My how time flies...

Well, we probably lost all of our readers these past few months, because we haven't posted anything in like 3 1/2 months!!! I am so sorry...being new parents has completely consumed our lives, and we are NOT complaining about that at all! We would not trade it for ANYTHING!!!

Things have been going really well for us! Aidan has started to pretty much sleep through the night, which is awesome :) Every once in a while, he will wake up at night and need to be rocked for a few minutes, but those nights are few and far between now. He is already 4 1/2 months old!!! It's crazy how fast time is going, and how much he changes every day! He is so much more alert and active now. He rolled over for the first time on his 4 month birthday, he is SUPER smiley and usually a pretty happy baby. He has been above average for his size at all of his appointments, and has done really well with his immunizations :) I would love to post pictures on here, but there are WAY too many to pick from! You can check them all out on my Facebook page. If you don't have Facebook, just let me know and I will send you a link ;) We are totally and completely in love with our precious little miracle!!! I still look at him sometimes and think "WOW, he is MY baby!!!" It still blows me away, I am so amazed by how perfect he is!

Jesse finished regular classes in May and took two summer classes in June to help catch up from the lighter load he took last semester because of the baby coming. He took a class on Romans, and a class called Communication of Biblical Truth, where he had to write a sermon and deliver it to the class. The professor critiqued it the first time so that the students could make changes/improvements, and then they gave their sermons again for a final grade. He got an A in the class :) Now, he is working at the help desk and enjoying having his evenings free! He goes back to school in mid-August for his final year of school! YAY!!!

Most of you probably know that on my last day of work before my maternity leave, my boss was told at the end of the day that I might not have a job to come back to, so he had to tell me the bad news right when I was getting ready to walk out the door. I was really hoping that things would work out, that he would be able to talk them into letting me stay, but it didn't work out. My maternity leave that was supposed to be six weeks ended up turning into about 2 1/2 months! I ended up finding a nannying position on Craigslist and started on May 5th. The little boy's name is Taha, his parents are Ozzy and Fazila (they are Pakistani). I knew from the beginning that they would not be able to pay me much, but at the time, it was the only position that was offered to me, and we figured that it would at least help us (and them) out for a little while. They applied for a childcare assistance program so that I could get paid more, and I told them that if the program didn't come through, that I would not be able to help them out anymore. Well, they were denied three times (they appealed it twice after the first denial notice)! It has been a rough few months for me; the entire situation just is not good! The only good thing about it is that I get to spend all day, every day with Aidan :) Anyway, after they were finally denied the third time, I told them that with Jesse in school, I really need to bring home a full-time income, and they said they understood. I kept an eye out for new nannying positions so that I could still stay with Aidan, but just couldn't find anything. I applied for two bank jobs, and a bunch of other random stuff online, but nothing came of any of them. Well I finally decided to try a salon that was opening up in our neighborhood, and I was hired! It's a really nice salon that is for men only. It is a very relaxed, laid back atmosphere, and the owners (a couple named George and Maria) are super nice and easy-going. They want to do all they can to bring me business! I told Ozzy and Fazila that my last day is going to be next Friday, and I am starting at the salon on the 20th. Jesse's cousin Eric's wife Marti is going to watch Aidan for us as we look for a more permanent childcare solution, which is a HUGE blessing! We thank you all so much for your prayers as I have been job-searching, and ask that you continue to pray that God would lead us to just the right babysitter for our precious Aidan!

I think that is all for now; again, please forgive us for not posting!!! We hope you all have an awesome weekend, and can't wait to see all of you again :)

Aidan's Smiles

Baby Aidan is here!!!

I know that most of you already know already, but our baby boy is here! Aidan Lee Workman was born on February 27, 2009 (his due date!) at 2:55 a.m.! He was 7 lbs, 7 oz, and 20 inches long.

