Safe and sound in Ohio

Well, we got here safely on Friday night. It was a LONG drive. We had a hard time getting anywhere. But after about 8 hours (it will usually take 5), we pulled into our new driveway. Things are going well now. We have most things unpacked, but it just takes forever. I can only work for a few hours at a time before my swollen ankles start aching. Today, Jamin wanted me to go take a nap for a while, so I slept for 3 hours. I have to learn to pace myself. :) But we're almost finished. I think by Friday, or at least by Monday we will be totally unpacked. I am longing for that day. I will post those pictures later.

The church people have been so sweet here. They have showered us with food, and at church they all talk to us and tell us how glad they are that we are here. We are really blessed with a close, loving church family. We are excited to get comfortable and find our place with them.

I know this is a short update, but there will be more later. Right now, please pray that we can find a dr. and hospital. I have a few places I want to try, but tomorrow I'm hoping to have it settled. Thank you all for your comments and your prayers!

Showers of blessings

So much to post, so little time. To tell you the truth, I'm just too tired to post any pictures. :) I just want to give a quick update. We are on schedule to move tomorrow. Click here to see where we are going. We have our UHaul in the driveway, and my family is all helping tomorrow. Please pray for me. My excitement has already peaked...now I'm missing my mom. I know I just need some adjustment time, but I feel like I'm leaving home all over again. However, knowing I'm going to have my own home to keep again carries me through the sadness. ;) Having a house makes me so happy I want to giggle like a little giddy girl.

The Lord has worked everything out. The church we mostly attended on Wednesdays in Virginia voted to give us $250 to help us move. It was very kind of them! We grew to love the pastor and people there. Also, another church nearby is giving us $200/month for six months! What a blessing! The Lord has really confirmed in many ways that we are going the direction He wants us to go.

Also, the baby shower in Virginia went very well. I got my nice travel system, and tons of precious little outfits, other needed things, and an unbelievable amount of cash and gift cards! The Lord is good! And to think I was afraid my little boy wouldn't be spoiled enough. :)

The people of First Baptist will be there to welcome us this weekend. They are doing a lot to help us get settled. Alicia and some of the ladies cleaned the house for me today...so nice. I'm not sure if they would do that if I wasn't a little huge right now. ;) And, the men are coming to help unload the truck. They are also bringing us some food to keep us until we have time for grocery shopping. They have been extremely thoughtful! I think we are going to have a wonderful church family!

Jamin and I really covet your prayers during this time. Going into a new ministry is a wonderful and exciting thing. But it is sobering at the same time. We want so much to please the Lord, and nothing else. It's so easy to get caught up in daily life and responsibilities and forget that our lives are for Him. We are not our own; we are bought with a price. He saved us to bring glory to Himself. We don't want to be a hindrance to the ministry in any way. He is so good to us!

Well, off we go. Please hang in there. It may be a while before I post again, but I shall return!

Setting things in motion

Well, we finally have a moving date. We're planning to pull out Friday, October 19th. When we moved from MI, it cost us dearly. Being a 13-hour drive in a car, you can imagine what it was like with a huge moving truck and three other vehicles. :) We had to stretch it over two days. It cost around $1,000 just for the truck and gas. It was snowing, too. :) This trip will be much easier. We think we can get there in around 7 hours, and it is only a fraction of the cost. And we're not planning on having snow. The Reagans and some people from the church are going to help us unpack the truck the next day.

We're so excited to be settled! Especially me. Women who are expecting babies usually go into a big "nesting" thing. I have been unable to do that for the entire six months. I'm ready to "nest." I'm ready to sit on my own couch, cook in my own pots, sweep with my own broom, look into my own mirror, vacuum with my own...well, you get the picture. I'm ready.

We are just as excited about being church members again. Now don't get me wrong. We have faithfully attended church all summer, just in different churches. It's not the same as belonging. We're ready to serve the Lord in "our" church. :)

So how is the baby? Well, he is kicking a LOT, and lately he has been finding it very amusing to stay under my ribs. I'm not sure if I like this. His name (in one book) means "full of personality." Hmm...should I be worried? Things are going great though. Sometimes I still can't believe it is real, but then I try to get off the couch and realize it is very real. :) It's amazing the things I didn't think I would miss, such as breathing. But we are so, so thankful for our precious blessing, and we look forward to the day when we can hold him and see his face. :) Please continue to pray. It's not the greatest time to be moving and finding a new doctor and hospital, etc. I am nervous about it all. I don't have much time to play with because I've already gone to two-week visits. But I know we are in the Lord's will and He will work it all out.

