Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Moving Again!

Yes, this is a shock to us as well!! We've been in San Antonio a whopping 6 weeks, we've managed to unpack everything & I even got pictures hung on the wall...and now we're moving to Forth Worth in 4 weeks!

San Antonio has seemed to be a fun place to live (despite the heat) but our situation has changed and we're heading north to Fort Worth. The big clincher to this deal for me at least, was that our dear friends from dental school, the whitesides, just happen to be where we are headed. Wonderful coincidence. They have 2 young boys just a little older than Logan & we're so excited that we'll be living close to them again! We never in a million years thought that we'd be living near each other anytime soon.

We were fortunately able to transfer our lease to another apartment in fort worth (not nearly as fancy schmancy. We'll hopefully only be there for a few months & then be able to start looking for a house...and move again). Now I just have to start packing...again. I think we'll be pretty good @ moving after this...maybe we'll just hang on to the truck and open our own moving company on the weekends! Meredith is lucky enough to have scheduled a trip out to visit us in a couple weeks & now she gets to look forward to helping us pack instead of just hanging out (so sorry).

Trying to get the 3 boys to sit & smile for a picture...never going to happen (mason & samuel having the smiling down & logan's got the sitting)! Logan was so happy to have some other boys to play with!!

Logan was an angel on the 4 hour drive home & slept the entire time!!!!! I think the sun put him in a little coma. (He had a busy weekend playing with the boys).

This has nothing to do with moving, but it was too funny I had to add it. Logan came wandering out of his room yesterday with a huge grin on his face with his pants down! (great, he's learned to pull his pants down...at least the diaper was still on!)

Saturday, July 18, 2009

San Antonio Road Trip #1

One of the things we love to do as a family is go on drives & explore where we live. While out & about one day we found a great book made just for us...SA Day Trips. We did this a lot in columbus and found it was a great way to spend time together & also get out to see where you live. There are so many great little towns with tons of history, great parks & fun shops that I think few people end up exploring. Now, it's definitely been more difficult for us to do some of these now that Logan is a toddler & wants to be running literally every second he's awake. But, with some strategic planning we're able to make it work. So, today we did our first San Antonio Road Trip...many more to come we hope. Today, we headed West. First, we went through a small town about 20 miles west of SA called Castroville that is of Alsatian background. We found a state park & let Logan run around a little, had lunch @ McD's (with a playplace!) and got back into the car for Logan's naptime. We then went through Hondo, which has an exotic game ranch where they filmed part of Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. We just did a drive by b/c Logan was napping. Heading further west & then north we went through a resort town called Concan with a huge state park (Garner State Park), but it was raining & Logan was still sleeping so we'll come back to this park another day- it looked very fun. Our last stop was in Uvalde which was a little south & there we found another park for Logan to get some wiggles out. They had a river with a ton of ducks & turtles so we spent about 20 minutes feeding the animals. I was surprised at how bold the ducks were, they waddled right up to us to get the food. We actually had to hold Logan back from sticking his hands in their mouths. We then had dinner at a local pancake house (pretty yummy) & then headed back. The highlight of the trip though was the Alsatian bakery we stopped at on our way home in Castroville. We got some very yummy eclairs, doughnuts, rice krispie treats (for Brent) & they even gave Logan the last of their sugar cookies for free (that's how we appeased him for the last 30 minutes of our trip- nothing a little sugar can't cure for this kid). The other neat thing was to see some of the original old building from when some of these towns were first settled back in the real wild west days! I actually managed to bring my camera, but of course forgot to put the memory card back in it- so no pictures of this trip.