Here's some info on how my labor/delivery went...I went in for my weekly appointment on Wednesday, the 25th, and the midwife did an exam to check how far I was dialating. I was almost 3 cm, and was about 70% effaced! Those exams can sometimes trigger labor, and I did start having contractions that evening. However, they weren't very consistent, they were coming anywhere from 5-7 minutes apart. I went to bed, and woke up around 4:45 a.m., and they were starting to hurt. My mom and sister (and Elijah, of course!) left that morning to come to Chicago, and got here in the early afternoon. The contractions were pretty consistent at 5-6 minutes apart and really crampy all day, but I soon started to get frustrated when 5:00 came around and I felt like things weren't going anywhere! I felt bad that Jesse had skipped school and work, and my mom and sister had come all the way up here, and nothing was happening! I was trying to stay on my feet and stay active, but around 5:45 p.m., I decided to sit down for a few minutes. I sat down on our vinyl footrest, and somehow, we all started having a conversation about water breaking; and less than 5 minutes later, my water broke! I was pretty giddy for a few minutes; excited, nervous, scared...then the contractions really started to hurt. I called the midwife on call and she said to go to the hospital. I jumped in the shower and rinsed off, and we headed out. I went to OB triage, where they said I was 4 cm. and they also put me on a fetal monitor. However, during one of my contractions, the baby's heartrate dropped, so they had to have me switch positions because they thought that the contractions were squeezing on the umbilical cord. They also put me on an IV for my entire labor/delivery. They finally took me up to my room, and Jesse and I were in there by ourselves for a long time. They checked in periodically and kept having me switch positions because of the baby's heartrate. A new midwife came on call, and I will just say now...we were very disappointed in the care that we got from the nurse and midwife who were on call. I had wanted a midwife because I was told that they are more personal and would help coach you through labor and delivery, and this midwife and nurse could not have been further away from "personal"!!! Finally, around 10:30, the midwife came back and at this point, I had not been checked to see how far I was progressing since I had been in OB triage!!! My mom asked when they were going to check me again, and the midwife replied that they probably wouldn't until after midnight, because since my water had already broken, there was a higher chance of infection. At this point, I told her that I really wanted to know, because if I wasn't much farther than I had been when I had come in, that I was considering an epidural. We practically had to beg her to check me, and I was at 7 cm. She said that if I wanted, they could give me a pain med in my IV instead of an epidural. I agreed to this, and I am SO glad that I did! It only lasted an hour and it didn't numb me or anything, in fact, it barely took the edge off of the contractions, but it REALLY helped me to relax and I was almost falling asleep in between contractions! Finally, around 1 a.m., she came and checked and I was at 9.5 cm., and she told me that I could start pushing. After almost 2 hours of pushing, Aidan Lee was born at 2:55 a.m.! It ended up that his cord had been looped around his neck, which is why my positions and contractions were affecting his heartrate! But everything ended up being fine, I think he got 9s on both of his APGAR scores, which is really good!

I do have to brag on my husband a little bit here...Jesse was AMAZING during my labor and delivery! We hadn't taken any childbirth classes, so he hadn't been told what to do, but he really helped me stay focused and was just so sweet and encouraging! He kept telling me that I was doing good, and kept reminding me how to breathe, made sure I had ice water to drink, let me squeeze his hand to death, and was just so awesome!!! Not only have I been blessed with a beautiful son, I have also been blessed with the most amazing husband!!!


Once they moved me to the mother/baby unit, the nurses were SO much better! My first nurse was named Jennifer, and she was SO sweet! I wish I could have had as caring of staff in labor and delivery, but at least I was taken care of afterwards. We ended up staying until Saturday evening, and brought our little boy home around 6:30 p.m.

My mom and sister (and Elijah) ended up staying with us for almost a week, which was a huge blessing! The first several nights home, Aidan did not sleep well; he seemed to have his nights and days confused and would sleep great during the day, and then just take "cat naps" at night. But it was nice to have my mom and Krista here because they'd watch him during the day and let me take naps :) They also did all of the cooking and dishes for me, which was awesome!

Things have been great, Aidan has been sleeping a lot better at night and has been eating well and everything. He is just such a blessing and such a sweetheart! We can't help but just stare at him and kiss him constantly!!!

Here are the links to my three albums on Facebook, where you can see LOTS more pictures!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=225526&id=758115416&l=6c452cf2bb
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=225542&id=758115416&l=43a5e5f8a4
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=231074&id=758115416&l=4d3ff86ab0

Pictures and update...

