Another Update

I want to give a personal shout out and thank you to, evidently, our ONLY faithful blog follower, Rebecca Miller. She posted a comment yesterday---it was the most pleasant surprise Jeff and I have had in ages! (No one ever posts comments, even when we threaten) Anyway, she was so observant, and she noticed that I didn't have on a helmet in my bike picture---which is kind of funny, because I wanted to get helmets, and was actually a little nervous about going on our first bike ride without one! But to settle all fears, Jeff actually went out today and had purchased the both of us some new helmets so as to set a good example for the young chap. So, when we went on a ride tonight, we sported our new safety gear! I felt much better about any potential spills I may take.

So today and tonight were just some more of the times when I am truly amazed by what God has provided us with, and what God has done for me and my little heart! We are really in a super cool area where we can get outside all the time and, like Jacob says, check out the 5 things God made. Everytime we're out and about exploring, I have to remind myself that I am not just on vacation, this is where we get to live! We're just really excited and so thankful that God has allowed this move to go so smoothly, and has helped me to have a heart that is content where we are, with what we have.

Here are some pictures from our day today---this just may be our last beach day of the year (according to the upcoming forecast)

I showed Jacob how to use the stick things that were all over the beach to build a little "house" or fence--that kept him pretty entertained for a while!

Jeff and Jacob under the bridge out by the bay beach--we found this place on our bike ride tonight

Jacob and Jeff playing with Jacob's new "disc golf frisbee"--we found it at the beach this morning and, since the park at our house has a giant disc golf course, Jacob was so excited to stumble upon his very own frisbee!

Neptune Festival Festivities

I want to give you a heads up before you get all jazzed about this post, thinking you are going to get lots of fabulous pictures. I forgot my camera at home for our fun Saturday trip to Va Beach's annual Neptune Festival, so I will hopefully be able to bribe Bryant and Judy into sending me some of their pictures from the SANDCASTLE BUILDING CONTEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I know you are getting psyched up for those pics, so hang in there and maybe we'll have some in the next couple of days. For now, I can tell you about the rest of our weekend. As you may have inferred from my mention of the in-laws, Bryant and Judy and Amy came to visit this weekend and check out the new pad. As usual, we had a rather wet and cold weekend, but we managed to get out and see and do a lot of the same things we have been doing since we moved in (minus the beach). On Saturday, we went to the Neptune festival down at the boardwalk and took in the sights---aka, the professional sandcastle sculptors and their creations, and the million mile craft show. It was pretty chilly that morning, but the rain held off so we could spend a few hours out and about.

I liked this sand sculpture the best

Another sand sculpture

One of the many intense sand sculptures--that really is all sand

Jeff and Jacob on the helicopter ride at the carnival thing on the boardwalk...Jacob later told me that he dreamed about flying in his blue helicopter

Jacob fishing at the Neptune Festival--he didn't want a prize, all he wanted to do was keep fishing :(

Waiting to try some Native American cuisine at Pocahontas Pancake House--and evidently not very excited about it!!

*Thanks to Amy for all the pictures--there was one picture that was pretty funny of Jacob and Bryant and Judy riding bikes/tricycle, but it was too dark to see them, and I couldn't seem to make it any brighter---oh well.

Bryant and Judy also brought us our new prized possessions (sorry kitchenaid mixer)-- our new-to-us beach cruisers!! WHOOOP WHOOP! They were generous enough to 1.) let us use their bikes down here since we have so many places we need to go by bike and 2.) all ride in Bryant's truck for 6 hours in order to bring us those bikes! (Well, his truck is probably more spacious than my car, but still, we appreciated it!) Jefferina quickly ran out and bought Jacob a seat to hook on the back of my bike, and shortly thereafter Jeff and I rode to the hardware store to pimp my bike out with a basket on the front!! Again, WHOOP WHOOP!! Here is your visual aid:

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am now officially living in a dream world--being able to cruise on a bike through the park, down to the beach, to the sandwich shop at the corner, or to the Kroger 2 blocks over----this is gonna be AWESOME!!!!!!!!

Anyway, as luck would have it, the sun came out and it was balmy enough to practically go swimming about an hour after the in-laws headed back to S.C. ---so we took advantage of the weather and went for a cruise on the bikes--we went out to the bay, which, by the way, we measured and is only 1.2 miles from our house, and then cruised the rich people neighborhood across the street from our neighborhood.

