old times.

Tonight we had a fabulous dinner at Wendell's. I had a great time meeting his wife, Jeanette, and Grace had a ball playing with their sweet daughter, Amber. Grace even went home with a great big bag full of toys, courtesy of Amber.

Tomorrow we head to Jacksonville for the weekend. I'm excited to see where we'll be living for the next three years!





More carseat acrobatics.