Big news!

It's been a while, I know, but I'm starting to get in the swing of being at home and getting things done. My clerkship ended in July, and we've been pretty much on the move ever since. We were traveling most of August, first visiting the Severinos in California for Mina Marie's baptism and lots of quality cousin time, and then visiting the Campbells in Michigan for a great reunion of high school / middle school friends and more family time. I'll get photos of both up soon.

But our biggest news is that we're now expecting again! Baby Thomas (no middle name yet - email with your suggestions!) is due January 28 and the whole family is very excited. We have ultrasound photos that I will scan as soon as I can figure the scanner out, and they even threw in some 3-D ones for fun. Ellie is a wonderful big sister already. She talks to the baby all the time and has felt him kick once while she was sitting on my lap. The first thing she does when Roger gets home from work is to insist that he give the baby (my stomach) a kiss too, and it's all I can do to keep her from pulling my shirt up anywhere and in front of anyone to tickle him or give him a kiss.

Roger is at a new job since May - he's working at the Department of Justice in the Housing section of the Civil Rights division. To the non-lawyers, that means he's part of the biggest law firm in the nation - the US government. He helps enforce several different civil rights laws, including the ADA, Fair Housing Act, and Religious Land Use and Insitituionalized Persons Act. It was hard to leave the Becket Fund, but he's learning a lot at DOJ and we love the flex time: he gets every other Friday off now!

My new job is just starting, too. I have an Olin Fellowship from the Federalist Society that I'm doing at Georgetown Law this year. Basically I'll be spending the year trying to get a paper (or two) ready for publication and taking part in the academic life on campus by meeting faculty and attending workshops. The research and writing I'm planning on doing mostly from home (knock on wood) and the campus-life stuff will mean I'm gone for lunches several days a week. We have a wonderful homeschooling mother who is watching Ellie with her own two sons while I'm gone, and they've been having a great time. Her boys love having a little sister for a while, and Ellie gets to learn from them - she even does her own tracing and cutting projects when they have schoolwork to do while they're here. She's excited to learn about school!

I can't post without including a picture or two, so here are a couple recent ones of Ellie visiting the Natural History museum. She got to hold a grasshopper and a caterpillar, and was disappointed there were no slugs. I was disappointed there was no hand sanitizer.