The Big Reveal...

Tomorrow is a very special day as we recognize our Fathers and the important role they have played in our lives molding us into the young adults that we are today. We are so very thankful for our Dads and the role models they have been for us. They have each worked hard to provide for our families and raised us in Christian homes, for which we are so thankful. As a special gift to our fathers, we had a small family dinner this evening at our new home and revealed some very exciting news... We are 8 weeks pregnant!!! :) Captured below is the special moment right after our Dads opened the TCU newborn booties and hat that we wrapped in disguise as "fathers day gifts."

Initial Reaction

Reaction Continued...

We found out that we were pregnant June 9th, although I suspected over Memorial Day weekend, but a negative pregnancy test convinced me otherwise. After continuing to have symptoms almost two weeks later we tested with the positive result. I phoned my doctor and was able to get an appointment that day where he conducted a physical exam and another hCg test and confirmed the pregnancy. I was given a tentative due date of January 21, 2010. We are so very excited about this first child and even more happy to finally be sharing the news with our family and friends. I know this time will fly by, but I hope that we can hold on to each moment as long as possible. We continue to be so very blessed and we can only thank our Creator above for continuing to pour down blessings on our lives!!

On a separate note, in less that 48 hours we are all moved in to our new house which you will see some of in the background of our video. We had lots of wonderful helpers that allowed the unpacking to go so quickly. Thank you everyone, you know who you are!! More on the house later this week! :)

Happy "Granddads-to-be"

Green is Good...

The musical, Wicked is currently touring in San Antonio at the Majestic Theatre. Mike and I were able to get tickets from a friend and attended the show this past Saturday. It was really such a cute show. All of my friends have been ranting about how wonderful it is for the past few years. We had attempted to see it on Broadway back when Mike was living in NJ, but the tickets were always either too pricey, or sold out! Anyways, we thoroughly enjoyed the show. (perhaps me a little more than Mike) ;) I went in not really knowing much about the story line or any of the music which made it all quite a surprise. I was especially surprised at the humor in the show. For some reason I had pictured it being a little "darker" or something, but the girl who played Glinda was absolutely hysterical. I believe all of the leads were blessed with amazing vocals (which I always appreciate!!) and overall definitely a show I would recommend.

So, this week is the final packing week. Mom and Nanny will be here on Friday to help me finish boxing up the kitchen and our bedroom. On Saturday we will drive up to Fort Worth for the weekend and Monday the 15th we close on our first house!! We are so very excited! June is definitely a big month for us! On the 17th I will drive back down to San Antonio with my Mom and the movers come to load up our stuff at 8am on Thursday, 18th and then will deliver our stuff up in Grand Prairie on either the 19th or 20th. I imagine this will be my last post until we get our stuff moved in around Father's Day weekend, so Happy early Fathers day to our Dads! We love you very much! :)

Also, little shout-out to the recent birthdays, Linda-Mom June 5th, Poppy June 7th, Nanny June 8th, & Elizabeth June 13th.

Prayers are appreciated for a happy, safe, and smooth move!! :)

Move is coming soon...

Hello there! We are getting very excited about our upcoming move. Jason with Daryl Flood came by today to give us a quote for the move and it was right in line with what we were expecting to pay, so we plan to go forward with them. They are in charge of corporate moves with AT&T and moved Mike to San Antonio from New Jersey. They are also rated A+ on the BBB which is definitely a plus to us. We close on the house in Grand Prairie on June 15th and then have a variety of cleaning people, utility set-up, and A/C servicing to do on the 16/17th. Then the movers will load up the stuff on Thursday the 18th in San Antonio and plan to deliver it either the 19th or 20th. I'm so relieved that they won't have to hold on to our stuff for a week or so, but will probably be driving straight up to DFW. So, everything on the "house front" is going as smoothly as possible. I was pleasantly surprised this morning with a call from my Mom that she was halfway to San Antonio with lots of boxes and packing supplies to help me pack up more of our "stuff". Next Friday, the 12th she and my Nanny are coming down to pack any remaining items. Yay! I'm so blessed to have help of friends and family to make this move an easy transition.

Speaking of blessings, our friends Matt & Kalli Turner were blessed with their first child on May 31st. It is a baby girl and she was named "Emma Grace". She was almost 3 weeks early and weighed in at 5lbs 12oz and 18 inches long. We went up to North Central Baptist last night to visit them and I got to hold sweet Emma while she was a little over a day old. Babies are so precious and she was just as tiny as I could imagine. Kalli is doing great and is planning to head home today after lunch, right at 48 hours after getting to the hospital. She has such a wonderful labor story that it certainly gives me hopes for when Mike and I start having kids. I told her that she is my "hero". I have lots of great pictures of the baby, but unfortunately I do not have the computer cords to connect my camera so I believe you will have to wait until the move to see them.

Another birthday celebration this weekend was our friend Kristy Wood. On Saturday, she celebrated birthday number 28!! :) We were so happy to get to celebrate with her and some other friends on Sunday. We started the day by going to the early service at Community Bible Church and then drove up to New Braunfels to float the Comal River. We all had our own tubes and they apparently no longer charge to park so minus our snacks and beverages it was a free trip!! We floated twice and were on the river a total of about 5 hours. The first time down was not very crowded, but by the second time the number of people had certainly increased. The weather was just perfect and sunny and we could not have had a better time!! After floating we drove back to San Antonio and enjoyed a nice BBQ at the Wood's home. I also have some pictures from the celebration, but sadly you will have to wait.

Tonight Mike and I will be joining John and Kristy at the Melting Pot to celebrate their combined birthdays with just the four of us. Kristy's birthday was Saturday and John's is Thursday so we wanted to make sure we did something fun with each of them. We will certainly miss our friends in San Antonio when we move, but plan to occasionally come back to visit and hope that they will come and visit us too!!

