Merry Christmas!

"Yes, you can eat the whole ear."

If a 5-pound cherry gummy bear or a giant bow on your head doesn't say Merry Christmas, I don't know what does :-)

[Frankie takes a bite of his most prized gift of the season.]

[Claire just being herself :-) ]

[Christmas Eve Pajamas - 2011]

[The boys' pajama outtake.]

[Whole group pajama outtake.]

[Merry Christmas!]

18 Weeks

Time is flying and the kid is growing. Here's an 18 week update :-)

Franklin Lawrence Chipley

We lost Grandpa Chipley right before Christmas. Please keep the family in your thoughts as he is greatly missed.

Franklin Lawrence Chipley: June 24, 1933 - December 14, 2011

Scratch That. Reverse It. (Part II)

So what sparked all of our changing our minds? Are we moving? Are we staying? What's going on?? In May, our little family of two will expand to be include a third :-)

As of this moment, I am 16 weeks along and have finally had a chance to let the world know our news. While this was fun, it was also exhausting! Keeping secrets about major changes in my life is not my forte, and with so many people to tell - family, bosses, co-workers, friends near and far - consider me worn out. It feels so good to know that the information is public and that we have nothing to hide.

We definitely wanted to wait until we were through the first trimester before spilling the beans to absolutely everyone, but the Thanksgiving holiday followed so near after that point it spurred us to wait until we were about 15 weeks and tell everyone in person. Very few words were exchanged and for the most part, we just handed out this year's Christmas card in person. After a few seconds, each person we shared with erupted with understanding and a smile, or a screech, or a squeal. As far as the Christmas card reveals go, meeting with my sisters at the Panera near my mom and dad's house might be my favorite secret-spilling session. There was a lot of squealing and questions and talk about being an aunt for the first time. Somehow, telling everyone has made this all the more real and exciting.

[Our 2011 Christmas Card Photo - taken in our back yard in November]

When we first got the news it was definitely exciting, but also stressful. We were in transition and the end point of our having to live in different cities seemed so very far away. The plan was for me to work on selling our house and find a job this winter in order to join Matt in our new city near the beginning of June. With the news of the babe arriving in late May our plans stayed the same for only a few weeks. We found out as early as you can about a pregnancy and spent the next few weeks just trying to figure out what would be best for us as we headed for a major life change. After a lot of weighing the pros and cons, Matt convinced me that giving up his job in Saint Louis would be the best thing for us. His reasoning was this: if we moved, everything was going to change and if we stayed, only Matt's job would have to change (again). He's my knight in shining armor :-) And he was right. Our jobs, our stable living situation, our comfort with our surroundings, many friends, our resources would all having to change if we moved.

So here we are, over a third of the way through a pregnancy and we still find ourselves planning for a life change - just not the one we thought we'd be making this spring!

[16-Week Bump Picture]

Scratch that. Reverse it. (Part I)

A few posts ago (I know they’ve been sporadic and few lately), I discussed an announcement I waited a long time to officially make. In fact, that was why my posts had been so few and far between. When you can’t talk about the biggest thing going on in your life, it seems silly to talk about anything else. Making sure all of the right people knew about our plan to leave our town, sell our house and move to a new city before we spread it loud and clear to anyone who stumbled upon this online scrapbook was important to us and time consuming. I also wanted to be emotionally ready to talk about it with friends who are not in my immediate, everyday reality. At that point I was feeling nostalgic about this place we met and got married, but starting to picture a new life in a new city. That’s what I do to make myself unafraid – I picture it. If I’m giving a presentation to my peers or going through a big life change like this one, I have to see it in my mind’s eye before it happens. Otherwise, I’m paralyzed with the overwhelming uncertainty of it all.

