Last Day at NIDA & Farewell Party

Today was my last day at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Recently I was offered a postition as a Federal Investigator with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The position is amazing and fits every criteria I had set out for myself. It is super close to where we live and offers a lot of great benefits. The position is also really great because it goes up really high in grade and if you ever want to change jobs you can get a job with the FBI or CIA--how cool is that???
The move is bittersweet, however, because at NIDA I found true friendship and I will miss waking up every morning knowing that I am going to see my friends. The Director at NIDA was always willing to support me in my goals and I was given many opportunities to do more. In fact, it was the extra duties I took on at NIDA that helped me illustrate to my interviewers that I would be a good choice. Thank you to everyone at NIDA for the lessons you have given me and for the close friendship that you built.

Here is Wyatt and I before I left for my last day: Goodbye NIH badge that made me look like Clarice from Silence of the Lambs: (my new one is hilarious it makes me look like Doc Brown with all this crazy frazzeled hair- will post when it comes through)

My empty office, I had worked all week on clearing it out and then I realized I never really got a picture of it personalized but that's ok...so long my office

Teri (the Director) said "What are we going to do without the Three Musketeers?" I said "Well I will have to come back sometimes otherwise who will save the Queen?" ONE FOR ALL AND ALL FOR ONE:

Tanya and Sonya cleaning up after the celebration. It was a very nice celebration a lot of the staff came to say goodbye and they all had very nice words to say about me. Sonya gave a beautiful speech that made me cry.

It was truly a blessing to be called to NIDA and I remember leaving GVA nervous about whether I was making the right decision to leave. After nearly three years with NIDA I realize that I grew up so much there, I became a mother there, and I learned that I was capable of a lot more than I ever gave myself credit for. The most important thing I gained was amazing friends who helped me weather my storms with a smile and a giggle.

John & Erin Krumpotich Wedding

Stan and I attended John & Erin Krumpotich's wedding. It was at the same church as where Adam and Meredith got married 9 years ago. I am pretty sure I even sat in the same pew as I did at their wedding. The ceremony was great. They had a guest minister come to the church to do the ceremony and she was very funny. At the reception, I danced like crazy! It was so nice to get out a have some dancing fun- poor Stan had to be drafted to get out on the floor but we all had a great time dancing.

A quick and not so great ceremony shot. Stan and I at the reception

Centerpiece

Betty, John, and Stan

Stan and I dancing with my monster zit side- gotta love it.

Cake Cutting





Lots of people getting down on the dance floor.

Elk's Charity Ball

Last weekend Stan and I attended the Elk's Charity Ball in Frederick, MD while Wyatt spent the night playing with his Cousin William. The Charity Ball's theme was "A Walk Through Time" and it was a costume ball. We had to choose an era between 1900-1999. Originally I wanted to do the 1940s but us big girls have to take what we can get so I ended up finding a dress from the 1970s. Stan's costume was full on disco complete with the platform boots and everything. I bought an afro wig so I could actualize my goal of one day having an afro but then I spent like three hours trying to do a Jaquelyn Smith do, so do I look 70's enough?


This is me and Wyatt just before we left to go drop him off for his Pajama party. My mom and dad got turn of the century costumes. She was the Unsinkable Molly Brown which seems very appropriate for my mom. My dad looked so handsome in his suit. It had a long jacket and of course a top hat. He said he was too tall to fit through the door with the hat on.
OF course my mom danced and danced and danced. Here she is guiding one of her fellow Elks across the floor. He was having a ball dancing with her and the spotlight was on them the whole time. Also notice the decorations, my mom was on the committee and she imagined all this up.

"DO the hustle" ok well we didn't actually do the hustle but we got up and boogied a little too. Here you can see Stan's costume a little just picture bell bottoms and big heeled boots at the bottom and that was him.

My mom and dad sharing a slow dance. I always love watching them dance you can really tell their height difference (she is in heels here too).

AND of course my mom danced some more.

While we took a little break...

My dad tried to take a break so my mom just danced next to him and bumped him with her hip every now and then.