As most of you probably know, Jesse and I became an uncle and aunt for the first time on Christmas Eve...Merry Christmas to us!!! My sister gave birth to Elijah Lee: 7lbs, 12oz, 20.5 inches long! We barely made it there in time, too: we arrived at the hospital around 5:15 a.m. and he was born at 5:42! Here are a few pictures; there are plenty more in my album on Facebook:

Mommy Krista, Daddy Dustin, and Baby Elijah :)

Mommy Krista, Aunt Stephie, and Baby Elijah :)

Uncle Jesse and Baby Elijah

Sweet baby :)

We couldn't decide if he looks more like Dustin or Krista, but I think he looks a lot like Krista when she was a baby in this picture!

We couldn't stop taking our pictures just because Elijah was born!!! I'm about 32.5 weeks in this picture, and I don't know why my belly looks lumpy...could just be the way the baby was positioned ;)

We are still working on getting settled into our new apartment. We finally got a storage unit; now it's just a matter of actually taking stuff down there. We were going to do it yesterday, but then it was just snowing ALL DAY, and we have to walk through our courtyard to get to the section where our storage unit is, so we just stayed in all day. They said on the news last night that O'Hare got 12 inches of snow...I don't think we got quite that much here, but I'd say somewhere between 8 and 10 inches for sure! I think they also said that we have already surpassed the snowfall that we normally get in an entire season!

Classes start back up at Moody tomorrow! Jesse's only taking two classes this semester because of the baby, and will hopefully pick up a decent amount of hours at work, as two of his co-workers quit over Christmas break. He's enjoyed having a break, and we've definitely enjoyed having our evenings to just relax and be lazy together without him having to worry about homework!

Other than that, we are just "patiently" waiting for the weeks to pass until we become parents! We only have about a month and a half left, which is hard to believe! I've still been feeling pretty good; uncomfortable sometimes, but not too bad yet. We'll be home at the end of this month for a baby shower that Jesse's mom and sister are throwing for me, and that could be our last trip home before the baby comes; we'll just have to see how I'm feeling and what the doctor says. We registered at Target and Babies R Us, mainly just for the basics, as my aunts and uncles are giving us some of the bigger stuff, like a carseat/stroller set and a pack n play! :)

Almost 30 weeks!!!

Here's some new pictures...I'll be 30 weeks later this week...crazy, huh?!?! The baby is very active and we have fun poking him or her and feeling him or her kick and wiggle in response :) Sometimes, my whole stomach will move, and that is pretty funny to watch!


Jesse is busy studying right now; he had one final today and will have one tomorrow and one on Wednesday, and then he is done for the semester! We're still not quite settled in the new place, but I promise we will post pictures as soon as the apartment is a little more decent ;) We will be home the 24th-28th unless Krista has their baby before, we'll just have to see what happens!

Delagrange/Workman/Washler Christmas 2008

Aren't we such a lovely family? And note that the pregnant sisters have matching shirts :) Just think, next year, there will be two little ones in our family picture, although I'm sure we'll take some family pictures WAY before then!

Update...

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We got to go to 4 family Thanksgivings this year; two on Thursday, one on Saturday, and one on Sunday, so needless to say, we were well-fed all weekend :) We drove home Thursday morning and went straight to Jesse's aunt and uncle's house, then went to my aunt and uncle's house in the evening. Friday, my sister and I spent most of the day at the church, decorating and preparing for the party that we threw for our parent's 25th anniversary. It went really well; we had SO many people there! We even put bells on the table for people to ring to make our parents kiss and made them feed each other cake :) Krista and I were SO tired that night! Saturday, we went over to Jesse's sister's house for his dad's family Thanksgiving. Sunday, we were "heathens" and skipped church to go out for breakfast with Dustin and Krista; we figured that we never get to do stuff like that with them, and with two babies on the way, that was probably our last chance! We then went up to my grandparent's house for my mom's family Thanskgiving and spent the day up there, before coming home that evening.

