one week from now...

WE WILL HAVE A NEPHEW!!!

oh my goodness, i just got the most fabulous news... diane got word today that her physicians have decided that if she has not gone into labor by this time next week, she will be induced!!! wow! my heart is overflowing with joy for diane, jason, the little baby and the rest of our family! (i apologize for all the exclamation points, but i can't help myself...!!!)

with all the excitement, i really wish paul and i were going to be back in raleigh for the big day, but i need to remember we'll be there soon enough to see our little nephew (october 10th!). i just can't believe that in a week or LESS we'll have a new addition to our family! diane, watch out... when we get back to raleigh, i am not going to let that baby out of my arms/sight :-).

i can't stop thinking about what we're going to call him! diane & jason, you sure were smart to keep that a secret because it's giving all of us a lot to talk about these days! i, personally, would love be able to sing "rock-a-bye sweet baby james" (james taylor) to the little one, but i know any name they have chosen is going to be absolutely perfect! oh my goodness, i want to meet his scrumptious cuteness immediately!!!

please keep the willefords and mobleys in your prayers throughout this beyond-thrilling and oh-so-new process!!! i will post information as we receive it in regards to the arrival of our new nephew!

[in other news: our fabulous friends, taylor & michael zabala, have finally moved to stanford from birmingham, alabama! yay! it is so nice to have these sweet ones here to hang around with! we love you guys!

also, i started my part-time job-ish activity as an anatomy TA for the 1st-year DPT students this week... so. much. fun. i love getting to know them and help them out as much as i can! who would've thought i would ever volunteer to dissect cadavers for a second time around?!]

it's almost time to meet little baby boy willeford!

as many of you know, paul and i are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our very first nephew!!! it's so hard to be all the way across the country from diane & jason during this exciting time in their lives, but it's finally official... we are going to fly home on october 10th to meet the little one! nugget's (as he is fondly called until he is born and then his name will finally be revealed) due date is september 27th. since diane is considered "high risk" (due to her blood clot) her physicians have said they will not let her go past her due date... sarah, charles, paul and i have been making bets as to when lil' nugget will be born... i think the 20th, sarah thinks the 22nd (i can't remember what dates paul and charles decided on)... no matter what day he comes, this little boy is going to be so welcomed and loved by his family!

diane sent me some pictures yesterday of her growing belly!!! especially with this time off from school, i wish i could be there with her and feel that little boy kick away (paul got to feel him kick last time we were home, but i missed out... sadness!). she says she and jason are working on packing their hospital bag and they have been attending their helpful childbirth classes... they are going to be such wonderful, prepared parents!

please send some thoughts and prayers their way as they embark on the last few weeks of their pregnancy!!! we love you, diane & jason & lil' nugget!!!

[that's our little nephew in there!!!]...
p.s. how adorable is that nursery!!!

pretty nice little saturday...

paul and i started our weekend with finally completing a project we had been talking about for months. we decided a long time ago that we wanted to create a "photo wall" of places we've been and adventures we've had since we've been married! this morning, we finally selected a few photos that we really love, had them printed, and put them in frames. then, while paul diligently studied for his quals, i delicately hung the frames up this afternoon. yay! hope you like it... it will be better in person when you come visit us :-).


i thought i would add this incredibly precious picture of tjuta that was taken after we unpacked from our colorado trip (pictures from that are still to come...). i'm pretty sure he doesn't want us to ever leave again without him.

since we last spoke...

so it's been a few weeks slash months since i last posted an entry to our blog... but here we are! back in blog action! there are so many things that have gone on in the past few months, so i will list them in bullet format for brevity's sake (despite the fact that this blog is anything but brief... c'mon it's me we're talking about! :-))

in may:
- tjuta got even cuter... as if that was possible (see below how he likes to surf the net)

