Now that I'm out from under my pile of boxes...

Well...we're all moved in! It's been a VERY crazy week for us...so I haven't had any time to write. It also doesn't help that we haven't had the internet, either. Now that we've got that all set up I just wanted to check in really quick. We moved into the house officially on Monday. We were able to start moving boxes in on Saturday, though. We moved things all weekend, and I spent all day Monday unpacking and trying to start setting up. Let me say...I HATE unpacking. I don't like anything remotely LIKE unpacking. Things such as unloading groceries, putting away clothes I've folded, unpacking after trips, etc, are all things that I would pay someone to do for me if I was rich. I'm not, however, so I try to pretend things don't need to be unpacked. (What I can't leave the groceries in the car and eat them from there???)

Other things keeping us very busy this week included Billy being swamped with homework, and Austin-Lee started working for her Dad doing some of the bookkeeping for the Hanover Airport. I love staying at home with Merrick, and am glad I found a way to help pay the bills without leaving him. He tags along when I do go to the airport, and a lot of what I am not doing can be done from home. God has really blessed us, and never fails to take care of us. We are learning so much...not all of it easy lessons, but we are so grateful! :)

Merrick's first birthday is quickly approaching. I've been having a blast planning for his party. Can't believe it's been a year already! This time last year I was REALLY uncomfortable and feeling like I had been taken over by a wild animal whose feet were forever kicking me in my internal organs. Funny thing...I still feel like that. Merrick Wilder is...what can I say???...wild. We love him to death, and he is a bundle of energy. The older he gets the more energy he seems to have. I don't know how long we will be able to keep up. :)

Here are some pictures of the house...hope everyone is having a great week! Enjoy the fall!

YAY!

That's really all I can say about FINALLY finding somewhere to live! :) We are THRILLED. It's a house that we are going to be renting about 5 minutes away from my parents' house, where we have been living for the last 10 months. I think you don't realize how much you miss having your own "space" until you get excited about things like having your own refrigerator. ha ha. I am SO excited about this, as well as having my own cabinets. :) My family is huge...the fridge and pantry at Mom and Dad's is overflowing with things that probably shouldn't be eaten by humans, but my family does it anyway. :) (They aren't the healthiest of eaters...they think I'm a healthy nut because I run and eat things like whole wheat bread and salad. *gasp*) We are not sure the exact date we are moving; we are waiting for the previous renter to move out and the owner to do some touch up cleaning. But it should be this weekend or definitely by next weekend! Thanks to everyone who was praying for us...we sincerely appreciate it. God has blessed us so much, and is continually bringing us closer to Him in the hard times we don't exactly understand. Here is a picture of the house...I'll put up more later!Can't wait to have everyone over for a visit! I'll be sure to fix you something on my own stove. :) haha.

Also...Merrick is 11 months old today! He is so precious, but if I'm not careful he might be married off before his first birthday. He's already had several offers from eligible young ladies in the church nursery and on facebook. :)

Chick-Fil-A Tuesdays

So what do you think of when you think of Tuesday? The day after Monday, not quite the middle of the work week, the third day of the week, not usually a special holiday...nothing TOO exciting I'm sure. In the Barron house, however, Tuesdays mean a trip to Chick-Fil-A. Every Tuesday me and Merrick load up and head out to meet Billy for lunch at our favorite poultry place. :) We've been carrying on this obsession, I mean tradition, since we moved to Powhatan. Merrick has moved from the baby carrier in the booth next to me, to sitting in the high chair and eating at the table with us. He has even been spotted stealing waffle fries. (Is it just me, or do babies seem like they have inspector gadget arms...they just keep getting longer until they grab whatever they aren't supposed to have?) He flirts with all the other babies, employees, tattooed bikers, and old ladies (he's not partial) in the restaurant, showing them whatever skill he's just learned. (This week is clapping, and wheezing of all things...haha) It's one of the small things we look forward to doing together each week...silly as it sounds. So since Tuesday seemed to be kind of a loser as far as days-of-the-week go, we decided a little chicken goes a long way. Tuesdays will never be the same. :)
P.S. During the writing of this post...all of a sudden my computer cut off. I realized about 2 seconds later it was because Merrick was under the desk and had flipped the switch on me. I knew he was under there, but just thought he was up to his usual mischief of climbing over the file box. What was I saying about those inspector gadget arms??? :)

Travelin'

There's nothing like a road trip with a 10-month-old. :) Actually...it went really well and I can't complain. We just got back from a very quick trip to Tennessee to visit Billy's grandparents. We drove down with Billy's parents...leaving on Monday morning and getting back home Wednesday night. It was about a 6 hour trip with a couple of stops. It was great to visit with them for a bit. I had never met some of Billy's family, so it was nice to finally get to know them. We stayed at his grandma's house, and had a great time! She filled us full of her famous ghost stories, and tales about her crazy neighbors. (I went running one morning while we stayed there...and in typical grandma fashion she worried about me the whole time I was gone...warning me to watch out for "picker-uppers".) This was both of Billy's grandparents first time meeting our wild man, and he, as usual, has never met a stranger. He broke in all of great-grandma Barron's furniture with his teeth, and hung out with the goats at great-grandpa Barron's house. There was 4 generations of Barron's at grandpa's house...so we had to take a picture!This is Billy, his grandpa Frank, Merrick, and Billy's dad Tom. We got to tour the old house on Grandpa Barron's property, that was built back in1862. Both houses are full of lots of old family pictures, and we got to hear a lot of interesting family history from both grandparents. It was a quick trip, but it was good to see the family. We were all reminded of how precious time is, and how much there is to learn from the people around us.

5K and 4 Doors

Usain Bolt has nothin on me. Just kidding...:) But I did run a 5K this Saturday with my little sister, Amanda. We both finished in 22:43, and were really excited about our time. She finished 1st in her age division, and I finished 3rd in mine! It was a fun race. Towards the end she started to sneak up on me, and it ended up being a full out sprint for the finish line. If anyone has ever seen me sprint, you might have thought I was sprinting in slow motion. I'm VERY slow...but LOVE to run longer distances. :) Amanda is much faster, so she would have passed me had I not been ahead of her to begin with. We ended up crossing right at the same time, only she was attacked by the chute at the finish line, so she had the sympathy of the crowd I think. :) Here are some pictures we took after the race!

Another piece of very exciting news for the Barron family: We got a new car! We sold Billy's truck (much faster than we had hoped!) and got a Dodge Caliber. We are so excited to have a vehicle with 4 doors. I was getting very tired of doing gymnastic trying to get Merrick into the back end of my 2 door Honda. :) I think Merrick appreciates not being launched into the car seat base in the backseat also. Here's a picture of our "Merrick-friendly" vehicle:
We are so excited that God allowed us to buy this car, and look forward to all the miles we'll be able to put on it together! :)