Sleeping boy...

Surprise visit...

Saturday was me and Jeremy's anniversary. His mom had sent us a gift card for Red Lobster, so I figured we'd go to dinner and bring Jakey along. I didn't mind including my son in my anniversary dinner, it's really a testament to me of God's goodness and blessing that I have a son to bring to my anniversary dinner :)  Well, I guess my mother-in-law and my own mother decided that they would drive up on Saturday and watch the baby so me and Jeremy could go to dinner. (I think it was also a good excuse to make a quick trip up) Jeremy knew they were coming, but I really didn't. I had thought maybe my m-i-l was coming, then we received the gift card in the mail and I thought she wasn't coming. I was super-super happy that they came. They told me they were here to babysit and me and Jeremy said "we want you to go to dinner with us" I knew they were going home Sunday, so I wanted to spend as much time as possible with them. They agreed. We dressed Jakob up in his Easter Sunday clothes, (which Gamma brought to him) a dress shirt, vest tie and pants and took him to Walmart to get some pics. It was *very* close to nap time, so he wasn't that cooperative, but we still got a few cute pictures. Next we took our mom's and gave them a little tour of one of the parks and showed them where Jeremy's working and all that. For dinner we went to this little restaurant right down the road from our apartment called The Fruit Jar Cafe. Several people have recommended the place, but every time we go there it's jam packed and there's not even any parking (people are parked on the grass, across the street) so we figured it was pretty good. It is a little Mom and Pop restaurant. They use all fresh ingredients, no jars, cans or anything like that. Good ol' southern cooking. It was sooooo good! Jakob really enjoyed eating Turnip greens, Country fried steak fingers, Corn bread, Mushrooms, and Navy Beans (no, he's not real picky :). Sunday morning Jeremy had to work, he'll be working every weekend till August as the Lake is really busy during the summer. We met our mama's at Cracker Barrell for breakfast and then me and Jakey took the momma's to our new church and they got to sit in on a service and meet the Pastor. We went to lunch and then said our goodbye's. I'm very proud of both mom's because neither one cried when they left. It helps knowing we'll be down there in two weeks (lol) It was a wonderful surprise to see them and get to spend some time with Jakey's grandmas. Looking forward to Wednesday and Thursday- Jeremy's new days off for the summer :)

Lately...

So...

I have tried to sit down and blog a few times, but there's always something that interrupts me, or something that I need to do. Things are going good here in Ga. Yesterday we woke up to some snow. The guys at Jeremy's work said that spring here is 75 degrees one day and snowy the next. That will be a big change from our very limited number of spring days in Fl. We have stayed fairly busy here, but are still missing just being able to go to somebody's house and hang out. This little apartment gets old sometimes, but I am thankful that we have it. We are in a nice area and haven't had any problems with neighbors or anything like that. I look forward to having a house and a yard to escape to one day soon. We haven't had any bites on the house, if you would continue to pray about that I'd appreciate it. We have found a church that we like, and will probably join soon. It's about 15 minutes away from Cartersville, which isn't bad. I have met a few girls through the "mother's room" when Jakob was not interested in staying in the nursery and they're all very nice. The Pastor is a very good teacher, and I look forward to all that I will learn while in the church. Jakob has made it through Sunday school just about every time we've been there. Sunday night he almost made it through a whole service (minus about 5 minutes) so I am hopeful that soon I'll be able to sit in on the services *and* get a break. I am not feeling overwhelmed like I thought I might having no one to babysit, or just take Jake for a little while, but it is nice to be able to sit with Jeremy and know that Jakob is being taken care of and just rest a little while. My baby boy is getting so big. He can now sit himself up from a lying down position. He just pushes himself up on his side and then uses those strong tummy muscles to sit up. He gets on his knees and rocks and I'm just watching him very carefully to see that first crawl, I know it's so close! I have not been sleeping very well, I think that it's just not having a real bed to sleep on (we're on an air mattress) and the baby is more fussy now with teething going on and I just feel so exhausted most of the time. I do thank the Lord though, that he has blessed us with peace on our decision, and helped our transition to go so smoothly in this move. Now if we can just get rid of our house!!! I hope that you are all doing well. Please continue to pray for Jill. I know that God has a plan in her life, and I thank him for being with her when we can't. I ordered a special present for Dana, I will have to put a pic up here, but then I will have to ban her from the blog(!) lol. I am so excited for her that baby Noah will be here soon. Well, that is about all that I can think of to write. 

My love to you all...

-Me

Seven month pic...

Yep, that's right, he's seven months old! Where is the time going? I surely do thank the Lord for this precious baby boy. I couldn't have asked for more.