- we got to visit with paul's parents (david & peggy) on their way back from living in new zealand for a few months AND we had the added bonus of getting to visit with kathy (paul's cousin) & kelly (kathy's husband) while they were in the city for a business trip.
- one of my very best friends, katy field, came to visit us before taking her board exam to officially be deemed a child life specialist! oh my goodness, how fabulous it was to spend time with this little sweetie!- our dear friends ryan & candice garrett came to play over the memorial day weekend! it was such a treat to get to spend some time talking, laughing, touring, and visiting as much as we possibly could with them... they are fantastic and we cannot wait to hopefully visit them at their home in greensboro, nc over the holidays this year!
- also in may, we found out that paul's sister, diane (who is pregnant with our future nephew!) began having some health complications. she was diagnosed with a blood clot after her lower extremity began swelling over the memorial day weekend. after spending a few days in the hospital, she was allowed to go home with the report that she and the baby ("lil' nugget") are perfectly fine. however, her husband, jason, has to give her two shoots of blood thinning medication each day and she has to visit about a billion times more doctors than she normally would since she is now considered a "high-risk pregnancy." she and the baby, as i said before, are in excellent condition right now (she is 36 weeks this week!!! congrats, diane!), but please keep her, jason, and the baby in your prayers! her due date is september 27th (also my birthday!), but the doctors have said they won't let her deliver past that day... so, in about a month, we'll have a little nephew!!!

in june:
- paul graduated with a master's from stanford university!!! yay! we were lucky enough to have david, peggy, aunt louie, and sarah all come out for the celebrations (oprah was the commencement speaker... woot woot!). now, paul is working full-steam-ahead with his Ph.D. and will take his qualifying exams (a VERY big deal) at the end of september... send him some smart vibes!- we were able to travel back to the east coast in late-june for a little family time (we hung out with the clarke family at sunset beach for a few days) AND sarah lynn & quinn davis' wedding on june 28th. i grew up with sarah lynn (we share many crazy memories) and i was in youth group with quinn throughout middle and high school. it was such a blessing to see these two tie the knot! congrats guys!
in july:
- my amazing friend ramsey and her boyfriend, pat, came to visit with us during their vacation in california! we got to spend some quality time with them over a few days, which was perfect because i had a couple of days off from school for the 4th of july weekend. ramsey, pat, and i even ventured north to visit the jelly belly factory! i think ramsey and i wanted to stay there forever! it was so great to see one of my best friends and get to know her wonderful boyfriend! i love you two!!!- we also got to meet up and have dinner with the entire mchenry family - they were taking their family vacation out west! thank you for the scrumptious meal and company, mchenry fam!- then mark clapp, an amazing friend to both of us, traveled out here to be a teacher at a johns hopkins smart people camp for itty bitty geniuses (it has another name, but that's how i like to think of it). he also did the same thing last year here at stanford! a couple of days later, our dear friend vansana (a.k.a. wally) came out to be a camp counselor for the same program mark was working in. the same day that wally arrived, my lovely friend lindsay driver stopped by for a few hours on her layover back from australia! it was so great to see her! we have been the best of friends since we were literally infants, so it was a huge blessing to see her smiling face. i don't have any pictures from mark & wally's visit on my computer yet, but i will put pictures up when i have them (we got to have them here for 3 whole weeks, but we didn't get to see them too much since paul & i were both consumed in school and they were consumed in their program as well... but it was SO nice to be able to call them and meet up at random times... love you both!).

- also in july... we celebrated our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY (on july 28th, 2008 to be exact)!!! i cannot believe it has been one year since we got hitched, and oh what a year it has been! i can only speak for myself :-), but i know i am so blessed to have this amazing husband in my life who is there for me no matter what! not a day goes by that i don't thank God for putting paul in my life... i love you, husband!

in august:
- i finished my first year of PT school on august 11th! whoo hoo!!! what a year it has been. i will be out of school for the next couple of months (i will begin TAing for the current first year DPT students' anatomy class/lab) until i start my first full-time clinical on october 27th at rex hospital in RALEIGH, NC! yay! so i hope to be seeing all of you during my few months at home :-). i will be very sad to not be with paul during my clinical, but he gets so much time off for the holidays that we will really only have to spend about 3 weeks tops apart from each other - so it all works out!

- on my first night of break, my dear friend phil rubin came to stay with us for the evening on his way back from australia! it was so nice to catch up on life with him in the few hours that he was here... thanks for coming to see us, phil!

