Coming to a close

Ilana and I fly away tomorrow. Paul, with the dog and trailer, leave Friday morning. With these things in mind, Life at Baylor is quickly coming to a close. So, as is our custom, I've created a NEW BLOG. :) It's www.paulandheathermiller.blogspot.com. Check it out!!
Blogger allows you to buy a url so you don't have to use their "blogspot.com" tagline at the end, it's only $10 a year. But, being "frugal" as we are, and knowing that we don't mind letting Blogger get some credit for our blog, we decided against that option. So, read up, visit often, and onto the new blog!
-H
ps-sorry for the lack of pictures. We're down to using Paul's laptop and it doesn't have any pictures loaded onto it. I'll post some new pictures as soon as I can.

the adventure continues...

A lot of people have offered support and prayers for us in this time and we are so thankful. I cannot explain how "full" life was last week. In the midst of a vomiting toddler, Paul was offered 2 jobs, we were battling some pretty bad head colds and trying desperately to decide what was next on our journey. Well, Ilana is back to normal again, a decision has been made and we are off to Chicago. Paul accepted a job at Loyola University of Chicago as the director of their brand new outdoor adventure program. We are so excited! We know that all of Paul's past outdoor experience in the CCO's OLT and here with Baylor's outdoor adventure program, combined with his education have prepared him perfectly for this.
This decision does not come without grief in leaving our community here in Waco, and it still leaves us with tons of questions. Here is what we know about our future plans: Ilana and I will fly to Maryland on Thursday, May 27, where we'll stay until Paul and Moses (with the trailer) join us in a few days. Our house in Gettysburg is available as of June 6, so we will "move in" and be there until we head out to Chicago for Paul's July 1 start date. Loyola is providing us with temporary housing through mid-August if we need it, to give us time to find a place to live once we get up there.
If you're in TX, we'd love to see you to say good-bye, but these next few days will be hectic. So, please contact us and see when would be a good time.
If you're in MD or PA we'd love to see you while we're there, but as you can imagine, it will be a very busy month - going through our whole house deciding what we want to take and what we want to give away/sell/goodwill...what have you.
If you are in neither of these places, then you are just as important to us and we'd love for you to know what we're up to!
Thank you all, so much, for your support in this time. It has been a crazy month and we are excited to explore a new area of the country. I'll be updating our blog (obviously life at Baylor will be coming to an end), so check back for the upcoming changes.
In the meantime, we're doing our best to continue the packing process that started this past weekend (yes, in the midst of the graduation ceremonies and my birthday celebration), but we're also starting to get really excited about these next few months. Loyola - here we come!
-H

Guess who likes Oreos?

...when she's healthy of course.


Yes, she's "smiling" in this last one.
Now if we could just get her healthy again...
-H

Baby Update and shower pictures

So, here I am:
And here are the stats:

• How far along: 22 weeks
  
• Baby’s heart rate: in the 160's - exactly where it should be
  
• Total weight gain: 17 pounds
• Maternity clothes: nothing else at this point! I can wear my 3 largest non-maternity t-shirts, but everything else has got to be maternity.
• Sleep: I have good nights and bad nights, but I always get up at least once a night, usually around 3:45.
• Best moment this week: having nothing to do except sit and enjoy feeling this baby boy move all around. He must have tons more room (or he's just more active) than Ilana. It's so fun to notice their differences already.
• Movement: uh, yeah! All the time!
• Food cravings: ice cream!! I actually haven't had a pickle in quite a long time - crazy.
• What I miss: being able to cuddle Ilana really closely, she's running out of space on my lap. :(
• Weekly Wisdom: 2 things...
• Even if you try to enjoy some freedom, you can't ever lose the responsibility of being a parent. Twenty hours into our weekend celebration get-away to Austin, our overnight babysitter called to tell us that Ilana was throwing up. Needless to say, we were home that afternoon. We knew we made the right decision when she didn't stop smiling and hugging us when she met us outside. She's much better now, but we're still going to the dr's tomorrow.
  
• No matter how much coughing and hacking I do with this 10-day old cold that I have, this little boy seems to think I'm playing with him. According to my nurse mid-wife he's just "as happy as a lark in there!" Everything's already a game for this boy!
  