Why are we here?...

So I met somebody who has had a loooong battle with infertility. They are dealing with the same issues that Jeremy and I have dealt with. Only this person has been dealing with it for 20 years now... You'll never guess who it is. My realtor!!! Can you believe it? We just happened upon Tina because the Century 21 people were "out to lunch" at 10:00 in the morning. It just so happened that she is a christian and a really cool person. I noticed that she didn't go gaga over Jakob like everyone else in the office, but that's o.k. little babies are not some peoples thing. I also saw pictures of kids all over her office, and assumed she had some. When we were driving around on Saturday she was asking me how long I plan on breastfeeding and I told her that I've learned through my IVF and then difficult delivery that I don't need to make plans, I kinda just go with the flow. She then opened up to us and told us that she's so glad to meet an IVF baby and that her and her hubby have been dealing with male factor IF for a long time. She said she was going to start IVF a while ago, then her mother got cancer and died and she got very discouraged and gave up. She says now she's too old (40) to do IVF. I told Tina my philosophy, which is if God hasn't taken away that desire for a child then I believe he will fulfill that desire. (whether it's through IVF or adoption) I could tell a *huge* change in her from the time she found out about us. She actually talked to Jakob and held him, I felt a pain in my heart for her, not only because of what she's been through, but also because I know that we brought some of those feelings back to her heart. This is why I talk about my IVF. Tina may have felt heartache when she saw a young couple with a cute little baby, remembered the tears and the emotions IF brings...never dreaming that we're in the same boat. Please remember Tina in your prayers, that God will move in her life and show her what choices she should make. I saw a whole different person an encouraged person when we left on Saturday. I am excited to see what happens next...

Helping the laundry dry...

Playing on the porch on the first nice sunny day Jakob attempting to feed himself It seems at though since we've moved Jakob needs his mommy so much more. Maybe it's just the phase he's in hitting 6 months and becoming more needy. He will be perfectly fine if I'm out of the room and he's with daddy until he sees me and then he gets fussy and complains till I pick him up or mess with him. It makes doing household chores a little harder because sometimes I must do them with him on my hip. I'm not complaining, but I am pretty exhausted and don't find much energy for blogging right now. We have had a couple of absolutely gorgeous days here in Cartersville. The temp was around 67-70 and there was a slight breeze. Me and Jakob sat on the porch and enjoyed the sunshine. The nice thing about living less than 10 minutes from Jeremy's work is that he can come home and we can load Jakob up and take him to the park and have a few hours of daylight to have fun with our boy. We went to a park on Alatoona (lake) and I wish I would have had my camera with me. The river is flowing right past the park (for mom and whoever else is familiar with Niceville this park is like Rocky Bayou only on a river not a bay) The flowing river is gorgeous and so peaceful. We threw rocks in the river for a while, then we went to the playground and let Jakob slide down the slides and play on the playground. Yes, we still have to hold onto him on the slide. My heavy little guy goes way to fast to let him slide on his own. :) Yesterday and today have consisted of rain...and lots of it. Yesterday I had to go out and take Jakob to the doctor. The address that was in my brand new 2010-2011 phone book was not the actual address of the clinic, so I drove around for a while yesterday before finding out where I actually had to go. Thankfully they still saw Jake even though we were 30 minutes late for his appointment. Sitting in the waiting room trying to fill out new patient paperwork I felt so overwhelmed. My nerves were already on edge because I had been driving around trying to find this place, then Jakob wants to touch everything. He kept grabbing the pen I was writing with, when I took that away he'd grab the chain holding the pen. Finally I sat him on his bottom on the floor and then he gets onto his stomach and wants to roll around which is a definite no-no in the doctors office! The doctor said Jakob's ears look great. There's no sign of infection, no fluid left on his ears. Today she did have to call me in some niastatin(sp?) because I have been giving him yogurt and keeping desitin on his bottom but today it was so raw and inflamed and he just screamed in pain when I had to change him. It is rainy again today but with Jakob not feeling well I'm o.k. with just staying in and hanging out. Well, I hear my little prince calling me. He's been helping me do laundry today, so now it's time for some folding (or unfolding for Jake:) I hope you're all doing well. Love, -Me

The latest...

