10 months old today

Our little boy is 10 months old today, and he continues to bring so much laughter and love to our family. Trey is very active, and even when his body isn't moving, we can almost visualize the little wheels in his head turning as he tries to take everything in. He loves to study people and his surroundings.

He continues to try new foods. There really hasn't been anything that he hasn't liked so far except prunes (can you blame him? I only gave them to him because I had been given a jar of them from a girl at work). He loves his veggies and fruits. We've given him chicken as well, and he loves that. I thought he was weaning from nursing when we were traveling to Arizona. He didn't want to breastfeed, and I didn't want to force him to. Looking back, I think his throat was bothering him, because he is back in his normal routine. I have cut back on his feedings, and he normally nurses in the mornings and at bedtime.

Trey has 7 teeth now, and he is pulling himself to stand up on anything he can stand next to. He tries to let go and stand by himself, but he still doesn't quite have enough balance to do that yet. He is a fast crawler - I am looking into getting a play yard/gate to keep him safe here in the house. I love hearing the "slap slap" of his little hands and knees quickly moving across the tile floor as he follows us wherever we go.

We are continuing to settle in here in Arizona. I started work this past Monday while David has been busy here at UIM caring for the grounds. We mowed the lawn together on Tuesday, and I helped him pick some of the fruit off the ground in the orchard. David worked so hard all weak, and he seems to be enjoying doing all the different jobs around here. Trey rides on the tractor with him once in a while too.

David moving a broken tree limb from a Pecan tree

Tonight we went shopping and went to Chili's where we colored a pepper for a fund raiser for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. One thing we want to instill in Trey is the importance of giving generously and being kind to others. Trey wanted to eat the paper with the pepper on it, but reluctantly gave it our server to put on the wall with the other peppers.

First Day

I had my first day back today at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center - it felt really good to be there, and I am excited about working there again. I saw some old friends that I used to work with - one of the girls said "Welcome Home" to me, and I felt like that really fit. I am personally very happy being here right now - I am excited about the opportunities that are in store for us. David is a little more apprehensive about being here - we both believed that God wanted us to come here but he is a little anxious about friends we will make, the church we will attend and serve in, etc. We visited a church yesterday and both liked it. The pastor actually had come to help us unload our moving truck on Friday (which was a huge blessing). He and his wife called us last night to invite us over for dinner sometime this week, so we look forward to going to get to know them more. They are about our age and have 3 little ones.

David cared for Trey today while I was at work - they both dropped me off at work early this morning and picked me up this afternoon. The first few weeks are orientation, so I will be working a lot of days for the first few weeks.

On a sad note, our little man fell yesterday while I was nursing him and has a bit of a shiner on his left eye. Sometimes early in the morning, I bring him into our bed and nurse him. He rolled off the bed and onto the floor after he finished nursing. I felt like a crummy mama. He cried for a couple minutes but it doesn't seem to bother him today (as much as it bothers us to look at it).

David did some mowing today. He took Trey out for a little spin. Later tonight we are going to vacuum the office and pick some fruit. We are trying to get Trey back onto a normal schedule, and he seems to be adjusting to that okay.


This picture made me smile - David and Trey checking out flat screen plasma TV's at Sam's the other day.

It's a Go!

We just found out that UIM is wanting us to be the caretakers there at their Business and Service Center. We will sleep there tonight, and our truck will be delivered there tomorrow with our belongings. We are praising God for this overwhelming provision.

Once again....

...God has shown how His ways are not our ways. He has a much bigger plan than we often see or understand. Last week, as I mentioned in a previous blog, did not go exactly as we had planned. But we sensed God's peace and provision in that despite the many setbacks. We planned to leave much earlier in the week than we actually left, but with Trey getting sick, we weren't able to. When we were traveling through New Mexico on Tuesday, I checked my email to find a prayer request from a missionary couple that I know through my brothers. They are with a mission agency called UIM that establishes indigenous churches among Native Indian, Mexican, and Hispanic peoples of North America. Paul and Laurel (the couple I got the email from) are with the missionary aviation part of UIM. Their email explained that UIM has an immediate need for a caretaker to help with the grounds of their 5 acre business and service center in Glendale, Arizona (which just happens to be about 20 minutes from my work). This would involve mowing the grass, helping care for the grapefruit orchard, and doing miscellaneous jobs around the place (which would be about 15-20 hours a week). The caretaker would be able to stay in a 3 bedroom, 1 bath house at no cost - just utilities would need to be covered. I was so excited when I read the email because we are needing a place to live. We are hoping to buy a home eventually, but in the meantime, we were thinking of staying in a condo or an extended stay hotel.

I called Laurel and she put me in contact with a woman named Lynn at the UIM office. I explained our situation to Lynn, and she met with us this morning. We discussed many different things - she said she is really thinking this could work well for us. We don't know if it will be a short term thing for us or a longer term thing. We are excited because we could really learn more about missionary aviation - this is something that David has been considering anyway, so we would have a lot of exposure to by living there. We are excited about the opportunity to serve God in this way and get to know other believers. There are lemon, lime, orange, and grapefruit trees on the property.

The front of the duplex we would live in

The back field with the grapefruit orchard to the left

The back of the duplex - the other half is a guest house for visiting missionaries and we would be responsible for changing sheets, etc.

