Day at the Biblioteca...

I don't know if you've met my friend Liv,  but we go everywhere together. Everywhere. I have never had a more faithful companion. I think she has been more places than most 6 week old babies. She's in the top 99th percentile for leaving the home (I think its funny how new moms are obsessed with percentiles for everything...weight, their childs head size, everything.  I hear all about it from my mother's lounge rat friends that nurse in the rocker next to me in various mothers lounge locations).  She goes across the country, on a plane, to the store, on splits with the missionaries, everywhere.  Every morning we have the same routine.  I ask her what she wants to do and we have a little planning session together.  She never says anything but it's kind of the same concept of the guy on Castaway talking to the volleyball.  Sometimes she responds.  Mostly I just kiss her face. She's so dang cute even if she is starting to bald.  Yesterday we decided we needed a good field trip around town so we chose "Library" on the GPS and drove quickly as to maximize Liv's excellent behavior of a deep sleep in her carseat.  She remained asleep and temple like quiet until midway through my application for a library card process when she suddenly broke out into shrieks.  This shrieking is her public wildlife cry which is loud at Walmart or anywhere but had especially sweet acoustics ricocheting off the walls of the library.  We made a hasty exit. I don't know if we'll go back unless Liv pledges better behavior.  

Sickle thrusting on Thursday nights....

My favorite part about Bluefield so far....the fact that we have left the Mormon anthill and live by the Baptist church, Christ's church, the Pentecostal, The holy cross church and 4 or 5 others.  I love our little ward where after sacrament on Sunday, Brother Richardson came up to me and said, "Do you like to teach about Jesus?" When I said yes he asked, " Would you like to teach about Jesus with 5 seconds to prepare?  Excellent.  Would you mind teaching Sunday School to the youth?"  I went to the room and found out they don't have young womens, they have young woman.  One. The young mens has three times that, as in there are 3 of them.  Business isn't booming in the ward but I love these sister missionaries.  They come for dinner on Thursdays and then Liv and I go with them to give lessons, visit less actives and do a little sickle thrusting in the white field (or I should say Bluefield...ha).  I love being apart of this.  I love missionary work so much.  I think I have some selfish motives for wanting the sisters to baptize families...not just for the salvation of the converts but for my own sanity so I have people at church to talk to!  Our ward is so small and funny but we'll save those stories for another day.  I love being apart of this.  It's like being on a mission without having to speak spanish or wear nylons and I get to sleep by G at night instead of some girl I would never invite to my birthday party under normal circumstances.  Yes the field is white in Bluefield.  I love it here.

Fine Dining....

 

Our first Friday night in Bluefield we wanted to go out to eat.  Noticing the options in our town  were Long John Silvers, KFC and Wendy's, we got the GPS and started driving.  Finally we found in the next town a......Cracker Barrel. Oh so appropriate for our location.  After asking about hush puppies, and what are dumplings, we made our selection.  I miss Texas Roadhouse. That's all I have to say about that. 

Dr. G meets the traveling meat man

 

I come home from the grocery store and I see Garrett outside with a very sweat man who has a truck with a giant freezer in the back and there are 10 boxes of steak, shrimp, chicken, and crab legs sitting outside on the sidewalk.  Wanting to be respectful of West Virginia culture I tried to act like seeing steak on the sidewalk was normal and asked G to introduce me to his new found friend.  Apparently the man was a good salesman because we ended up buying all the boxes of steak from the traveling meat man.  

 

So naturally with our new meat purchase, we needed to buy a grill to barbeque it on.  We went to Kmart and G brought it home Bluefield style... cabled to the trunk.  I chuckled when I saw this sight pulling into the driveway...the dented tarus with a massive grill hanging out the back.  I love my main squeeze. 

 

For Father's Day I got G a frame for his doctorate diploma.  I love when he comes home with his pager and his badge that says, "Dr. Seibold...."

But I love this sight even more....

 

G loves Liv so much. I love him so much.  He loves me so much. Hopefully Liv is loving her parents so much. We got a whole lot of love going on at 2616 Horton Road. We are where we are supposed to be and we're loving it.

My friend Liv....

Liv falls asleep best with white noise and dark so G found the perfect spot for Liv's naps...

How we feel without you...

Some babies suck their thumb, Liv sucks her hand and wrist...

I can't stop kissing her face when she sleeps....

Amiga and Funnel Cakes...

 Ok. This picture is a Bluefield treasure so I would like to help you fully appreciate the footage shown above.  First funny thing is that I am in Family Dollar with my only friend.  Well, I have another friend I will post below.  The lady above was inactive and I met her doing splits with the sister missionaries.  Her whole family was baptized by an Elder that spoke Spanish but after he left there was no one else that spoke Spanish so coming to church presented what we call a language barrier.  Anyway, she doesn't have a drivers license, car, or visa (not the credit card, the citizenship card) and so we have become friends and yesterday she needed to go to the family dollar store which is a hit here in the city.  This is us in the checkout with some typical citizens.  Please don't miss the blue wife beater in the back WITH the sunglasses on inside the store just for coolio affect.  Also, please take note of the flame boxers of the woman to the right.  These peeps are a good representation of our Bluefield natives.

