Baby Lillian is on her way :)

24 Weeks Pregnant with Lillian

Although it has been a very long time since I last posted.....we made it to Texas and we are doing fabulous.  I am working as a Kindergarten teacher and I love it so far.  I am blessed to have really great students and coworkers at my new school.  Wes is finishing up his pre-requisites to attend nursing school next summer.  He has made all A's so far and has been working very hard to keep it that way.  We are enjoying everything about Texas so far including our wonderful new church called Oak Ridge Reformed Baptist Church and our new rental home that has an awesome yard for our dogs to run and play together.  We are enjoying being closer to family, they have helped us so much with this transition into a new home, new town, and new baby on the way.  I must share that the FIRST day we moved to Texas Wes  had to go to school and I had to go to my first OB appt, we were both so worried about unpacking the UHAUL and getting it turned in on time.  However, little did we know....while we were gone my mom, stepdad, and cousin came to our new house and unloaded EVERYTHING before we even arrived home from our prior obligations.  How awesome is that?  Wes and I are so thankful for their help and blessed to have them as our family.

Also, as you can see from above Baby Lillian is growing big and strong!  We are now 26 weeks pregnant and she is due on January 7, 2013. We are so thankful to the Lord for choosing us to be Lillian's parents.  We are so excited and ask that you would pray for us as we begin the journey of parenting with our new daughter next January.  Also, please pray that Lillian will come to know the Lord at an early age and that Wes and I can shepherd and guard her heart with the Gospel daily. As far as health goes, Lillian is in the 61st percentile in her weight (so she is about average) and yesterday I went for my glucose test (the nasty sugar drink) and I am glad to say that all of my blood levels came back normal.  

As we gear up for the our new bundle of joy Wes and I wanted to share the link to our baby registry just in case you would like to send Lillian some love from far away :)  We are registered at BabiesRus and Target under Mecaela Houston. Just click find baby registry and type in the name which is Mecaela Houston, the city which is Spring and the state which is Texas.

BabiesRus Link:  BabiesRus Registry- CLICK

Target Link: Target Registry- CLICK

Although, there are still many things to prepare for this little girl but as you can see below Daddy Wes is already working hard! :)

Enjoying the rest of our days in Jax!

Yes, it has been quite awhile since I last posted a blog.  I've found myself saying "Wes, please remind me to post a blog" for the past several weeks :)  Oh well, better late than never.

Since Easter, the Lord has truly been doing some amazing things in our lives.  We are so thankful for what the Lord has done and are continually in prayer for the opportunities he will give us in the future.

1.  After a lot of prayer and advice, Wes has decided to go to nursing school in Texas.  Although he was pursuing a paramedic degree he found out that a nursing degree opens a lot more doors for him in the future.  Wes has been working SUPER hard to get registered for the classes that he needs in TX in order to complete the accelerated nursing program next summer.  Please continue praying with us as he embarks on this nursing journey for the next two years. We trust that the Lord will provide however please pray that the Lord will work out our finances for Wes and I to live but also for him to complete his degree in a timely manner.  Also, please pray that Wes will be able to have the endurance to study and that he will be able to retain the knowledge when it is time to complete his tests. 

2. Wes completed his EMT classes and his taking his EMT certification test Monday June 21, 2012.  Again, please join us in prayer for him as he works a full time job, takes summer college classes online from TX, and is studying for his EMT certification test.

