Jesse Tyler, Eight Months

Okay, I had to put up Jesse's eight months pictures and a little update on him ... Esther is next, I promise! 

Jesse was eight months on November 3.  That was the day we happened to be in West Virginia on the way up to Newport News. Here he is:

Liked the expression in this one:

Nice WV backdrop here...although actually we were on the Virginia side.

He is so handsome, right?  : )

Jesse's lastest accomplishments:

He now has two teeth, in the middle on the bottom.  Both seemed to bother him a little right when they popped out but not too bad. 

He can sit up all by himself!  This happened right before he turned eight months.  My mom is actually taking the credit for this.  He was sitting up but he always kept one hand on the floor to prop himself up.  When we came out to visit my uncle Gene (the plane trip), she says she taught him how to sit without the hand.  I didn't see it, though.  ; )

And pretty much immediately after the sitting came pulling up and even cruising!  He is pulling up on everything and walking along it using two hands.  Not one hand yet, but two.  He can get around fast, though, and I'm sure the walking will come soon. 

He is also still so determined!  If there is something he wants, he doesn't stop until he has it.  Seriously.  But he is still super sweet.  He smiles all the time and likes to be cuddled and held.  I am hoping both facets of his personality continue.  : )

All for now ... so much catching up to do!

Back and Overwhelmed

Okay, so it's been awhile ... again.  I am a little, or a lot, overwhelmed about recording the last few weeks.  I'm going to jump in and see how it goes.

We are now in Newport News, Virginia!!  That's not Texas.  I know.  About a month ago I flew out her with Jesse to visit my Uncle Gene and Aunt Rie.  (More on them in another post.)  Tyler and I have talked about moving out here several times since we've been married but never done it.  While I was here visiting, I just looked around casually for jobs for Tyler and found a job with a nonprofit working in refugee resettlement - pretty much Tyler's dream job.  Except for really low pay.  Well, he applied for it and got a call almost immediately for an inteview.

We knew we were taking a risk, but we did it.  We sold almost everything - again - and loaded up a trailer.  We arrived in Virginia right around November 1st.

Side note - on the way to Newport News, we stopped in Bluefield to surprise my parents.  We hadn't told them about the move so we could surprise them.  The plan was to arrive in Bluefield about  8pm and knock on their door.  With our poor road trip skills, it ended up being about 1 in the morning.  So Tyler texted my dad and then asked him to let us in the door.  Luckily, Dad heard the text and we didn't have to head to a hotel.  They were pretty surprised, needless to say.  We spent the next day in Bluefield and saw both of my grandmothers before we continued on the next leg of the journey.  That night it was raining so hard, we had to stop AGAIN on a six hour trip.  So we ended up arriving at the office for Tyler's Friday 1pm interview on Friday at 1:01 pm.  Shew!!

However, we found out a few days later that Tyler did not get this refugee job.  Big bummer.  So the job hunt began again, as well as a hunt for a place to live.  We checked into an extended stay hotel.  (Tyler worked hard at finding the best deal at a decent place.)  Long story short, Tyler briefly worked for a couple of framing/deck building guys before being offered a job at a residential remodeling company!!  Congratulations Tyler!!  He was chosen out of over 300 applicants. It seems like a good company, one that's one many awards.  And they are going to have him do some design work too, something he is great at.  So my master plan, which I will record for future reference, is to have Tyler get a job with the Newport News Fire Department (inspired by our San Angelo days) and do some desing work on the side.  The FD has a test after the first of the year, so we'll see how that pans out.  ; )

The other big development is the possibility of buying a piece of property.  We found it through Craigslist and it really seems just perfect for us - although a LOT of work!  The tornado that came through this area several months ago actually went right down the center of this property.  It's about nine acres, and most of it is a huge mess of downed trees and even some debris left from a mobile home that got torn apart. But this means it is a really good price for this area.  Hopefully will know soon if this deal can go through. 

Here are a few pictures of it:

Okay that's all because the uploading here is very slow.  Hopefully more later!!