Keeping busy!

Hi all, We are in fact starting to fill our calendar up! Over the last few months my calendar has looked a bit bare. Well, Michael and I sat down for our monthly calendar coordination it was once again full. In fact we had to prioritize the events and even turn some down! Between library classes for the kids, MOPS for me, Michael's classes, seminary wives events, Easter eggs hunts (we have one down and 3 more to go!), spending time with family and attempting to keep the house in working order we are busy. Not busy in a bad way mind you, I don't want to max us out with quantity instead of quality.

We had spring break last week and filled each day with some pretty fun stuff. Among other things we went to the zoo TWICE (we are now members so we can go whenever we want) and we visited Holdenville Oklahoma where Michael was born. The kids and I also started a vegitable garden. That is no small feat when you live on solid rock. No kidding! You can dig 6 inches or so then you hit rock. For my flower garden I opted to use the 40 lb rock bar to break the rock apart and added good soil in. This time I decided to take the advice of my new Texas gardening books and made raised beds. We have had a great time starting the seeds inside, watching them grow and taking care of them. Here the last damaging frost is the last week of March, so we will be transplanting the seedlings outside soon. Megan helped pick out the seeds so we ended up with 3 types of tomatoes (big ones, little ones and itty bitty ones:) ) green beans, pink flowers, and Texas Bluebonnets (a must for every Texas garden).

For St. Patricks day we went to the Fort Worth stockyards to the "Cowtown turned Green" festival. It had cowboys, Indians, a real Steam Engine called the Tarantulla (Jacob was in Heaven) and a parade that started with a long-horned cattle drive down the street and then proceded on with horses, horses and more horses all decorated for the holiday.

Today we had our first Easter egg hunt. It was at the seminary and was lots of fun. The kids got to ride the little train and got lots of eggs to boot.

We also toured a pre-school for Megan today. It was great! It's hard to think about taking her somewhere even just 2x per week. We really feel like this school will benifit her a great deal. It's a private Christian school that goes all the way to 12th grade. Her Uncle is a teacher/coach/dean there so it makes it all the more appealing to us. Anyway, when the admissions lady asked her if she knew any of her shapes yet her reply was a very sweet "I know all of them! And I'm 3 years old." Then when she said the kids there right now where learning to write their names Megan said excitedly "I can write my name too!" Needless to say they said they would love to have Megan be a part of their school. I am so proud of her! She is such a sweet little lady.

I will keep trying to update as often as I can.

~R

Getting settled

So the verdict is... we like Texas! I know it's only been a month and a half, but we feel like this is home already. I told my sister Sarah that I feel like I'm a sellout. I feel like I should be misreble and having no fun. I should be missing Charlotte terribly and wanting to go home. But we are having a good time here. Everything is new and fresh. We try a new church every Sunday and a new park or mall during the week. I am navigating my way around Fort Worth succesfully, in part due to my wonderful husband laminating a map of the highways and getting a compass for the van:)

Jacob is now in a "big boy bed" and potty trained in a shocking 4 hours! I am so amazed by him. He is so sensitive and smart and funny. He is starting to get the hang of using "the sad lip" when I repremand him. He sticks out the lip and looks crushed at having disapointed his mommy. However, it's no longer genuine every time. He knows how it effects me. It makes me want to appologize for correcting him!!! Smart boy.

Megan is getting so big. She is itching for friends. She looks forward to going to new churches and finding out what they do in sunday school class. By the end of class she has always found a friend to give dramatic goodbyes to. We are looking for a pre-school for her and ballet or gymnastics class. So far she has a library class that she goes into without me for music, stories, and play. I am trying to figure her out. For a 3 1/2 year old she understands so much and has opinions about it all. I want to give her every opportunity and foster her personality but I also have to keep it under control. She is so strong willed and tests everything everyday, including her mom and all the limits.

We do miss our friends and family. We have everyones Christmas pictures on the side of the fridgefor the kids to look at. Megan sometimes comments on them. She wants her cousin to come visit soon to play dress up.

We love you all, R

Texas!

