"Music City"- Nashville '09

This is our 7th year going to Nashville for the summer NAMM convention for Kevin's work. I love Nashville! This time, my sister joined us since she lives only a couple hours away in southern Indiana. Josie loved hanging with auntie Sheri! Usually on these trips I end up hanging around the hotel and just walking down Broadway or something. This time, we went and saw all the sights, most of which I have never been to. We began by going to the Cheekwood Botanical gardens and museums. It's in the ritzy area of Belle Mead and it was so pretty! We took tons of pics in the gardens and at the mansion turned museum. 

(Again, some of these Sheri took and some I took, Many of her 9 month pics were taken on the same day)

We then had lunch at the Parthenon. This is an exact, life-size replica of the real thing that Nashville built in the middle of a gorgeous park. 

The next day, we decided to see some of the sights near the downtown area and our hotel. We just did our own little walking tour and got some good exercise. The weather was perfect! We saw the Ryman Theatre (which used to be where the Grand Ole Opry was), a bunch of old churches, historic Union Station, the War Memorial, Capital building, and the FREE Tennessee State Museum. 

Union Station:
Josie loved everything at the museum. Especially things she could touch.

We went to see the Grand Ole Opry and Opryland Resort. Kevin and I went there years ago and saw a show at the Opry. I can't even remember who was  performing, but we saw the show from backstage. It was very cool hanging out backstage at the Opry with all the country stars!

The Gaylord Opryland Hotel is a giant complex under a big, clear dome. It's pretty cool. There is the hotel, shops, botanical gardens, a steamboat, and a mall in the complex.

We couldn't leave without touring historic 2nd Ave. and Broadway at night. What a great nightlife! We skipped out on the Country Music Hall of Fame since it was too expensive and still have plenty that we need to see next year. Can't wait!

On our drive home, (oh yeah, we drove since it was only 7 hours away) we stopped at one of the amazing Kentucky caves. Kentucky has some of the most fantastic caves in the world. Who knew? We only had time for one, so we chose one of the smaller ones called Hidden River cave. We were the only ones on the tour. They do spelunking tours in most of the caves and we decided we are definitely going back for that! Josie hated the tour and pretty much cried the whole time cause she was tired and the hike was kinda bumpy.

Anyway, we look forward to going again next year when Josie can really enjoy it!

We are off to Utah for a week and then California for a week! We may get to see some of you! Yay!

"The House" Saga continues..........

I know I have led a pretty cushy life mostly due to my amazing family and husband. I haven't had too many trials that I felt I couldn't handle. Our house in Florida has come pretty close sometimes. We were so excited when we closed on our first home! We spent our first years as a married couple there. It will always be a special place for us. Many of you know that when we moved to Indiana, we were not able to sell our house so we opted to rent it out instead. After about 6 months of it sitting vacant and paying both rent and mortgage, we finally got some tenants. They only lasted a couple weeks before we had to evict them. Fortunately, we found some great ones the next month that have lived there ever since. We have a management company that takes care of the property, manages the yard, and disburses rent checks to us. They have been great and I would never be a landlord any other way. Even still, this house has been the source of so much stress. It is no secret that the housing market is just awful right now with not much proof it's going to get better any time soon. The problem with our situation is that there can be no financial progression for us (unless I go to work) until we get rid of the house. We also can't buy another house because it would be too much financial obligation (just in case we couldn't find renters). So what do we do? Wait 3-5 years for the market to recover enough to sell and make a profit? Sell and take a loss? Florida in general has taken a huge dive in house values. We bought this house in 2005. Now, 4 years later, it has gone down about 20-30% and even at that price you are lucky to get an offer. This means we will need to come to the table with money. A significant amount. Never a position a seller wants to be in. The advantage of this, is that we will finally be able to get rid of this stressful situation and focus on buying another home here in Indiana. Of course, it will probably be a while before we can do this since we plan on putting 30-40% down. So, after 4 years, hours of work and thousands and thousands of dollars, we are left with nothing but a good lesson in patience, frugality, and faith. I am really thankful for that lesson. I look at it this way. If we didn't have this house issue, our lives would be pretty much perfect. Life cannot be that way or else we couldn't learn and grow. I am glad that our "trial" is only financial and not physical or mental. So, what are we going to do about it?

