No News Yet

I know now why parents of kids with chronic illnesses become such advocates. Doctors can be pains. I called the doctor's office this morning at 9, as soon as they opened, to get the results of Andrew's x-rays. The guy I talked to said they had the report, but the doctor hadn't looked it over yet. He told me that as soon as she finished with the patient she was with, she would look at the report and give me a call back. So I waited. And I waited. Finally, around 11, I called the office back. This time I talked to a lady who told me it was very hectic there, but the doctor would definitely get back to me by 12:30 or 1 at the latest since they were closing early. So I waited. And I waited. At 12:55, I decided to call again, because I didn't want to miss them. Unfortunately, they had already closed the office, and no one answered the phone. There wasn't even a paging service that I could talk to. I waited a little longer, and then I decided to call the hospital where they took the x-rays. I figured that even though it's a holiday the hospital never closes and somone there will talk to me. No deal. The person I talked to there said they don't give results to parents only doctors. Now, I understand that I'd need to speak with a doctor to understand all of the ramifications of a diagnosis, and what the next steps would be, but all I'm really looking for is a yes or no right now. Does he have this condition or not? Because if it's a no, I'll be a lot more comfortable while I wait for the doctor's call. Even if it's a yes, I would be OK. This not knowing at all is what is driving me crazy.

First Month, First X-Ray

I took Andrew in for his one month check-up yesterday. The nurse must have thought I was a brand-new mom, since I had about five things I was concerned about. He's had a lot of trouble with spitting up (just reflux) and congestion (nothing major). I was also a little worried about his head shape. It seems like he has a ridge running across the top of his head from front to back, but I figured I noticed it because the poor kid is bald. The Dr. was a little more worried. They said there's a chance that his skull bones have fused early since his forehead and the back of his head bulge a little. It's called craniosynostosis. So they wanted me to take him over to Children's Health to have his head x-rayed. After today, I think I'm the one that needs my head examined, but that's another topic! So after trying the orthopedic clinic close to me fifty times only to have no one answer the phone, and finding out that the Benefits office at the school system didn't turn in my paperwork on time so he had no insurance, I was finally able to get everything straightened out and get to the hospital for the x-rays. Unfortunately, it was after 5, so I won't hear anything from the Dr.'s office until Monday at the earliest. We keep joking that he's going to be our high maintenence one, and it looks like it's turning out that way!

Merry Christmas!!

It's a fairly quiet Christmas day at our house. We don't have any family in town, so we're taking the day pretty slow. Jeremy and Matthew are at Alvin and the Chipmunks right now. I was planning to take the boys during break, but Nathan was adament about not going, so we decided on this instead. Nathan's playing with his toys, and Andrew's trying to sleep.

Here are the boys in their Christmas pajamas. I started a new tradition this year of buying them each new pajamas and having them open them after we got back from our Christmas Eve service. Andrew didn't get any this year, but I'm already planning a trip to Old Navy for next year since their prices before Christmas couldn't be beat. I went over on Friday and had to force myself out of the store, or I would've bought their entire winter wardrobe for next year.

It looked like I had gotten a ton of gifts, and the pile was bigger than I had planned, but looking at them last night I realized that the only gift I spent more than $20 for was Jeremy's. He got a cordless drill. I know, it's a little boring, but we needed it. He bought me new glasses since the ones we have in the cupboard are wedding gifts. I even went discount on their stockings. I went to Dollar Tree last week and spent $15 to fill their stockings. I probably won't be able to do that for much longer, but right now they were thrilled. They seemed pretty happy with this year's gifts. Nothing really needs to be assembled, and the only things that needs batteries is Matthew's digital camera (so he can stop using mine!). I even bought gifts for Andrew. The boys had a great time opening them for him.

