Have I ever mentioned how good Jakob is at sharing??? He's such a sweet boy to share his germs with mommy and daddy. Now we're all battling the sore throat, runny nose basic cold. The funny part is Jakob is doing the best because he's been on meds since Wednesday. I'm a little better because I've been taking stuff since Thursday and actually got to sleep last night. Jeremy asked me for medicine yesterday. He never likes to take medicine, which means he's feeling pretty bad too. Hopefully we'll all be feeling much better by Tuesday...that's when we head out to St. Augustine! 

takin' it easy and watching Nemo

I have one sick little boy on my hands. It started yesterday when he woke up with a nasty grayish yellow runny nose. Last night it was pathetically sad as he tried to eat dinner but would just gasp and choke because he's trying to chew yet needing to breathe from his mouth because of all the junk in his nose. (he didn't let that stop him from scarfing down the yummy cake daddy brought home from work though!) Mommy was just glad he ate something :) We started benadryl last night, along with saline and frequent nose cleanings. I'm seriously considering breaking out the colloidal silver though (esp. with all the snot coming from my child's head!). I think Jakob is scared to come to me now when I call him. I'm trying to call him over to hug him more frequently so he doesn't think the only time I call is when I want to pin him down and suck out his nose. This is the time when being a mommy gets real. When the worry kicks in (I'm not worried yet, just cautious) and you just have to go into nurture mode. Rules don't matter as much. If the child will mostly just eat cake for dinner it's o.k.  I will not feel guilty about him watching cartoons for most of the day. He needs rest. We will try chicken noodle soup for lunch, but I don't know if he'll like it because it will be difficult for "mr. independent" (a.k.a. Jakob Randall Preston) to eat by himself. Maybe I'll put the broth in his cup and let him eat the noodles by hand (?) Thankfully up to this point we've not had a really bad respiratory sickness. Hoping to keep it that way! 

Well, we have someone moving in to our house this weekend. We found out about a couple weeks ago that someone wanted to rent it, but I've been so nervous that he might change his mind that I have been trying not to think about it. It will be such an answer to prayer to not have the mortgage payment anymore!!! Not to mention an electric bill for Florida in summertime! We are very thankful, but still trying not to relax too much until papers are signed. 

Jakob fell off my bed last night. I was playing with him on the bed and he crawled away from me and when he sat up he sat right on the edge of the bed and slid right off backwards. It happened so fast that I couldn't even think about grabbing him. He hit his head really hard on the floor, it sounded like you dropped a watermelon on the concrete. I felt so bad. I was really scared to put him to bed. We dug his monitor out of the garage and put it up so that if he cried we would for sure hear him. That's one thing about this new house, the master bedroom is on one side of the house and the other bedrooms and the hallway are on the other. I still worry alot that if he ever gets sick I won't hear him crying or calling for me. I guess I will just leave the monitor up until he gets big enough to get out of bed on his own. Thankfully this morning he woke up happy and looks fine. I have to brag on Jakey for just a minute. He is such a good baby. We have drug him all over the southeast the last 8 months and he has done so well. Every nursery worker in the churches we've visited down here tells me how sweet he is and how good he is. That makes me so proud as a mama that people brag on him and think he's sweet. It is also comforting to know that he is adjusting to this new place so well. I just love my baby boy! 

I found out today that Jeremy has to go to St. Augustine for a couple days next week (for work) and me and Jakob are gonna go with him. Me and Jakey will hang out on the beach and explore the town while Jeremy's in meetings. Yet another time I am super thankful for my garmin :)

We have a low tonight of 71...SEVENTY ONE!!!! This is not even right. I am seriously hoping we get some cool weather when we go home for Thanksgiving. That may be the only time this winter that Jakob gets to wear his warm clothes

1 Corinthians 13

 ¹Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

 ²And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

 ³And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

 ⁴Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

 ⁵Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

 ⁶Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

 ⁷Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

 ⁸Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

 ⁹For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

 ¹⁰But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

 ¹¹When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

 ¹²For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

 ¹³And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

I know we've all read this passage in the Bible. I know we all believe we should love our neighbor. This passage explains what kind of love that should be. Being kind, not envying someone when they are blessed and we are not, not being easily provoked to anger, not thinking evil of anyone. Not being proud or boastful, enduring through everything with someone. When I heard these words read last night I felt really convicted. Yes, many times we say we "love" someone, but is it a biblical love? Do we go out of our way to love someone who may not be so easy to love? Biblical love is hard, it goes against everything my flesh wants to do. Biblical love is not something that we can manufacture on our own. The presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and being sensitive to his leading is the only way we can truly love anyone. So many times in my life I get too busy, or too frazzled or too comfortable to really go out of my way to love someone. I am glad to be reminded that faith, hope and love abide in every saved person. My desire is that the love of Christ will be evident to everyone I meet, not just those who attend church with me or those who know I'm a christian

