Well, I just realized that I still haven’t posted an update on Stephen’s job situation. . .

He has a job. We are so thankful! He did a little bit of temp work last week, and started full time this week doing some construction work at a plant he’s worked at before. We are thankful for this job.

Then this morning at 7am, the phone rang. It was our preacher calling Stephen to ask him about this morning’s interview. I had no clue what he was talking about! Stephen had been talking to a man from our church on Wednesday night about a place that he knew was hiring, but that was the last thing I had heard. Well, this man had arranged for an interview for Stephen and Preacher was calling about it. I called and left a message on Stephen’s cell phone and told him to call Preacher about it since he knew more about the interview than I did.

The thing is, even though Stephen only works three hours this morning (they’re doing plant inventory and they send the new-hire employees home for it), the interview is scheduled for thirty minutes before he gets off work today. That should be interesting. Stephen finally called me back and said that he’s going to try and see if he can reschedule the interview because there’s no way he can get out of work early enough to make it on time.

So, once again, we shall see. We are grateful that God provided Stephen for a job in the first place, but all this talk of other jobs just blows me away. I’m not sure how things are going to go, but it sure is neat to sit back and watch!

The new job would be SO close to the house too. . .oh my. . .it would be so nice. . .

I found this wedding meme over at Susan’s blog and thought I’d do it here.

1. Where/How did you meet? We met at PCC in a voice class we were both required to take. Stephen needed a pianist, and I “happened” to be one.

2. How long have you known each other? 7 years

3. How long after you met did you start dating? 3 months

4. How long did you date before you were engaged? A year and twenty days – we were engaged on Christmas Day

5. How long was your engagement? Eight months

6. How long have you been married? Our 6th anniversary is this summer

7. What is your anniversary? August 4th

8. How many people came to your wedding reception? About 150, I think

9. What kind of cake did you serve? The layers were different flavors. Most of it was chocolate, but there was a vanilla layer. Buttercream icing.

10. Where was your wedding? First Baptist Church of Middleville, MI

11. What did you serve for your meal? We had mostly munchies and finger foods. Nothing heavy.

12. How many people were in your wedding party? 4 groomsmen and 4 bridesmaids.

13. Are you still friends with them all? Yes. Some were family, so we still see them. One bridesmaid I’ve lost touch with, and the other couple we see occasionally.

14. Did your spouse cry during the ceremony? Yes

15. Most special moment of your wedding day? I’m not sure. My dad took me out to eat that morning for one last father-daughter time. With Stephen – seeing the look on his face when he saw me enter the sanctuary.

16.Any funny moments? I can think of two. During the ceremony, when the pastor asked if anyone objected to our marriage, Stephen’s dad was teasing us and was threatening to object (he’s a big tease, and he was the Best Man, so he knew I could see what he was doing). I was mortified then, but it’s funny now. You can even see it on video if you know what to look for. Then after the reception, my brother gathered all the confetti off the tables to throw at me instead of blowing bubbles like everyone else.

17. Any big disasters? At the wedding – I had pre-recorded one of the songs for my brother to sing, but it had gotten deleted, so the pianist went to play it, but it was way too low for him to sing. She couldn’t hear that he wasn’t singing, so she played the entire song. After we left for our honeymoon, my brother and the pianist re-recorded the song and dubbed it over the wedding video, and you can’t even tell it happened.

Then when we got to the bed and breakfast for our first night, the owners weren’t there and our room was locked! We waited for an hour in the hot August sun before another guest at the B&B arrived and went through and unlocked our room for us. The owners thought that we wouldn’t be there until late that night like other couples, so they weren’t prepared for us to arrive at 5pm!

18. Where did you go on your honeymoon? Union Hill Inn Bed & Breakfast for our first night, and then we spent two days at my family’s hunting cabin in northern Michigan. Then we took the drive to SC where we’d be living and split the drive into two days

19. How long were you gone? Depends on how you look at it. Three days and we were back at my parents’ house (we stayed there for one night before we left for SC), but we didn’t arrive in SC for two more days, so just shy of a week.

20. If you were to do your wedding over, what would you change? I would let other people help me prepare and I’d do things simpler. I made all the decorations myself and stressed out about it more than I needed to. It was beautiful, but I could’ve done things a lot simpler.