All in all, it's been a good Christmas. We went to the Christmas Eve service at our church along with 2000 of our closest friends. The place was packed. They actually had to put chairs up in the foyer which is where we sat. Nathan lasted through most of it until the sermon, then Jeremy took him downstairs to walk around. Matthew did pretty well, too. Andrew slept through most of it, so he was the easiest. We want to try and do this every year. Now that they're getting older, I want to start some of these traditions that we can continue year after year.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Say Hello to Andrew Michael!

Our third baby joined the family two weeks ago Friday. Yes, he was about three weeks early! Needless to say, we were very surprised. We had gone over to my uncle's for Thanksgiving dinner and came home about 7 or so that evening. After we put the boys to bed, we sat on the couch for a while and watched the Colts try their hardest to lose to the pathetic Atlanta Falcons. (And I should know just how bad the Falcons are, I have to hear about it every day here in Atlanta.) Anyway, after the Colts finally won, we went to bed about 11:30. My cousin Stephanie and I were planning to do some shopping on Friday since it is, after all, Black Friday. I woke up about 1:30 am and had to go to the bathroom. My pajamas were kind of damp, but I didn't really think anything about it until I got to the bathroom and realized that my water had broken. I woke Jeremy up with the words, "You're not going to believe what just happened." Then, I called the doctor and he, of course, told us to go right to the hospital. Only one little problem (actually two). I had two boys that had nowhere to go. So after debating, we woke them up and decided to take them with us. This happened after I spent a half-hour packing and panicking at the same time. First, because we had nothing ready for the baby. I mean, no crib, no bottles, no diapers, nothing. Secondly, I had a list of about 100 things I was going to accomplish my last two weeks of school. I had my plans with me, my grading sheets, everything. I certainly wasn't ready for a sub. Jeremy finally convinced me that freaking out wasn't really helping, and we headed off to the hospital.

The nurses were great at the hospital. I was a little afraid that they would be leery of us showing up with two boys, but they took it right in stride. I think my nurse actually convinced the doctor to hold off on the c-section until the morning. Unfortunately, that meant I had to go through about five hours of labor. Not a lot, I know, but there is a reason why I like c-sections. I called my uncle at about 5:30 in the morning, and my cousin Laura came over to the house at about 6 to watch the boys. (That's a huge sacrifice for her since she's 14 and loves to sleep in!) Andrew arrived at 8:19 am. He weighed 7 lbs 7 oz and was 20 inches long.

Andrew right after birth.

Everything seemed fine until we got back to the room. The nurse was getting ready to take him to the nursery when she noticed he was a little sweaty. She checked his blood sugar, and it was about half of where it should be. So he headed off to the NICU. There, they started an IV and gave him glucose. I finally saw him again Friday evening, and it looks like he has veins like mine. The nurse told me I had to be careful of his IV since it was the fourth one they had put in. He kept blowing the other ones out. Poor kid. Saturday, he came off of the glucose, and he was able to spend the rest of the time in my room with me. It was quite an adventerous start for him!

Matthew and Nathan think he is just wonderful. Everyday when they come home, they have to "pet the baby". Nathan did tell us right after he was born that the baby was a girl, and he was going to call her Mark. I think we've finally got him convinced that the baby is a boy, and we're calling him Andrew. Except for some trouble adjusting to sleeping in his bassinet, he's doing great. He likes to sleep everywhere else, he just is not crazy about his bassinet. He's also not nursing very well. The nurse at the hospital told me it would probably take 2 - 3 weeks for him to figure out how to nurse. I had to rent a pump, and I've been looking on ebay for a pump. I tried to get one last night, and I got outbid in the last five minutes by $10. They retail for about $200, and the one I wanted was sold for $60, so I should be able to find one fairly cheap.

Matthew and Andrew ready to leave the hospital.