We are once again trying to sell our house. It is officially for sale, just waiting for a new owner. It's at a very competitive (and frankly sad) price. We are hoping it will sell soon unlike the many houses out there that have been on the market for over a year. Our tenants' lease is up at the end of October. We REALLY hope we can sell it by then or else we are back to paying rent and mortgage again. *Sigh* I know it's wishful thinking. We need all the prayers we can get. We are confident that our prayers will be heard and this burden will be lifted in the Lords time. Just don't know when that is. 

P.S. Carrie, you guys need to sell your house too so we can continue to be life twins.

9 Months- The perfect baby? Pretty darn close!!

Josie is 9 months! Most of the following pictures were taken in Nashville on our "business" trip. I'll post about that later. Some of them are mine and some of them are pics my sister Sheri took. 

First things first. Here are the stats:

Weight: 18 lbs. 3 oz. (25-ish percentile? Forgot to ask....)

Height: 28.5 in. (75th percentile)

Head: forgot measurement, but it's in the 90th percentile. She has a big head full of brains!

My very plump baby has turned into a mildly chubby, tall, older-looking baby.  She only gained 3 oz. in the last 2 months which put her from the 75-80% to 25-30%. I'm not really surprised. As soon as she started solids regularly (7 months) and started crawling (also 7 months) she thinned out alot. She looks so much older just in the last couple weeks! Here are a few of her new tricks and favorites:

*Says Mama, Mommy, Dada, Daddy, and still tries to say ball.

* tries to stand without support, balances for a few seconds and then carefully lowers herself to the ground. I think she will be standing without help any day now.

*waves "bye bye" on command

*mimics my singing 

*climbs on everything including stairs (with supervision of course)

She especially likes to climb up the front of her stroller and sit on the foot tray.

*grew 3 teeth!! All 3 on the bottom. It's about time!

You can see 2 of them here.

*sleeps 12 hours without waking at night (most of the time)

* still takes 2 naps for 1-2 hours each

*slaps and pounds on everything. I'm pretty sure she gets that from her drummer father : )

She blinks whenever she slaps something. It's pretty funny to watch.

* she decided she is too old for pacifiers and gave them up on her own. 

*is endlessly tasting new things and exploring new places.

What can I say? She's awesome! She is a great sleeper. As long as we are not screwing up her routine with vacation, she sleeps great at night and during the day. She has been going 12 hours at night with no wakings for almost a month now. (Although sometimes she has to play in her crib for a little while before she can fall asleep) She goes down early at 7-7:30 and is up at around the same time the next morning. Still sleeps 3-4 hours a day during naps. She is still pretty clingy and would rather I hold her most of the time. I try to find new things for her to discover that will distract her enough for me to have break. When she's tired, she cues me by putting her fingers in her mouth and sucking on them. When she does this, she will immediately go down to sleep. She favors her fingers at sleepytime over a pacifier and won't even take one anymore.

She is quite a gabber! She is always "talking" and makes the funniest little words and sounds. She sometimes whispers which I think is really funny. We have made it this far without any sickness or ear infections which is great. Hope we can make it to a year or longer!

She has done really well with traveling so far, even though it messes up her schedule. Hope it continues since we are going to Utah and California in a couple weeks! A little nervous about the plane ride. 

One last note about me! I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but I started graduate school this summer and am taking 2 classes. Let me tell you how awesome the program is! I told them about how I may not be able to go after all since it's hard for me to find a sitter and I don't like being away from her too much. Also, until our house sells, we are strapped for cash and I can't afford to take a bunch of classes (graduate classes are expensive!).  They can only give me a scholarship if I go full time, but to help out, they put my classes back to back, one day a week, and I can bring Jos with me! How cool is that? My teacher loves having Jos there and everyone takes turns holding her. I will probably continue taking 2 or 3 classes depending on the time requirement and may even finish before the next decade! At least it keeps me busy!

More festivals.......

They were having "Italian Fest" in Mishawaka a couple weeks ago. It was mostly one big advertisement for a new shopping center that just went up, but it was fun anyway. There is this new area that looks very Italian and has gelato and other Italian food places. Jos liked it cause we let her try some of the ice cream and I let her drink out of my big cup. She's so funny!

We also tried going to the Elkhart 4- H fair (one of the largest in the country) but got rained out. We are going to the LaPorte County fair this weekend. Keep em' comin!!

Sgt. Money returns!

