Coffee? What?

anybody who's ever known me knows that i am not a coffee drinker. never have been... (except for a good starbucks caramel mocha with whip cream). but since we our latest move i have been wanting coffee every morning. why? absolutely no clue. i've never liked the taste, but all the sudden it's grown on me. i think i've just fallen for the whole trendy, romanticized, coffee shop, warm and cozy image. i am currently brewing some folger's french vanilla. i haven't perfected my coffee bean grinding skills yet (i'm not that far in yet... but i think i'll get there soon).

6 Month Stats

i took lucas for his 6 month check-up this morning. he handled it like a champ. you know that paper they pull over the table for sanitary purposes? yeah. lucas mutilated it. every inch. two table lengths of it. so wasteful.

height: 28 1/4 inches, 95%

weight: 17 lb 10 oz, 50%

head circumference: 44 inches, 50%

for being so long but with an average weight, he sure is chunky! he had to get 3 shots, which didn't exactly make him smile, but one of the vaccines was oral. it must have tasted pretty good b/c he kept opening his mouth for more.

and now my poor little champ is sitting in the floor, fussing, with 3 big bugs bunny bandaids on his huge thighs. bless his little heart.

Guess who is an official violist for the Raleigh Civic Symphony?

ME! :)

"I sure do like to poo-poo aaaaall day!"

~rachel pamela

Cubbies!

well, my daughter is now officially a pre-schooler. she was able to start cubbies last night at church (the pre-school version of awana). i didn't think she was old enough yet and since we're only here for a few more months i figured it wasn't a big deal if she stayed in puggles (the 2 year old class). but i found out last night that she's technically too young by only 2 days and they said she was welcome to start with the big kids :).

i got her registered super fast and walked her to her new "big girl" class (in her puggles shirt... oops). she cried when i dropped her off (which really never happens) but i guess going from a familiar little nursery room to the big open children's center room was pretty overwhelming. so i abandoned my crying child in her new class and went to go work in another nursery classroom for the night.

when i came to pick her up her teachers said she had a great time and she couldn't stop telling me about seeing cubby bear (there's a little puppet show each week) and couldn't stop showing me the stamp she got on her hand. i'm so proud :).

she is supposed to learn a verse each week and then tell it to her teachers at each meeting. if she does it she'll get little badges to put on her vest (see the vest being modeled by cubby bear). if she doesn't, who cares?

(not to brag or anything, but she's already learned her verse for this week! now if she'll actually say it in front of her new teacher is yet to be determined, but i'm sure she'll catch on at some point) :)

Raleigh Civic Symphony?

so last night i did kind of a whacky thing... i auditioned for the raleigh civic symphony and chamber orchestra (the orchestras of nc state). we'll be in raleigh for the rest of this school semester, so i figured why not? i knew i'd regret it if i at least didn't try b/c who knows when i'll ever get to do anything like this again. so for the past week i've been practicing my bach and my 3 octave scales (DEFINITELY haven't played those since high school... and it showed). i was really nervous all day about it, but i kept telling myself that even if i didn't make it i should at least enjoy the fact that i was out in the downtown area child-free (and therefore diaper bag, sippy cup, graham cracker, diaper, wipe, burp cloth, teething ring free!) and i should just have fun at least pretending to be part of the raleigh music scene. thinking this greatly calmed my nerves (as the squeaky scale i heard from a neighboring practice room...).

i played in front of the conductor (who is your typical music professor, kind of dweeby, probably out of touch with reality, but very sweet) and the concert mistress (also very sweet, and asian. big surprise. is this racial profiling? yes. is it 99.9% accurate all the time? yes! give me a break. they're a brilliant people.). i got to pick what scale i wanted to play (unheard of! and greatly appreciated!) and there was no sightreading (i think only b/c they were running behind). they both seemed reasonably pleased with me. i don't know anything definite, but we did spend probably the same amount of time talking about the rehearsal schedule and my preference in the orchestras and availability than i did actually playing for them. i confess, i left pretty confident. but hey, if i didn't make it, it was still a thoroughly enjoyable evening (except for getting lost of the wrong side of downtown on the way home... really not sure how i did that). hopefully i'll know something soon :)

Jesus Loves Me

Guess What?? I'm 6 Months!!

and look who's sitting up!




lucas took his first big boy bath tonight! he was splashing repeatedly the entire time. it got a little wet.





and just for the fun of it, i think another comparison is in order...




they're not looking as identical these days, but clearly from the same gene pool :).

i have a cd of all the worship music our church is going to be singing this month. i love getting these cds every month. i play them a lot (usually when we're eating) and rachel's starting to learn words to a lot of them. there's this one choir song she's wanted to listen to... oh... this is probably the 11th time (it's playing now). she's getting a hang of the words, but whenever a "hallelujah" comes up is sounds like she's saying "ballerina." hmm. we're working on it.

"Soccering"

now i know you're probably thinking "hey, there appears to be something about sports in the title. i MUST have the wrong blog!" well it turns out my little girl might just have a future in soccer (which will come in handy anyway with where we've moving overseas). rachel and i were playing outside and our play actually turned into a little miniature soccer game, or really just kicking a ball back and forth. rachel really impressed me with her running-while-kicking-the-ball skills ("dribbling" if you will) and i decided to join in the fun. however, if rachel really is to have a future in the sports world we'll have to iron out a few confusions that showed their silly faces today... like the fact that we were playing soccer in our open-toe sandals (i understand that's a big no-no), and that we were playing soccer with a basketball. of course, these aren't big deals when it's just a 2 year old running around and playing, but i knew there was a definite issue in need of addressing whenever she'd pause before kicking the ball and she'd yell "FOUR!" since this is a strictly no-sports-allowed household (as in mommy and daddy hate sports... except that daddy is being a traitor and getting into this "fantasy football" nonsense... no comment) i'm not really sure where she'd even pick this up to be confused about. but anyway, it gave me quite the laugh.

"i LOVE soccering!" ~rachel pamela

Asher Daniel Chappell

http://www.caseychappell.typepad.com/baby/

please read.

*WHEW*

well, we are offically moved and pretty much settled in here. only 3 moves to go before we can stay put for a little while (in another country). there's not too much new stuff to report as our lives are continuing as normal, just at a new address. i have a bunch of pictures i need to upload onto here, a bunch of goodbye-townhouse pictures. unfortunately i'm not sure where the camera cord is to upload them... there's been a few things i haven't been able to locate yet :). but i'm getting there!

this is out last official day living here in our lovely townhouse. we are officially commencing move #1 (out of 4 over the next 8 months). our place is a complete wreck (try as i might, i'm just not a neat mover... i start out well, putting everything away prettily in boxes and then, for some reason, madness ensues).

yesterday afternoon our crazy landlady decided to have an open house for this girl who was interested in the apartment. i really don't remember the last time i've been that embarassed b/c this place is out of control. i don't know how she even could tell what this place really looks like. a simple heads up of "hey, someone's coming to look at the townhouse today" would have been awesome. then this afternoon, someone rings our doorbell asking if this is where the open house was. SERIOUSLY? we told the lady to go next door to crazy landlady land and she didn't come back over (i hope she didn't get abducted...). if someone comes by tomorrow, i'm going to make them help me move.

this is 6411 Andsley Drive, signing off.

thank you, and good night.