I am a terrible, horrible person

I took a bath tonight. Now, before you start laughing, we are 78 days away from the end of the (easy) water supply here in Atlanta. But I wanted a bath so badly tonight I figured what the heck. I have become anal-retentive about water in the last few months. I turn my water off when I'm brushing my teeth, when I'm washing my hands, actually pretty much all of the time. (I still haven't gotten into the habit of turning it off while soaping up in the shower, but I'm sure that's coming.) I'm forever after the boys about walking away from the sink while the water is still running, and I think Jeremy's even tired of me nagging him to turn the water off. I'm even to the point of adjusting the water in the washing machine so it doesn't go above the level of the clothes even an inch. And don't even get me started on my agonizing over the dishwasher. Am I using more water running the dishwasher (full, mind you) every three days or washing the dishes in the sink? Life in the middle of a drought is HARD. But I do have times when I blow it off, like tonight. This is probably the first bath I've taken in months. But it felt so good, and I'm three weeks away from having a baby, so I think I deserve a little bit of leeway. Who knows, if it doesn't rain soon, we'll be down to sponge baths.

By the way, if you get a chance, say a prayer for my parents tonight. They got home from Mississippi tonight and discovered that their house had been broken into. It sounds like the only thing taken was the computer, but my mom was pretty shaken up about it. It stinks that they are in Mississippi for a week helping people who still don't have their homes rebuilt two years later, and they have to come home to this.

Two Boys + One Room = Fun for All!

We went out last Sunday evening and bought a set of bunk beds for the boys. Yes, my children are sleeping in beds from Wal-Mart. But, hey, they were only $179 for solid wood beds. I really couldn't complain since the beds I was finding in the classifieds were $200, and they were used. These are really nice. Here's a picture of the boys in them.

Yes, I know it's really hard to see Nathan.

So we started putting them together on Monday night. There was not a single piece attached to another piece when we started. Even the slats on the headboards and footboards needed to be put in. We had decided to just put together Nathan's bed and get it in his room. At four and a half it's really time he moved out of the toddler bed. We had the headboard and footboard attached to the side rails when we decided we needed to move it into Nathan's room before we added the slats that the matress lays on. So, we started moving it down the hallway. Except, our hallway is to narrow for the bed. Ugh. We got it back in the living room (I knew there was a good reason I hadn't bought any living room furniture yet), and decided to wait until Tuesday to get everything together. Plus, it was 8:30, and I hadn't even eaten supper yet.

Tuesday, when I got home, I started taking Matthew's old bed apart, getting parts of his new bed put together, and taking the headboard of Nathan's bed off so we could move it into Matthew's room. When Jeremy got home, he got Matthew's old bed out of the room, and we moved Nathan's bed in. Then, we were able to finish putting his bed together and getting his mattress on the bed. So we knew that no matter what, we had a bed to put Matthew in. We were able to get his bed together, however. Plus, we were even able to get the top bunk on top of the bottom bunk!! Both of the boys were very excited when we finished. Probably too excited since it took them a little bit of time to calm down. They did finally fall asleep, but they were up again at 3:00 am having a party. We had to put Nathan in his old room. It's a good thing we kept his bed up as the ultimate threat. While he wasn't happy, they both did fall back asleep. Unfortunately, I didn't until 5:00. Last night went a little better. It took them some time to fall asleep, but they did stay asleep the whole night. We'll see how the rest of the week goes!

Here's Matthew on the top bunk.

And here's Nathan on the bottom.

Happy Halloween!

I know it's a few days late, but here are some pictures from Halloween. Matthew was an emergency room doctor. He wanted to be a Ninja, but I told him tough luck about that. Nathan was a pirate. He just loved having the hat, hook, and eyepatch.

Since Wednesday is usually Awana night, our church sponsored a Fall Festival in the parking lot. There were moonwalks and games for the kids. There was also candy for the kids. The boys had a great time. Nathan's already asking about when the Fall Festival will come back!


Here's Nathan "fishing" for candy.










Matthew jumping on the moonwalk.

We Have a Date!

