Saturday, June 05, 2010

We are alive, I promise!

I am SO sorry it's been forever since I last posted. The move back to the US, checking in and learning our new area, looking for a house, and growing a baby while tending to a toddler have kept me just a bit busy!

We're doing well though! Neal loves his new command, and is excelling there (as if anyone's surprised). He has some really great people that he works with, and it makes for a much more enjoyable work experience.

We're in an apartment temporarily, as we weren't able to find a house as quickly as we had hoped. We're in the final stages of the process now, and have hopefully found one, but it's not set in stone yet. The apartment was a HUGE improvement over a hotel though, as Jeffery now has his own room and a big boy bed that he has adjusted very well to, and we got all our stuff back so I can now cook again!

The baby baking is going well! This pregnancy has been a bit harder because of chasing after a toddler, and all of the life changes going on right now, but we don't seem to know how to do it any different! It's going well though: all my vitals have been great, the baby's healthy and now in birthing position, and with the exception of a bit of anemia, everything's great! Now we are just waiting. Less than four weeks until our due date (June 29th)!

Mama Carcello, Karen, and Sarah will be coming soon to help me out during that last week-plus of the pregnancy and will be here to keep Jeffery while we're in the hospital. I am looking forward to the help! Daddy Carcello will come visit once the baby's born. Then, Mama and Daddy Phillips will be visiting in July. We're so glad everyone will get to see this baby almost immediately this time, instead of 3 months old like Jeffery was!

I am settling into being Stateside and staying at home. It's much different when you can go grocery shopping and not have to think in/speak a different language! It's also nice to have WalMart, Target, and Publix available again! Fast food, stores open in the evenings, and dependable internet are all great too! I will admit that I'm still getting used to some bad drivers around here too though. But nothing like Italy.

There are some things I miss about Italy: capuccini, amazing pizza, fresh (and cheap!) produce ... you know, mostly the food! I couldn't believe I paid $2 for a wimpy head of wilted lettuce the other day. It would've cost me about 50 cents in Italy. So that will take some getting used to.

But overall, we are enjoying our new area. We've not made it to the beach as much as we'd like, but it's taken us a while to get used to Neal being on shift work again. We're in the waiting game again this year for Chief's results. This is the first year he's had a really good chance of making it, so we're a bit more impatient this time. He's got a great attitude about it, but that curiosity to see if you got a promotion is hard to resist. We should know around the first week or so of August.

I am settling in and trying to get going again selling Pampered Chef. It's like starting all over again, and having to work around my due date causes interesting issues! But I have a few leads here, and am working hard on getting shows scheduled so I can relax when the baby comes. I'm really enjoying it though.

I've also started selling my quilted burp cloths, and am trying to start on quilts and possibly other things as well. I was so thrilled to get back to the US where I could use my good sewing machine again (didn't want to use it with a transformer in Italy, and risk burning out the motor)! It's been like a dream sewing on it again! I did a craft fair a while back and am going to try (after the baby's born of course) to see if I can find any local boutiques willing to sell my stuff. We'll see.

I think that's about all the updates I have for now. There will obviously be lots more in the coming days (house, baby, Chief results, etc). We love you all and are SO glad to be back and closer to everyone! Please drop us an email (janie.neal.phillips@gmail.com) and update us on everything! In the meantime, we hope everyone has a great weekend!

P.S. I have TONS of pictures to catch everyone up on, so I will likely upload those as one big post over the next few days.

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