I haven't done great with the camera lately so I have no picture to post. I guess I'll find out who is like me and hates to read posts without pictures! More to come!

Baby Shower!

The baby shower was yesterday and it was so much fun! I am probably about 10 times more excited now that I have so much "stuff" for the baby. I got so many nice things, now I just need a place to put it all. :) We had it at a river-front park in a gazebo. The Lord gave us a beautiful day! But the wind was blowing our decorations down, so we gave up on the balloons. Here are a few pictures:

My pastor's wife from my teen years (and mother of 6) gave a very precious devotion.


I thought this was a very impressive wrapping job!

Me and my sister


Thank you for taking pictures, Rachel!

It's good to have Jamin home. He got back around 1:30 Friday night. I kinda' fell asleep before he got back, but it's so nice to be together again! Last night he took me on a date. We went to Ruby Tuesday's for a great meal, then did a little shopping. It was a lot of fun. I love dates! Tomorrow we're going with my mom to get a rocking chair for me and the baby. That's Mom and Dad's gift for us. I'm so excited! We're getting a very nice glider with an ottoman...cozy! Thanks for reading my ramblings!

Shop 'til you drop

That's what I've been doing! Shopping like crazy! Tuesday I took my sister to lunch, then we shopped for maternity clothes together. We had so much fun! We haven't had a day to ourselves in.....well, I can't remember when. Then I bought some precious baby clothes, which I keep meaning to snap pictures of.

Today, Mom and I shopped for hours! We had such a great day. I found a few new cute things to wear, okay, several. :) We had a fun lunch and just, well, shopped! We were both so exhausted when we got home close to 5:00. My ankles and feet are swollen now and I'm ready for bed. I think that will be most of my shopping for the week. Tomorrow we're going out (to take my granny to get groceries...I promise), but all I need is something for one of my baby quilts. :) Jamin will be glad.

Jamin finally made contact with this job prospect. Things are sounding really great and we're still praying! Hopefully this can all be wrapped up in a few days, then we can set a definite moving date!

I hate reading posts without pictures. :) So in honor of my precious husband, who is away and missed greatly, I am posting a mushy picture of us. Enjoy!

My thoughts on home schooling

Well, my dear hubby has gone, and I'm here with my parents. I'm excited to shop and do some fun stuff this week, but I already feel an ache in my heart. The week will go by fast, I am convincing myself constantly.

I have been thinking about home schooling lately. The three of us (Kristan, Jonathan, and me) started out in Christian school for a few years, and then we were home schooled all the way through to graduation. There were times along the way that I wished I could go to public school. Those kids seemed to have so much fun, so many friends. And we were in a small church where there were very few, if any kids our age. My older sister wanted to go to public school at some point, too. Money was tight. I probably have no idea just how tight. It would have been SO much easier for our parents to send us to public school. Why didn't they? Because they believed in giving us a Christian education. They realized that God had given us to them, and it was their responsibility to raise us for Him! It was their responsibility to protect us from what the world has to offer. They believed it so strongly that they would have moved if the state of Tennessee had out-lawed home schooling. What strong parents! It seems like lately a lot of Christian parents are giving up on Christian education (home school or Christian school). I am so thankful my parents did not give in! One thing we couldn't see when we were young was all the bad things those public school kids had to deal with. We couldn't see all the things our parents were protecting us from. I was saved at a young age and going to public school would not have taken away my salvation. But I would have so many scars and temptations to deal with today had I been exposed to all those things. I have enough to keep under control with my flesh already. I know there are situations when parents have no choice, but it is rare. I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you're home schooling your kids, or you have them in a good Christian school, stick with it. It's worth it! It will help your kids reach their full potential for the Lord, without so many unneeded scars. They will be thankful...we are!

Dad and Mom

Jamin has a similar story. The three of them went through Christian school all the way! Praise the Lord for godly parents!