O.k., Jakob is over by the sliding door playing with the blinds (his favorite toys) so I will write a post very quickly. We haven't heard from Phil (our realtor in FL) yet. We will probably call him on Wednesday and ask him if anyone's looked at the house. He is gonna get sick of us calling, but we really do want to know what's going on with the house. We're supposed to go out all day Saturday and look at houses with Tina (our realtor here in GA). There's a really cool science museum here in Cartersville that we want to go to, and I think I'd rather do that than go look at houses at this point, but I guess we should be prepared in case our house sold quickly. I'd rather just put off the house looking until we have a bite on our house in FL. We'll see how Jakob does with a day full of house hunting. We could really use some prayers for our church hunting. I knew that this part of the world was the "Bible Belt" but wow(!) there are probably 60 churches just here in Cartersville. We found one we liked last night, but then after the service talking to the Pastor there's a lot of issues going on and I don't think we will be joining it. It's not just finding a church, it's finding the church that the Lord wants us to serve him at. It's so much harder than I thought it would be. I know God has one for us though, so we will keep looking. Jakob has a doctors appointment on Wednesday for a follow up with his ear infection. I am hoping that the infection is gone. I wonder sometimes because every now and then he will pull on his ear. He also has a really bad rash on his bottom from the anti-biotics, so I'm hoping that he is over the infection. I was going to call the doctor and ask to get him in today, because last night when I changed his diaper he just screamed and screamed. He isn't fussy any longer during the day, but he does cry and shake when I change his diaper, so I know it's hurting him. This morning when I changed him he was still red, but he didn't scream and he looked like he was getting better, so I decided to wait till Wednesday to take him in. Jeremy is liking his new job. I think he really would rather be at Eglin, but he has started getting to work now (instead of just filling out paperwork) so he is liking being busy. We are really liking the area here. It is very pretty and there is so much at your fingertips. A girl last night at Cracker Barrell was complaining that there's nothing to do around here and I told her about Crestview and said this is 100 times better than there. I don't understand how Atlanta can be 30-40 minutes away and people think there's nothing to do here. I have come to find that most people I meet don't really leave there town (ever) they are totally shocked to find that you live in Cartersville and are in their town 20 minutes away. To us we're used to having to drive 20-30 minutes just to go grocery shopping so it's no big deal. Well, that's about all that's going on right now. I am still looking forward to the day when we have a yard and me and Jakob can just go out our back door and lay in the grass :). Once I get him over his ear infection we're gonna go find a nice park to hang out at. The weather is soooo nice in the afternoon! Hope you all have a great week! Oh, and please remember to pray for Jill. She is in so much pain and very scared, which all of us would be in her situation. In specific pray that she does not have cancer anywhere in her body, and that the doctors will be able to figure out what's causing her bones to break like they are. I feel so bad because there's nothing I can do to help her feel better -emotionally or physically- but I know that the best thing I can do is beg God who is in control of all of this to help her and strengthen her and comfort her.

PTL!!!!

Can I just say YAY!!!! I paid off my son today! Nobody can come and reposess him now (lol). I thank the Lord that he made it possible for us to do the IVF. Looking at things on paper we would have said there's no way we could afford it, but the Lord provided and we give him all the glory. If God is leading you to do something go ahead and trust and do what he's telling you. He will make a way.

House number two pics...

Second great room and pantry First great room with wood burning fireplace Kitchen Back of house Another view of house

House number two...

House number two is older but it's "antique" looking on the inside. The plusses are that it is huge(!!!) It has two great rooms, the kitchen is totally new with really nice cabinets and ceramic tile. The minuses are that it has carpet through alot of the house and it really needs to be replaced. The realtor said "oh you can just throw a rug on that for now" but I'm gonna have a little man crawling around on the carpet and he eats everything and the carpet is really gross. This whole house would need to be painted on the inside, it needs alot more work than house number one. If we had to choose right now we'd choose number one, but we're keeping this one in mind for the future. With us waiting on our house to sell these both may sell before that. (My mountain house has sold already) We're just praying because if it's God's will for us to get a house he will work it out.

House number one pics...

The great room with fireplace The backyard (behind the fence I guess)

House hunting...

Well, I went out with the realtor yesterday and saw a few houses. I can usually tell pretty fast if I'm gonna like a house or not. This house is one we saw yesterday. I will post more pictures of the inside after this post. I did not actually care for this house too much when I first saw it. Mainly because the kitchen is very outdated and it is in a very expensive neighborhood, so it needs a few upgrades and even at a reduced price is still on the higher side of our price range. The countertops are OLD and really ugly and the master bathroom is pink and cream (eeew!) but it has over a half acre of land and it has a big pond right behind it. The backyard is fenced which is good. When Jeremy saw the house he really liked it, and once I went in it a second time (Jeremy got off work and met us there) I saw that it didn't need as much work as I had originally thought. This is a huge house and it is in a very pretty location. We'll see what happens. We've got to sell our house first (please pray!) If we could sell our house we'd definitely be interested in this one.

