Done with school, snowed in

This week I (Patrick) finished my classes as well as my internship, leaving me free as a bird for two days. I spent the majority of those two days looking forward to being in Washington and was thus crushed when Kim called on Friday to say our Saturday morning flight had been cancelled due to an expected snow storm. Usually I love snow and callously disregard the people who might be inconvenienced by it.

After calling to rebook our flight I spent two hours on the phone with several customer service agents. We were eventually booked on a flight at 1:30 pm Saturday. I asked the agent why a 9 am flight would be cancelled but a 1:30 flight wouldn't when the storm was supposed to get worse throughout the day. We ended up booked on the 1:30 flight feeling certain that flight would be cancelled as well. It was. I then called to rebook again, only to be put on hold for (no exaggeration) 3 hours. We're currently booked on a 1:55 pm flight out of Baltimore that stops at most airports in the continental United States before getting to Pasco sometime just before the next presidential election. I'm not sure how we'll get to Baltimore if the flight should actually take off.

Oh, one bright spot is that the Shins (the family Kim nannies for) gave us a Wii for Christmas so our unexpected snow day can be spent bowling and playing tennis.

Apologies to all Eastern Washington family and hopefully we'll see you soon. Adios!

Nashville Skyline

For Thanksgiving Kim and I went to Nashville to visit the Verner family, recently ranked the #7 family in the country for "Good times with Amy Grant relatives". It was a fantastic trip and a reminder how good it is to be surrounded by good friends. We stayed in Brentwood with Pace and Brandon Verner (great hosts) and their too-cute-to-be-true sons Afton and Sims. Afton is 3 years old and can say his ABC's in a killer country accent. Sims is 5 months old and does a lot of smiling.

We left on Wednesday and drove more than 10 hours to Nashville. Deep in rural Virginia we hit a bizarre traffic jam. Who goes out there? We hit the same thing on the way back, so apparently more people than I would've thought. We got in late, reunited with Hunter and Laura and crashed.

On Thanksgiving day we joined Hunter's extended family at his uncle's cabin. It's a beautiful log cabin sandwiched between a river and small hay fields. Seriously an amazing place. It was like summer camp: we went on a bike ride, played kickball, went on a hike, ate amazing food, and then played around on hay bales.

The next day was a work day. I won't try to explain to you what we did as i could spend pages and I'm not sure I'd really convey what happened. Basically it took 8 dudes 4 hours to get a 350 lb. roof to sit precariously on top of a vertical 18 foot log. For lunch that day several people suggested we have a "meat n' three". As the name suggests, one chooses a meat and three accompanying vegetables. Example: "Hey, I'm getting hungry. Wanna grab a meat n' three?" That night some cousins came over and we had a game night. Kim's sculpterade of a saddle could also have passed for Jabba the Hut. We also attended a performance of "The First Thanksgiving" as interpreted by a 3 and 6 year old which was one of the funniest shows I've ever seen.

On Saturday we slept in, took a walk around a nearby lake, and spent the afternoon hanging out with the relatives across the street brewing beer in the garage and watching football. That night we went to Jane and Glenn's house for a delicious Verner family dinner. What did they put on their cornbread you may be asking? Butter? Honey? No no. Yogurt and cayenne pepper obviously. Basically a perfect day.

On Sunday we got up and headed home. Unfortunately we ran into traffic again on the way back and spent 12 HOURS in the car. That is basically an intolerable amount of time. But it didn't ruin the amazing Thanksgiving weekend we'd just had.

Thanks Pace, Brandon, Afton, Sims, Hunter, Laura, Stuart, Erin, Katherine, Jane and Glenn! Hopefully we'll see you again soon

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Baby Connally

By now you all know we have a little girl on the way. I am almost 25 weeks along. She will be coming around the end of March or begain of April. Patrick and I are very excited as are our parents, family and friends. There has not been a girl in the Connally family for 82 years!! So, yes, we are all very very excited. Here are some common questions people have had and my answers:

• How were/are you feeling?

The first trimester was very hard, I was extremely tired. Everyone tells you that pregnancy makes you tired but I had no idea... Patrick has been working and then going to school from 7:30-10 four nights a week, so life was pretty hard for the first 20 or so weeks. He will be done in two weeks and won't be working next semester so life will slow down a lot.

I was never really sick until like 16 weeks when everything I smelled or put in my mouth made me throw up, even some sounds make me throw up... weird. During this time I didn't have any real cravings it was more like there were only a few things I could eat with out throwing up.