After playing phone tag with the doctor's office for three days, I was finally able to set a date for the c-section. This baby will enter the world on. . .(drumroll please) December 10th at 11:00 am. I was hoping to have it the next day on Tuesday, but the only time available was at 8:00 am which meant we would have to be at the hospital by 6:00 am. That wouldn't work with the boys, so we're on for Monday. Yes, I know, I've got to be the only person on the planet who is disappointed that she is going to have the baby a day earlier than she wanted. I'll probably be thankful for that by December.

Jeremy had an interview last week at a radio station in Gainesville (the one in Georgia, not Florida). They have an opening in their news department. He would work from 12pm - 7pm Monday through Friday and then 10am - 3pm on Saturday. He called the guy he interviewed with on Friday, and they had one more person to talk to. The guy also said that they were talking about revamping their news dpeartment, so they may have more openings soon. Plus, he's still in contact with the station in Athens, so he's gone from having little or no interest from stations to now having two stations interested in him! Hopefully, he'll have something set by the end of the month.

The boys are doing pretty well. Matthew was very excited on Friday, because he got to be on the morning announcements at school (the announcements are televised through closed-circuit TV). Our school uses a computer program called Successmaker for reading and math support. Every student uses the program at least once a week, and it moves them through the reading and math levels at their own pace. Well, this week, he graduated from Reading Readiness and moved into Initial Reading (which is beginning of first grade reading skills). Once a child graduates from a level, they get to go on the morning show to tell the whole school they graduated. He thought he was pretty cool.

Baby Update

I had another ultrasound yesterday. And, if you thought an ultrasound was interesting before, try taking your 5 1/2 year old with you! Matthew had alot of questions. Like why could we see the baby's bones and not mine. Where is the baby's back? Can the baby see us? Can the baby hear us? And then the best one: Where was I when you were a baby, Mommy? I finally told him he needed to ask Daddy. (Yes, I am a wimp) At least he hasn't asked yet where baby's come from. I don't know if I'm ready for that conversation!

On to the more mundane. The baby weighs about 3 1/2 pounds right now which is perfectly average. It appears that this poor child is going to have a head like Matthew, however. It's head is measuring at about 32 weeks (I'm only at 30). It's abdomen is right at 30 weeks and the femur is measuring at about 28 weeks. So, it looks like I'm going to have a shorty with an oversized head. Everything else is normal, and the baby's turned already. Of course, I could have told the doctor that since I could feel it turn last week. Definitely not the most comfortable feeling! The doctor wrote the orders for my c-section yesterday, so I'll probably get it scheduled next week. It sounds like I can pretty much pick my day and time the week of Dec. 10th!

So What That It's Been a Month?

Well, Ruth e-mailed me today complaining that she checked my blog and there was nothing new. Unfortuntely, there really isn't too much new in our lives. The boys are both adjusting well to school. Even Matthew appears to have kindergarten figured out by now. Friday, one of the papers he brought home was a puzzle of a face. He had to cut out the eyes, nose, and mouth, and place them in the correct spot on the face. Then, he colored it. What I found really interesting is that he colored the face brown. Of course, if you've ever met his cousins you know why. Here's a picture of him with his cousins Sam and Katy.
Plus, his elementary school is between 75 - 80% African-American. Brown faces are just normal to him. I really like that, though. He's only commented once about the fact that his cousins have dark faces, and then it's never been an issue. He just assumes that some faces are brown and some are white and that's the way God's made people.

I did just finish a really great book called Raising the Spirited Child. The author's definition of a Spirited Child is one who is more, more sensitive, perceptive, persistent, and intense. Sounds like someone I know, right? It has given me a lot of insight into why Nathan acts the way he does. So I've done the easy part. Now, the hard part is putting her ideas into practice!

Awana, Here We Come!

We started Awana on Wednesday night. All three of us. Matthew is in Sparks this year, and Nathan finally gets to go to Cubbies. (Hallelujah, we have finally finished potty-training!) Both of the boys were excited about their first night. I'm helping out, since I figured it was time for me to get involved at church. Last year was really just a time for us to get our feet under us. Plus, our church looks for a lot of their volunteers before school starts, and we were really only here for about three weeks before school got going last year.