First post as a Georgian...lol

O.k. y'all. I've tried to post pictures from most of the big events that have happened in the last few weeks. Can you tell I've had a little bit of blogger withdrawls? Jakob would do something cute and I'd want so badly to post it, but had no internet, or no time! Glad my good friend is back. Home doesn't seem quite so far away when I can view Facebook. :) We are now residing in Cartersville. Leaving home was soooo much harder than I thought it would be. I actually did really well until the day we left. I think we were so busy running around trying to get the house ready and make sure we had everything we needed I didn't have time to think about actually leaving. Yes, I did cry off and on the whole way to Georgia. When I walked into the apartment and saw all the boxes and stuff piled around the living room I cried again. I felt so totally overwhelmed. Didn't I just do all this packing??? And now I have to unpack again. (please forgive my whining, but I am being real here) The first couple of days this place seemed more like a hotel than a home. It just felt generic, like you should be here a couple weeks and then leave. Not knowing when we'll be able to leave made it a little harder to be here I think. I don't have anything against apartments, but it's hard to go from a house back down to an apartment. Not to mention most of our belongings are in storage, so we have to make due with what we have for now. We've had to make a couple trips to Wal-mart for things that you just cannot do without. (broom, soap, microwave) I have had to get used to hearing footsteps overhead all night long, I think our upstairs neighbor works swings or something, they just get to moving around about 6 or 7 o'clock at night. Our poor neighbors have heard their share of Jakob screaming which we found out today was because of his ear infection. In my own house we would only worry about the baby, not about whether our neighbors will turn us in for being noisy all night long. The second day here I cried all day long. I just couldn't get a hold of myself. Every thought of home, or family, or friends just made me cry all over again. I wanted to go back. I hated the fact that we took Jakob away from his grandparents and aunts. Family is the most important thing to me. It's funny how you don't appreciate things until they're gone. I miss my cute little house. I miss the ability to hop in the car whenever I feel like it and go see my mom. -I know this post is soooo depressing right?- It wasn't until the second day when me and Jeremy sat down and talked that I got a change of perspective. While I sat and grieved, and I was sad, I didn't stop to think that maybe Jeremy was sad too. I just figured he's a guy and guys aren't that attached to many things and he's just fine. Well, he wasn't. He missed home too. He wondered if we did the right thing bringing Jakob here away from grandparents and aunts and church family. On top of that he is still dealing with the fact that he had to leave a job he loved because his "friends" (his bosses at Jackson Guard) didn't see him as important enough to keep. Of course in men these things don't manifest themselves in uncontrolable fits of tears, but I saw that we were both feeling the same way. We agreed that the time will come when we can go home again, but for now we are gonna experience some new things in life, and we will adjust and be o.k. From that time till now I've been alot better. I have almost broken down once or twice...when Jakob's been so unhappy and fussy I wished I had someone to help me out and let me take a nap (spoiled, i know) When we visited our first church we got to talking about home and our little house and I started to cry, but quickly dried the tears and moved on. I think my sister is right when she told me that you find out you're much stronger than you ever thought you were through things like this. I'm trying to lean on God and trust him to make me strong and grow me through this situation. If you are a military kid, or just like to move you probably think i'm a baby, but this is major stuff for me. I swore I'd never leave Florida. Things are looking up for me. The past couple of days I've been to town shopping and today running Jakob to the doctor and to the pharmacy. Knowing that my baby will be feeling better soon helps me feel encouraged, as well as knowing sleep is in my future :) We're gonna enjoy living here in Georgia, and I'm already learning valuable lessons that I will keep with me no matter where I go. Love you all and will try to blog about my "house hunting " experiences on Wednesday!

Teething biscuits...needs no explanation :)

Six months old...

So this is what our monthly pictures now consist of... Jakob sees the paper and wants to hold it and bite it, so mommy has to keep taking it away from him and trying again and again to get a picture that will go in his baby book. He is a busy little boy. I love him so much and thank the Lord that six months ago Jakob entered my world.

more pictures...

Can't forget to pack our baby boy!!! (he loved sitting in the packing boxes) Jakob playing with his buddy Benjamin More Jakey and Benjamin Me and Jaylene with our miracle babies... God is good ! I'm so glad that we got to experience pregnancy and mommyhood together

Pictures...

Jakey sleeping with Nana Little Angel baby... Rode in the grocery cart like a big boy on his six month birthday :) Taking a little nap with Aunt Kara on the swing grocery shopping will wear you out!