For the last month or so I've been feeling really really good. I've had way more energy and have been able to go on longer walks and eat almost anything. Which makes me and the baby and Patrick very happy. Patrick was great during those first weeks, he helped out a lot around the house and made dinner most mornings for us to eat that night. Amazing.

• Do you have any names picked out?

We have been having a very hard time coming up with girl names, so no, we don't have any names... not even a list of names we like...

Patrick has said that once we've decided on a name we will not tell anyone. But at this rate you will find out when we do, a day or so after she is born. : )

• Do you have a room for her?

We will have her in a little bassinet with us for the first few months until Patrick gets done with school in mid May. Then we will move our guest room down to where his office is now and we will make a nursery of the what is now a guest room. So, there will be a room for all of you when you come to visit, even after baby.

Well, I think that about does it for questions. If you have any others then please post them and I will get back to you. : )

A few quick fun stories:

The Sunday morning after we found out the baby was a girl, we were woken by a knock on the door, it was Jack, the little guy I nanny. He had a little outfit in his hand with his arm extended toward us. The outfit has little panda heads on the feet, and when we asked Jack where the baby's feet went he said, "In the panda slippers." Too cute!

Last Tuesday night we were packing for Nashville and I laid down to rest and the baby was kicking like crazy. It was really cool because it was the first time we could actually see her kicking. My belly was dancing around like Frosty when he has his hat on (ok I'm listening to that song right now). So Patrick and I obviously sat there for like 30 mins just watching her getting it done.

I was going to have Patrick edit this and write in his own thoughts but he has a final paper due tomorrow and a huge final next week so he won't have time to do look it over, so forgive the poor grammar and ramblings. I will say for him though that he is very excited to be a daddy. He is going to be great! I would say the best dad but then that would make him better than my dad and his dad so maybe just a tie for the best with both of them. : )

Here are some pictures of her first sonogram at 11 weeks:

Here's the belly at 16 Weeks

Belly at 20 Weeks

This is the sonogram from Nov. 6th when we found out she was a girl. She had been waving to us right before we turned the camera on. It's not the best video but it's still pretty cool.

Our Summer

Ok so the summer has been here and gone for a long time now. So I will quickly give you a recap of what we did and who we got to see...as I remember it anyway. We have been busy busy busy this summer. On Aug. 29th we were here for one full year. During that year we had 52 visitors from WA, amazing.

My summer visitors started when Patrick left to Europe. I had two friends come and visit during that time, Pami and Anna. Pami came the first week Patrick was gone and Anna came the last. It was great timing. Pami and I went to a Carbon Leaf concert and other fun excursions around Washington. Anna, Jack and I hung out a lot. We played, explored and painted our living room and dining room. It was really nice.

Patrick returned home on a Wed. and we left to Bellingham for Hunter and Laura's wedding that Friday. But before we left some family friends, the Kageys, came to town on vacation and had dinner with us one night. It was nice to catch up with them. The wedding weekend was a great 4 days, we got to see all of our college friends and both our parents. We had one last breakfast with the whole Connally family before Brendan and Erin left for Peru for the next chapter of their lives. It was a beautiful, fun and refreshing weekend.

Us with the happy couple

Patrick with four of his best friends

12 of the 14 guys from their college house... oh the stories these guys have from that house

Me, Carlee and Lily Lim

The brothers together for the last time before Brendan and Erin head to Peru

We flew back to DC and that weekend my grandparents, aunt, her two kids and my mom came to visit. They all stayed at the house and it was one of the best weeks ever. They visited a lot of what Washington has to offer and came home so tired they didn't even fight at night : ) They were here over the 4th of July so we left grandma and grandpa at home and the rest of us plus another cousin that lives here, Chris, braved the metro and ppl to see the awesome fireworks over the Potomac with the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument in the background. It was really an awe inspiring sight. The week was great and went by too quickly. Everyone went back the next Sunday but my mom stayed for an extra week. It was really nice to have her here. Jack really loves having her here too because he gets special crafts and cookie making time, which is a great thing when you're 3 : ) That week also went by very quickly too soon we were saying good bye to mom.

EmmaLee lost her first tooth while she was here. Good thing the Tooth Fairy found her here.

Kobe, EmmaLee and Jack in his soccer outfit Patrick brought back for him

Me and Kobe on the metro on the way home from the 4th of July fireworks

Brendan and Erin with Jack

Then Patrick and I had about three weeks to ourselves before more visitors arrived. During those weeks we celebrated our 3rd anniversary and three days later found out I was pregnant. You all know the story behind this but I'm going to write another blog about that and how it's going after this one. It was a great time for us and we were very happy and excited for our baby to come.