My mom and Krista very graciously came home with us that Sunday night to help us move on Monday. We woke up on Monday to about 3 inches of snow on the ground...not an ideal day for a move, but is any day an "ideal" day to move??? Moving is NEVER fun! Our friend Josh brought his parent's 15-passenger van from the suburbs and helped us all day, and then our friends Vernon and Andrea (Vernon and Josh are brothers) came that afternoon and helped out for a little bit. We were VERY blessed that everything went smoothly (besides trying to get our couch into our new apartment...), and to have such AMAZING friends and family to come and help us! I don't know what we would have done without them! We spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night making short trips back to the old apartment to finish bringing the rest of our stuff and to get the place clean, and then Jesse went over there on Thursday after school and made a few final trips and mopped the kitchen floor. So we are officially moved into our new apartment...but not quite settled! We will post pictures once we settle in a little more. There really isn't a whole lot more to do, and what is left can't really be done until we put up some shelving; for now, it's just about organizing the clutter that is left after all the big stuff has been put away.

Jesse finishes up school for the semester next week; please keep him in your prayers as he studies for finals and practices for his juries! Thankfully, he is only taking two classes next semester, which will be nice once the baby comes! I just can't wait for him to be on Christmas break, when we can actually spend time together in the evening! I mean, we get to be at home at the same time, but it's not the same when he has to be doing homework or practicing guitar. I'm sure he's even more anxious than me to be done for the semester and be able to relax a little for a few weeks!

We will be home for Christmas; as of now, the plan is to come home either the evening of the 23rd or sometime on the 24th and stay through that Sunday. Krista is due to have their baby that Sunday, so we'll see how everything goes! We will also be home that following weekend for another family Christmas.

I think that's all for now...I'll post pictures of the apartment once we're settled in, and I'll post some new belly pics soon ;)

Moving...

We have some good news! We finally got the call that we got an apartment over at Franson-Risberg! It is available December 1st. This means that we will be packing up before Thanksgiving and moving on the 1st. We are excited to move somewhere where we can save some money on rent and have laundry in the building, but of course, moving does bring stress with it! Please keep us in your prayers these next few weeks as we try to get our stuff organized and packed! My boss has said that I can most likely have that Monday off work, and Jesse will have class in the morning, but he should be able to get that evening off work. My mom and sister have graciously volunteered to come home with us after Thanksgiving and help, and some friends of ours have also volunteered to help, so hopefully, things will go smoothly and we'll be able to get everything moved that day!

A couple of weeks ago when we thought we might get into a different apartment over there right away, one of our biggest concerns was finding someone to take over our lease, as our current lease doesn't expire until mid-February. However, we now someone lined up to move into our apartment; our friends Ronel and Kim (Jesse works with Kim at Help Desk, and Ronel used to work there) are getting married January 10th and were looking for an apartment, so Ronel will be moving in around the 15th, and then Kim will move in after the wedding! They were over and signed the lease yesterday. I've said this before, but I'll just keep saying it...as nice and easy as it would be to move home, especially with a baby on the way, I can't doubt for a second that this is where God wants us! He just keeps blessing us and blessing us and blessing us...in every way!

The pregnancy is still going extremely well; only good reports at every doctor's visit! My next visit is December 3rd, and after that, I have to start going every two weeks instead of every four, so that kinda puts into perspective how fast this baby is coming! Sometimes, it seems like time is going by really fast, but most of the time, I feel like February is still so far away! I think it will help to have a new niece or nephew next month :) I'll post some pictures after I take some with Krista at Thanksgiving :)

I think that's all for now...please just keep us in your prayers these next few weeks! Pray that we'll be able to get things organized and packed quickly and efficiently, that Jesse will be able to keep caught up with his homework, and that both of us will still get our sleep and keep our sanity! Thank you all for your continued prayers, and for reading our blog :)

Here's me at 20 weeks and two days, Krista at 29 weeks! Oh, and tonight, Jesse FINALLY felt the baby kick! I've been trying for a while to time it right, but it seems like every time I feel a good, strong kick, I'll be like "Jesse, come here!" and then...nothing! But finally he was able to feel it tonight, and I of course got tears in my eyes! :)

We enjoyed a weekend at home this past weekend, it was nice to see family and some friends! We don't know for sure the next time we will be home, as we will probably be having my family in town in November, but if not before, definitely for Thanksgiving!

Link to Ultrasound Pics!!!