For some reason, I'm not sure if I have have any pics of my brother on here. It's really sad too, cause he's such an amazing guy! For those of you who don't know, I have a 30 year old brother named Arron who just came home from his second tour of Iraq. He returned safe and sound but lost many good friends out there. I am thankful for all of those who served and gave their lives for us. He was in the army for 4 years and has now fulfilled his duty and is enjoying the real world. Many of you know Arron and know his story. It's an amazing one. For those of you who don't, you just need to meet him cause it would take too long to explain this guy. In short, he's a hero to many people including me. I love him and have grown very close to him in recent years. We have definitely made up for lost time, Arron! He is such a fun, intelligent, vibrant, SINGLE (hint, hint ladies.....) person. Welcome home, Arron! We are proud of you!

We all chipped in and surprised him with a brick at the veterans memorial:

Grandma, cousin Lori, Arron, and parents on July 4th:

Arron and sister Sheri:

Sadly, this was the last time I saw him! It will have been almost 2 years when I see him next. Also, a funny side note, this was when I got my hair done and it turned out totally red. It was crazy. I fixed it when I got home and learned never to say, "do what you think will look cool" to the hairdresser. 

The family minus Sarah, Christmas '07

Can't wait to see you bro and for you to meet your niece for the first time!!!

July 4th and Festival Season

One of the best things about the Midwest in the summer are all the festivals and fairs. There are literally dozens of them, several each week. We started out the summer going to "Summerfest" in Mishawaka and the Elkhart Jazz Festival. We walked to the festival from our house and walked around the riverfront for a while. Kevin had several artists playing at the jazz festival so we went there for a few hours too. Both were free (well, at least for Conn-Selmer employees). As we watched a very loud jazz band playing "big band" music I noticed something funny. All of the babies in the crowd were whining at the loud music and getting startled by loud musical entrances. Josie acted as if it was just another day in the loud Packard home. She just played on the ground and barely flinched when the trumpets would chime in loudly. Her hearing is just fine, she's just gotten used to all kinds of instruments already. That's my girl!

We began 4th of July weekend by going to the St. Joseph County 4-H Fair. Kevin had Friday off, so we spent a good part of the day there. We mostly walked around and looked at all the livestock and booths. We bought one of the cakes from the baking competition and let Josie take in all the fair excitement. It was so exciting she decided to skip her nap. She was very tired and cranky later. 

Ok, this may come under the category of "you just had to be there" but I'm sharing it anyway. This is the Battel Center Line Dancing group. They are all at least 75 years old and many seemed very frail. Even so, they were performing a lively dance to some heavy rap song. It was just really funny seeing these old ladies gettin' down to some Jay-Z song.

 Another thing I love about Indiana is the fact that fireworks are legal! You can set off professional grade fireworks in your own backyard if you have the money. Last year, we did this. This year, we were invited out to a friends house in LaPorte for the day. It was so much fun! They live on a farm out in the countryside. Every year they gather there for the 4th. The whole family (I mean WHOLE family- inlaws, cousins, aunts.....) comes to celebrate. As soon as we went around back where the food and activities were, Kevin and I got very envious. We have always wanted a big, homey, back porch. The kind where you can sit and watch the rain on a warm summer night. Mmmmm.......   They had the best I've seen in a while. It ran along the whole back of the house and included a dozen rocking chairs and porch swings. There were tables of food and everyone sat around eating, playing cards or frisbee, singing, and visiting. It just felt like home.




The boys serenaded us all.

We played some good card games. I always win.

The cutest part was Josie's first horse ride!! They had this very sweet horse that everyone was riding and we decided to let Josie see the horse. The horse kept nuzzling her. It was so sweet! We put her on with Addy, our friends' daughter and got the cutest picture ever!!! 

The horse nuzzling her.

See! Told you it's the cutest ever!!!

As it got dark, another midwest staple arrived. Fireflies! It's not truly summer until the fireflies are out on a warm night! We lit off some awesome fireworks after the sun finally went down around 10. (I love that as I am typing this, it's almost 10:00 and the sun is still going down.) Josie had not slept since we got there because of all the excitement, so she was very tired at this point. She was kind of indifferent about the fireworks and probably wished everyone would be quiet so she could sleep. She has a hard time sleeping at other peoples houses. Fireworks are hard to take pictures of, but a got a few good ones.

I thought this was a pretty cool action shot of a firework. It kinda looks evil!

Another great Independence day! One of my favorite holidays!