Who's winning?

Hey, look! I'm making a new blog post! We still don't have internet at the house, but we're on a waiting list to have it set up. Apparently AT&T is in high demand around here. Mid-April I should be able to update more frequently.

We're settling in our lovely home. The baby's room is in the worst condition because all the book boxes are in there. The kitchen is in fabulous shape thanks to my new friends Ellen and Gaye. We (mostly they) scrubbed every nook and cranny and every remnant of prior tenant has been removed.

I do, however, have some competition for the newly scrubbed, wonderful kitchen. The sugar ants seem to think they have some right to partake of our food. Scrubbing the counters constantly worked until they found their way into the cereal and crackers. Now all the cereal is stored in air-tight containers and flour, sugar, etc. lives in ziplock bags until it is transferred to additional air-tight containers for easier use. I have a box of Frosted Flakes out on the counter as a test. I always thought the cereal was pure sugar with a little corn, but so far the ants haven't touched the stuff or shown the slightest interest. If bugs won't even eat the food, it makes me wonder why I would.

Anyway, some more warm air moved in today, so I will have to see how the war is going when I get home (the heat brings them out). Trey is planning to get some bug killer to spray around the crevices and holes, and the other day I had come to embrace this idea. The thought of spraying poison in the kitchen still scares me, though, even if the baby won't be here until July-ish.

I'll have to continue any ant woes on the blog, because I fussed and fumed about them so much one day that Trey forbade me to mention them to him again. I can't blame him.

Nasty little critters. At least they saved me from the Frosted Flakes, right?

Birthday?

Well, yesterday made up for my last post. I had lunch with my brother and his wife at Char; Mom, Dad, and Grace came up to surprise me when we were at Zack's house; and, Pastor Mike announced that it was my last Sunday at Redeemer during the night service and made the reception for the newly installed officers of the church a farewell for Hilary and me. Then, Zack invited our close friends over to his house for a surprise birthday party.

It was a good day.

Moving

It's hard to believe that we are moving in only 5 days. It seemed to take ages to find a call—8 or 9 months—but since I accepted the call to New Braunfels, there has been a whirlwind of activity; it is five weeks since the session of Christ Presbyterian extended me a call; we have only had two weekends at home. 

This will be our last weekend in Jackson and our last Sunday at Redeemer. I've been here for almost 8 years now: all but one year was spent with Trinity/Redeemer. We'll be leaving a lot behind. I am resolved to be a better friend and more constant in keeping up with people. I regret how little time I have spent with my Belhaven pals, especially those who go to the same church I do.

Sonogram photos

Well, we aren't sure why, but we came away from our sonogram without any really good photos. We have a clear picture of a foot. And those little unmentionable parts (I actually feel bad showing that photo---like I'm violating LT's privacy). And what on scrutinization appears to be a mouth and nose. When the whole face came into focus it turned into a skeleton, so we ended up with the mouth and nose (or the lighter grey blob on top of the darker grey blob).

There were some fun images on the screen of LT's face with his little hands next to it (he was sleeping for this photo shoot), but somehow we didn't get any of those printed out. I think the combination of this being Trey and my first time doing all this and the fact that our technician had only been out of school 6 months and the fact that the equipment probably wasn't the latest all combined to leave us with unreprintable pictures.

But we'll have plenty in a few months. :)

P.S. My uterus is still measuring big--about 22 weeks right now, but LT himself measured just right for his age: 19 1/2 weeks.

Some lasts and some firsts

Well, tomorrow is my last day at the law firm. I am in a state of disbelief that it is already here. It was just three days away when we came home from Pontotoc on Sunday, and now it's tomorrow, which will be gone about as quickly as today was.

I've been looking forward to this day since I started working at the firm, but now that it's here, I'm sad. I have great coworkers and a kind boss. Spending my days at the office was not a bad thing, not anything I dreaded. And the work was satisfying most of the time, which is pretty good for a job. My skill set matched my responsibilities, and completing projects brought a welcome sense of accomplishment.

However, I have long (okay, okay, for seventeen months) wanted to devote the majority of my time to helping Trey: keeping his house, fixing his food, doing all the little and big things that would allow him to pursue his passion in youth ministry. Designing a home and schedule that would offer him refreshment and rejuvenation will offer me hours upon hours of creativity, organization, imagination, planning, implementing. Preparing my intellect for discussion with him gives me a wonderful reason to read, to read all sorts of different subjects and different writers and lots of fiction. We both have varied interests.

And our other little addition has already started giving me all sorts of new things to contemplate, plan for, organize, and implement. Over the weekend, LT began kicking to be noticed, and what a welcome kick!

When we left Pontotoc, LT was particularly forceful in kicking so that Trey was even able to feel the kicks from outside the womb. I don't think LT wanted to leave. We enjoyed Mom, Dad, Amy, and Pearce so much; a part of my heart is broken that we are going to be so far. But the Lord has his plans for us and maybe one day we will be close again on this earth. Maybe we won't be close until the new heavens and new earth. It will be hard; it already is hard. But I know when the Savior returns none of His children will be disappointed. And that is the thought that keeps me from despair, no matter what my circumstances.

Oh, I pray that Pearce and LT and all my friends' precious children know the God I know!