Celebrations: Movers, Mom helping pack, Emma's healthy birth, Kristy & John's Birthdays

Lift up in prayer: Barrett- son of Vivian's friend, Sara DuBose-bone marrow donor match, & our upcoming move

Coming up: Wicked musical- Saturday in SA!!

Inspection Update

On Monday we had our house inspection and it went great. Everything was fairly minor and included needing to service one A/C & change filters, change 2 broken sprinkler heads, & one leaky kitchen faucet. The other things on the list were just dead batteries in smoke detectors and light bulbs that were burned out. Overall, we were very pleased with the outcome of the inspection and the inspector told us he thought we had purchased a "very nice home".

We have scheduled closing to be June 15th and movers to come move us out of our San Antonio home on June 18th. In between we will have carpet cleaners come out and hopefully a professional cleaning service to give the house a "once over" since it has been vacant since January. Today I have been working hard to get everything in order for the move. I believe the last thing on the list is in another week or so we will call to get utilities switched to our name and ready to be activated on June 15th.

I believe that my Mother and Nanny (grand-mother) will be coming to San Antonio towards the end of the week before closing to help me pack things up into boxes. [In advance- I AM VERY APPRECIATIVE] If anyone around the DFW area is free June 19-21st or so and would like to help us unpack and get out of boxes I'm sure we could treat you to some pizza and beer or something in return for your help. :)

The Lord is so good to us and we are continually thankful for His blessings! Enjoy the new play list that I have added to our blog with a few good country songs.

Great News!!!

Well, we got some long-awaited news today. WE GOT THE HOUSE! We could not be more happy right now. Thank you so much for all your diligent prayers for us! God is so good! It is so exciting that in just a few weeks we will be closing on our first home that is "ours" and moving in. We haven't finalized the closing date yet, but it will probably be either June 11th or 12th. I am sure I will have a lot more information at a later date, but for those of you who are curious about what it looks like, here are a few pictures I took the day we put the offer in on the house. (April 29th) Hopefully this will satisfy your curiosity temporarily. Now our plans for this weekend in Plano are just to enjoy family, friends, and hopefully some sunny weather! :) We will do the inspection Monday morning @ 9am and are hoping nothing major pops up. Hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Love, Emily

The front door

Formal dining room

Main living room

Kitchen- I LOVE IT!!

Kitchen- I LOVE IT!!


Master bedroom


Master Bathroom

Media Room

Slow Week

Unfortunately, I still do not have any good news to share about the house so keep praying! :) This week has been pretty laid back for me. I have only left the house once each day. My days have consisted of laundry, cleaning the house, grocery shopping, massage, hair appointment, & dentist appointment. Mike jokingly says I have been being a good little "housewife" :) but sometimes I feel lazy when I haven't done very much. Oh well, I am trying to enjoy this little "vacation" time while I have it. I have gotten a lot of information this week on switching our insurance from renters to homeowners and appreciate the time that Cathy with Allstate spends helping me to understand all the "ins and outs" of the plans. I'm continuing to do a lot of reading and would love if any of you would like to suggest the next book for me to read. I recently read The Shack and I'm currently completing When Christ Comes. Both are really good books and I feel they have a lot of insight.

This weekend we are staying in San Antonio and hope to spend some time with friends. If the weather is nice we will probably enjoy some outdoor time too. I haven't been running for the past few weeks, but hoping that I include that in my daily routine again soon. Mike is keeping very busy at work and has had very full days this week since they had some new numbers come through that he had to work on. He found out that AT&T submitted their final negotiation for the union contract yesterday and so the next few weeks they will either accept the offer or go on strike. I think by Memorial Day we should know one way or the other. Speaking of which, Memorial Day weekend we will be up in Plano staying with the Campbell family and looking at another handful of homes as back-up in case this deal falls through with the Grand Prairie home. I suppose that is all for this week, not too exciting. Hopefully we will have some better news soon! :)

Love, Emily

Patience

"But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." Romans 8:25

"I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry." Psalms 40:1

This week is all about patience. I believe that the Lord is trying to teach Mike and me to be patient in certain situations and to trust fully in Him to provide. We are at a bit of a stand-still with the house. It is funny when you hear "short sale" one might imagine that the process would happen quickly to get a property off of the bank's books. Instead, it seems to take much longer than a regular purchase because the bank has to run a bunch of numbers and gets to make all the decisions. So, being pre-qualified and ready to close at any time doesn't seem to get you very far. Thus, we must be satisfied that everything will work out and if we are supposed to have the property then it will happen, and if not then the Lord will provide something else. So often we feel like we have to think ahead and plan and prepare, but the Lord has always provided blessings for us before, so why would he not do the same now?? It is much easier to say than to do. A small set-back with my job interview this week as well. The company had some things come up and have post-poned it to a later date. They will likely let me know in the next week or two.

Until then, I am back in San Antonio and happy to be back with Mike. :) For the remainder of the week, I have planned a lot of hedging around our landscaping in the front of the house, and perhaps pulling some weeds from the flowerbed. Friday, we are meeting with two of our closest friends in San Antonio, John & Kristy Wood for dinner as well as to catch up on their 2 week European vacation. Saturday, our friends Matt & Kalli Turner are having a "couples" baby shower. I haven't seen Kalli in months, and she is due in June so I am anxious to see how great she looks and how much the baby has grown.

Today is the National Day of Prayer, so please take a few moments out of your day to say a prayer for the leaders of our country as well as those in the military fighting for us. Have a great week!

~Emily