21. What side of the bed do you sleep on? Right.

22. What size is your bed? Double

23. Greatest strength as a couple? We have a very solid marriage and I’m very thankful for that!

24. Greatest challenge as a couple? Infertility, hands down. It was the hardest thing we have ever had to deal with (harder even than the financial struggles we’ve dealt with), but it was also the one thing that ultimately brought me to accept Christ as my personal Savior. You can read my testimony here.

25. Who literally pays the bills? Me

26. What is your song? If I had to pick, it’d probably be Valentine by Martina McBride. We don’t listen to country music anymore, but that was one of our favorites.

27. What did you dance your first dance to? We don’t dance

28. Describe your wedding dress: I’ll do like Susan did and just show you. None of our wedding pictures are digital, so I had to take a picture of the picture on our wall. :O)

29. What kind of flowers did you have at your wedding? White and yellow daisies with red roses.

30. Are your wedding bands engraved? Stephen’s is. It says Answered Prayer and has our wedding date. Mine is too narrow for anything to be engraved on it.

Long before I even met Stephen, I had written a song that I wanted played at my wedding, but I never finished it. After we knew we were getting married, I finished writing the song. For our wedding, I orchestrated it and recorded it on the church’s digital piano, and that’s the song I walked down the aisle to. It’s called You Are My Answered Prayer.

31. How old were you when you got married? Stephen was 22 and I was 21.

My little guy has grown more, and I found myself looking for new clothes for him for the summer. When we were in IN we were set – he had an entire drawer full of long sleeved shirts. Then we moved here, and I had forgotten just how warm it gets this early in the year. When I looked at the number of short sleeved shirts he had (three), I started praying.

Yesterday I answered a freecycle posting about boys’ clothes. She emailed me back and we picked them up on the way home from church this morning.

There were enough shirts in the bag to completely outfit Little man for the rest of the summer. There was even a polo shirt and an undershirt – both of which he also needed.

It was a total blessing to see how God provided for our clothing needs again!

It amazes me how you can be gone for one evening and then part of the next day, and yet still feel like you’ve been gone for forever!

This weekend was the annual ladies’ meeting at Bright Light Baptist Church in Concord, NC. Several ladies from our church went. Every year I have gone it has been wonderful, and this year was no exception. It was so refreshing. When we first started making plans to move, I wondered if we would be back in time for me to go to the meeting. I was thrilled to find out that I’d be able to go.

Our pastor’s wife was one of the key speakers, and she has such a talent for public speaking. She spoke about having the “perfect” husband and how we can strive to be the perfect wife. She also warned us against the “It’s all about me and MY wedding day” mindset and how we often planned for the wedding day itself with little thought for the marriage. It was a great reminder of the wonderful husband that I have, but also gave me food for thought about how I can be a better wife.

One little thing about the meeting that brought a smile to my face was the goodie bags. Every year they pass out some sort of goodie – one year it was a neckbone travel pillow, another year it was a cd, and this year, it was Willow Tree Angel figurines (because the theme was “Heaven Sent”). I’ve been slowly collecting the figurines, and I was absolutely thrilled to receive one that I didn’t already have. Then two ladies from our church gave me their figurines. . .so I came home with three instead of one. It just makes me smile.

Every year I look forward to going to this ladies’ meeting. . .and I am already looking forward to going to the 2008 meeting.

Yesterday was so beautiful! Here in the Carolinas it’s easy to tell that spring begins tomorrow. The weather has been so wonderful. Today it’s supposed to reach the mid-seventies. . .I am just loving opening our windows and being able to enjoy being outside.

All three of us spent some time outside yesterday afternoon working in our yard. Stephen began tilling the garden, I decided to tackle our daylily bed, and Little man – he just rode his tractor around and generally tried to “help” both of us. It was a blast.

When he started tilling, Stephen discovered that even though the garden had not been touched in a year, the ground was still really soft and easy to till. He had initially been concerned with getting the ground tilled and ready to plant with his new work schedule. We usually like to plant right about this time of year – so he wasn’t wanting to waste any time. I had mentioned using the tiller myself to help him out, but up until recently he hasn’t let me. Since the ground was so soft, he showed me how to use it. I was surprised at how easy it was to till, though I’m sure the fact that the ground was still damp from last week’s rain was a major factor.