We are officially moved in! It has been fun and very challenging for us already. The days we loaded the truck in Charlotte it rained all day, then in Texas (where they hadn't seen rain in over a month) it rained so much we had tornado sirens going off in our new neighborhood. And that's just the beginning! On our way to TX we received a call from our builder saying we weren't going to be able to close on the 29th. That meant no close until the next year because of the holiday. Jan 2nd! Yikes! In hind-site closing on a house in another state on the last business day of the year is probably NOT a good idea. So we did end up having our closing on the 29th after several phone calls and meetings on the 28th when we got here. (We left my Uncle Joe's house at 4am that morning in Brandon, MS to make sure we got here with plenty of time to spare for meetings etc.) After the closing we were told it would be anywhere from 15min to 3 hours until funding at which point we could get our keys. Well 3 1/2 hours passed with no news. Not good! The end of the business day was quickly approaching and here we are waiting (yes it was still pouring rain as well). Anyway, they ended up giving us our keys and letting us get into our new house. We were so determined to stay in our house that we unloaded the 28 foot truck between the down-pours. Michael, his dad Grant, his brother Grant, my dad and mom, Michael's mom, and My uncle Bill and his whole family stuck it out and really pulled it through for us. We spent the first night in our new house. Just the 4 of us. Mom and Dad stayed at uncle Bill's mainly because we didn't get the beds set up for them yet. We spent the next day unpacking in what I think is record time. Mom and Donna got my entire kitchen set up! The house was put together so quickly I almost didn't have enough time to take it all in. We went to bed exhausted! I woke up in the morning to Mom calling me downstairs telling my "bring towels quick!" I came down to find a large puddle of water in the middle of my new wood floor in the kitchen. It was only getting bigger as the water dripped from my ceiling! It did stop and we did find out that the washing machine (yes it's upstairs and yes I had been warned) had a leaking connection but only after the plummers tore my new laundry room apart and cut several large sections of drywall out to find the cause. They said it was our fault and not a warranty issue but we did end up convincing them to fix it for us. After all this, the satellite guy came and said he wasn't going to be able to install the dish because he brought the wrong size ladder (they assume you have a ranch, not a 2 story). As you might expect Michael wasn't too excited about that. So anyway, things have been crazy but we have still had fun. Keep praying for us!

Tomorrow

The moving truck gets delivered tomorrow! Wow this is starting to move pretty quickly. Everything has to be packed up to go by tonight only leaving what we need for the next WEEK. Good thing we have a big mini-van, all the Christmas gifts and plant's are going to take up a lot of room. We might have to become really domesticated and get a car topper:) Our house is sitting there waiting for us in Texas. It's really quite surreal actually. I have been so busy and so focused on the here and now that I haven't had much time to think about the "later" part. It will probably hit a bit more when we have been there a week and it's time for Mom to go back to Charlotte. The thought is making my stomach do flip flops right now. I have a few more morning calm minutes then it's time to switch into turbo mode, so much to do and so little time to do it!!! Pray for us!

No longer silent!

Hi all, yes it's been a long time since I updated. I am sure you stopped checking up on us. We can finally talk about our plans publicly.

We are moving to Texas in 40 days!!! We started toying with the idea a long time ago. As time has progressed God has made it abuntantly clear to us that this is His plan for us. We visited a few months back and it became even more clear. We started making plans, building a house, sold our house, moved in with my parents, put all of our things in storage. Now our house is nearing completion and we are booking the moving company. Tomorrow Michael and I leave for a whirlwind 2 day trip to TX for job interviews and to have a look at our house before it's move-in day.

God has been so good to us, guiding us every step of the way. Our house sold after only 2 weeks on the market for a nice profit. We have wonderful parents who have rooms to spare for 5 1/2 months so that we can save even more money. It has been pretty clear to us that God is in on this one. Then again he went above and beyond what we ever could have dreamed of. Michael started hearing rumors at work that there would be lay-off's coming maybe in November. We talked it over and decided this would be perfect for us. At the least Michael would get 60 days severance and have 2 months to look for a job in Texas and spend time with us. Long story short, God blew those low expectations out the window and we are praising God for getting laid-off! The severance package was incredible to say the least. This is Michael's first week as a full time student and as a gainfully unemployed person. We are loving it:)

I was warned!

