Kim and Jeremy in Thailand

Can you believe it's August already!! Now we can officially say that our son is due next month. That is exciting!! I am getting bigger by the day, and we can hardly wait until we get to hold our little guy. The doctor was guessing that he's already about five pounds, so he looks to be a good healthy size.

Jeremy is with my dad and brothers this week at the World Board Game Championships in Pennsylvania. They play something like 100 different games in tournaments for a week, plus see demos of new games and have a chance to buy more games. He's having a great time and I'm so glad he got the chance to go.

Mom and I are still here in Jacksonville, and we've had a few shopping outings, finding cute clothes for the baby. Other than that, we're kind of taking it easy here with the house to ourselves until Monday. It's strange to have things so quiet!

People should be heading back to Grace this week. It will be exciting to hear about how this school year gets started for them over in Chiang Mai. I hope they have a great year!

Last weekend was our presentation at First Baptist in Wheaton. Sam had put together a really nice video, and we also led worship and shared pictures and stories from our time in Thailand. It was a really neat time to come back to the church where we all had been just two years ago and share what God is doing at Grace. It was also really cool to see so many friends again.

While we were in Chicagoland, we spent some time looking at apartments and found one we really like. It's in Aurora, in a nice location, and the floorplan is perfect for what we want. It's got a nice sized living room, a pretty big master bedroom (big enough for our bed and a crib!), and a small second bedroom that will double as a guest room and Jeremy's office. Best of all, it's on special right now and the rent is cheaper than almost any other apartment we've seen. We filled out the application and we should hear back by early next week.

Also, Jeremy has a job!! God has provided so much earlier than we were even expecting. He'll be working from home doing computer programming for an audio-visual company that is run by a friend of my dad's. Jeremy finds the work interesting, and best of all, he gets to work from home. Makes for a cheap & easy commute (with no fighting snow and ice!) and he will have a really flexible schedule, giving him a lot more time with the baby. He'll even be able to come along for pediatrician visits and all that fun stuff. We are so excited. We're starting out with a trial period, but hopefully this will be a good arrangement for us and Jeremy can do this for awhile.

On Sunday, Jeremy's heading down to Arkansas to see his mom and grandparents, and help them get ready for moving. It'll be great for him to see them again before they all head to California. I wish I could go, but it's a long car trip for me and I can't really help much with all the packing and lifting. I'm glad Jeremy will get to see them at least.

In other news, it's less than 8 weeks until the baby's due date!! It's so exciting to know that in two months or less, we'll have a son!! I can hardly wait to meet him!

Yesterday, we drove up to Tremont, Illinois to meet with two other ladies from Grace. Marge taught in the elemenatry and Judy was the head librarian. We had lunch together, and spent the afternoon chatting. It was a lot of fun! I'm so glad we got to see them again.

Then today, we had some good old-fashioned fun here at the county fair. Tonight was the demolition derby. There is just something so exciting about watching a bunch of cars crashing into each other. One car even ended up flipping over! And some of the cars that kept running with no back end, no front end, tires bent or flat, and flames coming out of the engine...it's so much fun! It was Jeremy's first demolition derby, and he had a good time.

Tomorrow we have our "Prepared Childbirth" class at the hospital, where we learn breathing techniques and get a tour of the nursery and OB ward. Then we head up to Wheaton. Sunday we'll be sharing at First Baptist, and then Monday we'll spend some time with friends and look for apartments. It should be a fun weekend!

Jeremy's mom came up to Jacksonville this week. It was so great to see her!! I was especially glad she was able to come since I don't think I'll be able to get to either California or Arkansas for awhile, and because Jeremy's visit with her got cut short due to my surgery.

She came up on Monday and left on Wednesday, so we had some time to chat and catch up. We also went to BabiesRUs and spent the afternoon test driving strollers and looking at other baby things! We picked out a stroller which I'm really excited about-you can put the carseat in it, it folds up small, and best of all, it weighs only 9 pounds! It was fun to do baby stuff with her.

Now that she's gone, things are pretty quiet here again. I'm planning on going to a few garage sales this weekend in search of baby items, and Jeremy's doing some consulting work which keeps him busy. That's about it!

Things have been much quieter this week, thankfully!! I am more or less recovered from the surgery, and Jeremy and I are spending the days at my parents' house. He's looking for jobs, I'm looking for apartments, but for most of the day, things are pretty quiet and even a little bit dull. I guess we should be enjoying this, because once the baby comes, our lives will be neither quiet nor dull!