I’m really looking forward to seeing our flower gardens this year. The daylily bed looked like it had not been touched in the entire year we were gone, so I spent an hour or so weeding it and raking out the dead leaves. It should be packed with color this year, because even last year it was ready to divide. I imagine we’ll divide them this fall when everything is done blooming. I’ve been looking forward to dividing them because of all the new plants we’ll have to plant somewhere else.

The iris garden looks really good so far too. I planted it too late in the season two years ago, so it didn’t bloom that year. Then we were gone this past year. . .so I am anxious to see how they look in bloom. All the plants in that bed were given to us – some from a fantastic freecycle find and some from a friend who was dividing hers – so I have no idea what colors are in there. I love irises and hopefully it will be beautiful this year.

We also discovered what great neighbors we have. Several days ago, I was looking through the hibiscus bed (it’s around our porch) for the plants. They’ve grown huge over the years, and they are my absolute favorite flower that we grow. I started them from these seeds and they have just done phenomenally. There were a few gaps around the porch, where some of the plants I originally set out hadn’t survived, so I was checking where they were so I could see where to put new ones. I couldn’t find some of the plants, but I just figured that they had been trimmed back really close to the ground. I was wrong.

The neighbor lady came over yesterday to tell us that she had come and dug some of them up while we were gone. Our tenant had cut some of them back so far that our neighbor was afraid that it would kill the plants, so she dug them up for us and took them home to keep them safe until we returned. I thought that was very sweet of her to do that for us. So while it will be more work to put them back into the ground, at least we can space them out a little better this time. There were enough plants that I figure I’ll let the neighbor lady keep one or two of them – she loves them and that’ll be a way to say, “Thank you” for taking care of them while we were gone. . .Then hopefully we’ll get more seeds and can plant them too. . .

This one is my favorite – she’s so gentle and even-tempered.

I’ve nick-named this one Grumpy because she’s such a fighter. She’s not vicious, just not as gentle as the black and white one.

. . .bringing baby bunnies home from the flea market! We got two rabbits today and they are absolutely precious. We’ve been talking about raising rabbits, so when we were at the flea market today and saw that the price was right, we bought two of them. Little man alternates between calling them “wabbits” and “babbits.” It’s funny. When we put him down for a nap today, he asked us if he could keep the “babbits” in his room. Um, no, I don’t think so!

We also got our chickens today. That was really our reason for going in the first place. The price of the birds has gone up, so we ended up spending a little bit more than we had planned, but that’s ok. We got three hens and a rooster. We had discussed getting chicks and raising them ourselves, but we really miss homegrown eggs, so we bought adult birds to start with. That way we can have eggs right away, instead of waiting the five months (Stephen just corrected me – 21 weeks) until the chicks are old enough to lay. Our local farmer’s store sells chicks, so we’ll probably order some Rhode Island Reds through them, depending on their price.

We also had a long talk on the way home about going organic and raising our animals and garden organic. Even though we haven’t been able to have a garden or animals, we’ve still been studying. The way we did things before was nearly organic, so there aren’t a lot of changes we’ll need to make. The more we study it out, the more we’re convinced that it’s healthier and the way to go. It should be an adventure!

I’ll post pictures later. . .

We’ve been trying to teach Little man to say “please” and “thank you.” Tonight when I gave him a glass of milk, he said, “Please” before I handed it to him, and, “Thank you” after. I tousled his hair and walked back to the kitchen.

“Mommy, welcome!”

He wasn’t trying to tell me, “You’re welcome” – he was reminding me I had forgotten to say it!

I guess he has a better grasp on it than I thought. . .

Last Sunday we went to our home church again. I was a bit concerned about how Little man would handle it – whether or not he would remember anything there. When we walked into the building, he took my hand and led me straight to the nursery. I was happy that he remembered it.

Every single day since then he has asked to go to church. Not just once a day, but multiple times a day. It just makes me smile to see my little guy asking to go to church.

It was funny to watch him last night before service. He really loves our Preacher. He was following him around, trying to say “Hello” to him. . .

My little guy is growing up to love church! Yay!