So I was having trouble posting our ultrasound pictures on here last night, so in the meantime, here is a link to my facebook album! I will get them up here on our blog as soon as possible!!!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=136945&l=57d3d&id=758115416

The ultrasound tech said that everything looked great! According to her, our child is "an active little one" and "a wiggle worm"! He or she was moving all around and it took her about 20 minutes to get all of the pictures that she needed! She even had to let me get up and go to the bathroom, thinking that my being up and moving around a little might make the baby get into a better position so that she could get the pictures she needed! It was the coolest thing EVER to see the little heart beating (we could actually see all four chambers of the heart!), the little hands moving around, and that precious little profile!!! We will continue to keep you all posted, and I promise to post pictures as soon as possible!!!

Moving???

I don't know if any of you remember, but when we were originally moving to Chicago, we applied for housing at an apartment building called the Franson Risberg Memorial Mission Home (FRMMH). It is a building specifically for people involved with ministry. They weren't going to have an apartment available at the time we moved, so they referred us to our current landlord. Well, we've still always wanted to get in over there, as the apartments are ridiculously cheap! However, you can't get anything besides a studio (TINY), unless you are pregnant or have children...and now, we fit that requirement! Right after we found out about the baby, Jesse ran into the landlord from the building and she said that if we got our application in, we'd definitely get into a 1-bedroom...IF being the key word. At first, our printer was out of toner, then we just kept putting it off and putting it off...and in this case, procrastination kinda paid off!!! Just today, I was on the blog for Student Wives, and one of my friends had posted that she and her husband had just moved out of their apartment at that building, and the apartment was AVAILABLE ASAP!!! I called her and left a voicemail right away, letting her know (before I even got a hold of Jesse) that we were interested and to please call me back with specifics. That left us with one problem...we JUST signed a 6-month lease last month! Our landlords have known ever since we moved in that we wanted to get in over at the other building, and they are fine with it, knowing that it will save us money, but that doesn't mean that we can just leave whenever! So I finally got a hold of Jesse, and it "just so happened" that one of his co-workers just got engaged about a month ago, and they are looking for an apartment!!! She was there at the time, and her fiance was already going to stop in later that day, so when he did, they talked to him about it and they are totally interested in our apartment! So...we are going over to FRMMH tonight and taking a rental application to the building managers there for approval! This would be a HUGE blessing and opportunity if it worked out! PLEASE keep us in your prayers these next few days as hopefully everything will be finalized and we'll be able to move within the next few weeks! The timing couldn't be more perfect...I'm not HUGE and pregnant yet, the weather will be nice still...GOD IS SO AMAZING!!! Also, for those of you who haven't done so yet, please check out our other update that I just posted on Sunday...

Update and some pictures...

Here's two new pictures of me at 18 weeks and two days! It won't be long until I'm in maternity pants...I can still button most of my pants, but when I sit down...not comfortable at all! Also, I started to feel the baby move last week...it feels so weird and so awesome! I mainly feel it in the evening when I am relaxing on the couch. I go in on the 8th for my next prenatal checkup, and then on the 9th for my ultrasound! I am SO excited!!! Jesse will get to be there, too, I made sure to make the appointment for a time that he'd be able to go with me! I will definitely make sure to post some pictures after our visit.

Also, here is a picture of one of the curtains for the baby's room! We aren't going to find out if it's a boy or a girl, so we wanted to do something neutral, and had been thinking of doing some kind of animal theme. My sister and mom were at a garage sale and found this awesome set from Pottery Barn! I can't wait to register for stuff to match...

In other news, our church moved locations and today was the first Sunday in our new location. They had been meeting in the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts, but were informed about 8 weeks ago that they would need to find a new location, as there was going to be a new, larger tenant who was going to pay more rent. Of course, that is not a lot of time to find a new, affordable location, but our search team pulled it off! At least for the winter and spring, we are meeting at Holy Trinity High School, in their auditorium. It is a pretty old building, and the auditorium is a LOT bigger than the theater at the CCPA! One thing I have always appreciated about our church is how you can hear everyone singing, and it is even better with the acoustics in the auditorium! The instruments and vocalist sound awesome, too! I sometimes just want to close my eyes and just listen to the voices and instruments. It was weird meeting there today, and will take some getting used to, but it worked out just fine!

