Howdy Y'all!

I promise I've never said "howdy y'all" in my entire life, nor has any of my family or Texas friends (that I know of). But hey... I'm a Texan once again, so I'd better brush up on the colloquialisms. I think my favorite is "I'm fixin' to....". I know I used to say this when I lived in Texas 10 years ago, but somewhere along the way it dropped out of my vocabulary. On Friday, I heard it again for the first time and couldn't help but smile. I was setting up a bank account here in Fredericksburg, and one of the bankers told her colleagues she was fixin' to leave for the day. Gotta love it!

So... we're here. The past month has been somewhat of a blur. When Westin and I landed in Houston on September 23rd, I think I was as tired as I've ever been - INCLUDING just after giving birth to Westin! I was out of it for about 2 days. And somewhat emotional. My sweet sisters got the brunt of it. I was near tears for the first 4 or 5 days I was in Texas. At my sister Julie's church the first Sunday I was here, I literally had to leave the worship service because I was crying so hard. I was just sad that I wasn't at my own church, and sad that I might not ever be there again. And I'm sure being pregnant, tired, and hormonal didn't help things either. :-)

I got to spend about 5 days with my sisters and their kids in Houston. Jennie drove down from Dallas with her 2 boys, and all the cousins were together for a full 4 days. It was quite a zoo, and not for the faint-hearted, but it was wonderful. 6 boys under the age of 5 is exhausting, not to mention LOUD. But so many fun memories were made, and I caught a glimpse of the good times to come. Unfortunately, at least half of the boys got sick, my son included. I've never seen poor little Westin so puny and snotty. Jeremy showed up 5 days after I arrived in Houston, and it was great to see him. Life is just better with my husband around me! Julie and Daron were saints and let Jeremy and I escape for one night without Westin. We got a hotel in downtown Houston, and I spent my first night away from our little guy. It was SO needed.


Left to right: Back row - Reid (3), Cade (5). Middle row - Cooper (21 months), Landry (2). Back row - Luke (5 months), Westin (10 months).

And in March, we're adding yet another BOY to the mix! I found out the gender of our baby just a few days ago. What fun these cousins will have as they grow up together.

After leaving Houston, we made the 3 and a half hour trip down to my parents' house in Rockport, where we spent one full week with them. Westin got to know his grandparents, and we had a great time with them.

And finally, 2 weeks after I arrived in Texas, we made our way to our new hometown of Frederickburg. I honestly can't believe we get to live here. It is such a quaint, scenic, and very friendly town. It's in the heart of what's called the Texas Hill Country, and it is gorgeous. We've been to 3 restaurants to far, and they've all been fantastic. There are a dozen or so wineries within a few miles of us, hiking and rock climbing within 20 minutes, and it's clear that this is a cycling mecca in Texas. Does that sound like us or what???

This morning Westin and I kissed Jeremy goodbye and sent him off to his first official day of work as an RN. Our new lives have begun.

Loading Day

Today is THE day... the day we load up our worldly belongings and put them on a trailer. We're beginning to say goodbye to North Carolina.

Sunday was a surprisingly emotional day for me. I honestly didn't see it coming, but I wept at church. It all started during the very last song before the service ended (gee thanks, Stephen!). It was a very powerful song, and I just started to be overwhelmed and sad that we are leaving this amazing church community. I have never been part of such a Jesus-seeking, down-to-earth, people-loving community of people before. It's powerful stuff. We had decided at the start of the service to seek out the pastors to say goodbye, but at the end of the service when my emotions were so raw, I sort of just wanted to run out of the building and not come back. I knew that I'd be a mess saying goodbye, and indeed I was. Fortunately, everyone was very gracious and sweet with my tears.

Now we're just tired and ready to have this over with. Westin has woken up at 5am the past 3 mornings... not sure what that's about, but we haven't enjoyed it. Oh well. Maybe it was a good thing today, as it got us up and at 'em earlier than we would have thought (hence, blogging at 7am while he's down for his first nap and before I get heavy into the crazy day ahead).

My next post will most likely be from Texas!

Goodbye, North Carolina. We have loved you, and we will miss you.

Packing

It's Sunday morning and we are t-i-r-e-d (it doesn't help that Westin decided to wake up at 5:30am this morning - what the heck???). We've been neck deep in packing since Tuesday morning. Fortunately, we got off to a great start when 3 angels named Christine, Becky, and Pat graced our home and spent 3 hours kicking some serious packing butt. They helped a TON, and they got me motivated to continue on. Then, yesterday (Saturday) my dear friend Stephanie came over and we knocked out a whole bunch more. She is a workhorse which is so good for me! So really, all that's left is the garage (Jeremy's job), Westin's room (my job) and some last minute things. We are very pleased with the position we're in. The moving trailer gets here Tuesday morning. We hope to start loading shortly after lunch on Tuesday.