Below is my neighbor Jim.  He is 77 and his wife is named Loretta.  He sells hot dogs and funnel cakes every Saturday morning at the flea market located in the parking garage.  Most nights he and Loretta just sit on the porch and...sit. So, Liv and I sit with them.  I never have had a friend named Jim but he is definitely one of my favorite Bluefield natives I have met so far.  If you come, he'll invite you for a good porch sit too. 

Hickies, Detox, and Watermelon Balls

Liv is a great baby.  Seeing as she is the first and birthright daughter, I have nothing to compare her to but I do like her. A lot. Seeing as we spend say oh 24 hours together, we've been doing a lot of getting to know you which is slightly difficult since she doesn't talk.  However, she's the only friend I've got to hang out with during the day so we're figuring it out.  We do a lot together like walks outside until I can't handle the humidity and run to the refuge of the AC; we also spend a good portion of our day in the rocking chair and walking around doing this weird hip jostling that I've seen advanced mothers master.  I have learned that there is one thing Liv hates and that is grocery shopping.  It's like she can sense when we enter the store because she instantly comes unglued and suddenly my darling baby transforms into a screeching, shrieking, screaming inconsolable teradactyl.  G and I decided to go on a week long detox diet which included drinking ridiculous amounts of juice.  I had no choice but to bring Liv to purchase the magical juice and as she shrieked and I pulled the cart, I had her in one arm facing me and one arm to shop and pull the cart.  She started sucking on my neck but seeing as I was getting juice and watermelon, I didn't have two hands free to get her pacifier (which would have been futile anyway because she refuses to be pacified while in public places).  I could feel her sucking but didn't think anything of it until I got to the register where Luanna said, "Oh girl look at you, people gonna think yo husband gone crazy on you."  I didn't know what she was talking about until I took G the juice and he said, "Chel what happened to your neck."  Well, turns out our first  Sunday meeting the Bishop will include a giant hicky... . 

Anyway, the detox was going well for about 4 hours and I read that miso soup was permitted so I immediately got into my Mulan mindset and started calling.  I found a Japanese restaurant in Princeton that served such a delicacy and made a reservation for 2 (plus a car seat).  We ordered the Miso soup to see if it would be life sustaining for dinner.  For those of you who are not cultured, presenting two hot bowls of miso soup...  



Let's just say we ended up ordering the meal and we couldn't let two friend eggrolls go to waste so we modified and made our own detox diet for the rest of the week.... 


The best discovery of the week was a $3.29 cent invention called the watermelon baller.  I like watermelon. I love watermelon balls.  I don't know how the shape manages to change the flavor so much, but it does.  If you don't own a watermelon baller, you should get one right now.  It will change your summer. Forever.  



 

Bienvenidos to Bluefield Bliss....

18 months ago I was single, living in the Beehive state and occasionally stalking Garrett on facebook.  I would have never guessed that there could be so much change so fast. I now know a lot of things I never knew before. I didn't know Bluefield West Virginia existed. I didn't know I could be so happy being married to someone that is better than what I dreamed about or wished for on birthday cakes or prayed for in my single sick of munch and mingle adult heart.I didn't know how much I would love ice packs after birth. I didn't know how to follow a Penske titanic sized truck while keeping a pacifier in a baby's mouth at the same time. I didn't know I could love someone who burps, can't talk and do anything back but have gas.  I didn't know I could do hard things like move across the country and leave everything comfortable.  

After packing and packing and packing with lots of help Garrett left in the big bird truck and I flew out the next day trying to avoid the 24 hour drive to Michigan.  After boarding the plane and breathing already used garage sale stale air for an hour the man's voice crackled over the intercom and announced that they had just tested the brakes on the plane and they were not working so we would need to get off and wait for assistance. (Since when do we not check the brakes before everyone gets on?) Well, the assistance led to a 9 hour waiting which turned into a total of 15 hours before we finally arrived.  Don't worry, Liv screeched like a teradactyl and everyone thought I was stabbing her for a good 2 hours in the middle of the airport where they tried to find us flights.  Finally we arrived in Michigan where we filled up the family bonding tank and enjoyed Papa Bruce steaks and good times.  Then it was time to depart as Liv and I rocked the Civic and Garrett and the GPS took the lead as the yellow Godzilla of the freeway on a 10 hour drive.  Most 3 week old babies haven't left the house.  Liv not only flew in a plane, moved states but also experienced her first car accident when I rear ended Garrett at a rest stop while trying to decide which piece of chicken to eat first...crispy or original KFC.  Not an exciting wreck, and a rather embarrassing reason but rather than swearing, G just hugged me and said, "That's ok Chel, now we'll just fit in better in Bluefield!"  I know. It's going to be slightly awkward when I keep getting wrinkles and older and he never does and I find out he's actually one of the 3 Nephites.  It will be like a reverse Benjamin Button.  His patience never ceases to blow my mind.  Finally we arrived at 2616 Horton Road, Bluefield West Virginia 24701 and were greeted by Bill, Bob, Ed, and Jo Beth.  I could barely understand the Wendy's drive through because the accent was so thick.  It looked like hills of giant broccoli from Kroger as we drove.  I said I felt like we found the "great valley" from Land Before Time (the first movie, not the following 7, they and free willy needed to stop after 1).  We were far from home, or actually I should say, we were home, or what would become our home and life for the next year.                                                                      

Our address in case you're on your way...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sign posts in WV

The old coal mine and train...