Jesse is enjoying his PCM at Pui Tak, he gets to work with elementary school kids and will start teaching guitar lessons sometime in October. As far as classes, he's currently taking Greek, Systematic Theology, Music Literature, Hermaneutics, and then taking his guitar lessons and doing his PCM. Just tonight, I was helping him study for his Greek mid-terms; it is so hard to believe he is 1/4 of the way through the school year already!!! I've just been working and enjoying a normal job with a normal schedule and a normal boss!!! As of November 1st, they are transferring most of our customer service at work to our warehouse. Basically, that means that instead of me receiving phone calls, most of the calls will go to the staff at our warehouse. They can answer most of the questions as well as or sometimes better than me, as I sometimes have to get in touch with the warehouse to be able to answer the customer in the first place. I will still receive phone calls, but this will drastically reduce the number of calls I get, which will be really nice! My boss (Greyling) is giving me more and more responsibilities, and it will be nice to be able to focus on that stuff and not get interrupted by phone calls all the time!

I think that's all for now...I will post again after our ultrasound! Have a great week!

Another picture and short update

Here is a picture of me and Krista! I am 13 weeks and 2 days in this picture, Krista is 22 weeks!

We went home this weekend, since I don't have to work weekends! It was a short visit, like normal, but we got to see our families and some friends, which is what we look forward to when we go home! Jesse started classes today, and is actually still at work, as they are open until 9:00 for the first two weeks of school to help with all of the new students and their questions. His PCM this year is going to be giving guitar lessons to kids at the Pui Tak center in Chinatown...quite a change from ministering to men on the streets last year! He's really looking forward to starting that! I'm looking forward to the annual Student Wives Fellowship Ice Cream Social, which is next Thursday and kicks off the school year for SWF. We got some new neighbors...four Moody girls moved in across the hall about a week ago! We are hoping to rope them into babysitting for us sometimes once the baby is born ;) One thing we are NOT looking forward to is saying goodbye to our friends Tim and Sheli, as they are moving to California next Monday! He is looking to get into the film industry! We will hate to say good-bye, but that is to be expected when you make friends at a school like Moody, where people are from all over the place, and going all over the place! We will continue to keep you posted on our lives and the baby, have a great week, and a great Labor Day! :)

YAY!!!

So as of today, I am officially 13 weeks along, which means that I am officially done with my first trimester! It's pretty exciting! Also, at our appointment last week, we got to hear the baby's heartbeat! We had been in just two weeks before, and I was not quite 10 weeks, so she was unable to find the heartbeat. I wasn't really worried, just extremely anxious to hear it! When we went back this time, she found it almost right away, and I immediately started giggling and crying...we could only hear the heartbeat for a few seconds at at time because I couldn't hold still, I kept giggling! It was so cool, though, and it's been so awesome to have Jesse with me at each appointment! We go back on September 10, and then in October is when I will have my ultrasound!!! :) As you can see from the picture I posted last time, I am just barely starting to show, it's not noticeable unless you know I'm pregnant, but it's a big deal to me!

We have had a pretty busy summer and are still keeping busy, especially on the weekends! I was missing out on SO MUCH by being stuck working on Saturdays! We got to go to the 50th annual Chicago Air Show last Saturday, and then to the Indiana Dunes on Sunday! The weekend before, I got to go to a wedding with Jesse (for one of his co-workers, and Jesse played in it!), that I thought I wasn't going to be able to go to! And this weekend, we are coming home, and next weekend, we are having visitors...it's so great!

Jesse starts classes again on Monday, so keep him in your prayers as he adjusts back to a school schedule! Thanks for reading, and we'll keep you posted!

Here is a picture of me at about 10 1/2 weeks, only a little bump so far, but the baby is only about an inch long right now! After Jesse took this picture, he's like "you're pushing your stomach out" and I said "no, I'm not!" We'll take more pictures in a few weeks! Oh, and I know my hair looks a little crazy in this picture, but I had been cleaning, so...

More exciting news...