After praying for three months about whether or not to return to SC, God finally gave us an answer in January. We then prepared for the move and began packing, and waited for moving day to actually arrive.

Wednesday afternoon the mail came, and with it came a check that one of our previous churches had sent us to help with moving expenses. It was a huge blessing – we had already set aside money for moving, but it was nice to be able to go without having to worry how things were going to work out.

When the movers called at 8:30 Thursday morning, I should have figured that things weren’t going to go according to my carefully crafted plans. They were going to be at our house several hours earlier than we had planned. It wasn’t a big deal – we were mostly packed – but I will admit that at that point I panicked.

We had run out of moving boxes, so while I was at Dollar General getting a couple of things for the drive, I went out back and went dumpster diving for more boxes. Thankfully the dumpster was open and there were quite a few very clean boxes on top just ready for me to bring home. I’d never gone dumpster diving before; it felt really strange. But the boxes were free (I asked inside first before I took them) and they were clean so I was happy.

Then I went to get back in the van and broke the door handle. I had picked up one of the teen girls from church to help me watch Little man for the day, so she helped me open the door and I finished my errands.

When I got back to the house I went to switch a load of laundry I had started earlier in the morning. Right on top of the load was a washed pull-up. All of the gel had oozed out of the diaper and was plastered on the side of the washer. I was not happy. I scraped it out as best as I could with my hands and started the washer one more time to try and rinse the gunk out of the load.

I came back an hour later to put the load in the dryer. At the bottom of the washer was another pull-up that had gotten washed. Let me tell you – sending two diapers through the washing machine is not a good idea. Thankfully God gave me the grace to handle it without getting upset.

The movers arrived as well as some people from church and we finally got the trailer loaded. The movers left, we cleaned the house, and then we headed over to church where our pastor’s wife had gotten pizza for us for dinner. We spent another hour or so there fellowshipping with the church family one last time before we said our good-byes.

We had planned on driving through the night so we could beat the movers to our house. We finally got on the road just before dark. About 15 minutes down the road, our van became filled with one of the most horrible smells I had smelled in a long time. We had the dog in the van with us, and I was absolutely convinced that he had had an accident in the back. Stephen, however, insisted that it was just gas. Thankfully, he was right. I guess giving the dog your cleaned-out refrigerator offerings right before an 11 1/2 hour car trip is a bad idea. Well, ok, I know it’s a bad idea now, but that didn’t occur to me when I gave him the food. . .

For the most part, the rest of the drive was uneventful. I had told Stephen that I didn’t care if I drove part of the way, as long as I didn’t have to drive in the Smoky Mountains. Last time I drove through the Smokies I was completely stressed out from the trucks driving so close and so fast and the concrete barriers. . .

We traded on and off, and the time came for me to drive again, so we switched. About 5 minutes after the switch, I passed a sign: “Smoky Mountain National Park – next exit” Great. I ended up behind a rather slow semi so speed wasn’t an issue, and the fact that we were driving through at 4 am really helped with the traffic. It ended up not being stressful at all. I was very thankful.

The sun was rising right about the time we got off the interstate, and it was light enough by the time we arrived at our house that I could see my daffodils were blooming. I had forgotten that they bloomed this early here, but it brought a huge smile to my face.

We unpacked the van, and then got back in it to go see Stephen’s mom before she left for work. It had been six months since we’d seen her so that was a real treat. Then we headed home to get some sleep before the movers arrived. All three of us laid down on sleeping bags, but Little man thought we wanted to wrestle so we didn’t end up getting any sleep after all.

When the movers arrived here, we started unloading, but we let Little man play outside because it was so warm outside. He found the hose and decided to water the dog. This is what I saw when I walked out the door:

He decided to water his belly instead. Since he was occupying himself and really staying out of trouble, I let him just stay there and play in the mud. He was absolutely soaked!

Then once Preacher got here, he showed him how to ride his bike down the ramp on the trailer. He had a ball doing that as well.

Several people came to help us unpack the trailer, and some of them stayed to help us get started unpacking. We got a lot done that night. We still have a ways to go now, but at least we can see progress.

So. . .that is the long story. We are here, we arrived safely, and God has been leading and providing the entire way. We don’t know what’s next, but God does, and we’re excited to see what He has planned.