Sparks is going to be a lot more difficult for Matthew than Cubbies was last year. For his first week, he memorized the Sparks motto, My friend for Christ, the Pledge of Allegiance, and John 3:16. Now, most of us may think John 3:16 is really easy, but we've known it for so many years, we don't even realize how long it is. In working with Matthew, I discovered just how long it really is. For next week, we have to memorize the pledge to the Awana flag and the Sparks theme song. Both of those are fairly long too. I guess we won't be able to memorize his verses in the car on the way to church this year! Plus, he has to be more responsible this year about working his way through the book. The church has given us a plan for the year to help him finish the book by the end of March.

I had a great time looking at his book. I was in Sparks when I was in the second grade, and I found my old books not too long ago. My book and his book are not really all that different. They use a lot of the same verses and projects. I haven't shown it to Matthew yet, because I don't know if he'll quite get it. I do wish I had a picture of me in my old Sparks vest. He would get a kick out of that.

Nathan had a blast at his first night. Yesterday, he was already asking me when he goes back to Cubbies. He is in a different group than the one that I am helping with. That's a good thing, because the instant that he sees me during the large group Bible time, he immediately comes over to me. That was a little hard Wednesday night since I had another little boy sitting in my lap because he had hurt himself earlier. Of course, that meant that Nathan had to immediately come over and try to lay on me. Between the two boys flopped all over me, I was afraid I might never get up. We're still working on the whole separation anxiety thing with him. He's still having some trouble when Jeremy leaves him at school as well.

I enjoyed my group as well. We have 10 four year-olds in our group. Some of them are new this year, but there are a couple that are old hats at it. It was funny to watch. There are definitely some real leaders in the group. It's amazing to watch how this all works together. All of the groups move like well-oiled machines. As one group leaves a room, another one moves in to take it over. It is all completely necessary. Altogether, there are 770 people at Awana each Wednesday night. That includes both adults and kids. Then, when the Middle School kids get started next Wednesday, there will be almost 1500 people on campus every Wednesday night. No wonder we need a new building as soon as possible.

Trouble Already!

Well, it's the second day of school, and Matthew already got his first yellow light. His teacher uses green, yellow, and red stamps to show what kind of day he's had. He apparently hit another child who was teasing him, and so he had to sit in time out. I was NOT a happy camper with him. He and I had a "come to Jesus" meeting right there in my classroom at 3 pm this afternoon. We also discussed the serious consequences that might arise if he brought home another yellow light. Our school sells ice cream bars everyday to help pay for our lunch monitors, and I've told him he could buy ice cream on Fridays. However, I said another yellow light this week would mean no ice cream. So, of course, my little smart aleck pops off with, "Well, there are red lights, too." I informed him that he probably did not want to find out what would happen if he brought home a red light. We'll see how it goes. I can't believe it. The second day of school, and the teacher's kid is a delinquent. Aren't the teacher's kids always the worst ones? :)

First Day of School!

We are a family of school kids now! Matthew started his first day of kindergarten today. Here's a picture of him in his classroom.

Nathan started Pre - K as well. He's going to the same school that Matthew did last year. Here he is with his backpack that's almost as he is!

We had to start early this morning! I got Matthew up at about 6:30. He was sound asleep when I went into his room, but he got right up and got started. I'm sure in a month it won't be so easy! Nathan was a little harder to get up. I went into his room and called his name a few times. He cracked an eyelid at me, and I said, "Do you want to get up?" He takes one look at me and croaks, "No." I told him it was Pre - K day, since we've only been counting down to that since the first day of August, and he pulls the covers over his head and rolls over. He is definitely a night owl. If it was up to him, we'd all go to bed around midnight and wake up at 10 am. (Come to think of it, that's not a bad idea!) It must have sunk in though, because I heard him a couple of minutes later in the hallway singing, "It's Pre - K day today!"

