Todd -n- Odd

We done moved!

To our own house even! The nice people at the credit union gave us a piece of paper called a MORTGAGE and they say they want to stay friends with us for 15 years!!! Can you believe it? Are they sweet or what??

And speaking of sweet...our sweet, talented friend Mark Terry snapped the photo above. He also took photos of our house the morning before we moved in. Wanna' see? Visit this link and you can visit our house, BEFORE you visit our house. Of course, it doesn't officially count as a real visit, though, we're still expecting you to come in person!

We moved less than a mile away from our old house, into a neighborhood called Heritage Hills. We live on Yorktown Drive, GET IT? Well, I didn't. Someone had to explain to me that all the roads in the neighborhood are named after battles in the Revolutionary War.

We've belonged to the pool in this neighborhood since we first moved to Chapel Hill, so we're lucky to already know lots of our new neighbors and the kids already have many friends from swim team.

Since it's been years and years since I've posted on this blog site, what say I catch you people up a little, hmm?

Here's the gruesome twosome on their first day of school.

More About That Henry Kid

Even though our move was a short one, distance-wise, Henry had to change schools. He was actually really excited about it, so it wasn't an emotionally traumatic event. (good thing too, we have no shortage of emotionally traumatic events around here) He now attends Northside Elementary in Carrboro, a beautiful school that's just a year old. His teacher is great, and also new to the school like Henry. Update on Henry: he's very into music (rock-n-roll, punk, vintage country, show tunes), very into comedy, very into music-comedy (hello Weird Al), is a super-ham, is perpetually annoyed by his little sister and loves playing on the mini-pool table we now own. A week ago, he asked me for fencing lessons (several boys in the 'hood take them). Today he asked me for "billiards classes." Can I really PAY for my 9-year old son to become a pool shark? We shall see.

Last month, Todd and Henry went to Ikea in Charlotte (two hours away). Todd went there to get some hardware for our furniture, but it's what Henry got there that we'll never forget. He was playing around and jumping around Ikea, hit his head and got a chip in his tooth. When I got the news, I was horror-stricken and panicked, Loretta was super-scared, Todd was concerned but matter-of-fact, and Henry was PSYCHED!!! One of the first things he said to me about it was, "Look Ma, now I'm just like Jim Carey!!!" Oy. His tooth was fixed with resin two days later by our talented and artistic pediatric dentist. She even created imperfections in the new tooth, and now I honestly don't know which tooth was chipped. We live in the future, folks. (thank heavens)

More About That Loretta Kid

Loretta Lou Hoo is --as she always has been -- her age (now 7) going on teenager-dom. She loves to read, loves movies and kid sitcoms, playing with friends, traveling, and talking to and loving on all dogs in the world. She's also a super-ham. She and her brother often take turns practicing their Oscar acceptance speeches with the syrup bottle at the breakfast table. You think I'm kidding...but I'm not. That speech is going to be READY when the moment comes.

Loretta really, really loves school. She attends a dual-language Spanish magnet school, so a different school from Henry, but also nearby in Carrboro. As a result of that dual-language immersion, she is constantly speaking Spanish and translating everything she hears into Spanish. This morning while she getting ready, she was singing, "Es mi fiesta, y yo puedo llorar!!".

When she grows up, she thinks she'll either be a veterinarian, a teacher, an actress, or "somebody who helps poor people around the world who don't have enough to eat." She told me yesterday she plans on having 3 kids. She's naming one Charlotte and one Charlie. Presumably, the third one will have a name, too.

More About German Engineering

A week before we moved into the new house, Todd was in a minor fender bender. He was fine, thank goodness, but our mini-van got its back bumper a bit crunched. The insurance company (drama queens that they are) declared our Chevy Venture "totalled" and handed us a check. So in the midst of unpacking, we were car shopping. There really is no rest for the wicked. But guess what?! The Craigslist Car Gods smiled down upon us, because today we bought a car!

We are now the proud owners of a 1999 Mercedes-Benz E320 wagon

with a mere 225,000 miles on it. A youngster by Mercedes standards.

Todd Pfeiffer once again drives an old Mercedes...and all is right with the world. ☺

The Part Where I Divulge A Secret

Can I tell you a little secret? I LOVE unpacking. Deep in my psyche, I am a super-organizational nerd and I love finding places for things and putting them away. It's deeply satisfying. I also love giving things away to Salvation Army and the like -- and unpacking has been a lot of both. The actual process of unpacking has been strangely liberating. It has given me the opportunity to physically hold each and every possession we own in my hands so I can ask, "Is this item making my/our life better? Richer? More beautiful?" If not, off it goes. Not only does that make our load lighter, but I get a kick thinking about the joy/utility the item can offer someone else.

Todd packed up our old house almost entirely by himself. A herculean task. Unsurprisingly, all our possessions were meticulously and carefully packed, and I have gotten to unwrap everything on the other end. All our stuff was put into storage for a few months. While we waited for our new house, we lived in a series of friends and relatives homes. It was the Summer of Transience! We were so grateful to have that kind of flexibility, but it's sure been nice in the last few weeks to feather our own nest.

Todd spent a busy summer at his job. He is now the interim Deputy Director for an association that has had lots of change within the past year. He also volunteers many hours as a board member for our neighborhood pool. You wouldn't believe (or maybe you would) just how much he's looking forward to the State Fair later this month. We always go and take our kids out of school for it. Todd absolutely loves spending the day talking to all the artisans, craftspeople, farmers and performers. Our kids love it too. I love the fried Oreos.

I now work full-time as a copywriter for Toshiba, and am able to work from home if I like. I do like. And so does Cosmo.

More About Cosmo, the Small Dog

Some of you know, but some of you don't that we adopted a little Cockapoo dog in 2012. We named him Cosmo, since we got him on the day of the Super-Moon and we have more than a bit of a love affair with the movie Moonstruck.

He is our family's first dog, but more importantly, he's MY first dog. I've been scared of dogs my whole life. Imagine my alarm when Loretta's first words as a baby were "Woof Woof," which meant dog. I knew right there and then I was going to have to swallow my fears one day and get a dog. It had to be the right dog of course, so we asked our friend Clare to help us find just the right pooch. Boy, did she ever. He is a loving, crazy dog so he fits right into this loving, crazy family. Of course, the irony is that for whatever reason, that silly dog attached himself to me, and now he and I are connected at the hip.

Watch This Space for Occasional DiPfeiffer News

I had given up this blog once Facebook came on the scene, but I must say, I miss the longer format. So now you're stuck with me blogging again!☺But enough about us. We'd love to hear about you! Please drop us a line and let us know how you're doing!

Many hugs,

--Todd & Odd
The DiPfeiffers