Back in Jax Beach

We were in Asheville for about a month and are now back at Jax Beach. Zachary is settling back in and is content to go to the beach every day and is still excited about Baby Reed. He really has no idea how drastically his life is going to change.
Zachary went camping with Robert for the first time over the weekend. I was convinced it would be a total nightmare, but would you believe that Zachary went fishing, searched for bugs, and slept in the tent all night long?? They had a wonderful time and Zachary is ready to go back again. I got a nice break and went to the hairdresser alone and had dinner with my friend Kerry. I will definitely be encouraging more camping trips.
Baby Reed is still doing well and growing as expected. Of course it is a concern with the stress of the last couple of months but the doctor says he is fine. My mother is coming down right after labor day and will be staying until Reed is born. We are trying to avoid being put on bed rest this time!! So I will be thankful for her help.
Please continue to keep my family in your prayers. Some days are okay and others are very hard - but we just have to take each day at a time. Last week was my first week since my father passed away that I have not been with my Mom. We kept putting it off, but realized that we had to make the break at some point. Robert was very supportive but of course would prefer to have his little boy in Jacksonville with him.

Crazy June

My father passed away on June 14th. Zachary and I made it to Asheville to see him a little over 24 hours before he passed away. They gave him three to 6 weeks and it was barely a day. Zachary and I stayed in Asheville for 2 weeks and are now in Jacksonville Beach again for a week. My Mom travelled down with us and we are going to Atlanta for the 4th of July and then back to Asheville again. I would love to say that it is getting easier, but it is not. There is an empty void no matter what state we are in. I know that time will make it easier and that God has a purpose, but right now we are just trying to take each day one at a time. Zachary asks where his Papaw is multiple times each day...How do you expain this to a two year old when you don't understand yourself.

Baby Reed is healthy and growing well. The due date is still September 25.

Thank you to everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers over the past couple of weeks.

I promise to post beach pictures of Zachary soon!!!!

Zachary 2 Year Old

Contact Information

Our new info is:

411 16th Ave South
Jacksonville Beach, FL 32250

Home Phone: 904-372-4581

Cell Phones are the same for now!

We Have Relocated!

Well, we are officially in Florida. Actually, we have been here for a few weeks, but let's just say it has been a little crazy. The first week we were in town we were fortunate enough to stay with relatives while we worked out our rental situation. We are now renting a beach house in Jax Beach (I've been told I have to call it Jax Beach to avoid sounding like a tourist) until our house in Atlanta sells. We are 3 1/2 blocks from the beach which is fantastic. My job search has not been going so well, so Zachary and I go to the beach almost every morning to make ourselves feel better. So far it's been working...I feel much better about being unemployed - until I have to write the first rent check and pay the mortgage! We had originally planned on living in the St. Augustine area once our house sells, but we are enjoying the beach so much we are looking at other options now. Amelia Island, Ponte Vedra and Jax Beach have all been added to our search.

Robert loves his new job. A typical day for him has been to leave the house at 7:15, arrive at work before 8:00. Leave at 5:00, Dinner at 5:45 and to the beach by 7:00. Zachary is thrilled to see so much of his Daddy.

Zachary has really adjusted well. He is now in a big boy bed. I would love to tell you some funny story about the experience, but it was fairly easy. He slept throught the night and has not tried to get out of the bed since the first night we put him in it. If only potty training was going that easy!! He loves the beach and the big water, riding his tricycle and all of the lizards that that are EVERYWHERE!

We found out that the baby is another boy. Believe it or not, Zachary has had the hardest time adjusting to the news. I think he wanted a girl as bad as his Mother did. But we are of course thrilled that the baby is healthy. We are naming him Reed, (my maiden name).

An update on my father. He had a scan a couple of weeks ago and it appears that the cancer is gone. THANK GOD!! But please continue to keep him in your prayers, he is still having a hard time breathing.

I promise to keep the blog up the best that I can. And we would love to hear from everyone! If you are ever in the area or need a vacation you always have a place to stay!!!

A New Start

As some of you may know, Robert has accepted a position with a company called Rayonier in Jacksonville, Fl. We will be leaving Atlanta May 11th and he will start the new job on May 12th. It is a fantastic company and we couldn't be happier about the opportunity. Thank you to my friend Kerry, who has been instrumental in making this happen. He will be doing the same type of position but the company is family-oriented and he will not be on-call 24-7. This was certainly a difficult decision because we have been in Atlanta for almost 10 years and have made such good friends. But at the same time we know this is a move we need to make. It will take us further away from our family in North Carolina (which we hate) but we will be the same distance away from Robert's Mom and we both have relatives in Florida - so we are thrilled to have family close by again. And of course, we are desparately trying to talk my parents into moving to Florida. We are putting our house on the market next week and pray that it will sell quickly. We will live in an apartment in St. Augustine until that happens. Hopefully it will sell before September when baby #2 is due, but if not it will be a great story for later...
We appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers, it is going to be a long couple of weeks while we are both working and trying to get the house fixed up, staged and moved to Florida. Zachary is not sure what is going on, but he is very excited about wearing his "new" flip flops to the beach to build a sand castle.

We know it is going to be very difficult to keep in touch with everyone, so that is why we decided to start a blog, so that we could keep everyone posted on what is going on with us, and we would love to hear from you as well.

Recent pictures of Zachary will be coming soon...