Home sweet home

We are now in our new home and life is finally beginning to slow down a bit. Life has been crazy over the past two week moving in, visiting with family, meeting college staff and students, starting our jobs, and adjusting to life in the south. It has been an exciting, sad, shocking, and tiring experience. Mat is settling in with his new role as Men's Soccer Coach, and I am training to become the Business Manager for the athletic office and, as usual, we're both still learning how to be Abigail's parents. Still seems weird when I read that I'm a parent.

The move went fairly smoothly, Mat, Abby, and I flew out on Monday, August 17, and my wonderful parents (yes, we know and appreciate how great they are) drove a moving truck, in four day, all the way across the country, with all of our stuff, two cats, and Squirt. They only had some minor hiccups, such as driving through a torrential down pour, bathing and clipping poopy/peepy soaked cats, and staying in a moldy hotel. While they were driving the three Phelps' stayed with Uncle Randy (dad's brother) and Aunt Jolynn. Abby loved Lucy the cat, but she didn't like Ab so much. The soccer team helped us move all of our belongings in on Friday then we discovered all the cleaning that had to be done, ewwwww. Renting here is not like renting in so. cal.

Ok, I'm tired of writing, so I'll finish catching everyone up to date tomorrow. As for where we are at right now, Abby is down for her nap and Mat is away at his fourth soccer game, someplace four hours away. He couldn't find enough drivers, due to an away football game that the whole town was going to, so they had to rent a bus, which made a big dent in his budget. Abby and I walked down Main street today, only to discover that almost every place was closed for the three day weekend. Hmmm, definitely not used to that. We did find a park behind the Baptist church that is open to the public, which was a wonderful blessing :) She loves going to the park.

I'll upload some photos of our new place/town as soon as I find my camera. Been missing for a while, and I'm really hoping and praying that I didn't leave it in the rental car.

Moving across the Country

We are all packed up and ready to roll tomorrow morning to the airport. Our wonderful friend Melissa is driving us and we will arrive on the East Coast tomorrow night. God has been so amazing through this whole process, and it has been obvious that his hand has been at work in every detail on both ends. We are so grateful to all of our Brookside family for all of their love and support over the years that we've been in Redlands. We are going to miss everyone terribly, but are looking forward to the new opportunity, and super excited to finally have a job! Thanks again for all of your prayers!

He's Back!

Mat returned from the east coast last night after a whirlwind trip of 6 meetings and meeting the team. Abby was especially glad to have him home. She had been looking for him every morning and waving goodnight to him at night. She was even looking for him in his pillow case. We will find out sometime today if he got the job, then we just have to figure out all the little details. Thanks for all your prayers and support!

East Coast

Ahhhhh, it's actually a possibility, Mat is flying out tomorrow for an interview. His flight leaves in the a.m. and returns Wed. p.m. He's going to miss youth group :( Makes me sad. So many questions, and so little answers, hopefully we'll know some more concrete details on Wed. Please pray.

Many Changes

It's been a long, long time since we've published anything and that is largely because of all the changes happening in our lives. To start with, new pictures of Abby have been posted.

To start with, the six of us, Mat, Joy, Abby, Squirt, Garfy, and Skeetsy, moved in with my parents at the beginning of June. We thought it was a little ridiculous to keep renting an apartment when neither of us had a job. Well, actually, Mat had just started his club coaching job, but that wasn't bringing in any income, as the team was brand spankin' new.

To keep it brief, Mat has now applied for well over 100 jobs, had 1 interview, soon to be 2, and has had 0 job offers. Mat is coaching a U-19 Titans club team, which he is now getting paid for, and has his final exam for his first class for his master's in Coaching and Athletic Administration this week. He has gotten a 100% on all of his assignments so far, keep your fingers crossed. He will be starting two more classes next quarter. He is still the wonderful youth pastor at Brookside Church and a wonderful father and husband.

Joy has started working with Kari, the associate pastor at our church, for three days a week. She loves spending time with Kari and is able to bring Abby with her. Joy also helped start a women's bible study at Church and is loving that. She also helps with all of the office type work for the youth and is thinking about starting discipleship groups for the youth. Joy still loves being a mommy and watching Abby girl grow and change.

Abby is keeping busy, as usual. She has learned to walk, wave, blow her nose, blow kisses, now has eight teeth, and still loves grapes and berries. Abby loves her baby doll, ducky, dirt, sand, mud, bubbles, playing with her two best friends, Jacob and Elijah, anything shiny, especially jewelry, or "Bling" as my mom says. She can say Mama, dada, and a few other words. Rick and Diane have been a huge help with Abby and she loves being able to see grandma and grandpa everyday.

Thanks for all your prayers and support!

New Abby Photos

Abby's 9 month photos have been posted.

She got to see great grandpa and grandma Phelps last night and had lots of fun crawling around their hotel room and being noisy, as usually. She actually let grandpa hold her for a few minutes, without squirming, which was amazing.

We are still waiting for those little teeth to pop through, only one has shown up so far. Another is about to make it's entrance, but it seems a little shy. Abby got her first new pair of shoes today. We're going to Disney Land next Saturday to celebrate My dad's and Elody's birthday and we thought it would probably be a good idea for her to have a pair of shoes that fit :)

We've been busy packing. Only 6 days left, Yikes!

Week 3 of the job hunt during prayer and fasting

Day 1: Mat got in touch with his school and figured out everything he needs to do.

Day 2: Joy picked up the job application for Mat and he filled the whole thing out in about 10 mins.

Day 3: Not much on the job front, we had youth group and spent most of the day preparing for that. We did pray for Mat during accountability though. We decided to move in with Joy's parents.

Day 4: Mat received a call from the varsity coach asking if he was interested in coaching a club team. He called the mom in charge of the team and is meeting with the team next Tues. Mat was also able to find out where to turn his other job application in at. Joy got in touch with the charter school she applied at and her credential analyst.

Day 5: Mat talked to the contact about the driving job. It turned out to not be what he was expecting. It would involve driving to Orange County daily and overtime.

Day 6: Joy found out that the charter school is only hiring teachers who already hold their clear credential :( She only has her preliminary.

Day 7: We went to church and a night of worship. Two people were given references to fill out for Mat's grad school.