The Charity Ball was a blast and it was nice to have a date night since we hadn't done anything without Wyatt since he was like 2 months old or something.

A Plague on Our Houses

I haven't had much time recently to post and have been doing really bad about doing the day-to-day updating here. Last week, tuesday, I spent the entire day coughing and sure enough by Wednesday it was really bad. I ended up going to the doctor on Tuesday and got diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection with a underlying viral infection. So I took some time and tried to get better. Then on Monday I got kicked out of work for being too sick. So on Tuesday it was back to the doctor only to find out that my URI had gotten worse and was now pneumonia. I was given some hardcore antibiotics and some really strong cough syrup. So now I am back at work for part of the day today.

Yesterday Wyatt's daycare called and told me I had to come and pick him up because he had a fever so today he is at home with his daddy.

My Old Moo-vin Up

Yesterday Wyatt moved up to the "Old Moos" class at Goddard. Stan and I have been looking forward to this since he started because we really love the teachers on the Old Moos side. They are both a lot of fun and Talia who is Wyatt's main teacher absolutely adores him. So how was his move up day?

When I came in Wyatt was pulling himself up on this cube thing and playing with the toy on top. I had never seen him do anything like that before so I was really impressed. I think it is going to be good for him to be around the older kids and to pick up their skills. He moved-up with his two friends, Wade and Gianna so I think he is pretty comfortable with the move.

Yesterday when I brought him back from daycare Wyatt was a crawling machine. I think being around the other kids today got his motor going because he was all over the living room and I felt like such a mommy running after him and moving things around. I had to baby proof our living room while he was crawling around looking for dangerous things to play with. I did a kinda half baby proof of the place but when we get back from Disney I am going to have to go full force.
It was crazy that just over the course of a day Wyatt went from crawling a little here and there to crawling everywhere (too much Dr. Seuss at nights). I am just really proud of my little man and his accomplishments.

Last night Stan and I went out to Red Robin and Stan unbuckeled Wyatt from the seat and slowly Wyatt turned around and sat very nicely next to Stan. It was so cute he was all proud of himself just sitting there next to Daddy like a big boy. We let him try some Onion soup broth, pesto (yummy), tomatos, and Mommy's campfire chipotle sauce. Stan said he thought Wyatt was going to be like me because whatever you give him he is like ok that was good and moves on. He doesn't really have bad reactions to anything except rice (so you know he is like his momma) for some reason he just never liked the rice cereal. After a while at dinner Wyatt figured out that he could use the seat to pull him up and right behind his seat were all the balloons they were blowing up. Wyatt started getting so excited and was watching the girl with the balloons with anticipation so Stan walked him over and got him one. Wyatt played with his balloon a little and then said goodbye before we left. He is such a cutie!!

Makin Good

Well I did it, and then I posted a bad picture to prove it. I got 6 inches cut off of my hair. It was bittersweet to think about just a few years ago saying I was not going to cut my hair until I had a baby and then realizing I was sitting there letting all that hair go and closing that period in my life. The sweet part was knowing that sitting just around the corner was Stan and beautiful baby Wyatt. I decided it was time to start another chapter in my life so I shed the excess and began focusing on eating healthy. (We will have to see where that goes).

Rock Me Gently

Ah Memorial day holiday. This past weekend I was busy holding grudges which meant that I was able to finally get some rest and didn't have to run off to this plan or that plan. I have had this lingering sore throat which has been under agressive antibiotic treatment but still seems to be going strong so rest was very needed. Anyway Stan decided to take a long nap on the couch which gave me the perfect opportunity to hold Wyatt and just rock a little. It was such a nice treat to have nowhere to be than just there with him. I think being a working mother I feel as though I always have to go somewhere and I really miss out on all those precious times where the only thing in the world you have to do is just rock your baby. The weekends are your only chance at anything social basically so they full up fast. I was determined to just save this three day weekend for a Wyatt and Mommy bonding time. He loved it too. He just fell asleep on my chest and kept smiling randomly (I guess Mommy brings happy dreams).