Friday, July 17, 2009

Weekly Happenings

This is very random, but since this is my journal, I wanted to write these down. Withink our first couple weeks here we realized that we were in a very different place:
1- The first week we were here we were driving down the hiqhway & looked off to the side and there was a random cow trotting along!! The poor thing looked terrified. Thankfully, the driver behind us pulled up behind it & put his flashers to direct other traffic around so the cow didn't end up as road kill (apparently this kinda thing happens a lot).
2- Within the first week in our apartment we caught (actually, my mom, thank heavens caught it) a scorpion in Logan's room!!! I was terrified. It was probably only 1 1/2 inches long, but it looked completely creepy. (I have thankfully been informed by numerous people that get stung by a scorpion does not require an ER visit or ambulance (unless its a giant black one), they say its like getting stung by a bee).
3-The next sunday we were walking through the hall at church when a man told this other man that he should probably take his diaper bag outside...we looked down & there was a scorpion hanging off the side of it!!
4- The next week I found a huge spider crawling up the wall in our bedroom (brent thankfully was home & squashed that one for me). I have been having nightmares about scorpions & spiders for the last few weeks & if Logan ever wakes up screaming I rush in there to make sure a scorpion or spider hasn't crawled into his bed & bit him.
4-In the mall parking lot we saw a snake writhing around on the backtop; Brent said it looked like part of it was run over because it wasn't moving too well. Sure enough when we came out, the snake was defenitely road kill!
5-Everyone says y'all all the time...sometimes I'm not sure it makes complete sense the way it's used but it does certainly simplify things when writing. I haven't quite been able to incorporate it into my speach yet.
6-People think that cold in the winter time is anything below 50 degrees. Someone told me the other day that it gets really cold here in the winter...not quite believing, I asked "how cold?" and she answered, "sometimes under 50 degrees & occasionally an ice storm will hit & it will be 30 degrees!" (I definitely think I'm gonna like the winters here; the bugs are another issue altogether though, ughhhh)!
7-It's true-everything is bigger here in Texas. People don't just fly normal sized flags here, they fly ones that seem as big as the building it's in front of. The butter container at the grocery store (not costco) was even bigger. Brent also thinks that the lanes here are bigger.
8-Everyone drives a truck (and now Brent really wants one). Logan loves it, b/c he points & tries to say truck every few seconds when we're driving around.


My little jailbird. I came into Logan's room one morning & found him like this. He wasn't stuck, he was just dangling his legs & kept reaching for his blankets & binky he always tosses out of the crip when he's bored.



Logan loves taking a bath with Daddy. One thing we love about our apartment is that it has a huge jetted tub in the master (however, the jets have been broken since we got here). They finally replaced the motor & Brent & Logan decided to test them out. There happened to be a little baby shampoo in the tub & it created tons of bubble. Logan had a blast to say the least & I just had to get a few pictures. Brent will probably kill me once he realized I posted these though!


Bookworm. Logan was really quite in his room one afternoon & I peeked in to see what he had gotten into. To my absolute surprise he was just sitting there surrounded by his books & was actually thumbing through one of them.

Last thing...we've finally given up bottles...yeahhhh!! My pediatrician has been on me since Logan turned one that I needed to get rid of bottles. But no one seemed to provide me with any convincing information of why I had to do that at 12 months!!! It's not like I put him to bed with a bottle in his crib (we are slightly dentally minded in our family & I know all about baby bottle caries). And there are plently of moms who nurse their babies until they are well beyond 12 months. I didn't see the need to make my baby grow up any more quickly than he had too; this was one of my last ways of snuggling with my little baby & he seems to enjoy his mommy time as well. But he's 19 months now (can't believe it) & we're finally settled here in San Antonio so I figured I'd go ahead & cut the bottles. We just went cold turkey on Monday. That day he was very upset that I was not giving him a bottle & he cried for almost an hour that night. I had to go in & calm him down & I think by that time he was so tired he just gave up & fell asleep. But that was it, he's been a champ the rest of the week & he goes right down (thank heavens). I think I need his nap time as much as he does to regain my sanity (& patience sometimes). Next comes the binky...that's not going to be for a while though! :)

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Adjusting To San Antonio

Moving to a new area is always an adjustment. We greatly miss everyone in Ohio, but are grateful to be moving onto the next stage in our life & are excited to get established here in Texas. So far, the biggest adjustment has been the heat! I knew it was going to be hot, but I wasn't quite expecting this...it's been at least 100 or hotter pretty much everyday since we've been here with sun shining brightly. So it's been too hot to do anything outside except for swimming. So while Brent's away at working loving his job, Logan & I have been scouring San Antonio for cool things to do. Here's a few things that we've been up to.