I just have to say that God is SO good! All of you know how I have been really struggling at the salon, with Clareese's management style and all the drama that comes about as a result, and I have really been just itching to get out of there, but I wasn't sure what exactly to do. Well, once we found out that I'm pregnant, that was like the icing on the cake for me, I decided I for sure wanted to be done at the salon. I looked briefly into nannying positions, but nothing really jumped out at me, and Jesse found two jobs that were available at Moody. Then one evening, we had our friends Vernon and Andrea (and their baby Ethan) over, and Vernon was telling us about this crazy girl at his work that was basically on the verge of either getting fired or quitting, and the next day, she ended up quitting!!! He told me that I should apply for the job, but at this point, I had just applied at Moody and was really wanting to work there, so I just kinda brushed it off. Well, about a week later, he told Jesse that if I wanted to be considered, that I needed to get my resume in ASAP. A couple days later, I was called in for an interview, and the next day, I was notified that I had been hired! This took place over my vacation time, so I was available to start training right away! I ended up only giving the salon about 3 day's notice, which I felt bad about, but today was my last day there, and I couldn't be happier! I will miss several of my clients, but I know that I will be so much better off in this new position! I am a customer service representative for the bookstore at the American Planning Association, so I basically answer phones/faxes and place orders. It's a Monday-Friday, 9-5 job, which is awesome because now I won't have to worry about working weekends and late evenings! We can come home and have visitors whenever we want! I just want to thank you all for praying for me/us these last several months, because I have no doubt in my mind that prayers from our friends and families played a huge role in my getting this job!

As far as the baby goes...I am about 10 weeks right now, due February 27th! We went in for another checkup on our anniversary, and she said that everything looked good! She tried to find the heartbeat, but said that it's normal at the stage where I am to not be able to hear it, so she scheduled me to come back in two weeks instead of four. At that point, if they can't find the heartbeat, she will send me for an ultrasound. Krista said that her doctor had trouble hearing her baby's heartbeat at 13 weeks, so it's nothing to be concerned about, but I was just really hoping to be able to hear that precious sound, especially because it was on our anniversary!!! We will continue to keep everyone updated, and will start posting pictures as soon as I start getting a belly! :)

Exciting News

The past few weeks have been a little crazy, or should I say, a little crazier than usual. We had Aubrey and Aaron up to visit over the weekend of July 4th, then we picked up our car from Fort Wayne this past weekend, but the craziest and most exciting thing of all ... we got to let our families in on a little secret: We're going to have a baby! Stephanie is about two months along, and she had her first doctor's appointment this morning. We are going back in on our anniversary, July 30, to see the main midwife at our doctor's office. We are very excited, and certainly a little scared, but we know this is going to be the ride of a lifetime. We have both been looking forward to this, and are sure that we will start to see time fly even faster, but are enjoying the moments while they last. Please be in prayer for us as we begin this thrilling new turn in our adventure together.

Wheels

We have been contemplating buying a new car for some time now, but have been trying to be content with our trusty Ford Thunderbird. It was a good car; we had it for almost five years and put almost 60,000 mile on it, with relatively few repairs. However, we were ready for something new, and our brother-in-law, Dustin, told us that if we could find a wrecked car, he would help us fix it. We decided that there would be no other time to do this than over the summer, and about three weeks ago we got our hands on a deal we just couldn't (or didn't want to) pass up. The new beast is a 2003 Ford Taurus Sport, painted a beautiful French Blue Metallic. We're just giddy.

The car was a little mangled in the front, but it was hit high, so there was absolutely no frame damage. All of the parts we have installed so far (radiator support, radiator, A/C condenser, and header panel) have all bolted right up with no major headaches. It also needed a hood, bumper cover, and driver's side headlight, was decently dented at the bottom of the driver's doors, and had hail damage on the top. We found all of the parts in one place (thanks to Dustin's body shop connections). If all goes well, will have the work complete within a couple of weeks. Right now we are car-less, and I have been venturing to Fort Wayne every weekend to help out with the work. I say help out because it really is me helping Dustin with the body work ... he's much more capable than I, but I hope I'm learning.






A special thanks goes out to Dustin for all his hard work and sacrifice in between working lots of overtime at Sauder's and trying to take care of a pregnant wife who's fussy enough already (Ha! You can't hit me from 150 miles away, can you Krista?). Here's a shot of Dustin working his magic.