Jeff and Jacob down at the Bay beach, with the Chesapeake Bay Bridge behind them

Tonight, before Jacob read books to go to bed, he told Jeff he "needed to send one e-mail"---and as you can see from the picture, he needed to do it from Daddy's office, at his desk.

Quick Addition

***I can't believe I forgot to mention this in the previous post, but we went on a walk the other night while Jacob rode his tricycle (he calls it his "trike"). Well, he has gotten really good riding it, and I figured he would be able to ride it a long ways, but there is no way I could have ever guessed how far he would end up riding. He rode 2 miles!! He only fell off a few times--when he was going super fast downhill and when Daddy was trying to hurry him across the pedestrian crosswalk at an intersection. Other than that, it was smooth sailing! I don't have any pictures, but he was POOPED when we finally made it back home!

A Few New Thingys

So, two big updates from this past week:

1.) Here are some of the things I did for Jeff's work:

I really should clarify on the whole "things that I did for Jeff's work" ---those 300 sugar cookies (yes, that's right--that is not an exaggeration) were a collaborative effort by me, Mom and Jeff.

The outside of Jeff's homemade "business" greeting cards--looks just like he made it

The inside of Jeff's "greeting card" with his fancy business card sleeve

A Harvest basket with pumpkin dip and ginger snap cookies--no room for the gourds this time.

2.) Our new addition to the family:

Yes! That's right, we got a Kitchenaid Mixer! What with all the baking going on up in here, we decided to finally spend our Macy's giftcard from our wedding (and then some :( ) and get the ultimate appliance. And, yes, the silver color in the picture is what color we got. So far, only cheers from all users. Here are some comments by witnesses to the miracle of the Kitchenaid:

Mom says : "That Kitchenaid mixer is SIC!!!" (and she tried to throw up a gang sign when she said it, I don't really know why, but it happened)

Jeff says: " This is the most miraculous kitchen appliance in the history of man and the kitchen. I can't believe how efficient Lindsey now is in the kitchen!"

3.) Here are some pics of Mom, Jacob, and me at the beach today:

Jumping in again, only to land and roll

Hey, maybe this is why he has sand packed in his ears and every other crevice imaginable after we leave the beach

Jumping into the pit





Sandy man--if you look carefully, you will see that he has sand all over the side of his face and entire body.

Patcrafting--BAHAHAHAHAH!!

Patcraft Designweave is the brand of Shaw carpeting Jeff is peddling these days (not really peddling per se, since it's all legal), so as you read on and see that I have been crafting, you will see how incredibly entertaining this post's title is.

Anyway, here are a couple more things I have done this week:

1.) Thank-you cards/ whatever kind of cards Jeff wants them to be

2.) Gift baskets for the lady folk he runs into

Happy Grandparent's Day

Well, this is a "holiday" I certainly never thought I would take part in---another purely gimmicky Hallmark idea. But, alas, here we are, and since Jacob has a few--well really, quite a few cool grandparents (Jeff and I have a few as well), I thought that in lieu of a Hallmark card, I would do a quick blog post dedicated to them. It's not a lot, but here you go!

* Disclaimer* Somewhere along the lines, throughout our moving, we don't seem to have all of our pictures on our computers, so unfortunately, Ms. Williams (Jacob's great grandma) got the short end of the stick with her picture--this is all we have right now!! Jacob still loves her a lot!

As you can see from the pictures, we were trying to find pictures of Jacob and the grandparents P.B. (pre-blog) ; he was around 6 months in most of those pictures.


And as yet another sneak peak into the life of Lindsey, Jeff and Jacob, here we are at the park this afternoon riding Pickles the blue seal and Aye-Aye, the brown chipmunk (Jacob named them last week)

Beach Day

We went to the beach again today, after a week of rainy, non-beach weather. Today was beautiful--I did, however, feel it was a little chilly to be frolicking in the ocean, but that didn't really stop Jacob. He and Jeff played "tackle" (football) on the beach for a long time, and then Jacob played by himself. This solo game involved him throwing the ball, running after it, throwing himself face first into the sand, and then rolling toward the football and grabbing it...then he repeated. Today we also experimented with "ocean soccer" where you are playing in the waves, and thus playing against the ocean--you just never know where the waves are going to take that ball.