I've been trying to think like meadow park would & creating fun things for Logan to do & explore. With all the boxes we had around we made him a little fort complete with a window! He loved until he realized that it would collapse everytime he tried climbing on it...ok, next idea?!

His new home. He especially loved it when I put his fuzzy rug in there.


Thanks to Alyssa's great tip, we took Logan to the children's museum in New Braunfels & he loved it, we even went ahead & bought an annual pass (because he can run free inside with air conditioning. He was obsessed with the mini grocery & loved emptying the shelves into his basket & then crashing his basket into the counters! He also loved the mini house & doing the dishes (if only he'd do that at home).
HAPPY 4th!

Ok, its actually the 3rd, but we didn't do much on the 4th & he was all decked out in red, white & blue, so Happy 4th anyways.

He loves to try and smell the flowers; everytime he see flowers he starts snorting, it's very cute.


We bought an OSU Brutus floatie before we left columbus & when we got it out he kept trying to give it kisses...he's a true buckeye.

Right now Logan is obsessed with trucks & becuase we live in a new area there is no shortage of moving, delivery & construction trucks. Logan has a perfect view from his window & one day I looked in his room & my little monkey had climbed up onto his chair to get a better look at the moving truck right outside his window. He kept banging on it & the people downstairs were very confused...sorry. Also, everytime we get in the car & go by a truck he yanks his binky out of his mouth & tries to say truck (it sounds much more like car) & then as soon as it is out of sight he starts grunting & signing "more" furiously & is generally not satisfied until we come across another one. If only I could get him to have as much fascination with regular cars because there is definitely no shortage of those on the roads around here!


So Logan & I have become domesticated now that we're staying home together. We got a new trash can (our other one finally stopped working due to Indy knocking it over one too many times). Well, this trash can happens to have a motion sensor to open it & Logan has been fascinated with it. I kinda thought this would probably be a problem when I got it, but it was so cheap at costco then I just went for it. Now I'm finding thins other than garbage in the trash & anytime he comes near it, it opens & he then stands there & plays with it for 15 minutes!


He's already folding laundry!!! Now if only we could get the clothes to end up in the basket. He's also been very entertained by the new washer & dryer. He likes to go over to the laundry closet & open the doors to see if they're going...most often times they are!!!


Hiding behind Brutus. He was all ready for a bath & wanted to take Brutus with him.


And lastly, we celebrated Brent's birthday. The girls at work were kind enough to get him a cake (they most have known that I was definitely not going to be baking one...I was going to order dessert through take out though). We had a nice quiet night with takeout from BJ's & a new movie from Best Buy.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Road Trip

After graduation & farewells were completed it was time for us to road trip out to texas. Fortunately, my parents were kind enough to take Logan back with them to California for a week so we could do the drive without having to stop every couple hours! And then Brent's family took Indiana with them, where he's going to stay for the next year or so until we've got a yard for him to run around in! Logan did great on the trip to Cali with my parents (at least that't what they tell me) & had a blast in california with all of his aunts & uncles who I'm sure spoiled him rotten! Indiana was another ordeal though. Because of weather conditions we had to ship him on Delta Cargo. When we dropped him off at the shipping dock we could still here him howling when we were all the way out in the parking lot (I felt really bad for that pilot & the other animals/living beings on the plane). JB was kind enough to pick him up in salt lake and said that he was frantic but very excited when he was picked up. Pore dog...he's never going to want to do that again. He then got to hang out w/Bryan for a few days until Brent's parents got back into town. Bryan's dog sleeps outside, so they put Indy out with him- aparently that didn't last very long & he was inside for the night snuggling in someones bed (he doesn't like roughin' it). But now he's in doggy heaven running around Utah! Brent & I are enjoying a break from caring for the dog, but Logan really misses him. When he first came home, he walked in the door & immediately starting signing "dog"!!