- paul and i finally got to celebrate our first anniversary by going out to dinner to one of our favorite restaurants, town (in san carlos, ca), thanks to my wonderful parents! we had an absolute BLAST! thanks mom & dad/mrs. diana & mr. bruce! :-)- later that week, we left little tjuta & tim-tam and flew to colorado for the mobley family vacation! we had a truly fabulous time and it was so nice to spend 10 days with people that we love so dearly and don't often get to see. i will post more about this trip on my next entry when i have pictures to go with it! (clearly, this current entry is getting too long... so stay tuned!)

i promise, faithful readers, to be better about updating our blog since i now have a lot more time on my hands! next time i post, it won't be a whole semester after the last one :-). much love to all!

megan's 1.5 week summer break!

it's been a few weeks since our last update, but i just wanted to say "yay!" that now we've made our blog public! so much has happened since we last wrote. as i said before, sarah's wedding was absolutely fantastic and many members of the family have commented on how it was a complete dream wedding! congratulations, again, to charles & sarah schroeder!!!

i (megan) finished my second semester as a 1st year doctor of physical therapy student at the end of april and finally got to spend some quality time with my hubby at the beginning of my week-and-a-half long "summer break." it was so great to just hang out together without the stress of school! a few days into my break, diane & jason stopped off at our place for a few days on their way back from new zealand. the day after diane & jason got here, sarah & charles also arrived at our place to celebrate and enjoy the cloud-9 life some more before heading back to denver, co as a newly married couple! it was BEYOND WONDERFUL being able to spend some quality time with the rest of the "mobley kids!" here are a few pictures from those days:

the pretty pregnant lady! it was so cute to see diane's bump get a good bit bigger in just the few weeks that i had seen her last! sarah is especially adorable about her sister & her pregnancy - that would be her foot that is sweetly caressing diane's belly :-). diane & jason are going to be amazing parents, and paul and i can't wait to be "uncle & aunt!"

sarah and her beautiful bling-bling! look at the happy girl!!! i don't think i've ever seen such a precious married pair! they are absolutely perfect for each other.

THE OUTLAWS! :-) jason and i welcomed charles as the newest "outlaw" in the family! i love my brother-in-outlaws so much!!!

after a fabulous time with the mobley family, i got on a plane and flew back to the east coast for a week of fun with the family! words cannot begin to describe what a great time i had. as all of you know, i adore spending time with my family, so it was such a blessing to be with them for a whole week and not have to worry about school! we had so much going on while i was home, and it was fabulous! first of all, one of my very best friends, meghan barnes, got engaged about a month ago, so while i was home we did a little wedding dress shopping!!! she was drop-dead-gorgeous in every dress she tried on, so it's going to be quite the task to narrow it down to 1 someday! mom and i did a little/a lot of errand-running during the beginning of the week to prepare for my dear friend sarah lynn joyner's bridal shower that we helped throw that week. it was great fun putting it all together, and it was even better seeing the beautiful bride-to-be for an evening!!! sarah lynn and i grew up across the street from one another and have been close friends ever since (so many fantastic stories) and she has also been a great friend of paul's since the early high school years (she knew him long before i even did!). she is marrying one of my pals that i grew up alongside in youth group, quinn davis. their wedding is at the end of june (the next time paul and i will be in north carolina) and we can't wait!!! here are some pictures from sarah lynn's cooking shower:

mom and i arranged our first floral centerpiece for the shower! we tried to make martha proud (the incredible woman and friend of ours who did the flowers for our wedding)... what do you think?! i'm pretty sure we're ready to take on the wedding business!

everything is set and ready!

helen (a.k.a. the bridal shower pro) won one of the games... stealing clothespins from those of us who crossed our legs :-)

playing "BRIDE"-bingo! it looks like mrs. rountree is skeptical of whatever story erin is telling.

the bride-to-be in all of her glory (with mom's spectacular tower 'o gifts!) we love you, sarah lynn!

friends! helen, me, sarah lynn, and kristy (who also just got engaged! congrats, kristy!)

the rest of the week was filled with relaxation, needlepointing, shopping, movie-watching, catching up with fabulous friends, visiting with family, making some trips to chapel hill, and even helping a wee bit to decorate for alan's prom @ sanderson high school! one night, my friend rachel fisher came into town and she, meghan, and i went to our old stopping grounds in chapel hill for an evening of excellence. we were even so lucky as to have erin join us for dinner @ los pos! ahhh, it was so great pretending to be an undergrad again... if only for a night (although we proved to be "old ladies" that couldn't hang with the big dogs when we were ready to go to bed at 10:30om)! this is my favorite picture of the night:

i miss these girls (along with my other lovely ladies) so much!!! can i convice any of you to move to san francisco?!