The next set of visitors arrived in early August. The Clare family is a great family who have three kids, two in highschool and one in middle school. Lorraine taught 4th grade my last year at First Pres. and now has my job as the 5th/4th grade teacher. They were really fun to have visit us. The whole family ran around like crazy seeing everything all day long then came home and hung out with us. We really enjoyed having them and seeing how much they loved and appreciated this amazing city.

Patrick and the boys playing football while waiting to go to the top of the Washington Monument

The day after the Clares left three more friends came into town, Andy, Anna and Lucy. We had them for a week of playing and hanging out. We visited Philadelphia while they were here and basically just hung out bc I was too tired to do much of anything. It was great time though.

Anna and Jack swinging

Andy and Jack at McDonald's Play Land

Philadelphia

In September Paul and Sybil from Tacoma came into town for business and came over for dinner one night and spent an afternoon at Mt. Vernon with us and Jack. Paul climbed Mt. Adams and Mt. Ranier with Patrick the past two summers and this year they conquered Mt. Vernon together.... : ) It was really nice to see them and show them around a bit.

Mid October the Connallys came out for a visit. They were here for about 10 days two of which were spent in Baltimore at an insurance conference for BCRA (super exciting I'm sure). It was really nice to have them here. Rory did little projects around the house and Connie made dinner and lunch most days. Excellent! They are both very excited about the baby coming and did their fair share of practicing one day when we took Jack to the zoo. Patrick was really busy that week but did manage to spend some time home and with his parents.

When the Connallys left we had about 4 days until our next visitors. Our friends from Walla Walla, Mell and Riley Gribnau. Riley is 9 and was so excited to be visiting the Capital and Mell is a teacher in Walla Walla so she too was very excited to be here to learn and also to see us. They were here for 10 days as well. They were very fun to have around. Riley is hilarious and both are adventurous.

Now we're taking a quick breather before we head to Nashville to spend Thanksgiving with Hunter's family. After that it's only a few weeks before we take another trip back to the homeland.

Thanks for reading and we hope to see all you soon!

Time in Europe

Before I start this, I just want to apologize for the lack of postings to this point. We promised regular updates and have clearly disappointed both loyal readers of this blog.
That said, it’s been an eventful summer to say the least. I finished classes in early May and on May 19th I took off for a month in Europe. Kim was amazingly supportive of me making the trip. Thanks babe.

I visited a friend in London and then spent 5 days in Prague and 3 in Bratislava for a class on central European politics. There were only six of us in the class and we met politicians, academics, social scientists, and the like. It was an eventful time to be there as the Czech Republic held the EU’s rotating presidency and elections to the European Parliament were a few weeks away. I loved Prague but there’s something lost when the people you most want to share it with are on another continent. Bratislava felt like a real working class town. Much of it looked shabby but was quite active and upbeat. The old town was beautiful, but you get the feeling that real life is lived elsewhere. We didn’t get out of the cities much so I guess I’ll have to make another trip to see the countryside.

After Bratislava I took the train up to Krakow, Poland. I was hoping it would go through the mountains of northern Slovakia, but it took the wussy way out and went through eastern Czech Republic. Krakow is a fantastic city with more history than can be consumed in one sitting. Or ten. I guess if a city hasn’t been repeatedly invaded by Asian hordes, it hasn’t really lived. I visited a salt mine outside of town- very touristy, but still very cool. The miners carved statues, chandeliers, and whole chapels out of the salt. Good work Poles.

After Krakow I headed north to Warsaw, but not after purchasing a ticket to the wrong city. That’s what I get for trying to pronounce ‘Warsaw’ correctly to the ticket lady. Apparently I butchered it enough that it was mistaken for ‘Wroclaw’. In Warsaw I stayed with a friend from school whose family is Polish and owns a flat in the center of town. It was great to be shown around and learn a couple things: 1. The city of Warsaw was almost 100% destroyed during WWII. 2. The Polish underground resistance during the war was 68 times more effective than the French resistance as they actually succeeded in resisting. 3. The Warsaw subway is fairly easy to navigate as there’s only one line.