The mantra I have heard from "older and wiser moms" since Megan was born has always been "They grow up so fast! Enjoy her being little!". Well, it is so very true! Today Jacob went down for an early nap so Megan and I had several hours of uninterrupted time together. We sat down and as usual I tried to teach her something only to find out that she already knows it (at least 1/2 of it)! I wrote her name and proceeded to try and help her write it. She said "Mommy, let me do it please". She then wrote an "m" and tried an "e" then was very frustrated that it didn't look right. We spent the next 15 minutes "getting it right" by her standards. It's like she had been waiting for mommy to get a clue and start the ball rolling on letter writing. SHE IS ONLY 2 1/2! I'm not really sure what she is capable of. She doesn't fit the developmental stage description.

So, then we did some pre-k shape matching workbook pages which she breezed through. I really wanted to find something to challenge her a bit. So... Out came the scissors! We spent a while learning how to use them, then she asked to do it by herself. SCISSORS by HERSELF! I am learning right along side her. I have to let her be independent and make mistakes... And let her be frustrated enough to problem solve. Anyway, she cut and cut and cut for 20 minutes or so, then I looked over and she had glued all the cut pieces to a large piece of paper. She brought it into the kitchen and asked for a magnet to put it on the refrigerator. It is proudly displayed!

I love being Megan's mommy! And of course Jacob's too, but this entry was about Megan.

Jan 24th

The twirling princess!



















Cheeseball baby!

Busy

It's been a while since we updated. Just proves how busy things have been. Michael is in class mon, tue, and wed nights and one weekend a month. He is getting closer and closer to his December graduation! We can't wait!

I have been busy pulling 13 hour shifts with the kids. Let me tell you, it's a lot harder the days Michael has class. Plus, now I am watching a little 10 month old boy mon-wed-fri in the mornings. He is so easy though, he is here from 8:30-1pm and sleeps from 9:30-11:30am then has lunch, plays for a while then mommy comes to get him. Plus he is very sweet and a good sleeper.

We are thinking about putting Megan in ballet classes. We know she would absolutely love it! She is all girl! Dolls, tea sets, dresses, Cinderella, and Pink are her greatest loves. She will twirl until she falls over, then she likes to tell me she is dizzy for the next hour. She has discovered the Disney store at the mall and gasps now every time she sees it. Her Aunt Sarah got the Cinderella movie for her for Christmas and if Megan had her way she would watch it twice each day. Megan is getting smarter each day. When someone asks me how old she is SHE lets them know "My name is Megan and I am 2 1/2. What's your name?" It's always amusing to see the looks of surprise on peoples faces. Oh if they only knew!

Jacob on the other hand is all boy! He says "football" and spikes everything he finds as if he has just scored a touchdown (which he also likes to say loudly while raising his arms over his head.). He makes car and truck sounds while driving his cars and trucks all over everything. He is not gentle with Megan's dolls, they get spiked along with everything else. He loves to dance to "the Wheels on the Bus" and a song on "Polar Express" called Hot Chocolate. Where food is concerned it is one of Jakes major loves. I have to cut him off all the time or I think he would just keep asking for "more peese!!!". He has gotten very good with his sign language. He can sign "more", "please", "down", and "thank you". And now he can say all of them as well. Jake is also into kicking his foot and saying "kick", hopefully he keeps the kicks to the soccerball!

The perfect cookie

So... What is the perfect Christmas cookie? I can cut them out myself, bake them just right, carefully place them on the cooling rack, ice them smoothly, and shake the sprinkles so that they are evenly distributed on each perfect Christmas tree shaped cookie and end up with only a few dishes to clean. Or... I can teach Megan how to cut them with the cookie cutter (they end up a bit mis-shapen), let her place them on the cookie sheet (thumb prints included!), let her put them on the cooling rack (broken pieces and all), let her ice them (she likes it when the icing drips off the sides), and let her shake the sprinkles on the cookies (pretty much dump the sprinkles in one spot on each cookie), then clean the green food coloring off Megan, the counter, the floor, the towel and myself, then sweep up the spilled ingredients, wipe the sticky finger prints off of EVERYTHING, and then... I get to enjoy hearing her tell her Daddy and anyone else who will listen how we made cookies and all that we did. Then she runs to the kitchen to show her handiwork off and offer one to every visitor. Perfectionism has to take a back seat, and the goal becomes making memories and enjoying my wonderful daughter in everything we do. I started out making the "perfect cookie" by myself while the kids watched a Christmas special in the other room, but ended up making "perfect cookies" with my little Megan.