I guess most of you have already heard, but Jakob is very excited to get a new cousin...even if she is a girl :)

I don't know if any of you think like I do, but if I let my mind wander I will worry over everything. It seems like every magazine you read, every online news article, everywhere you look somebody's telling you that if you don't do so and so or if you eat this or that or if you don't eat this or that something bad is gonna happen. I worry about finding the right church, I worry about what will happen if our house doesn't rent, I worry about when the right time to get pregnant again might be. I worry about whether that pregnancy would even happen, and would the aftermath be as bad as the last time. Worry Worry Worry!!! Thankfully I heard a man speaking on the radio today...don't remember his name, don't even really remember the whole sermon, I just remember him saying God is good. When circumstances are bad, God is still good. It's not what happens to me that makes God good. Goodness is in him, he is goodness. I am thankful today that even though I have a lot of uncertainties in my life, and even though there is the possibility of countless bad things that could happen to me I know that God is here with me. I know that God will be here for me when the hard times come, and he will help me through them. I am thankful that I can rest in God and his plan for me. He's in control and that is enough to give me peace no matter what the future holds 

Jakob's first artwork...

Yes, he did it. Jakob pulled a box of pictures off of my nightstand (they were sitting there to remind me to buy frames for some of them) and grabbed a pen off of the same night stand. The pen was the push button kind, and I'm fairly certain it was not open when he got it off my stand. I am very thankful he didn't scribble on his baby pictures, we have more of these. I sent Jeremy a picture of this at work and he thought it was hilarious. This child is smart. I am going to date the picture so we remember his first artwork :p

New House

He threw his stick in the ditch so he could go down and get it, I didn't let him because I'm scared of what's in that pipe!

view from the front of the house...yes, there is one house there in the right corner

view from the back of the house...nuthin'

Here's a pic of the new house. Every house in this area looks just like this. Maybe a little bigger, maybe a little smaller, but this is the style. I do have to say that I really enjoy having a one story house again. With a small child who is not totally steady walking, and who is a little top heavy thanks to a big noggin' (every little kid has a big head!!! They grow into them : p ) we were constantly worried about Jakob and the stairs. He would stand up right on the edge of a step every time, and your heart would stop but you couldn't rush to him because you might startle him and he'd fall backwards down the stairs. Jakey loves running from room to room (minus my bedroom where the door is shut!). His toys are in every room in the house, I think he's marking his territory. Lately he's found out that you put things in cabinets. He'll walk by my hutch and open the cabinet door and stick his sippy cup in there. Every night at dinner I have to go hunting for his cup and it's always like a seek and find. I find toys and books in the kitchen cabinets. As you can see from the pictures we are once again living in the middle of nowhere. There are probably 5 houses in our "neighborhood" There are just so many subdivisions that started out here and when the economy went bad they just left them. In a way I like it. This morning the wind was blowing and the weather was awesome and me and Jakob went outside. I worry though that if I ever have an emergency we don't really have neighbors  and Jeremy works a half hour away. Jakob learned to walk down a hill while we were still in Georgia. He thinks it is so much fun. One downside to being out in the boonies is people drive way too fast. We don't get many cars down our street, but when they come they come fast. We are trying to teach Jakey not to go in the road for any reason. He will walk down to the very edge of the driveway and point his toe and touch the road with his toe. It is hilarious that he thinks that much, but he still gets in trouble. I just think what if someone comes speeding down that road and he's so close, he might fall and get run over. Another thing mr. smarty pants will do is if you tell him not to go somewhere, like out the front door he will grab anything that's nearby and throw it out the front door, so then he has to go and get it. I think we don't give babies enough credit. They are little tiny geniuses!!! We just need to help them get the genius going in the right direction. Well, I've got a bedroom to unpack still. I keep procrastinating, but I know I'll enjoy it when I finally get it done 

Some video's for the grandmas...

It was pretty windy outside, so you will want to turn your sound down on your computer

Moving day...