After three days in Warsaw I took an overnight bus to Lithuania (and slept surprisingly well). The forests are beautiful, but the towns we passed looked tired and worn out. The capital city of Vilnius is a compact architectural jewel with beautiful streets and churches. An old tower on a steep hill overlooks the main cathedral square and the whole city. In fact, the entire old town is surrounded by gorgeous hills in which I thought it might be exciting to take a stroll. I was lulled into a false sense of outdoor perfection by their wooded beauty and then blindsided by hills that were completely covered in trash. There was seriously trash everywhere. And tons of it. I was so distraught that I started making plans in my head to lead a clean up team the next day made up of people from the hostel. I really couldn’t believe that the people of Vilnius would allow the hills that surround their city to become the de facto town trash pit. Oh, and it rained on me a lot. And it was cold. I had mistakenly assumed that as it was summer I’d be ok with just a light jacket. Oh no, it was 45 degrees out and raining most of the time I was there. Maybe they didn’t get the “it’s summer now” memo.

A short plane ride brought me to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia which quickly became one of my favorite cities. Despite the fact that it was freezing and raining there as well I would have stayed a lot longer if I could. The medieval city walls and towers are almost all intact as are many of the old churches and merchant houses. There's also a smattering of interesting museums about how the city has developed over the centuries as different powers controlled it. Outside of the old town there are new apartment and office buildings that don’t feel as offensively dreary as many in Eastern Europe. The second day I was there I took a bus an hour east of the city and walked to a hotel I had heard about that rented bikes. The bikes they had were super old school swoop handle-barred girl bikes. But I took it and did a 45km ride that took me up to the coast and past all kinds of houses tucked into the woods each looking more bucolic than the last. The section of coast that I explored was strewn with huge boulders left over from retreating glaciers. Good work glaciers, I love what you’ve done with the place. The guide books promised me endless moose sightings but I was let down on that account.
After Tallinn I took a bus down to Riga, the Latvian capital. By this time I was pretty tired of being cold and wet but I gave Riga a good effort even though I was only there for 24 hours. The market was one of the most expansive I’ve ever seen with row after row of meat, fish, cheese, spices, clothes, shoes, fruits, vegetables, and really anything you could ever want to eat or wear.
The next morning I caught a flight to Brussels followed by a train to The Hague so I could take my Foreign Service Officer test at the embassy. My brief stay at the Hague convinced me that Kim and I need to spend a lot more time in the Netherlands in the future. After my test I went back to Brussels and spent a day exploring the city. Despite bad reports of a stifling city full of bad coffee and ugly people I had a great time. I loved the strange mix of buildings, the beer, and the different people from all over Europe. But my time there was all-too-short and I headed to Nurlu, France to spend a few days with the Baughmans.

Time with the Baughmans was great- besides their exceptionally large family there were some people from the US, so quite a large contingent altogether. I had a lot of time with the family, enjoyed some large family meals, distributed flyers for their church in St. Quentin with Morgan, saw a bit of Andy's soccer practice and had a very relaxing time.
Next I took the TGV to Paris, flew to Birmingham, and spent a couple days with a Jon and Valin Wells and their son JJ. Jon and I met in France 10 years ago when I was studying there and have stayed in good contact since. It was nice to get a weekend with Jon to catch up and see some beautiful countryside.

I finally got home on June 15 after almost a month. Thanks for encouraging me to go Kim; I promise not to do it again any time soon.

wow it's been too long and too much to say

Patrick is currently in Krakow, Poland. He has spent the last week and a half in Prague and Bratislava, the capitol of Slovakia with a group of student from GW in a class on Central European Politics. He had lot of opportunities to meet with different leaders over there through this class and to learn a lot more about the two countries. He left home on May 19th and will be in Europe until June 15th. While he is there he will be on his own a lot but will also be visiting friends. He will be taking his Foreign Service test at The Hague on June 9th so you could be praying for him to do well. He is having a great time, missing home, but is learning a lot and is very thankful for the opportunity to travel. I'll make sure he writes all about his travels when he returns.

I would like to fill you all in on the last few months of our lives. I think I will work backwards and make it quick so that you don't sit here for the longest time reading bc we have been blog slackers.

The day after Patrick left my friend Pami came into town for 5 days. We went to a Carbon Leaf concert and spent tons of time running around town and chilling in the night watching movies. It was a great time. I had the week off bc Jack and his parents went to Iowa to hang with family there.

The weekend before Patrick left we had Jeremy and Jessica Rowen staying with us. They were over here (East Coast) for a wedding and drove over to hang out for the weekend. They had their own car and hit the Smithsonian's hard while Patrick and I ran town getting stuff done so he would be ready to fly out by Tuesday.