Anyways, after toddler & dog were shipped off we headed out of town on monday, june 8th & drove all the way to memphis. We actually made pretty good time & the drive through kentucky & tennesse was just beautiful. It kinda stunk though that we had to drive separately (Brent drove the truck hauling the accord & I drove our civic). I managed to entertain myself singing at the top of my lungs though pretty much the entire time; my voice was a little horse by the time we got to memphis. We decided to spend a day doing touristy stuff in memphis before we headed on to Texas. We went & saw Graceland (Elvis' aboad) & the Peabody Hotel. Graceland was...interesting. It was probably had more fun people watching-there are some crazy elvis fanatics out there. It was ridiculously expensive & probably not worth the $$$, but when are we ever going to go to Memphis again.

Brent styling the headphones & recorder for the audio-guided tour!

Graceland
Living room w/green shag carpet on the floor AND ceinlings! I think I'll do that in our next home...that should help with sound insulation, right??
The basement, again, fabric on the ceiling & the walls.
He's got the moves!

PEABODY HOTEL
Ok, the peabody hotel has a tradition of marching it's resident ducks (yes, ducks) on a red carpet from the elevator to a marble fountain in the lobby every morning & then back again in the evening. I won't go into all the history, but apparently it's a big to-do & it was pretty entertaining to watch. I was amazed that the ducks listened. At the end of the day, the ducks are taken up to their penthouse suite on the roof.
Ducks enjoying the marble fountain.
There is a Duckmaster who leads the whole ordeal, & everytime he came near the fountain the ducks would start quacking and following him around.
At the peabody.
The Penthouse suite on the the roof (they probably would prefer there not to be anygates...???)

On top of the Peabody


After a day in Memphis we headed to Dallas to stay the night with our good friends the Whitesides. This drive was not as enjoyable unfortunately. As soon as we crossed the border into Arkansas it was like we had entered into another world. I thought West Virginia had some interesting people....Arkansas definitely takes the cake. Brent even contemplated just stopping & setting up shop right there!!! (Unfortunately, I don't think dental care is high on many people's priority list there). Then as we neared Dallas we could see very foreboding weather off in the distance (Jenn even called to let me know there was a very bad strom going through). But in true Rigby fashion we pressed on and then when we were in the middle of this horrible storm we got stuck in traffic on the middle of a bridge. I seriously thought we were going to die as I watched the ginormous lightening bolts coming down around us, rain coming down in buckets and water blowing up from the river. I was wondering if we should just get out of the cars & run for cover!!! :) Well, after an hour or so of this we made it to the other side of Dallas to the Whitesides. We caught up with them for awhile & then went to bed while the storm raged on. After about an hour of trying to sleep we kept hearing a car alarm going off. So Brent was trying to be the good house guest & was going to make sure it wasn't our car or the whitesides' & as he went outside to check he set off their house alarm!!!! (Sorry guys...at least the kids didn't get up!). It turned out to be a neighbors car...I don't think we'll be invited back anytime soon!! :)

The next morning, still storming, we made our way to San Antonio. We of course managed to stop off at the Ikea just north of Austin to pick up some stuff for Logan's room (I so wished we lived a reasonable distance from Ikea). We finally made it to San Antonio & the sweltering heat (about 102) around 5pm. We got checked into our apartment (unfortunately, we were a little disapointed with the apartment situation-it was definitely misrepresented somewhat; but, the actual apartment is still very nice & it will work just fine for the next little while). We decided that we'd at least get a few things off the truck that evening. Brent went to unhitch the trailor towing the car & immediately threw out his back (before we even touched anything on the truck)!!! So much for that plan; we got a hotel for the night so he could rest & go to his orientation the next morning. Fortunately, his back was nothing too bad & was feeling ok (so he tells me) the next afternoon. We managed to unpack most of the truck that afternoon (again, soooo hot here) & I got sunburned. After a few hours we were dead tired and left the last few items for the next day. Saturday, we managed to finish up (I was very impressed with ourselves though; we got everything off that truck just the two of us, including our ginormous & incredibly heavy armoir- it shockingly fit in the elevator)!