Happy Birthday JACOB!

Rebecca & I cannot believe that Jacob is ONE! He is so big and so much fun! Today was fun-filled for the whole family. Jacob was able to have some of his favorites for his meals and he was able to ride in the van facing forward for the first time! He loved it all!


Rebecca & I are so thankful for God's blessing in our lives with two wonderful children. We also went and got our Christmas tree! It was so much fun!

Then, this evening after a messy dinner of Spaghetti, we had some BIRTHDAY CAKE! It was strawberry cake with rainbow frosting, but Rebecca said that she could not serve him a pink and white cake, so she colored the icing BLUE! He loved the cake so much! Jake's favorite word is "WOW!" He said it a number of times while eating his birthday cake. I have to confess, the cake was WOW! Rebecca is such an incredible mommy & wife. It was the perfect day for Jacob's first Birthday!



Please feel free to leave any birthday wishes for Jacob!

We love you!
The Griggs Family!

These kids are the best entertainment!

Jacob's first beef and cheese ravioli!

"Extra"-ordinary Day!

I know most would say, "Michael, Why do you not just call it an extrordinary day?" Well, because, this day was EXTRA special!

We had the pleasure to worship this morning at our church, have lunch with family, watch our home team win their football game, and spend time with friends. Yet, with all of this excitement, the most extra special part was in the evening with just us, we watched Megan & Jacob play.

Jacob is improving on his ability to balance and take a few steps at a time. It is so cool to see him grow.

Megan also did something special that brought tears to my (Michael) eyes. Rebecca has been working with Megan to recite John 3:16. Well, tonight Megan said it all by herself. I wept with overwhelming joy, because there are times when it seems to all make sense.

Rebecca & I get to learn and celebrate Jacob's steps as a little boy wobbling towards us. We also rejoice over Megan's steps as a "big" girl towards an understanding that Jesus came to save the World.

I am so proud of my wife and all of her hard work in teaching Megan these words. We pray, and ask for your prayers, that these words will permiate into her little heart early in her life so she will recognize that Jesus loves her so much and wants her to know Him.

As a husband, I am proud. As a father, I am proud. As a child of God, I am amazed.

Annual Cherry Family Maggie Valley Trip

After much anticipation we finally got to Maggie Valley! We always have such a great time while we are there. We did the usual rounds of visiting The Mast General store, the Main street festival (the kettle corn was even better this year), the apple stand, Joey's Pancake house (omigosh, so good!!!), Granny's Chicken Palace (Jacob got to join in this year, last year I was on meds to keep him in the oven a bit longer), a winding drive through the mountains, a hike to a gorgeous waterfall, etc. Mom and Dad (Grandma & Grandpa Cherry); Christi, Jeremy, Kaitlyn, and Zachary; Sarah; Michael, Megan, Jacob and I were all there. Andy was there in spirit:) WE MISSED YOU ANDY!

Again it was wonderful!

Megan is so good with Jacob, she want to show him everything and really enjoys playing with him.

Jacob thought he was going to enjoy a few dandelions... he was wrong!

Megan is used to posing for mommy to take her picture. She was running up these stairs to go on a hike and obligingly sat for me to take this picture. She was quick to get back to her mission as soon as I was done.

We spent a while at this stop on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We were so high up that we were standing in the clouds at some points. They would roll right past us and around us. It was very cool! We stopped at almost every other "Scenic overlook" on our way. Michael and I were in awe of God's creation, it was fun getting to share it with the kids, and each other.

A night out

We went to the Prominade tonight for ice cream and to listen to the live band they have in the park area. Megan and Jake loved it! I think the sugar rush from the strawberry ice cream hyped them both up a bit.

Jake loves being on his daddy's shoulders!

