Catch Up!

So today my sister asked if I had read her blog lately because she has several new posts up. This reminded me that our blog has pretty much ceased to exist and that I should at least put SOMETHING up so everyone knows we're still here. Let me try to at least catch everyone up with what is going on with us.
Right now the girls and I are in Scottsville because on Monday Jamie leaves for the Peace Corps. We are SOOO excited for her but still coming to terms with the fact that we might not see her for 27 months (3 months of training and 24 months of service). The reality of that hasn't quite hit me yet and I don't think it will until she has actually left. On Saturday we are having a family party, aka Jamie's Christmas, then on Monday she leaves for LA. She will stay in LA for one night and then head to Tonga. So, the great thing is that she is going to be serving in a beeeeeautiful place. Tonga is one of the Pacific Islands...it's near Figi...east of Australia and New Zealand. Think screen saver beach photo. Here ya go:

It's itty itty bitty. If you pull up a map you must zoom, and zoom, and zoom, and zoom, and zoom and then eventually you will see several little dots...170 islands which make up the Kingdom of Tonga. We were extremely excited to hear that Tonga is a Christian country...pretty strict in its Christianity traditions, in fact. She hopes to start a blog specifically about her experiences in Tonga, so when she does I will post it. It's difficult to be so conflicted. I'm so excited for her and know that she will do great things for the people in Tonga (she will be teaching them English) and will see and experience things most of us never dream of, but I can't help but be sad because when she returns Ella will be about to celebrate her 5th birthday and Kendall will be Ella's age. :( I try not to bring that up to Jamie but I can't help thinking about it. This past weekend she was at our house and Ella was "helping" Jamie with her Tongan vocabulary (she has to learn the language) and at one point I said, "Ella when Aunt JJ goes to Tonga..." and she stopped me mid-sentence and said, "No! No! She's NOT going to Tonga!" :( Anyway, we are hoping that Jamie will be able to make at least one visit home during her 27 months, and if not Ronnie and I would LOOOOOVE to take a little vacation to Tonga! Problem is it's crazy expensive to fly there....and we've got a lot of student loans that we have to start paying on next year! We will see!!!!
Let's see, what else.
The job search has begun!! Ronnie and I have made 2 visits to potential job locations for after he finishes up his ER residency next summer. About a month ago we visited a hospital in Murfreesboro, TN and yesterday we visited with our good friends Justin and Bridget Morgan in Henderson, KY. Justin recently finished up his pediatric residency and is working in a private practice in Henderson and told the hospital about Ronnie. They seemed extremely interested when we visited yesterday. This whole time I have been completely against going to a small town because I really enjoy being in Louisville. But I don't know. It was kind of nice being around friendly people who waved when you drove by even if they didn't know you, and everyone at the hospital was super nice. The part I most enjoyed was hearing everyone, and I mean EVERYONE at the hospital making references to the local sports teams. That is soooo up my ally. We are certain that we don't want to go back to Scottsville/Glasgow/BG area, but maybe if it was a different smaller town it would be ok. This is what we have been pondering. I guess we'll see what they have to offer and in the meantime we will keep making visits.
The kiddos...our kids rock. They really do. They are both doing great. Ella has been dealing with allergies/cold/CRUD mess for the last few weeks, like everyone else in the Ohio Valley, but she's been a trooper. If you ask her what her skin is called, she will tell you "epidermis." She's awesome. A funny expression she has been using lately is "last day." If she is talking about something that has happened in the past, whether 2 days ago or 6 months ago, it's "last day"..."last day I went to the dentist...last day when we saw Gavin....last day when we went to the hospital." It's really funny. As for Kendall, she is becoming such a big girl! She is sitting up now and it won't be long until she is crawling. She loves baby food (is anyone surprised?) but so far it doesn't exactly love her. She gets extremely constipated, which makes for long nights of crying and grunting, followed by an explosion which inevitably requires oxi-clean. She will be 6 months old on October 7th. I can't believe she is already half a year! Wasn't I just begging her to come out of my belly?
Ross has been living with us for the past couple of months and we've really enjoyed having him in our home. Ella especially loves hanging out with Uncle Ross. He has been studying for his EMT test...I'm not exactly sure what it's called, but he recently completed the EMT courses and had to take a national test to be certified and get a job. Anyway, he has been studying his bum off and it paid off. He took the test on Saturday and found out on Monday that he passed. Yay Ross!
Ok it's late so that is all for now, but hopefully that was a nice little catch up and I will get things going  a little more regularly now!