Pix

We don't have internet at the place where we're staying. And, I haven't been organized enough to upload any pregnancy pictures onto the computer before I come to the coffee shop to use the internet. However, I had some taken at Babies R Us. You can see them online at http://www.kiddiekandids.com/MyStudio. Just enter the sitting number 512042834 and sitting code WDD82F98.

Getting Ready

I've started packing my bag for the hospital. No one talks about the daddy needing a bag for the hospital, but Ryan is going to need some pj pants if he spends the night. He'll also need a lot of snacks.

I've also been making a huge to-do list of things that need to be done before the baby comes. I'm trying to stock up on groceries. Hopefully, I'll be able to put some meals in the freezer, too. My mom already brought us dinner last night- no baby yet, she just knew we were both working all day! I've trained at two different Edward Jones offices. It is a very difficult job, but I'm learning a lot and have been meeting a lot of people.

We had our lamaze class this past weekend. Ryan is really excited and is coaching me in getting ready for labor! He has all kinds of exercises for me to do- some of them are exercises for runners that he thinks will help strengthen me! He is very supportive and will be a great dad!

Any August Birthdays????

We want to compile a list of August birthdays to see if Molly hits any of them right on the dot. Let us know if you have an August birthday! Here's what we have so far.
8/20 Heidi
8/21 Nolan (Molly's second cousin)
8/23 Tim (Molly's uncle)

New Home

On Saturday, Ryan and I moved into the home we'll be in until November. It is a very nice house in a beautiful neighborhood. The neighborhood has great roads for running. The house also has Direct TV- a new thing for us. I've already started trying to do some of the workouts on FitTV and watching birth stories on Discovery Health Channel. It's so fun, although the birth videos are scary!

We closed on our house in OH last week Thursday. Praise God for His faithful provision! We are still trusting Him for a fantastic teaching job for Ryan. This is his last week of classes. Next week he'll be working a lot of hours at the Cowgirl Museum. Poor Ryan has no legal picture id. In TX when you apply for a new driver's license, they take your previous one. He has no other picture id. This caused a lot of trouble last week on his birthday when he first tried to take his final teacher certification test and when we tried to get some papers notarized for our closing. He couldn't do either. Thankfully my mom's friend is a notary and took care of the papers for us! He's been without picture id for two weeks. Hopefully it arrives soon!

This morning I was reading in Mark and read the parable of the soils. I love the part about the good soil. I'm praying that this would be true of our baby and successive generations in our family: "And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold." I want to be a fruit-bearer and wish that for our family and friends, too.

The pastor at church this morning told a physics joke. He said that the optimist says that the glass is half full, while the pessimist calls the glass half empty. The physicist sees it a little differently: There is a short cylinder filled with a colorless, odorless gas atop a short cylinder of the same diameter filled with a colorless, odorless liquid. The physicist would say that the glass is completely full.

Tomorrow is Ryan's 30th birthday. We are going to dinner with my parents tonight to celebrate. I won't see him much tomorrow. He starts his second class tomorrow. It goes for a week, and then the following week he takes his last class. In the afternoon, he is going to take his PPR test, which is the last test he needs to take to be certified to teach. He should do pretty well.

Tomorrow evening I have my audition at Kaplan. It got rescheduled. I've decided to teach a lesson on either "How to make your house more green" or "How to save $100 in a month". After teaching for several years, a 5 minute lesson seems like nothing. I've also applied to work on call at Edward Jones Investments. It would be like substitute teaching, but I would fill in for the front desk receptionist at any of their offices. I've pretty much been hired, but just need to do the fingerprint background check. I will then do 24 hours of training, and then I can put my name on the on call roster for any offices within driving distance. There are a lot around here- three in just the small town nearest where we're living.

We will also close on our house this week! The title company is going to e-mail us all of the forms to sign. We'll then sign them, have them notarized, fax them back, and wait for the money to be wired to our bank account!

Baby Molly is doing well. She is very active. Her heart rate was 135 bpm this past week at my check up. She'll be here in about 45 days! We can't wait to meet her! Ryan has been especially eager lately.

Culture Shock

They do things a little differently here in Texas. Driving down Veal Station Road earlier this week, I passed the garbage collector. He was driving a beaten up old pick up truck with a big metal cage on the back. He was just throwing the bags of trash into the cage on the bed of the truck. In Kettering, everyone leaves their neat little waste management trash cans next to the garage. In perfect harmony the waste management mini-carts drive up to the cans and transport the trash to the larger trash truck waiting on the street.

Albertson's is a really nice grocery store here. However, I looked all over and discovered that they don't have any fresh mozzarella. I'm used to Trader Joe's; I think they had about six different kinds from which to choose! At the Super Walmart, there are forty varieties of tortillas, but only one type of pita bread. I'm sure the suburbs have more options but not the little towns out here.

Ryan went to get a Texas car registration and driver's license. Altogether the cost was about $250! There is a mandatory vehicle inspection in addition to the title fee, registration, and driver's license; however we were not anticipating the $90 new resident fee. We'll be holding off for a few months before we take care of my car! My dad gets frustrated by the laws in this state that really tax the little person. The oil moguls and natural gas companies have legislation in their favor that keep their costs low. There is drilling for natural gas all over down here. The gas companies pay very little to the local municipalities although the heavy truck traffic really tears up the roads.

I guess the cheap avocados make up for it all. :)