Megan was having a blast dancing to the music. She danced for about 45 min straight! She was hopping up and down, waving all around, and making up her own little dances. She danced with mommy, daddy, Jake, and her little friend Paige.




While Jake was on Michael's shoulders he kept reaching for the tree branches. He was enamored with them. I really like this photo, so simple and innocent.



I am so glad it is the weekend!!!!!!!

Update at last!

So I've been told I need to update. It has been a very busy few weeks this month. Megan was sick, Jacob had pink eye, I have been purging the house of clutter in preparation for our huge neighborhood yard sale. I am trying to find a balance between cleaning the house, planning and cooking meals, training Megan and chasing Jacob, keeping in touch with friends, keeping family up to date (ie. The blog), and having a little time to myself to read/nap/e-mail etc. It seems when I am doing well in one area there is always another area that suffers. The blog is that suffering area right now, plus the camera batteries are dead and the camera itself is in need of repair. I have been taking a lot of video instead of pictures. I will start the picture thing up again, and the blog thing, but for right now I am focusing on the house and keeping it and the kids in order.

Megan loves her library classes, always lets me know "mommy I had a great time!"after class. She is increasingly girlie, loves pink, twirling in her ballerina costume, and playing with "Baby Susie" (her doll) more than ANYTHING else. She has started telling us "I love you very much!" at random times even before we say a thing. It's pretty fun and makes Michael and I feel so wonderful.

Jacob now says "da-da!" to Michael and "uh-oh" the rest of the time. He started clapping and waving all in one week. Mostly he does it in response to Megan, she is such a good little teacher! He is a VERY fast crawler, and quickly learned to crawl up the stairs. He has made it 1/2 way up before I realized what he was doing, we now have a gate up to discourage any escape attempts:)

We love you all!

For Andy

Andy, we hope there come in handy there in Michigan. Let me know if you need any tips on cooking, etc!

Jacob said: "Mommy, she's doing it again"

This was just such a cute picture of Jacob I had to throw it in for the Grandma's!

Cha - Ching!

Not much excitement going on here. I waited in line for 35 min yesterday to get gas in the van. It's crazy! When I filled my tank it was $2.89 a gal, now it's running at $3.29 at the stations that still have gas. Needless to say we aren't going anywhere for a few days.

A great day at the park

We LOVE going to the neighborhood park at night. For us pale people its great! Michael gets home from work/school at 7ish and off we go. Michael got a little camera happy at last nights trip to the park. Who can blame him? He had such great subjects to photograph!

Megan and Jake had a great time playing together. This picture of them peeking through the tunnel is Michael and My favorite!

Megan HAD to take her babies in the tunnel with her, she takes very good care of them.

I love playing with my babies!!!

It was a little dark on the way home, hence the blurry picture, but we had to get a picture of Megan and mommy pushing the strollers.

Hmmm...

Does this picture (Megan's hand on Jacob's head) remind anyone else of Andy and I growing up?

Daddy! I no screaming today!

Megan and Jacob had their 2 year and 9 month check ups today. They are both doing very well. The doctor was (always is) impressed with Megan's verbal skills (she gets it from her smart daddy) and with the fact that she is potty trained (I think I will take the credit for that one since it was my blood sweat and tears that went into that week of training!!!). Megan asked the doctor so many questions, including "Dr. Cleveland, why you singing so much?" To which he replied, "Because I am so happy to see you my dear Megan!". He is such a good doctor. He was whistling a tune while he checked Jacob, which is why she asked. Jacob just smiled showing off is 6 teeth, and soaked up everything around him.

Tonight we took the kids to get ice cream because, as Megan told her daddy when he got home, "Daddy! I no screaming today!" She was of course referring to the fact that she didn't scream while the doctor was checking her. She than confessed to"just a little bit crying". We went to Coldstone Creamery which is sooooooooo yummy! Megan got "straw-bay-ye" with rainbow sprinkles, and Jacob got 1/2 of mine! I only gave him a taste and boy was that asking for trouble! I will post a picture later of him protesting when I finally said he had had enough! I am trying to teach him sign language for a few simple words like "please", "thank you", "more", and "all done". It should help with his frustration level. I was able to do it with Megan and it really worked out very nicely.