The look of joy on Jakob's face can only be rivaled by the look of terror on Jeremy's face...lol

Hello from Florida, the land of giant bugs!!! I have seen more giant spiders than I care to see this last week. If you know Jeremy and his love for spiders (sarcasm) you would know how much he enjoys that part of Florida too. The other night we were on the back porch and Jakob picked up a huge dead spider and I saw him and told him to take it to daddy...Jeremy almost trampled the baby trying to get away from it. (lol) We made the trip from Georgia to Florida fairly easily. Jakob did awesome on the trip down. When we arrived in our new town Jakob had finally had enough (after 12 hours of driving) and he started to fuss and cry. Other than that he was an angel. It did take us longer than it was supposed to to get here just because we would stop for meals and we stopped a couple times just to let Jakob get out of the car and walk around for a little while. My little man is growing up so fast. Jeremy and I have decided that we like the age of 1 the best so far!!! 

Some new things our little guy is doing:

•   at dinner night before last he kept saying nanna sssssllll, nanna sssssllll                                                I finally realized he was asking for banana and saying please at the top of his lungs. I went and got him a banana and he was happy and ate the rest of his dinner. The boy knows what he likes :) 

•  he intently watched Aladdin the other night with his dad                                                                  He's seen it before, but this was the first time he really paid attention. When they sang "A whole new world" he started spinning in circles dancing. He loves to spin in circles                                                 
• he loved having his grandpa here for a few days                                                                         Jeremy's dad drove all the way down here with us and helped Jeremy load and unload the moving truck. Jakob wanted nothing to do with me, he just wanted to follow puppa and daddy around all day long.

 Here's a bad parenting story...A couple days ago we were busy unpacking boxes. We still haven't totally gotten the hang of checking on Jakob if he's quiet. Jeremy left to go to the store and I grabbed Jakob and laid him down for a nap. In the kitchen on the tile there looked like some blood on the floor. It was maroonish in color, so I thought maybe Jakob had some grapes on his clothes or hands and got it on the floor. I went to my bathroom and on the floor was some more maroonish stuff. I looked over and the garbage can was tipped over. Laying right next to it was a razor that one of us had thrown away. Things finally clicked in my mind and I realized Jakob cut himself with the razor and was bleeding all throughout the house. He never cried. When he got up from his nap there was blood all over his crib sheet. He had cut a chunk out of his thumb. I felt like a horrible mother. We have to keep our bedroom door shut!!!

Our new house if very nice. When I finally get everything put away I will post some pics. It has a screened in porch in the back which is good to have here in the swamp and Jakob really likes it. Jeremy loves his new job. There aren't even words to describe to you how happy he is. As for me, I can't really explain what I'm feeling right now. I guess the only way to describe it is tired. Making friendships and building relationships is hard. I feel like I put so much effort into the relationships we just left that I really don't have the energy to do it again. I know that we will get back into the swing of things and it will be my new normal, I've just got to be patient. I will write more later

I know, I'm being a really bad blogger. We have been packing and packing. Almost done. The only thing that's really left is cramming soaps and shampoos and toothbrushes etc. into the boxes right before we leave. I have been cleaning along behind the packing, so once the furniture is moved I need to vacuum, sweep and mop and we'll be good to go. We took a break last night to watch the gators play ( I'll never get those 3 hours back!!! lol) and this afternoon we've been back to packing. People at church keep telling us how much they'll miss us and especially the nursery workers telling me how much they'll miss Jakob :) and making me almost cry. I know, I'm too sentimental sometimes. Once I get down there and settled in a bit I am going to write a few things that I've learned at HBC. I don't know why we were sent up here, but I know that if nothing else this church has helped us in some ways that will affect the rest of our lives. We are packing up the computer tomorrow night and getting it loaded up, so it may be a few days (or even a week or so) before we get back online. I hope you all have a great week! Thank you all for the support and prayers. If anybody feels like taking a trip to S. Florida you are welcome at my house and we will have plenty of room. We'll be about 3 hours from Disney, Sea World, all that stuff and only a few hours from the Keys. I don't know what there is to do there yet, but I'm sure we can find something. Southwest (which is the cheapest airline, I think) flies down there and I'll pick you up!!! :) I'm being serious...just give me a couple weeks to unpack because then you can come and eat real food off real plates instead of the icky stuff we've been eating. Love you all ! <3.