My Tim

Tim and I celebrated our forth anniversary last week and I had wanted to write something about him and us but just hadn't done it yet. So now I need to or else I never will, right? And I'm about to get a second cup of coffee (shhh!) so I know I'll be filled with energy. :) And this might get rather long so I'll try to sprinkle in some pictures. And feel free to grab some coffee for yourself!
He is so precious to me and I think we have one of the sweetest love stories I've ever heard (I might be biased but I'm sure other's would think it is pretty interesting!) So I'm going to tell that today!
Background info: My parents have been life-long friends with Georgianna and Eric H. They met my dad before he met my mom and have had a very special relationship. They were the ones who led him to the Lord and Georgianna prayed for a long time that my dad would marry a Christian girl. Well, he found my mom in New Plymouth, NZ and she was not a Christian. However, God is good and Georgianna was able to come to NZ for the wedding and just days before led her to the Lord too!! And such was the beginning of their life-long friendship.
Fast-forward a couple of decades and the H's have seven kids and my family has seven kids. We all grew up super close to each other and spent a lot of time visiting back and forth. One year I went down to the H's and we took a picture in their van, all the H's and me. Mimi (Georgianna's mom) saw the photo and asked me for a copy, which I sent her and which she placed on her fridge. Very important part of the story!! :)
Georgianna has two sisters and one brother and the sister right under her is Carol Sue M. Well, Carol has four kids and her oldest boy happens to be Tim! Since we had grown up so close to the H's we also knew the M's really well, and I was good friends with his mom and sisters. I had seen a couple of pictures of Tim and always heard great things about him but strangely enough we never met! In all those years of rendezvous with the H's and M's Tim and I were never in the same place at the same time! And honestly I don't think that Tim knew I existed...until the fall of 2002. He was at Mimi's house and happened to see the photo on her fridge. Hmmm, he said, "who is that girl with all of my cousins?" Oh thats Stacy S. everyone said! "Who is she?" Tim replied. And everyone gasped because they were shocked that he did not know that precious and wonderful family! ;) You know how mom's and aunts are and they claim to this day that they "set us up" after Tim's question. He very nonchalantly asked his mom to invite our family to the Ranch for Thanksgiving but we were unable to go. (which was a blessing because I was at the end of a dead-end relationship and it wouldn't have been the best timing.)
However, the opportunity soon came for us to meet and it happened in typical H and S fashion. I was asked to drive from Houston to the Hill Country (where the Ranch is) for the day and pick up a few Henderson kids. A "kid swap" as we called it. This was a few days after Christmas (Jan. 7th to be exact) and my mind started thinking. We had gotten a Christmas letter from Carol Sue and family with several pictures in it and I saw Tim and thought, "hmm he's really cute!" And then over Christmas I learned that he had broken up with his long-time girlfriend the previous summer (remember the picture, Kristin?). So on the morning of the 7th I thought he might be at home on break from school so I shamelessly curled my hair and put on make-up. Heehee, the wily ways of a woman! ;) Oh and I was 19 at the time!
My sister and I arrived at the ranch and as we were walking up to the house I realized that Tim was not there. Oh well! I learned that he was at work in San Antonio and was hoping to get off in time to come hang out. In the meanwhile we all went on a horse ride through the ranch and I rode double with Carol Sue (Tim's sweet mom). And the whole time she told me about the ranch and talked a lot about her oldest son. :) Then when we arrive back at the house after our ride she announced "Tim is here!". And there he was! He came walking up to us and we shook hands and I was still on the horse (soo romantic!). We then all went inside and ate some lunch and played some cards. Tim never left my side and strategically asked questions about me (like how old I was!). And I thought, "hmmm, this is interesting, I'm going to test him". And I announced that I wanted to go outside and go for a walk and just went out without asking him to go with me. Yup, he followed. :) And the group was taking a while to get going so I grabbed the nearest H kid (Kathleen!) and the three of us set out on a walk. More questions, one of which got us on the subject of baseball. Now, everyone who knows me at all knows that I love baseball and have been in love with the Atlanta Braves (and Chipper Jones!) since I was eleven. Kathleen knew this so when Tim announced that he too liked the Braves she just snorted. Soo hilarious! She was the best little chaperone! And then we were talking about something else and Tim gave this killer line, "since we're talking about computers, can I have your email address?" Priceless!! I said yes and thought to myself, I'll give it to him if he asks me again. :)
We made our way back to the house talking and talking and silent Kathleen just taking it all in (thanks again, Kathleen! You're the best!). And we actually took a group photo but I don't think I have it scanned in.
Anyway, he did ask me again and so I gave it to him and after a long and very interesting day we started back to Houston. The next morning I went back to work and my sweet friend Lizzles (Elizabeth D) knew something was up. Might be the way I didn't really walk into the room but floated in and told her about this cowboy I met the day before. I wasn't sure if he would email me but when I checked that morning there it was! Our very first (of many!) emails!
I don't have a picture of the two of us when we first met scanned in and I'm feeling kind of lazy. So here's one from March of '03 when we were able to spend a lot of time together over spring break.

