It might be a while....

...before another post! We will be seeing Anna Ruth today at the beach and she will finally get to meet Meredith! Also, we will be able to play with Baylee, our niece. Then, I will be out of town on a mission trip with the Emerywood Baptist youth group. We will be going to Gordon College outside of Boston, MA attending Passport where the youth will do community service projects and be forced out of the comfort zone as they meet other youth from various places and share their faith to people in the community. Please be in prayer for our travels up (I will be driving the bus) and back as well as our youth as they minister to others. Also, please be in prayer for John in that he will be playing "single dad" with Elaine's help during the week. To hold you over, here are some pictures of our sweet baby girl. By the way, she is now sucking on her toes, rolling over more, getting her legs underneath her when she is on her tummy as if she is ready to crawl, starting to hold her bottle, and taking in everything around (she is our little busy body). I will post more pictures upon my return! Have a great couple weeks!

This just humors John and I....

....so I thought I would share. Ok, so most of the time, I take on the roll of feeding Meredith her solids mainly because of my being home now that it is summer. However, John got to feed Meredith more than normal while at the beach, and the below pictures say it all. You be the judge, does she have more on her face or in her belly?




























Oh, and today, as I was picking up the "Meredith necessities" as I rotated her to the next station because she was bored, I looked down, and there it was--baby bling. Things change so much when you become a mom :)! I am not complaining, I think it is gorgeous!

Wow! Has it been almost a month?

I think it has....my apologies! Well, a lot has happened since I last posted! Meredith has met milestones, my job description has changed, we have had a couple visits to the beach, and I coordinated a shower for a dear friend, Maureen McGee. Let's go in order!!

Matt and Maureen McGee are wonderful friends of ours that moved into the area about a year ago. Maureen is a highly qualified, incredibly intelligent, and gifted childrens' librarian and one of the most genuine people I know. Her husband, Matt, is talented in so many different areas of music, a very thoughtful, committed, and loyal friend as well. We met them when they started attending our church while Matt served as an interim minister of music. Since around Christmas, Matt took a job full-time with Emerywood and they are now members and growing to be some of our closest friends. We were so delighted when they announced to us that they were pregnant and due on September 6th but even more excited to find out that it is a girl!!! We are all very excited about a friend for Meredith (well, one of many since it seems that everyone is having a girl lately :)). To welcome them to the EBC family and express my excitement, I was able to enlist lots of help from very willing friends and members of EBC and we were able to throw a great shower for Maureen. She received lots of fun stuff which made me completely jealous--Maureen, Meredith and I are coming over to raid your nursery closet :)! Enjoy the pictures from the shower!

After the shower, John and I went to the beach for a week with John's family. Oh, with a pit stop before in Raleigh for Matt and Jennifer Walton's shower. It was wonderful to see them and friends from our Wendell Baptist Church family....we miss you guys! Anyway, back to the beach, we spent the week on the beach, in the kiddie pool, hanging inside on days that were either too hot or when Meredith needed a day in, and eating great food with great company. It was nice to be surrounded by people who we are bound to and who genuinely care about John, Meredith and myself. It was also so relaxing to have so many willing hands to help out with Meredith--I think Meredith has fallen in love with her Uncle Jimmy, Auntie Melissa, and IV. She also made sure to put on a show for her Granna by rolling over right before they left!!! It was so exciting to watch her meet that milestone for the first time--the facial expression she had was priceless!
























































After that beach trip, Meredith and I came home for a few days before planning on returning with my family. However, while packing, I received an interesting phone call from Trinity High. As it turns out, one of our best teachers decided to retire opening up a position for teaching Physical Science and Biology. My initial reaction was to turn down the position in fears of the dreaded End of Course testing as well as change. I have adored my time in the academy and LOVE the teachers on that team. However, when truly considering the position, I realized that one, it was an honor to be asked to take that position so young in my teaching career (for those of you who are teachers, you know what a challenge a full schedule of EOCs are), two, it was time to truly prove to the administration and my colleagues my capabilities as a teacher, and finally, it was time that I took on the challenge and pushed myself to grow. So, this year, I will be in a totally different classroom , teaching two totally different classes, and have totally different age students...hooray for sophomores and juniors! Wish me luck!

Finally, we just returned from a long July 4th weekend at the beach with my mother. It was nice to be away for the 4th and the festivities we attended were a total blast on the evening of the 4th. We are only a mile or so from the Cherry Grove pier, so we went out to the beach, listened to the ocean, watched amateurs shoot off fireworks before/after the fireworks show, and finally watched a great show off the pier. We had this wild idea that we would be the only ones with the idea of watching from the beach....who were we kidding? The whole community was there and it was almost magical seeing so many people come together on the beach and watch. It almost reminded me of something you would see in the movies as something that happened back in the 50s when everything was so clean and family-oriented. Meredith enjoyed the beach and pool again--we have all decided that she will definitely end up being a beach baby. It was nice to spend some time with my mom especially being her birthday this week. Our week was cut a little short for unforeseen circumstances, but we enjoyed the time we got down there.

















Oh! And I got a food processor so that I can make Meredith's baby food!!! I am going to a class with some of the soon-to-be mommies and some of us new mommies from church where we will learn how to save money and improve our baby's nutrition by making our own baby food. I am all about that!

One more thing to add before I finish up this post, I just want to say how wonderful John is for everyone to see. He has got to be the most supportive, kind, caring, and loving husband that a woman could have. It has been a stressful, busy, crazy, and hard year for the both of us and he has been my earthly rock. He never seems to waiver and is forever there to pick up my pieces when I fall apart. Before everyone who reads our blog, I just want to say, John, I love you!