The Friday before the Rowens came into town the Connallys were just flying out from a full week with us. While they were here we went down to Williamsburg for the weekend, ate bread and pastries from the little German bakery down the street and played with Jack a lot. We celebrated both Mothers Day and Connie's birthday while they were here. We went to the Baltimore Aquarium with them and Jack and met up with a youth group kid who graduated last year and is now attending college in Baltimore, Averill. It was a fun week having them here and they really enjoyed playing with Jack and hopefully hanging out with us as well. ; )

At the end of April I had a week off while Jack and his parents went to Disney World. Patrick and I took the opportunity to head up to NYC and do some of the things we didn't get to do the first time. Quickly here are some highlights:

• Lion King on Broadway
• Statue of Liberty
• David Letterman
• Sitting next at dinner to the kid who was drafted #2 the next day in the NFL draft
• Our super cheap hotel outside of town with a little bus into town
• Brooklyn, we decided that we would live there if Patrick ever wanted to work for the UN

We did so much more but those are the highlights.

A couple of weeks before that the Warners, who we know from church in Tacoma and their daughter Julianne was in my class last year, came to town. They stayed with Paul's brother in Alexandria, but we got to have dinner with them a couple of nights and watch American Idol and play Rock Band (hope that's the right game, Julianne) with them. It was really great catching up with them and seeing a family that we love here in Washington.

Just before that my mom came out for a week during her spring break. It was so nice to have her here. Jack fell in love with her right away and called her Grandma the first time he saw her. So funny and cute. We made cookies, did lots of crafts and went to the zoo. It was very fun to play all week and just to have Mom here especially because Patrick was really busy getting ready for finals and finishing up his internships. We also did a lot of gardening and purchasing of patio furniture, thanks Mom and Dad! My mom, her parents and sister and my aunts two young kids (8&6) will be coming at the end of June, we are SO excited to have them all here!

While my mom was here we had an evening visit with the Jacobsen family, our pastor and his family from Tacoma, which also included American Idol. It was great to see them even for an evening. They were staying with Liz's parents up in Bethesda so it was a little harder to see them during the busy week, so we were very happy with one night.

Before my mom came our friend Peter drove through and stayed with us for a night on his way down to N. Caroline to visit his sister. Peter was in our wedding and is one of Patrick's closest friends so it was really awesome to have him come but also a bummer that he only had one night. But we are so glad he was able to make time to stop and see us!

Then about a week before my mom came into town Kevin and Melody came to visit (Patrick's youngest brother and his wife). Yes, we are in the middle of March at this point in the story...It was so long ago but I still remember how fun it was to have them here. Kevin turned 21 during their stay so he and Patrick went out that night and had some drinks. It was so great to see them and to have them stay with us. They were shocked, like most ppl their first time to Washington, at how amazing of a city this is.

We have really been enjoying our new home and city. We do love it here and I continue to love my job and am so thankful for Jack and his parents.

The news that I've saved until the end: Patrick received a full scholarship for next year! This is so great and I'm so proud of all of his hard work to have received this scholarship. So that means that he is able to take an internship with the EU embassy here. Well, it's not really an embassy but that's a good way of explaining it. He was also offered a really good job for the summer but it looks like it might be there for him in the fall after this internship is over. I'll let him tell you more about that after he gets started in June.

So things are going really well here and we have lots more visitors lined up for the rest of the summer. My friend Anna will be here next week to hang out with me while Patrick is away. And the list of visitors could continue until early September but I'll spare you the details.

We will be flying into Seattle in June, the Friday Patrick gets back for our friend Hunter's wedding. We only have enough time to drive strait up to Bellingham and back to Seattle on Monday morning. But we will be waving to you all while we fly in and out.

Thanks for baring with me. We love you all!


Jack and Patrick at the "real bowling" as opposed to Wii Bowling.

Rory and Patrick building our back little patio for the garbage and recycling bins. Rory did more work than this picture gives him credit for. : )

Good times in Jamestown.


This was a game that the Native American's played. It was like lawn darts.

Look Mom, a Native American molcajeta!


This is from Liberty Island.
A cute church in NYC.

Patrick so happy on Draft Day outside of Radio City Music Hall with all the crazy NFL fans.

I thought you would like this, Dad. It's a baseball field in the middle of Manhattan.

This was where we sat in Brooklyn with our lunch one day.


Mom and Jack at the zoo with a cute puzzle Mom got him.

Gardening



Patrick and Jack finding Newts.

Mom made Jack this cute Dora apron. He loves it! We made cookies this day.