They both had good days today. Matthew said he had fun, and he wants to go back tomorrow. He told me he had already made friends, though he was a little upset that he didn't get to go to the playground. We kept the kids in for the most part today since we were still near triple digits. It's 9:30 right now, and it's still 86 degrees outside. I told him once it cooled off a little he'd get to go outside for recess. Nathan said Pre - K was very fun. I asked him what he did today, and he said, "Played." I can imagine that was pretty fun! He also told me he had "nothing" for lunch, but since he was wearing most of it, I think it was spaghetti. He did take a nap, since he's still in his bed talking to himself. He always has a hard time falling asleep if he's slept at all during the day. Hopefully, he'll adjust soon.

My class was a little more interesting. I tell myself every year that I need to remember that the group I'm getting is a year behind the group that left me in May. This year, though, is even harder. They seem more immature than the class I had last year, and things that I expected them to know did not seem to come so easily. It's going to take a lot of work just to get them to learn the procedures and the ways I run my class. I'm especially careful this fall, since I want to make sure that the kids are confident in how I run a class before I hand it off to a sub for two months. Lots and lots of review over the next week!

The Last Day of Summer

Wednesday was our last day at the pool. Since I start work on Monday, and we had other things going on Thursday and Friday, Wednesday was our end of summer. We have a pool at Mountain Park that is about five minutes away from our house, and it has been wonderful this summer. I actually have a decent tan for the first time in a long time! The pool is set up for kids, and so the boys have had a blast. Unfortunately, there have been occasional maintenance issues, so we've had to go elsewhere. We heard about another really nice one at Bethesda Park that is about fifteen minutes away from us, and we've really liked going there to. That one is completely indoors, so we can go even when it's raining outside!

So Wednesday, when we headed to the pool we were once again faced with the dreaded "Outdoor Pool Closed" sign. This time, though, instead of going to Bethesda, I decided to head to one that's south of us at Lenora Park. I had a general idea of where it was at, but I wasn't completely sure. I knew the road it was on, but it was alot further away than I thought. It took us close to a half-hour to get there. On top of that, I was very disappointed when I got there. I've often complained about the lifeguards at Mountain Park being very strict about the rules. Technically, both boys are to always be within arm's reach, since they are both under six. That proves to be a little impossible when Matthew is ready to try anything, and Nathan prefers to try nothing. I keep them fairly close, though, and I've only had to have Matthew brought to me once. At this pool at Lenora Park, the lifeguards went the other way. There were kids who were probably 10 - 12 years old running and pushing in the one foot section of the pool, and the lifeguards didn't say anything. It was very frustrating, since I try not to get in "teacher" mode when I'm not actually teaching. The difference that I saw between the two pools was very simple. At Mountain Park, the lifeguards are either in the water or right along the side of the pool. At Lenora Park, the lifeguards were all sitting in lifeguard chairs with umbrellas above them. While I'm sure it was more comfortable, it separated them from the kids in the pool and made them a lot less inclined to get down and intervene. I told Jeremy when we got back that it was fun, but I don't think we'll be heading back there again. A half-hour is too long to drive for that.

My Three Sons

We had our ultrasound yesterday, and it looks like there will be three boys in our house! Boys are very popular in our family. My mom and I were trying to count up how many boys there were just on her side and we came up with eight boys compared to only three girls. If we ever have a family reunion, there will be plenty of people to play with!

We took Matthew with us to the ultrasound. I asked him if he wanted a boy or a girl, and he said a girl. When I asked him why, he said, "So I can marry her when I grow up!" I told him he doesn't get to marry his sister. On the way out, though, he told me he wanted 20 brothers. I said he may have to see about getting a new mom. I'm not up for 20!!

All in all, everything else looked good. The baby is the right size, and looks healthy. We even got to see it wave at us!