We bought ourselves some Sonic Slushies and made an afternoon of driving through what we determined to be our desirable suburbs near this new city. We thought we’d be able to feel which of them might suit us best. We knew (thought) we were going to love living in a city with so any interesting things to do, places to eat, people to see. And we were certainly going to enjoy finding a quaint, old house with tons of character. We wanted brick and archways and intricate 1950’s tile and built-ins and hardwoods and lots of extra charm. We found that whole list in a few neighborhoods and filed the information away in our brains for that far away when it was time to start thinking about that leap.

I looked up recommended timelines for selling a house – how many months out should we start talking to realtors and listing our house before I would need to join Matt in our new town? I brainstormed the qualities of desirable school districts with a colleague who grew up in the area. I purged some furniture and clothes – thinking ahead to the impending move. Every chance we could, we went to our favorite Saturday/Sunday brunch place – we ordered coffee (a weekends-only treat for me), Turkish eggs with feta, green pepper and cherry tomatoes and a whole wheat biscuit with homemade mixed berry preserves that can bring me to my knees. On my part, so many mental preparations were made, plans rearranged, bits of the adult I grew to be here in this place compartmentalized into new and old memories and experiences.

We’ve decided to stay. Not move. Not have our “adventure.” Since mid-October, I find myself rearranging again. Opening up compartments and dusting off my life here, like I would with a packed-up sweater on a chilly day in May. I was surprised to feel how tough that actually was – the pulling back. I was sad to stop dreaming about a new interesting house to fix up. Sad not to be closer to both of our families. Sad to have to go back and tell those important people that we were not going to move after all. That lasted only for a few days before I realized that I was getting my “old” life back before I ever really left it. And peace. That’s what I was starting to feel for the first time in a long time.

Moving was going to be so stressful – and we were totally in. There was never any question of that. Matt is my person. I am his. I was, and am, completely supportive of our original decision to move because of his job. I am also completely supportive of our decision to bring him back to our town – that same one we met and married in. We may not be rooted here permanently. We can still see ourselves moving to that other city and living a lovely life there, but not at this time. Now I know I can do it and when the right time comes, we’ll be able to take that trip together. A necessary sacrifice, living apart was so hard – more difficult that I like to admit. And now that we have each other back we can actually sleep during the week again. That’s what having him back is. Being peaceful enough to finally sleep.

House August 2011

As I feel quite a few changes coming for our home in the coming months, I thought I'd snap a few photos of what it looks like now that we've had two years to settle in. We are nothing, if not slow to make changes, but we've put our stamp on it in our own way. Part of the appeal for buying a home that was move-in ready was that we didn't have to spend extra to make it livable. That part is wonderful. The other part is that changes come more slowly and it takes longer to break from the cookie cutter because nothing is "broken." Anyway, here she is in August 2011.

I snapped these when we were prepping for some friends to come over for an end-of-the-summer happy hour. And I didn't bother to move around some of our normal clutter. This is how we live, people.

The laundry room curtain to hide the disorganization of the shelves above the appliances.

The kitchen:

The living room:

The entryway:

The office:

The hallway:

The guest bedroom right after the Winnie the Pooh wallpaper was removed.

The guest bath:

The master bath:

The master bedroom:

Areas of major concern include:

• guest bedroom paint/makeover
• the laundry room.....something has to happen...
• general decluttering of the whole house - especially the office
• finishing touches for the master bedroom
• repainting of the master bath to make it more neutral

Those Transcendentalists...

It's that time of year again. We've finally moved on from the painful (because I find it a slightly boring section of the American literature timeline) first unit of the year into a section of literature that is far more interesting for me. Today, we learn about Ralph Waldo Emerson, that rebel. We work on vocabulary, yes, and then we read an excerpt from his essay, Self-Reliance. If only his language were more accessible to student ears and hearts. Emerson's words embody everything they want to believe about the world, yet they do not always understand that he's on their side - advocating for their rebelliousness and right to explore their individual path.


At the end of the reading guide we work on together, the final prompt says this, "Choose your favorite aphorism, or quote, from Self-Reliance and explain why you find it to be the most significant line in the essay." Here's mine. I like to keep it as a reminder when life gets interesting.


