From A to Zoë

Friday, October 31

so, some of my loyal readers (hahaha) have asked what zoë is saying. i thought i would fill you in on the words she knows, and says on a regular basis.

eat (of course!)
diaper
ewwww stinky (usually preceded by her or someone else passing gas)
nummies
juice
shoes
mama
poppa
grandpa (but no grandma)
light
hat
hot (usually followed by blowing on whatever object she has deemed as hot)
Lori
owl
apple
zebra
car
copter (there is a military installation near the house, and helicopters fly over regularly)
nose
eye
ear
fishy (sounds like shishy)
hi (said to any and everyone within earshot. and she'll repeat it until she gets a response)
bye bye
see ya
night night
1,2,3
piano
car
quack quack
dinosaur noises (she won't say dino, but she will roar when you ask her what it says)
puppy (plus woofing)
kitty (plus meowing)
birdie (plus making high pitched squeely noises)
no ma'am
thank you
and yay!

i was really worrying about her, about a month ago. she had about 5 words, and while she understood a lot of them, she wasn't saying them. than all of a sudden, complete language explosion. i kid you not, aside from mama, poppa, no ma'am, bye bye, and juice, she didn't say any of these 4 weeks ago. it's been surreal, watching her mind expand at such a high rate. she understands quite a few more words, but she's not saying them yet. i guess we need to wait until next month.

Friday, October 24

so, we have a place to live, and a car. we're staying with spencer's parents in dahlonega, and our dear friends have loaned us one of their vehicles until thanksgiving. spencer never did get the law enforcement job locally that he applied for. within a few days of completing all the necessary background checks, etc, the county froze hiring. he's still processing for a federal job located in washington d.c... all of that is in the Lord's hands. we're hoping spencer can get everything finished by tuesday, but if all goes well, he should be starting next week as a driver in atlanta. he would have to move closer to his job, as we live 82 miles (one way!) away from downtown atlanta. our friends (the same ones who loaned us the vehicle) have family who live about 60 miles closer in, who are willing to let spencer stay with them.
if it doesn't make sense to you why we would even do something like that, you might not be aware of how dire things really are getting, in terms of available jobs. in the local paper, this last week, there were 3 jobs listed. only 3... and 4 pages of foreclosure notices. it's certainly getting very hard to find employment, and we are not going to do anything to jeopardize this job. spencer has applied for over 300 jobs in the last 4 months. and all of them he was qualified for. all over the country, all over the region. and this is the only job to interview him. when he interviewed for the position last week, he was one of 4 men applying. of the 4, 2 were homeless, 1 was living in a house about to foreclose, and the other was draining his savings trying to stay afloat. it's intense. which is why we are so very thankful for family. and friends helping us stay out of a shelter, and able to get to a job. things are going to be stabilizing for us soon, so rejoice with us. the Lord is faithful. He is taking care of us.

Friday, September 5

post #200... what a fun ride this has been. ellen and greg just happened to come by the house today, took me and zoë out to lunch, and then whisked us away to their house. which is a total blessing, because that means i can finally post pictures of the munchkin. spencer is on his way home from washington d.c. where he was testing for a federal job. hopefully he'll be through richmond before rush hour...
thanks for sticking out this bumpy ride of the last 19 months... hard to believe it's been that long, and yet it feels like it's flown by. i've been telling spencer we need another one, because zoë's been so much fun. of course, we're going to get health insurance first, so no worrying, okay?

and now, on to the pictures

she loves getting pulled around in this laundry basket.

keeeyyyysss!!

like a cat insisting on fitting in something way too small, she was determined to sit in these fairly small wire baskets.

basket

hello? uh huh... okay! bye. - literal transcript of her conversation. seriously.

toybox

making a royal mess with the toys

hahaha... silly girl

what? i'm supposed to keep my mouth shut?

spencer at the outset of the trip to savannah with brent and michelle. this was our first vacation in years, and you'll notice zoë's absence. she had a wild weekend at grandma and grandpa's, and didn't seem to miss us a bit.

gates

a tree grown round a fence

the childhood home of flannery o'connor

i love flannery o'connor

gates

savannah skyline

black virgin mary

spencer and brent

too bad i wasn't paying more attention in american history...

cool gate

wrought iron fencing around st. john

wasn't the father in gone with the wind named gerald o'hara?

st. patrick statue at st. john the baptist catholic church

interior dome of st. john

Jesus ascending

the Father recieving Jesus

one of my favorite stained glass pieces

michelle's favorite stained glass bit

interior of st. john

st. john in daylight

i seriously loved this fountain

fountain again

we ate at a genuine pirate pub... stevenson apparently penned "treasure island" near here

vertigo inducing stairs round 1

vertigo inducing stairs round 2, on the way to the river front... lots of smelly tourists, in a very small space. did i mention it was very hot and humid?

walking the uneven brick streets

the long walk back from the river front

entrance to savannah's most famous cemetary

the tombstone of a pirate... notice the skull and crossbones?

spencer and i in a local coffee shop

st. john the baptist

a bridge in the savannah area that was once a boundary of land owned by spencer's family... they burned it anticipating sherman's march to the sea... sherman built a pontoon bridge instead. really cool bit of family history.