(AND WE HOPE TO HAVE LOTS OF HELP, FOR THOSE LOCAL FRIENDS WHO ARE READING THIS!) :-)

Westin did his best to help us pack, as you can tell from the pictures below.

Uh-oh

This was the sight Jeremy and I beheld as we entered Westin's room after his nap 2 days ago:


That's the first time he's ever stood up in his crib (that we know of, I guess!). We're in for it now, huh?

Texas bound

Man, oh man have we been busy.

Lots to be grateful for:
- We sold our house, and are closing October 6th.
- Jeremy got an RN position at Hill Country Memorial Hospital in Fredericksburg, TX and starts October 12.
- We sold a car and bought another one in a week's time, and were able to get an older but very nice SUV that we paid cash for.
- We have a healthy baby growing inside me that is due March 14th.
- Westin is 9 months old and is the most precious thing.
- We got to spend a week in Oregon with Jeremy's family.
- We'll get to spend a week and a half in Texas with my family before Jeremy starts his job.
- We had a going-away party given in our honor last weekend with a lot of our church friends that was very sweet.

Now it's all about packing. Yuck. My least favorite part of moving.

I haven't spent a lot of time dwelling on the fact that we're moving away from a place we'd grown to love over the past 6 years. There are so many memories here... of friends, of adventures, of milestones, of growth. I'm sure when I allow myself to really stop and feel all of it there will be some tears, but not right now. I'm all business at the moment.

We're out of here on September 23rd. That's a mere 8 days away. I better go pack......

Lots

What a difference a week can make!

Since last Friday, we've had 4 showings, and 2 more are scheduled for today and Saturday. One of them is a second showing, which is encouraging! From our feedback, at least 2 buyers are interested in the property. I think we finally have found the right price range, which is exciting.

But wait... there's more! As I type this, Jeremy is on an airplane, flying to San Antonio, Texas. Last Friday he applied to several hospitals, one of them being Hill Country Memorial Hospital in Fredericksburg, Texas. Fredericksburg is a little town of about 10,000 people, sort of equi-distant from both San Antonio and Austin. It's in a beautiful part of the state, and is just a really neat area. Well... on Friday afternoon, he got a call from them, and they asked if they could fly him out for an interview today! (He said yes, in case you're wondering.) So, he's on the plane now and will interview this afternoon and fly back tomorrow evening. So exciting!

But wait... there's still more! Within the past 2 weeks, we sold my car (the Mitsubishi Galant) and bought a new one (an Infiniti Qx4). Gotta love Craigslist. We sold our car and found our next car on that site. We needed something bigger, so we bought a 2001 SUV with only 62,000 miles on it. I love it, even though I labored over the color. (If you're on Facebook and want some entertainment, go to my page and read all the comments regarding the survey I took about whether or not to buy it even if I didn't love the color.) It has worked out beautifully, and I really do love it now, color and all!

But wait... there's EVEN more! One of the main reasons we got a bigger car is because Baby #2 is on the way! I'm due March 14th, and I am very happy and excited. So far I'm feeling just fine. I've been pretty tired, but that's really the only symptom I have. We've had 2 doctor's appointments so far, and things are looking great. I'll have another ultrasound on September 14th. Westin and Baby #2 will be 15 months apart. My sisters and I are really close in age too, and they are my best friends, so I'm hoping that will be the case with these two as well.

Lots going on... and lots to pray for if you're so inclined. Thanks!

Praise

Most of you already know this, but Jeremy took the NCLEX on August 10th, which is the national boards exam for his RN license, and PASSED!

After you take the test, you have to wait 48 hours and then go online and pay $7.95 to get the results. He could check it around 10am on the 12th. That morning, we went out to breakfast so Jeremy wouldn't have to be sitting there thinking about it. It was a nice distraction. Once we got home, Westin immediately went down for a nap. Then Jeremy got nervous and didn't want to check the results himself, so I checked it for him while he sat on the floor with his back to the wall and his head between his knees. I saw the result and said "Congratulations, Jeremy Hansen, RN!". And the dam opened! We both cried... it was a moment of beautiful release. Jeremy has spent 4 long years getting to this point, and now it's official. We praised God, hugged, cried for a bit, and then Jeremy was exhausted the rest of the day (understandably so!).

I couldn't be prouder of my husband. Now the house selling and job searching intensity has been raised, and we're going to get very serious about both. We already dropped the price on our house a significant amount, so we hope that will draw in some lookers (and a buyer). Thanks for your continued prayers!