Has it really been over 2 months since we last posted?!?! Wow, time flies!!!

Jesse is done with regular classes for the summer, he finished his finals about two weeks ago and has been working at the help desk. Last week, he worked 50 hours!!! He's going to be taking a summer course the last two weeks of June on the Psalms, and he's really excited about it! He's also going to a Rush concert with his dad, so that will be fun for them too! He is looking into getting us a new car for my brother in law Dustin to help him work on, so he may be home quite a few weekends this summer if it works out!

I've still just been working at Hair Cuttery, but it looks like things around there might be changing soon as my boss said yesterday that she was putting in her two weeks! Clareese was there, and they were talking in the back room when I got off work, so I don't really know what happened yet. I will keep you all posted, but please keep the salon in your prayers these next few weeks as we all get adjusted to the changes! Ever since I stepped down, I have considered trying to move to a Hair Cuttery closer to our house, so that thought has been running through my head a little again.

We got to come home for two weddings in April and May, so it was really nice to spend time with our families and a little time with our friends! We aren't really sure when we will be home again, possibly not until I take some vacation time for our birthdays and anniversary at the end of July! We are planning on having Jesse's sister Aubrey and her husband Aaron up for the Fourth of July, so that will be a blast!!! Also my family has mentioned that they want to come up soon to visit, too, so we may have a lot of visitors this summer!!!

Some exciting news in our family is that we found out that we are going to be an aunt and uncle! My sister Krista is pregnant and is due on December 28th!!! We are really excited and happy for them! Also my friend Breanna is getting married December 27th, so Christmas time is going to be really busy and exciting for us! Last year, there was a ton of drama involved in me trying to get off work for Christmas, so I would really appreciate it if you all could say a prayer for us now (and whenever you think about us) that all of that will work out this year!!! I already told Clareese about both things, so hopefully giving her 7 months' notice will help!!!

I think that's all for now, thanks for reading!

Sorry it's been so long again! I've been wanting to post some pictures, but we just don't take pictures very often, and also, it's not very often that our house is clean enough to take pictures of to show off...

Anyway, things have been a little different since I stepped down from my ASL position. At the end of the year, everyone's hours had gotten cut who wasn't management, so my hours got cut after I stepped down. I am now working 30 hours a week instead of 40. It's kinda nice because I'm not so tired after work and have more free time, and I have actually still been doing pretty good as far as my numbers at work! I tried to get a job at Starbucks and there's a long story there, but it ended up falling through. I really don't know what to do, if I should keep trying to look for another part time job or if I should just stick with working the 30 hours a week at Hair Cuttery and just doing some hair out of our house for our friends and stuff. I would definitely appreciate your prayers and advice on this!!! However, one good thing is that I haven't been feeling nearly as stressed out as I used to! There's still drama at work, Clareese is still basically insane, but it's been a huge weight off my back not to have to worry about it anymore! We have 2, possibly 3 girls leaving soon, so please just pray that we fill those spaces with people who will work as a team and have good attitudes!!!

We got to go home last weekend, my brother Evan was in the musical at Leo called Wonderful Town, and it was such a fun musical! It's always so fun to watch people that you know, it makes it that much more hilarious! We spent Saturday with my family and then went over to Kevin and Julie's after church on Sunday. Sunday night, we got together with some of our friends for coffee, and we ended up getting back to Chicago at about 1 a.m....it was SO NICE to be at home with our friends and family! We will be back at the end of April for Jesse's cousin Chanda's wedding.

Jesse's on spring break right now, he'll go back to school next Tuesday. He's still been working at the help desk, and the crazy thing is that he's been working from 7-12 so he doesn't even get to sleep in on his spring break!!! But at least he can come home and relax, right???

Well, I think that's all for now, I'll try to get our house decent and post some pictures soon, we haven't posted any house pictures since we moved in and there were still boxes everywhere...it looks completely different now!!! I hope you all have a wonderful Easter with your families, we will be here celebrating at our wonderful church and then with some friends afterwards! By the way, if any of you are interested in checking our church out, go to www.gracechicago.com. There is even a sample on there of the cd that the worship ensemble put out in December of some songs that we do at church, it's very unique and we love it!!!