We spent the next couple days resting & then my mom came into town on monday with Logan. I convinced her to stay the whole week to unpack as well...there is no way I would have gotten everything unpacked without her help!! Brent also started his job on monday, which he's tolerating at this point. It's always a struggle to go into a brand new office & start with new staff & work with materials that you're not familiar with. And there's the added pressure to get patients in the door & keep your production up. But, right now it's a job & a paycheck & it managed to get us out to Texas. We'll see where we go from here.

Farewell to Ohio


Our First Home Together!

After seven years in Columbus it comes time to say goodbye. We moved to Columbus just a few weeks after we were married back in 2002, it was our first home together. Ohio will always hold a special place in our hearts- it's where we bought (& sold) our first house, where we both graduated from college (brent a couple times!), had a couple great jobs (I'm the sugar mama), where our beautiful baby boy was born & where we've established so many wonderful friendships. We will always be buckeyes, even barried here in the heart of Texas.

Just a recap in pictures of the last few weeks.
The girls at work
Goofing off at work...did a lot of that!

During the last few weeks in Columbus, I went golfing with the girls (this was my first time golfing on a real course; it was immensly entertaining)!! We also had a cookout @ the Medors to say fairwell. (we miss everyone sooooo much).
Lynne, me & Kristen
Logan & his ladies!
GOLFING!
Lynne & Kristen



Attempting to actualy make contact with the ball.
Not so successful...this only happened about a dozen times over 9 holes! (sorry about the grass)
Me & Lynne
Goofing off...again.
I had to include this picture of Keely & Logan (this was Logan's primary care giver @ Meadow Park; it was truly a blessing to have him there while I was working, we miss all the wonderful people that cared & loved Logan there).

I have to tell everyone THANKS again for helping us with the move. It was wonderful to have Lynne pack up my entire kitchen for me (nothing broke!) while I ran around and signed closing papers on our condo. We managaed to get the rest of the house packed & loaded within only a couple days thanks to Brent's parents, brother & my parents who were out to graduation. THANKS!!

Now that's real man power! You get a few Rigby men together & anything possible!
Our life packed away in a 22' truck!

Graduation...again

I'm finally getting around to recapping our last few months, we've been busy! Brent completed his prosthodontic residency at OSU and is officially done with school (that is until he decides he wants to go back & do a surgery program or something...hopefully that won't be for many more years!!)

We attended the graduation dinner at Confluence Park on Friday, June 5th where Brent & his two other classmates were awarded their Prosthodontic Certificates (huge accomplishment!). Everyone made speaches, and more speaches, Brent passed on the chief resident badge to Mariano (congrats); however, the badge had gone missing earlier that day, so he was just more or less told that he'd be the new chief. We were lucky enough to have Brent's parent & one of his brothers in town (randy), as well as my parents...we pretty much took up an entire table (it was great to have everyone there to show their support for brent, but it was also incredibly helpful to have the extra man power in moving).


Yeahhhhh!


At Confluence Park

Brent & Mariano


Brent & Pako

View of Downtown Columbus


Mom & Dad Rigby, Randy & Brent
The next day between lots of packing & loading the truck, we made it to the graduation bbq at dr. holloways where Logan went around asking everyone for ice cream (he would go up to people that had cake & ice cream & sign more to them...pako kept giving him ice cream off his plate & he'd get very excited & I think just assumed that everyone else would give him ice cream as well)! Logan also learned how to whack a pinata after watching all the older kids have a turn & even discovered that there were toys inside! Too cute.
Logan makes contact w/the pinata

He immediately went looking inside for goodies

He kept watching everyone else put these in their mouths & make noise...he got the putting in the mouth part but just kept sucking on it...couldn't quite figure out the noise part.

Nice shades Pako!
Logan even found the kitty bed and crawled in with his blanket & snuggled up...I'm tempted to get him a dog bed for home!!