Twitter

So... I'm new to the Twitter craze, but I now have a profile set up. My userid is mamato2gs (or just look me up - Kate Duzan).

No promises, but it's a pretty twitterific (oh yeah!) site!

PS - The Hubs's store also has a Twitter page... Dillards0425. Pretty nifty... All you Cool Springs Dillard's shoppers here in Franklin TN can get sale updates via text (or however your Twitter account is set up).

Tweet out!

Spring has Sprung!

Spring is here in Tennessee! The pear trees are blooming, the grass is suddenly green, and it's getting warmer... JT's two week anniversary for school is coming up... To read more about his progress, see his blog (to the left).

Audrey is adjusting to JT going to school (as am I)... It is hard for both of us to walk away when JT is crying and reaching for us. It breaks my heart every day it happens. His (awesome) teacher sent home pictures of him ten minutes after we left, and he was laughing and having a grand time... But it's still hard.

I applied for - and was accepted! - a job with Writers.ph. This company is a little different than Demand Studios and Writers Research Group (and Associated Content, lol... Man, I work with a lot of companies...). They focus on essay writing. It's actually pretty cool - and intriguing. The pay is still good (it is for pretty much all my jobs, or I wouldn't do it) and it's something new and promising as far as learning - I LOVE to learn constantly... Jack of all trades :-)

Check out my article links on the right hand side... I have some new stuff on Associated Content that's pretty neat (and very personal, surprisingly... I've shied away from terribly personal stuff in the past...).

The Hubs's store is doing great. I know it's because he's there, but his store is way above average... While I think they were down in sales last month, it wasn't by much (and Easter was in 'last month' in the previous year, so to even be close is fantastic - those numbers are way higher). Hopefully they'll kick some booty this month... He's really enjoying working with people again. I know he loves coming up with new events, and my crazy husband loves doing the PA announcements. One day I walked in to hear, "We're having a CRAZY sale up here... It won't last long - come buy a purse now! Guys, buy one for your mom, your wife, your baby momma..." Only The Hubs! Really, though, he is so good with people, and they appreciate him so much... It's nice.

Hope everyone is fabulous!

Go!

We have made two trips to a 'beach' about an hour away at J Percy Priest Lake. Last weekend we went with my friend Beth and her family and had an awesome time! Here are a few pics of the little ones:

That's pretty much what they do the whole time there... Audrey swims like a fish in her arm floaties, and JT tries to throw all the sand into the water. Hilarious!

Today we had our first speech therapy session. JT loves his new friend, Lisa. She is really sweet, and I am glad to have a new ally in this! Our behavioral therapist, Laura, comes Monday, and the developmental therapist will be coming next week - although we haven't set a date yet. Mr. Rob, the occupational therapist, will be here either next week or the week after - I can't remember when he said he would be back from vacation. Definitely starting to get busy around here!!!

Evie is still improving, slowly but surely. She is less yellow, and is eating and drinking on her own. Of course, I have to 'trick' her into drinking by giving her tuna with water... But the point is, I'm not shoving anything down her throat or sticking her with needles anymore! Yay, Evie! She is now begging for food... Soft kitty food or people food (turkey or tuna). Every time I go in the kitchen she follows me yelling... Which is awesome!

Audrey is reading! She decided to start all on her own. Our funny story about that is she was reading a package in the car the other day... "Ta-ta-ta....Ih....Guh, guh...Er..." - "Tigger!" "and..." "Puh...OOO...Hah"... "Tigger and Poo-ha?"... "Momma, they spelleded 'Pooh' wrong... It's not Poo-ha!"... So, she's reading correctly... And the makers of Pooh DID spell Pooh with an unnecessary H at the end. She can also sound out almost any word now. We're currently working on CH and SH and their respective 'noises'. She has figured those out pretty much, she learns SO fast!

I sprained my ankle. Doing a workout video. Jillian Michael's 30-day Shred. In case you're wondering, the video rocks. If you're looking for a hard workout DVD, buy it. It's VERY tough, but an awesome workout. Anyway, Audrey likes to do it with me. And it requires hand weights. Well, after much arguing about her not being able to use MY weights, she decided to use blocks for her weights. Well, she left her block out after we progressed to cardio, and during high knees, it reached out and grabbed my foot. Okay, so I landed on it, and in the most un-Audreyful way possible, fell on my backside, completely flipping my foot upside-down and hearing a loud 'POP' in the process. Now, it's odd, because my foot ONLY hurts when I try to twist it, but walking, running, etc is fine. It's swollen and bruised, but only slightly.

The Hubs is enjoying his job still. Crazy court dates for employee theft, and very busy days. But, he's good at what he does. He has also dropped about 30 pounds since starting at the stores, so it's an added benefit!

That's about it for the Duzan family... Just truckin along!

Tennessee Living

We have officially made our move to Franklin, Tennesee, and we all love it here! We live WAY out in the country. Ten minutes from the nearest gas station, and about twenty minutes from the nearest Walgreen's (which, for future reference, is NOT open 24 hours!). The Hubs has to drive half an hour to get to work, but it's completely worth it.
Across the street from us, there is a horse farm. Audrey adores those horses. She lets them eat from her hands, and kiss her head! We have space to play, run and be goofy out here! The neighbors are awesome, too.
Complaints? Ticks. Lots of them. We are in the country, so we're outside a lot. Blech! And, my cats killed a field mouse in our house. IN our house. Audrey, surprisingly, was completely calm about the whole thing, which is amazing since the mere sight of a bug freaks her out so bad she is inconsolable. But put a headless mouse on her floor (did I mention my cats ate the head off? Yeah, they did.) and she's congratulating and praising the cats. In fact, she thinks that the mouse was stealing food from Beezy, so Beezy was simply getting her food back.
The Natchez Trace is about two miles from our house. It is the most beautiful road I have ever seen. Gorgeous! They have parks and trails set up off the Trace, and I took advantage of one last weekend. I went trail running, and it was SO fun. Mostly on the Trace, you see cyclists and Harley riders.
Other interesting facts about where we live:
Our address is Franklin, but you have to go through Leiper's Fork to get to Franklin.
We don't have trash service. We have to take our garbage to the landfill ourselves. You're limited to 9 cubic yards of trash per day. We're still trying to figure out if it's possible to do...
We have well water. This means no water bill! And it's actually really good, surprisingly!

After our initial car troubles, the Duzan Van seems to have settled down. Thank God, we didn't have the money to invest in it if it didn't!!!

I'm taking the GRE around June 1st. Which means I'm studying a lot right now, but the kids don't mind since we can play on the back deck and in the yard while I go over vocab words.

We miss our family and friends in the Rock, but anytime you guys want to visit, we've got a couch with your name on it!

Love ya - Kate

And We're Off!

To Nashville, that is!

The Hubs has been assigned to Cool Springs Galleria mall. We visited it this weekend - it's a beautiful store, and the manager there is great.

We think we found a house - The Hubs is there looking at it to be sure. It's not available until April 15, so the kids and I will be staying here until it's time to move, while The Hubs stays in corporate housing in Nashville.

Nashville is HUGE compared to Little Rock. We decided to stay away from the metropolis just because we didn't have the time to look for places in the city...

The house we think we're getting is in Leiper's Fork, Tennessee. Nice and small!