Children and the Aquarium

I took the boys to the Georgia Aquarium yesterday. If you ever come to Atlanta, I would highly recommend the aquarium. It's one of the largest ones in the country, but it doesn't feel like you have to walk for miles to see everything. The best characteristic about the aquarium is that they have large tanks with a variety of species. The best tank is the Ocean Voyager. I can't even describe how huge it is. It has four whale sharks in it that average about 20 - 30 feet in length. The big viewing room has a huge floor to ceiling window that is about 20 feet high and 40 or so feet long. You can sit right in front of the window and watch the fish swim by you. It is absolutely awesome.

So, the boys and I decided to go yesterday. They had been begging to go for awhile. We have yearly passes, so it only costs us the price of parking. Since it's summer, it was unbelieveably busy. Nathan did well for a while, but he always gets a little upset around large crowds. We had to wait in a long line to get some lunch, and just as we were going through the line to pay, he decided it was just too much, and he started to just wail. Of course, I'm holding a tray with all our food, so it's impossible for me to hold him. He wasn't throwing a temper tantrum or running around or flailing on the floor, he was just crying. To make it even worse, there is this older lady in front of me who kept giving me dirty looks. I'm not sure what exactly she expected me to do. I mean, come on, it could have been a lot worse. All he was doing was standing beside me, crying. Why is that total strangers feel the need to judge you when your children are not being the perfect little angels. I'm sure she could tell from the look on my face that I was a little stressed, but there was absolutely no compassion on her face. She's probably one of those people who gets upset when she sees a family walk into a family restaurant like Applebee's too.

In the end, we had a good time, but I'll probably wait until a day when it's not so busy to take the boys back.

Doctor's Visits and Swimming Lessons

I had another doctor's visit yesterday. It only lasted about 15 minutes, since everything is going well. The baby's heartbeat sounds good, and my blood pressure is perfect. (Amazing, since sometimes the boys can make anyone's blood pressure rise!) I gained about two pounds, but I'm still three pounds lower than my initial weight. (Awesome!) My ultrasound is a week from today, so hopefully we'll have news about whether it's a boy or a girl.

Here are some pictures from the boys' last day of swimming lessons. Matthew's really taken to the water. Nathan likes splashing around, but he takes things on his own terms. He still does not like to go underwater. They only had five kids in their class with two instructors, so there was a lot of hands-on instruction. Both instructors were very supportive, especially of Nathan. They never forced him to do anything he didn't want to, and he couldn't wait to go each day! I'm so glad it was a positive experience for him.

This is Matthew swimming along the lazy river at the pool.

One year in Georgia

Yesterday marked our first year in Georgia. It's hard to believe that it's been a year. It seemed like just yesterday we were packing the moving truck to come here. While there have been times when I doubted the wisdom of moving here, especially when Jeremy was struggling with his job search, it has been a good move. Everything worked out to get us here, and Nathan did get to spend a year at home with his dad.

We heard an awesome speaker at church yesterday. Our pastor is in Iran, and George Verwer spoke at our church. If you've never heard of him, he's the founder of Operation Mobilization and he's also considered the founder of short term missions. While he was funny and I spent most of the sermon laughing, he also made you really think. What can I do? Where can I help?

First Post!

Here it is, my very first post! Unfortunately, I really don't have anything that interesting to say. For those of you who have been wondering, Jeremy has gotten a full time job! He's working as a reservation agent for a tour company in Norcross. His hours right now are 11 am to 7 pm, which is really nice because it gives me a chance to sleep in a little in the mornings. I definitely need that right now. He's also not working on the weekend at all anymore. We're actually going to go to church in the morning tomorrow! (Now, since you're wondering, we've been going to our church's 5:15 service since September.) It's nice to be back to a normal schedule.

My next doctor's visit is on Friday, and in two weeks we go in for our ultrasound. Hopefully, we'll be able to find out if it's another boy or a little girl. A girl will definitely shake up the boys' lives!