"It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."

So true. Thanks, Ralph.

The Big Move

As of my next department meeting, which happens on October 1st, the air will be cleared. My English teacher friends will officially learn that this is my last year working with them. I am so sad to leave. I have found a true home at Hickman and love how my career has been able to grow into the comfortable, challenging, interesting beast that I enjoy so much.

The reason I'll be leaving is that Matt has a new job...in Saint Louis.

Yup. We've decided to move and after a few months of thinking about it, and being scared about it, and having a difficult time being apart during the work week while he stays with my parents, and all of the unkowns that still don't have answers we're becoming comfortable with it.

Our biggest concerns right now are where we'll live when we move, how and when we'll sell our house and, sadly, how our two pets will fit into our lives during this whole transition.

Things I do know. It's going to be a heck of a year. We've got a lot to do. It feels a little like we're having a collective quarter life crisis. And that by about June, we hope to be reunited in a little apartment somewhere in the Saint Louis area. I'll hopefully have a new job and we'll be adjusting to our new city life.

There are so many details and emotions about leaving this town I've called home for the past ten years that I can't put them all into words just yet. I'm still sifting through all of that and looking for the good in all of it. Just breathe.

As my dad says, "It's an adventure."

Another Chipley Ties the Knot

Sommer and Justin had a beautiful wedding day on July 23rd, 2011. It was a really hot, but really pretty day as far as weather goes. I think all involved can safely say that this wedding went off without any big glitches - wahoo! Here are just a few pictures taken by my mom of the day. As matron of honor, I was kept busy with the new Mrs. Burkemper so I didn't get to snap too many photos myself.

Cheers to you, Sommer and Justin. Congrats!

A few pre-ceremony bridesmaid pics were shot - Claire, Mary, and Audrey pose for the camera.

Passing on the newlywed torch to Sommer Lynn :-)

Bridesmaids gather to put Sommer into her very pretty wedding gown.

The bottom of her dress was my favorite detail - really beautiful.

Maddie, Olivia and Lily watch the action while looking smashing in their matching flower girl dresses.

The walk!

The kiss!

The new Mr. Justin Burkemper and Mrs. Sommer Burkemper!

There were some wedding shenanigans - dancing and napkin hats.

A tribute to the married parents and grandparents of the bride and groom as well as the photo guest book - very pretty.

The good lookin' mother and father of the bride :-)

A father daughter dance.

Sommer and Justin cheesin' on the dance floor.

Mary Therese's candy table spectacular.

A quick photo of the table centerpieces toward the end of the night.

Anniversary One

One whole year! On Sunday, July 17th, 2011 Matt and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. We had big plans to stay at a B&B about twenty minutes away from Columbia in Rocheport, MO but in the end opted for a stay at home weekend. We are SO happy with that decision. It has been such a hectic summer and giving ourselves one weekend to just be together was the perfect gift.

Even though we didn't go out of town, we did try to do some sentimental stuff to remember our wedding day. We started with some of the delicious rolls from the caterer we used at the wedding. It turns out you can order them by the dozen and can even have them shipped!

We decided on pulled pork to pay homage to our homemade rehearsal dinner and I tried a new recipe. It was Ree Drummond's Spicy Dr. Pepper Pork.

The Shelly and Doug Chipley family gave us some champagne as part of our wedding gift with instructions to share it on our anniversary - no arguments here!

After dinner, we had our year old cake and champagne. Matt did a really great job of wrapping the cake one year ago - there were many layers of wax paper, plastic wrap and foil to get that job done. We let it defrost for one whole day in the refrigerator and it tasted like new!

We also decided to start taking a picture every year in front of our current home. In the next few years I have a feeling this home might look different. So I wanted to be able to join the memories of anniversaries with homes we've shared - as a kind of timeline of marriage. We ended up with a few nice pics, including a whole family portrait with the two beasts. This is really the best we could do. They both have their heads turned due to a car going by....but that was the only way we could get them to stop facing us!