3.  CRAIGS LIST-  yes we are thankful for craigslist because it helps us make money :)  One day we were visiting with another married couple that recently moved to Jax, and they suggested that we should sell the furniture that we do not like very much on craigs list.  The wife also suggested that we do it early so that if we need to lower the price after a few weeks we could instead of doing it right before we move.  Well I thought it was a great idea since most of the furniture that we had was mine before we moved together after we were married.  I have always felt like we never got to pick out things that we both liked for our new home since I already had most of it.  As soon as I got home that Sunday afternoon in APRIL I took pictures of all of our things and posted them onto Craigs list around 2:00.  I laid down for an afternoon nap and by 5:00 we had 20 EMAILS from other people saying they wanted to pick up our stuff that night.  We had no idea it would sell that fast, so after it was all said and done our dining room table was gone along with our coffee table and end tables.  We had no table to eat on for two months!!!! OH NOOO!!! haha well my strong handsome husband decided to move a file cabinet that we got for free from craigs list a few months back into the living room as our dinner table.  And that's how we ate dinner together every night UNTIL......Wes sold the file cabinet for $40 off craigs list. We then found ourselves in a predicament with nothing to eat off us.  We thought maybe we could eat off of the dog kennels but that didn't work since they are not really a flat surface :) 

Well in the mean time,  Wes's friend found a large round chair on the side of road and gave it to us.....yes I know what your thinking...."I thought you guys were trying to get rid of furniture"  but don't think that until you sit in this amazing chair.  I took a 2 hour nap in it the first day Wes brought it home.  The chair has now become one of favorite spots to sit and spend time together after work or on the weekends.  We love to lay in it and watch movies or just lay and talk.  It's defiantly a keeper!

THE ONE AND THE ONLY BROWN ROUND CHAIR



Maybe you're wondering what we have been eating on all this time since we have no tables.  We don't fret because let's just say we love garage sells too.  A couple of weekends ago our apartment complex was having a garage sell and I decided to ride my bike around to see if there was anything worth buying.  And of course I found something that I absolutely loved.  It was an old antique dresser that had been painted dark green.  I loved it the moment I saw it and Wes approved :)  We decided to turn the dresser into our new entertainment center and move our old entertainment center into the middle of the room as our new coffee/dining room table.  So we are eating on our old entertainment center that we posted on craigs list but haven't sold yet :) 

THE ANTIQUE ENTERTAINMENT DRESSER

4.  Wes and I have begun packing up our apartment and are looking forward to moving to Houston in about 3 weeks.  Please continue praying for us as we wrap things up here in Jacksonville.  I am planning on teaching until June 4.....my kids graduate from Kindergarten that day and Wes and I will begin our long journey to Texas on June 5.  In the meantime, I will try to post another blog before the move :)

Easter Weekend and Thankfulness

Above you will see pictures from our amazing Easter beach day :) Wes and I had an amazing weekend with our two wonderful puppies celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are so blessed to have our wonderful little family.  After church, we decided to take the dogs to the beach so that we could see them swim for the first time.  After a lot of pulling and tugging towards the water the two dogs finally began to doggy paddle :)  Jade LOVED it and Emma DID NOT!

We shared a lot of laughter and found 10 more shark teeth to add to our collection :)

As I reflect on this past week I have so many things that I am thankful for so here they are!!!

1. I am thankful for a wonderful husband that loves and encourages me every day. Wes truly knows how to make me smile by doing silly things such as writing Happy Easter on the back of book marks so that we can remember our first Easter together as The Houston's :) I love him

2. I am thankful for GROUPONS, date night, and sushi :) Back story: Wes purchased a groupon for a small sushi place in Riverside (a cozy little side of town that we like to go to). We used the groupon for a lunch date one Saturday and we learned something new about the restaurant. Turns out that they have ALL YOU CAN EAT sushi tasting every Saturday for $15 a person. WOO! We were so excited however, we are trying to stick close to our budget each month and since we had already maxed out our eating out category for March, we had to wait for April. Well......April came and we went!!! Wes got off early from his EMT ride along this past Saturday and we went had one of the best sushi date nights ever. I am truly thankful for this night because Wes had been working so much that we had not had much time together. At dinner we were able to enjoy an amazing conversation about how much the Lord has gone before us in the move and how we see him fulfilling his promises through providing us with a house and jobs. Not to mention that we ate almost $100 of sushi for just $30 :) We were stuffed :)

3. I am thankful for our wonderful friends Tim and Leala who are mentoring us as we go through our first year of marriage and the amazing study of The Christian Called to Obedience. The Lord has truly worked in us through this study each week. The Holy Spirit has convicted our hearts and has drawn us to repentance. We are thankful for the sanctification from the Lord and for our friends who are both truly a man and woman of God that have continually encouraged us with the Gospel and have pointed us to the cross.

