Nice to meet you (5)

If you're reading, you may be trying to figure out just who 'we' are.

See, there are two of us because it would be tough to work full time, be a momma, a wife, working on a master's/doctorate and still blog regularly.  We're Natalie and Erin and we met on a blind date.  True story.

In fact, one of our mutual friends insisted we meet after finding out that Natalie was moving to Erin's hometown (where Erin would soon be returning to).  We met for coffee at Roast and Toast (a favorite local establishment) and chatted for a few hours.  And that was it.  We were instantly buddies.

Soon enough, Natalie got pregnant and 6 months later, Erin got pregnant.  Naturally, we talk frequently about babies, family, working, and balance.  And since we think that some of what we come up with is pretty good, we figured we'd share it with you. And, sometimes, we know we have none of the answers, we figured you might be able to provide them.

Now, here's a little bit about each of us...


-Erin:
I'm a small town girl who moved back to my hometown almost two years ago.  I met my husband when we were both living in East Lansing and talked him into moving to northern Michigan (or simply took him to our cottage where he could boat, jet ski, kayak and then had my dad take him hunting, snowshoeing, etc).  Needless to say, my outdoorsy hubs was easy to convince to move to a smaller town where we were surrounded by my family.  We are blessed to be parents to our sweet girl, Liza who was born in September.  But, she's technically our second 'baby'.  Our first is Whitney - our 11 year old black lab.  As for work, I'm a teacher...but in a slightly different setting.  I teach one hour a day, and spend the rest of my day helping other teachers incorporate technology into their lesson plans.  It's pretty fantastic.  I get to play on iPads and see the amazing things that teachers and students can do with them!  In our down time, we LOVE to be outdoors or playing volleyball.  Liza's already been hiking quite a few times and we're training her to be a lefthanded setter...kidding (kind of). In the warmer months (aka June-August), we spend tons of time at my family's cottage, so we're hoping Liza likes to swim and go for boat rides!

-Natalie:
I'm a city girl at heart, although I'm beginning to love life in a small town.We have a house full of love-- in addition to our (almost) 9 month old, Connor, we have two cats, Walter and Stanley, (they're half-brothers), and a 2 year old, very much still acts like a puppy, yellow lab, Harvey. I'm a social worker, and work full-time in addition to working to finish my PhD in the next year. If you re-read that previous sentence, you probably won't be surprised to learn that any hobbies are currently on hold as I try to finish school, and spend as much time with my hubby, C, and our four legged friends. In the summer, this involves a nightly evening walk along the waterfront and weekends at the family cottage. In the winter, it involves snow-shoeing and the continual quest to empty our DVR.