Now, for the shower...
A week ago the faculty-in-residence's wife, Hope, threw me the sweetest baby shower here on campus. Here she is dishing out punch for everyone.
We ate - the food was delicious!
We played games, including the "which smooshed/melted candy bar is that?!" Not recommended for the queasy-stomached.
We opened mostly gift cards and a few actual gifts. Due to our unknown future, Paul and I had requested gift cards - we got some great ones!
We generally had a great time.
To her credit, one woman, Beth, was not in this large group picture. Being a mom of 3, she included a small gift for Ilana in her gift. Just as Beth guessed, after seeing all the gifts from the shower, Ilana wanted to open them. So, right on cue, I gave Ilana her gift.
It was a baby doll complete with a backpack. She knew exactly what to do with it right away.
But, she may have enjoyed the ribbon better, I'm not sure.
I never would have imaged this kind of support 2 years ago. It was no small miracle in my mind to look around the room and know that these women are all so important to our family. We definitely found our "place" here in Waco and we are so thankful to the Lord for His faithfulness in helping us find it!
-H

Look what came in Friday's mail!!

I can hardly believe that 22 months is almost over. But, it's for real - PAUL GRADUATES IN 19 DAYS, PEOPLE!!! He realized just tonight that he is done with 2 of his 3 classes this semester. He has the first part of his law final tomorrow and the second part early next week...and that's IT - CRAZY!!!
...I'm so excited...and proud of him. It's almost time to celebrate...almost.
-H

Highlights from the party

We decided to do a family party to celebrate Ilana's 2nd birthday. She's not a huge fan of big crowds and we have enough going on these days. So, we decided to try to let her do all her favorite things without diverting or discouraging her.
She spent the day trying to open the door (she's almost got it, it's kind of scary!),
putting on shoes,
doing the buckle on her chair, over and over again,
and reading in her chair (I can't figure out why this picture won't turn sideways for me and sorry it's fuzzy!).
We even gave her a lollipop,
which she graciously shared with her baby doll, she's very conscientious these days.
Then we went to McAlister's for dinner
where she opened some more presents (including these sunglasses that she immediately put on...upside down).
We followed dinner with dessert at Dairy Queen (no homemade cake this year), where she got her very own strawberry sundae with candles. (For some reason the video I uploaded of us singing to her and her blowing out her candles didn't upload correctly. I'll try again later - sorry!) I think it was a pretty sweet day for her!
-H

Ilana at 2

Ilana is 2 years old today and probably our biggest joy. She is growing up before our very eyes and we love watching her learn. Even just today she started trying to open the door with the door knobs in our apartment. Our "kid-proofing" may need to continue soon.
These days Ilana loves keys, zippers, the Wiggles (a kids music group), taking off her shoes and trying to put on any other pair she can find (even if it's the ones she just took off). She's trying to say a lot of words. The newest words or phrases to add to her collection are: thank you (which sounds more like "zwah too"), monkey (which sounds exactly like "daddy," but that's ok), baby (pronounced really well), and her favorite word, please (pronounced: TSSSSSS! accompanied by a fair amount of spitting).
She's still a very gentle, cautious child, although when she's comfortable with something her feisty-ness starts to show. Like on this day, after awhile she decided to try to make her own potpourri with the bluebonnets and was vigorously ripping apart the flowers:
We know she is going to be a great big sister. She's in a phase right now where I have to "feed" her baby doll or stuffed animal before I feed her. She's already very conscientious.
Although we have a pretty good daily routine down, she can be very flexible with it. She's pretty easy-going. When we were getting our ultrasound the other day she was just sitting on Paul's lap drinking her juice most of the time. The woman even asked if she was "always this calm." She tends to be pretty laid back, unless she's hurt, hungry, tired, cranky or somebody's taken away her toy. But, what toddler isn't upset in those circumstances?
We've been through a lot these past 2 years and these next few months are not going to be much easier, but we are so thankful to have Ilana in our lives. We are blessed because she is ours and we look forward to continuing to watch her grow and learn. She gives us a great perspective on life and continually reminds us of what's really important.
We love you, Ilana!
-H&P