i flew back to palo alto last saturday and got to spend a couple of days enjoying the rest of my break with paul... yay! but i guess paradise can't last forever, because on monday, i had to start my summer semester... only one more semester left of my first year, though! wee!!! paul is currently studying for a midterm and will be taking a wilderness first aid class all weekend, so i guess that means it's a study weekend for me! hope all of y'all are doing well and you are enjoying the warm weather!!! much MUCH love!

it's been a while...

i knew it would be a while before we were able to make a post since our first one - graduate school sure has both of us extremely busy right now. paul finished up one quarter of school at the end of march, and while it was an extremely tough course load, he finished with straight A's! who's surprised?! for his spring break, he went on a camping trip with a few other students from stanford in order to become a leader for other wilderness trips. he had a great time, but came back covered in poison oak despite his many efforts to stear clear of it. almost a month later, he is still itching and stratching. he is just starting a new course schedule, and is spending a lot of time researching for his PhD.

on april 4th, paul and i arrived on the east coast to surprise my mom for her 50th birthday and to attend the wedding of our friends, alex and jen. it was such a wonderful time! it was a huge blessing to get to spend a weekend with family and friends! while we were only home for a short bit, we were lucky enough to spend some time with nanny, my grandmother, who underwent an emergency triple bypass surgery less than 2 weeks earlier. she is doing so fabulously, so we very much appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers during this scary time. nanny is at home now and doing SO well! i couldn't be more proud of her!

at the end of the weekend, we flew back to our little place in palo alto, and paul's sister and brother-in-law (diane & jason) flew out alongside of us (different planes, same destination). paul, diane, and jason left the next day to fly to new zealand. why? big fun! sarah, paul's sister, was getting married in new zealand!!! sadly, i was unable to go - due to school - but SARAH & CHARLES SCHROEDER were married on april 12th, 2008 at ahu-ahu in new zealand! paul's parents have been living and working in new zealand for the past few months (they come back in may), so it has all worked out so well that sarah got to have her dream wedding on the other side of the world! she was such a beautiful bride!

i could have mentioned this earlier, but the mobley family has another piece of great news... DIANE & JASON ARE EXPECTING A BABY on september 27th (my birthday!)!!! we are SO very excited, and diane is just the most beautiful pregnant woman (she now has a little bump where the "nugget" is - that's what jason is calling the baby)! i can't wait to become an aunt and, needless to say, paul is beyond thrilled! hopefully, they will find out the gender of the baby once they get back from new zealand... i can't wait to start looking for cute little baby items to spoil my future niece or nephew with!

other than that, we don't have too much going on. i just finished finals yesterday, and am enjoying the start to my 1.5 week break (i start back on may 5th)! diane & jason and sarah & charles will be making their way back to the states starting tomorrow, so paul & i will get to spend some time with them when they make a pit-stop here for a few days before they all head back to their homes! i am looking forward to making a trip back home on saturday for a week!!! i will definitely miss my husband, but i'm sure he will enjoy the quiet and plenty of quality time spent with the wii. plus, he has little tjuta here to keep him busy...

... have we told you about tjuta? kata tjuta is our adorable teenage kitten that we got back in february! he is absolutely precious and is the perfect little companion (especially during study days... he loves to curl up in our laps and cuddle for hours at a time). he has done a great job making my time at our apartment seem not so lonely when paul has been gone on his trips, and i'm sure he'll do the same for paul. as many of you know, i've never been a "cat-person," but this little guy is just irresistable (he acts a lot like a little puppy - he loves a good tummy-rub and playtime).

well i think that's all i have for now. just trying to catch you all up with what's going on in the life of paul & megan (i'm sure you've been on the edge of your seats wanting to know :-)). i'll try to not go so long between posts next time!

much love to all!

one saturday night with little tjuta while i'm studying for anatomy. precious.

tjuta's first night in our apartment! paul was trying to entice him with some string to play with.

the newlyweds, charles & sarah schroeder!

they are beautiful.

welcome to our blog!

hello all! well, we (or rather, i) came to the conclusion that we were in need of a tech-update once paul's parents created their new zealand blog a couple of months ago (we can't get too behind the trends!), so here we go! with the two of us being out on the west coast and most of our family and friends still on the east coast, we thought this would be a great way to keep everyone up-to-date on our life as newlyweds and newly-californians. we'll probably get around to posting entries whenever we're avoiding grad school and such, so while this might not always be choc-full of recent activity, we hope you still enjoy! much love to all!