This is the first 5 minutes of our beach trip, and Jacob is already running. In fact, the way he runs in circles down by/in the waves reminds me of the way a dog may act when he sees the ocean.

Still running- and by the angle of his body, we can infer that he is running FAST!

"Now that the ball is set up in this here "tee" what shall we do next?"


Making Jacob say cheese--these pics don't usually work out really well

Our little baby Michael Vick--WHAT? He's a great thrower and is going to be growing up in the Tidewater area--that is--God willing, where the similarities will end. (As a side note, as soon as Jeff sees this caption, he will probably make me take it down, so enjoy it while it's here)


Solo football


BAHHHHAHAHAHAH! This is how he lands EVERY time he dives for the ball. He pretty much dives for anything and everything these days---that's been a challenge for me because I'm not much for diving on the rock hard ground myself.


Jacob likes to sit facing the ocean and let the waves knock him over and spin his around


I just liked this picture-- it looks like he's still a baby guy :(


Waves enveloping his sandy self

After nap time, we had a few things to do around the house, and of course, Jacob was dying to play with Bella (the 8 year old next door neighbor), so, as luck would have it, Bella rode by on her bike and Jacob went outside in his underwear to flag her down and tell her to go in his backyard and wait for him. No joke. It's just how he rolls. Anyway, she ended up coming over and playing with him for 3 hours! WOOOHOOOOO!!!! Jeff was able to go to his storage unit, load up the rest of his carpet stuff, set up shelves in the garage and completely organize the garage and shed, while I sewed a curtain thingy and painted a table! I'll tell you one thing, Bella was a huge blessing for us today--she's very sweet and always riding her bike around, looking for something to do...well here is what she did today...

There's sweet Bella and Jacob. Bella came in the backyard to get me before this picture took place, and said, "Jacob says he needs 2 blankets and a pillow for his wagon bed". This is Jacob in his wagon bed---he rode laying down most of the time. He really has a trying life.

Bella pulling Jacob in his sweet ride

Bella helping Jacob on his tricycle

How I Get to be a Real Helper!

So, as many of you may know, as wives God calls us to be our husband's "helper". For me that's kind of hard sometimes, because I don't really know how to help--like I offer to iron Jeff's shirts to help him get ready in the morning, but he likes to iron (WOOHOOO!!!) so I can't do that, or I check to see if he needs anything while I'm out running errands, and more often than not, he has already done everything he needs to get done. Basically, besides making sure there is food for us to eat, and trying to keep costs in life low, I don't feel like I am directly helping him much beyond that. So that's why I was excited with Jeff's job now, because I can be a big help! When he goes to see clients, he will bring things a lot of the time---different sales reps bring different things, some do it more often than others, etc. Anyway, bringing something is just a good way to remind the people that you are around and available to help with any business they may need. I'm assuming it's also a nice ice breaker since Jeff is going around and introducing himself to most of the clients at this point.

Jeff said that people in training kept telling him to just "be creative" with what you bring--- well, that's sort of hard for Jeff, but luckily, I love that kind of stuff! So I am helping him come up with baskets or bags of things to drop off for people when he goes around. I'm thinking that themed baskets will be good--especially for the fall months--they lend well to thematic foods. Yesterday, I made 1 million (yes, you read that right) sugar cookies with piping and icing for him to take today. I did them in his brand's colors (turquoise and orange) , and after a little work, in his brand's logo shape.

So far, what I've come up with after his "Patcraft introduction cookies" for the month of September is a harvest themed basket. I'll just stick a gourd or two in each thing, with a container of pumpkin dip and ginger snaps. And VOILA! It will just scream autumn! I''ll get a picture of that later for you!

Back to the point, I am really excited that God has cared for me in this move and job as well, I never would have thought that I would have the opportunity to help Jeff in this way and do stuff that I really like at the same time----all while staying at home with Jacob!

Sample tray of cookies

My cookie cutter I fashioned out of a star cookie cutter! I just used some needle nosed pliers and bent that bad boy into the shape I wanted! Jeff and I will be mass marketing these to all workers in Patcraft and one day soon, he will retire on the cookie cutter earnings.

BONUS PIC!!
It's hard to see, but that is Jacob and me over at the ice cream truck that comes through the neighborhood every day. This was Jacob's first ice cream man experience and it was competely uneventful except for the man driving didn't speak a lick of English and had to try to point at things to tell me what he was talking about.