4. I am thankful for my little shih tzu Emma. We rescued Emma from a family in Lousiana last December. Emma had been neglected for almost a year before we adopted her. Emma and our hound dog Jade became best friends and we enjoy watching them wrestle/play together on a daily basis. One of my favorite things about Emma is that she is a little cuddle bug! Wherever I am in the house, Emma is right behind me. Oh I love her so!

PS.  I finally enabled the comments on here (hopefully it works- if not try facebook) 

so please leave a comment and tell us what you are thankful for :)

Great Week :)

This week Wes went back to work with his friend in the landscaping business.  He is enjoying being out in the sun and getting to work with good buddy of is.  He is beginning his last month of EMT school and should be able to take his EMT exam by the end of May.  I am so proud of him and how hard he has been working this semester. 

We are very excited about tomorrow because we are meeting the owners of the house that we are going to rent this June in Texas.  God has truly blessed us with an amazing couple that owns a great house.  They are going to allow us to rent their home for 2 years and they are actually flying out here to Florida to meet us and have us sign the lease.  In the beginning we were worried about finding a nice house to re-locate to because we could not afford to make several trips to Texas before the move.  Therefore, we are super excited and thankful that we get to meet this wonderful couple tomorrow afternoon here in Florida. 

Today, Wes had to go on a  ride along with the Jacksonville Fire Department so I decided to wake up early and hit some garage sales!!! I had a fabulous time and found lots of goodies for our house for a very good price! 

We have had a wonderful week and we are very thankful to have few days off of work next week to celebrate Easter :)

The Houston's first blog :)

As most of you know, Wes and I are extremely busy these days and have had a hard time keeping up with friends and family. When we finally do get to catch up with someone we usually spend allot of time just catching up with how life is going so we decided to start blogging each week so that our families and friends can read all about what is going on in our live :) if you would like to that is!

Right now, Wes and I are on Spring Break. I am off of school for a little while and Wes is helping out a friend in the landscaping business. Wes has been extremely busy with EMT school this year and has also been working full time as a substitute teacher. He is enjoying school very much and he is making fabulous grades! I am so proud of him....he is such a great husband. He has also just decided to go back to the landscaping business for the remainder of our time here in Jacksonville.

After we got married this past summer Wes and I began praying and talking about moving closer to my family in Texas. On Christmas day in 2011, Wes made the final decision for us to move to Texas and my family was ecstatic :) When we returned to Jacksonville after the holidays we began praying and trusting that the Lord would provide us with housing and jobs. And he has! The Lord has already provided us with both :) Wes is going to continue going through EMT/Fire school in Houston and I have accepted a Kindergarten job at a KIPP Houston charter school. We have also found an amazing home to rent in a very nice neighborhood on the outskirts of Houston in a small city called Spring. We are extremely grateful for these answered prayers!

As of now, we are in the process of selling a few things in our Jacksonville apartment so that we can rent the smallest moving truck possible because they are soooo expensive :( and we are beginning to wrap things up such as getting our electricity, water, and cable turned off in a timely manner so that we can move at the beginning of June. Wes is going to move our stuff and our two wonderful puppies (Jade and Emma) out to Texas June 1, 2012 and I am going to move June 7, 2012. I need to finish up the school year with my Kindergarteners here in Jax before starting my new job at KIPP.
That is pretty much what is going on :) like I said I am going to try to post weekly so that our families and friends can read up on what is happening in our lives! Please be praying for Wes's time tomorrow as he goes on a 15 hour clinical ride along with the Jacksonville Fire Department :)