Thursday, February 28, 2008


hannah LOVES playing with the cell phone. no matter how many toys i provide, she'd rather have the phone, or the remote, or something. patrick actually lets her do it. i must admit, when we finally get to go out to eat, i'm willing to do pretty much anything to keep her happy too.

wait a second daddy, i want my toy back. but i'm keeping your phone, too.


so we went to birmingham for the day on saturday. it's about 2 hrs away. a drive i would gladly make anytime, however, it's my new favourite place. i got to see some old friends from africa, carrie (cutrer) west, my roommate, and maggie mcintire, daughter of my supervisors and fellow lebou team member. good times!
birmingham has all the regular generic shopping mall stuff, and also cute little places. we went to this mediterranean/middle eastern restaurant that i will be going back to every single time, i hope. and as usual, i totally took advantage of my cheat day. (pumpkin scone from starbucks, the most amazing spanakopita you've ever had, so different from the frozen stuff at sams, and a caramel macchiato. with whip! not sure what that was about??? but let me tell you, it was good)
anywhoo, it was a super fun, unhealthy day for our little family. patrick had to work while we were there, that's what the plane picture is. that is one of the planes his company sells.


i call her tumbleweed, because she still tumbles all over the place. she barely sits down anymore. actually, she skipped the sitting up stage, went straight to the standing.

mommy, can i help with the laundry? i figure since i generate so much, i should contribute!


she loves looking at her reflection. i've tried to get it on video, but i can't. she keeps turning around when i'm there. but she'll smush her face right up on the fridge, dishwasher, tv, whatever. it's so funny.



this is downtown opelika. pretty traditional southern town.

So we've been here a month now, but it feels like longer for some reason. Does that mean I feel settled? we both really enjoyed the church we visited on sunday. it's southern baptist, but people are still expressive in worship. some people wear suits and others jeans. it's very multiracial, which i think is pretty impressive for alabama. they have a huge choir with teenagers through senior adults, and an orchestra. hannah made it through the entire service without us. and best of all, they are extremely missions minded. not just IMB (southern baptist) missionaries, but Campus Crusade, Africa Inland Mission, Missionary Aviation Fellowship, and others. We haven't decided yet, but I'm excited.



we joined the auburn mommies to meet some people, and went to our first thing this week. It was fun, but i think hannah's kind of young for babygym, or music classes or all the things people offer. why stress myself out over getting to all these things when it's a chore just to get groceries? i'm pretty sure she'll develop fine. after all, what did babies do before these kinds of things? we like staying at home. she's almost seven months, and just recently do i feel more on top of things. my chores are actually getting done. doing things out of the house is a nother matter entirely, however. every week i say, wouldn't it be nice to go to the bookstore and read, or something. hannah could just play on the floor. which she would, for a little. but around the eating and the trying to get to sleep then finally the sleeping then the eating again, it just doesn't happen.


i submitted my application to volunteer at the local crisis pregnancy center, which i'm excited about. again, hannah would come with me, and i could help sort donations and wash clothes and stuff. i really want to do something where i can take her with me, so i hope this works out.

i promise our life isn't as boring as i make it seem. the high point of our day is when patrick walks in the door, to be sure. which hasn't been all that often recently! i'm going to keep track of his hours just for fun, one week. he isn't gone overnight much, but he does have to leave by six quite often, to get to surrounding states. we did have a date last weekend, though! that was fun.
next weekend there's a fly-in at the auburn airport, so we'll have lots of pictures of that. and our trip up north, of course. hope everyone has a good and special leap year day tomorrow. how does one celebrate that, anyway?

4 comments:

Vashey Fam said...

Hey I found you! :o) Hannah is sooo huge! I love her chubby cheeks! I miss you guys!

Kelly said...

I found you through Leigh's site! We moved too. We're in Louisiana now, but by the beginning of next month, we're going to be in Oklahoma. Hope you're doing well!

Amber Dawn said...

jana, i randomly ended up here from kari's site. you are in opelika?? how did you guys end up there? and where are you going to church? i went to auburn and had a church there that i totally loved and was very instrumental in me ending up in africa.
also, nabeel's--umm. . . right around the corner from where i worked in b'ham. quite literally.
well, i'm in VA for now, but my cat's in Auburn with a friend, so i'll be back through at some point and hopefully we'll get a chance to catch up.
hope you are doing well!

Vashey Fam said...

Jenna! I found 2 slightly different glass apothecary jars. I think I remember them being under $20....everything in the booth was 50% off....maybe it was marked $25?....that would make it 12.50?...maybe. Anyway, next time I'm in Gladewater would you like me to digital camera it and send you a pic or are you over wanting something like that? We'd like to come visit! :o)