Dad and Mom Boyer, Jada, us

The week ahead

Well, Jamin and I have decided to do something different this week. We've been talking about letting me stay with my family while he goes to work in VA. So we're going to do it this week. Why is my husband agreeing to this? Maybe it's the mood swings. :) No, not really. We don't need time from each other, I just need some "mom" time, some "sister" time, some "granny" time. Since we're trying to move within just a few weeks, I need to get it in. It's now or never. So I'll be staying here this week. I will miss him terribly. The only time we did this was when Daniel was born (my sister's youngest baby). I came to TN from MI for about 4 or 5 days. I missed him. The good thing about it is that he works pretty long hours right now, so we'll just miss our evenings together. Can you tell I feel terrible? I'm trying to help you all understand why it's ok.

The up-side? I'll be on the internet all week!! Yea! I'm planning on posting a lot. I have a few things to catch up on, a few thoughts I've been thinking on, and lots of baby stuff I've been buying!

Other thoughts: Please pray about a job for Jamin. We have gotten a very good lead and he plans on contacting the company tomorrow.

Wings Over the Big South Fork

Yesterday, we went to a really cool air show in Oneida, TN. It was so much fun and the weather was perfect. So perfect, in fact, that we didn't realize we were all getting scorched. We're all red today but it was worth it. My whole family got to go (but we don't have a family picture...surprise), so it was a lot of fun to be together.

There was a parachuting demonstration. It was so neat, but we couldn't get any good pictures. The plane dropped about 9 jumpers. Then a smaller plane circled the sky with the smokey trail all around them. It was so much fun!

The boys really loved it. Occasionally, Daniel was a little scared of the loud noises.

This pilot was awesome! He did some really crazy stuff!



If you've never been to an air show and you have opportunity to go, let me tell you, "GO!" It's really a lot of fun. And this was a really small-scale show. They didn't even charge admission. I'd really like to see the Blue Angels now! I'm also hoping to use some pictures I got for the baby's room. I think a few of them will crop and enlarge okay, especially sepia or b&w. We also got some shots of propellers and gauges and things like that that will be cute in the room!

Thanks for checking in!

Baby news

Well, since some of you have asked about a name, I'll go ahead and tell you. Even though we thought it was a girl, we were more settled on a boy's name than a girl's. So our baby will be Jackson Lee. Jamin says we are sounding a little Confederate. :) I told him we could call him Jackson Grant to keep it even, but he didn't like that! Lee is Jamin's middle name, and also several others on both sides of the family. We're really pleased with our baby name.

I actually had better nursery plans for a boy too. We're doing airplanes, and I'm planning hard. I'm going to buy fabric today. I decided a long time ago that I wanted to make all the bedding for this baby. I've got it all drawn out, I just hope it comes out the same as it looks on paper. I made some letters for his name. They are wooden letters, about 6-7" high. They have little bits of fabric put on with Mod Podge, and separated with brown yarn. They look pretty good. I'm going to use some of those same fabrics on the crib. I only took a picture of the first four letters. We're not just going to call him Jack.

We're also going to register today. Since we're planning to move in 3-4 weeks, my mom is planning my baby shower for the last Saturday in September. It's a little sooner than most baby showers, but I'm afraid that I won't be able to get down here very easy. Also, if I get a few large things (swing, stroller), they won't fit in my car. So we're just going to do it before we move so we can pack it all in the huge truck when we're moving. Fun, fun, fun!!

Okay, switching gears. The other day I went to work with Jamin for a little while. He usually works with another man, but that day he went on a job by himself. It was a pretty day, so I sat in the truck and finished a book I started a month ago. I liked watching him work. It was sweet to spend the afternoon together. :) He's been working very hard lately, and sometimes very long hours.



One more picture...after church the other night, Jamin was so sweet, telling me I looked beautiful. He wanted to take a picture of me. Even though I was looking very tired, the sweet way he looked at me was priceless. :) Mushy.

Have a great week!

Surprises!

A message from the Boyer baby

I surprised my mommy and daddy this week. Last time I was hiding and they thought I was a girl. Isn't that a funny trick? This time I decided to behave so they could see that I am a little BOY! Mommy and Daddy were laughing so hard. I am growing and getting bigger, right on schedule, and I can't wait for you all to see me in December!

Here's a picture of my parents: