What's up, guys?

Wow, what's this, a blog update from Keri?!?

Ok, now that you've had a moment to recover.... yes, it is really me, and we didn't fall off the face of the earth. Really.

For a while there, we just didn't have anything exciting to blog about. No babies crawling, no injuries healing, no vacations, just plain ol' boring work and school. It snowed excessively, and I think everyone in Lawrence had a case of the blahs that lasted for months.

Then the past few weeks have actually been a little blog-worthy, but I have hardly had time to check email/facebook, much less update the rest of the world in more than 160 characters at a time. So, here goes.

And, this will be a picture-free post. I left my camera cord in Lawrence, and we're in Springfield, so... use your imagination, and then I'll have a picture extravaganza when we're back home in a few days.

Over Valentine's weekend, we had a visit from Jeremy's aunt Marcy and Grandma and Grandpa Wagner. They came to spend the night with us so we could go up to St. Joseph for his cousin Katherine's baby shower. Katherine is expecting a little girl named Adriana very soon! She looks absolutely fabulous and seems to be all baby, which makes for an adorable pregnant gal. We had a great time visiting with Jeremy's mom and brother who also came to St. Joe for the shower, and with all of the relatives as we celebrated this new life to come.

In the beginning of March, I was blessed to get to help throw the baby shower for one of my dear long-time friends, Margaret Sayger. Margaret and her husband Brandt had tried unsuccessfully for years to conceive a child of their own, and didn't think it was possible when... surprise! She discovered at a routine doctor's appointment that she was expecting. This has been a miracle we've been waiting for for a long time, and so I was very excited to get to be a part of celebrating with her. There will be a zillion pictures from this shower in a future post. Margaret is another all baby super cute pregnant gal - I hope that when the time comes for us someday that I'll be half as cute as these ladies!

And speaking of pregnant gals... we're excited that our friend Emily is no longer. :) She and Ryan welcomed Ainsley Claire into the world on March 13. We saw her just before we left on our trip when she was still less than 18 hours old, and she is absolutely beautiful!! We had no doubts that Ryan and Em would make pretty babies, but it's nice to see the proof. We're looking forward to getting to see Ainsley more and watch her grow up.

And finally, we're at Spring Break vacation. Jeremy talked me into accompanying him to Springfield, IL where he's doing research for his dissertation. Honestly, it wasn't too hard of a sell - I get to spend days hanging out in the library (awesome), afternoons checking out museums (super cool) and then in the evenings I get to explore a new town with my hubby. Pretty much a perfect vacay if you're a super nerd like me. Although it might have been nice if he was researching Obama and we could have gone to Hawaii... but I digress.

We arrived late on Sunday night and had dinner at an old Italian restaurant, Saputo's, which was very delicious. Nothing better than baked lasagna from an old family recipe. Yum.

Yesterday, we spent the morning in the archive. Jeremy's already learned a lot and the ladies who work here are so very nice. Then we spent yesterday afternoon in the Lincoln Presidential Museum. You can see some information about it here http://www.alplm.org/. I'll save a little more narration on this for when you can see a few pictures. We couldn't take many but those we did take are fun. :) We learned all about Lincoln's childhood as well as his political career. I particularly loved an exhibit featuring the 1860 election and what it would have been like with today's news coverage. It was created when the museum opened five years ago, so it featured Tim Russert, and they had a nice memorial to him there as well.

We are spending another morning in the archives this morning. Debbie, one of the archivists/librarians/ladies who work here, took pity on me and brought out a couple of rare collections that she likes to show off to people. One was the Ricks Collection that had many autographs that this particular man collected over the course of his life. It included letters or autographs or bills of sale from a lot of people you've heard of: U.S. Grant, Mary Todd Lincoln, Napoleon, Benjamin Franklin, William Seward, and Robert E Lee. It was humbling to hold some of these records in my own hands! The second thing she brought out was some relics from Abraham Lincoln. Much of this stuff is actually in the vault now, but she had many letters to Lincoln from admirers and opponents, bills of sale for the 1865 election, a piece of Lincoln's coat he was wearing when shot, a piece of the cloth that they used to wipe his blood, and a piece of the gallows that the conspirators were hung on. Can you believe this stuff is open to the public, and it's free? By appointment, but still. Unfortunately, I can't take pictures in the archive, but I will definitely treasure the memory of getting to see such amazing things.

A side note - public pressure, Mom. Can you find that genealogy where it shows that we're related to Mary Todd Lincoln? The letter in the Ricks Collection was written to a Browning so I was wondering if that was a relative. I was thinking she was on the Porter side, and not the Browning side... but wouldn't it be odd if that letter of hers was really to a relative of ours?

For the rest of the day, we're planning on checking out the Lincoln Home and also the Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices. We also have a ghost tour planned for tonight! More on these adventures tomorrow.

Finally - one last thing. Jeremy's sister Ariane is expecting her second, and we found out this morning that she's having another little girl!! I am so excited for our niece, Natalie, because I know firsthand how awesome being a big sister to another sister can be. Congrats to Fred, Ariane, and Natalie, and we can't wait to meet the new baby girl in July!