We are going to call Lynn in the morning to find out her answer (based upon our references, background checks, and her talking with the board). We were just blown away at how God is opening up this opportunity. If Trey hadn't been sick, we would have left Knoxville much earlier. We probably already would have been settled into a place short term by the time we got that email yesterday afternoon. Seeing God work in all these details has strengthened our faith the last couple days. Please pray with us that we will know what God has for our family.

I love Trey's fascination with the littlest things

We had a lot of errands to run after we met with Lynn. I had to go to the AZ Board of Nursing and to Human Resources at the hospital. That took all afternoon while David and Trey looked around for a bank for us. We came back to the hotel tonight and went swimming. It was fun to splash around and cool down. All is set for me to start work on Monday morning. Once we know about this caretaker opportunity, we will be able to get our belongings delivered.

Arizona or Bust Day 3

this was cute - Trey watching his Daddy check the air pressure in the tires

We arrived in Phoenix tonight at about 11:30pm - we drove about 750 miles today. We are all pretty tired. Trey did remarkably well the entire trip, and David and I both thought the trip went faster than we anticipated.

My friend Carman at work bought these for Trey - he loves them

All tuckered out

We are staying tonight in a hotel and tomorrow hopefully will have a place to sleep that we call "home" for the next couple months while we search for a home to buy.

Arizona or Bust Day 2

Oklahoma City National Memorial
honoring those who were killed on April 19, 1995

Trey and David looking at the chairs the represent the 186 innocent lives lost by a senseless act of domestic terrorism

Quick Summary of our day
Miles traveled: approx. 650 miles
Places visited: Little Rock, AR; Oklahoma City, OK and the national memorial for the bombing on April 19, 1995; Amarillo, TX

We had a good day traveling today - we got off to a late morning start and drove late into the night. We did stop in Oklahoma City, OK to see the memorial for the state building that was bombed on April 19, 1995. We spent about an hour looking around at the memorial that takes up an entire block and honors the 186 lives that were lost. It was very sobering to be there. It is an incredible site to see if you are ever near Oklahoma City.

A statue outside the memorial "Jesus Wept"

A makeshift memorial that lines the outside of the national memorial - if you look closely, you can see the pictures of 2 little boys - brothers who were killed while they were at daycare

We almost ran out of gas 2 times. We aren't used to gas stations being so many miles apart - we have learned a good lesson to make sure we have a full tank when driving through Texas. We drove after the fuel light came on for 35 miles before coming to a gas station that appeared to be closed but thankfully, they kept their gas pumps on all night. There wasn't another gas station after that for about 60 miles. We were a little scared but kept believing that God would provide for us.

For those of you who know us well, you know how much we love Dave Ramsey. We enjoyed listening to him all 4 hours today on the road. That helps time go by more quickly.

We stopped for the night in Amarillo, Texas and are looking forward to a good night's sleep.

Trey had fun looking at himself in the mirror

Arizona or Bust Day 1

Quick Summary of our day
Time departed : 8am from Knoxville, TN
Miles Driven : approx. 450
Time arrived : 10pm near Little Rock, AK
Fun stops on the way: Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN (David's old church) for the morning service; Rudy's Restaurant in Bucksnort, TN to meet up with my pal Meredith for a quick bit to eat; Graceland and Beale Street in Memphis, TN to see if Elvis is still alive and to get some good barbeque

Wow! I can hardly believe that we finally left. As some of you know, our week was a little crazy. We got all packed and moved out on Monday and Tuesday (Aug. 11-12). We decided to take Tuesday to rest and relax before leaving Wednesday. At midnight on Tuesday night, Trey woke up with a barky cough and was struggling to breathe. It really scared me because I know how tiny babies airways are. We took him to Children's Hospital where they gave him 2 breathing treatments and an oral steroid. He was diagnosed with croupe and when he didn't respond as well as they wanted him to, so they decided to admit him for observation and further breathing treatments. He was in the hospital for 2 nights. While we were in the hospital, our household items left on the moving truck on Wednesday. Also our Wednesday, our car was in a little accident when David's dad drove it too far into the garage and caught the bike and cartop carrier on the garage door. He was trying to help us organize our stuff, and just didn't estimate the clearance well. We filed a claim with our insurance and found it estimated to have about $1,500 damage to the roof of the car. Then on Friday we got a call from the moving company that the truck containing our stuff was in an accident. We were told that no damaged occurred to our items, so we are thankful for that.

We ended up decided to just take my Jetta instead of driving both our cars out West. We hope to sell David's Honda in TN. But that decision involved us combining the items from both our cars. We figured out what we needed and what we could leave behind.

We had a good day traveling. We stopped in different places throughout the day. We went to Christ Community Church in the morning in Franklin, TN which is where David used to go to church when he lived in Nashville. We then met up with my friend Meredith in Bucksnort, TN - she was travelling back to Knoxville after visiting her family in Memphis. We had a nice little visit - I am going to miss her. She has been a really good friend to me and has helped me a great deal since I had Trey. We then stopped in Memphis. We went inside the Peabody Hotel where they walk the famous ducks out to swim in their fountain each day. We drove by Graceland and then went to the famous Beale Street for some good food before stopping for the night in Arkansas.

Visiting with our friend Meredith in Bucksnort, TN

On the way to Graceland

The Peabody Hotel in Memphis, TN

Where we ate some incredible food
We split this half rack of ribs - Trey even had some of the meat and loved it
Beale Street at night in Memphis