At the ranch sitting on the fence while my patient brother conducted a little photo shoot for us. (Thanks Nathan!)
And that was the beginning of my relationship with my wonderful Tim! I'll probably post more later but now I'm all hyped up and need to get to work! But let me post just a few more cute photos of us (if I may say so myself!).

Another one from that spring break. Gosh! We look young!

Post-wedding family camping trip.

This was also taken after we got married but I still like it.

Sooo happy to be marrying him! And he cried the whole time.

Best kiss EVER.

Ok, this has inspired me to post more pictures of our wedding. It was so perfect and we made so many memories!! Seth was the best, best man ever! Every time we looked at each other up there we both started cracking up. It was great! Ok, more about that and the crazy wedding assistant lady later!!
Love y'all!!

Stupid painters

Hello my peeps. A request has been made for a new post and as there's not a whole lot going on I'll vent about my favorite subject. In April our landlord told us that he had hired a group of painters to strip and re-paint our house. These guys had painted Vincent's favorite bar in town and the "owner" was the bartender. Keep this in mind!
So waa-hoo! We were thrilled and happy to have the house painted. Very exciting! They started at the end of April or the beginning of May and got right to work...blasting this poor 50+ year old house with sand. Not exactly what Vincent wanted but oh well. Yeah, it worked, blasted the paint off and created deep groves in sections of the wood. Vincent started biting his fingernails nervously and told them he was not happy with the results. Oh it'll be okay, I guess they thought because they proceeded to just start painting. Uhhh, no go. They then had words with Vincent and started puttying up the groves which obviously showed through the paint. During all this we endure sand being blown into every crevice of the house and unfortunately left some windows open a few days. And at the end of May we had our first visitor, sweet Elizabeth Dillon. Ok, I thought, at least they'll surely be finished by the time Susan and Kristin come (in June). All the while the painters continue to show up maybe two days a week for a few hours a day. And they usually came on the days I had off work (which explains my very wimpy tan). June comes and goes and still they're painting, then puttying and scraping off the putty. July comes and goes. Vincent still very upset, gives them till the end of the month to finish. Does it happen? Nope. They still continue to come maybe two days a week and work from about 9-2. And then FINALLY last week a whole mess of them come on Monday and in one day completely paint the house. Waa-hoo!! Talk to Vincent and find out that he paid them to paint THREE coats of paint on the whole house. Hmmm...interesting as they only came that one day! The guy insists that they did two coats on the house in that one day (from 8-3). Vincent is sick of dealing with the whole mess so he just pays the guy and gets rid of them. And he still paid for the supplies for three coats and did not get that. Poor Vincent! But thank goodness they're finally through!!! And now that the temp has dropped to the low 80's as a high I might be able to get a tiny bit of a tan. :)
Moral of the story: never hire your friends! especially part-time bartenders.


The front door of the house.

Tim arriving home from work.

Sniper coming to greet Tim.

Side of the house.

My pitiful little garden.

Little watermelon finally growing!

These next two are "before" pics. Yikes, that snow scares me. That was the first day of MARCH this year. :*(

20 Week sonogram

Here she is! I know these pics are hard to see but I wanted to show one anyway. :) I can't figure out how to flip it but oh well. Everything looks good! The tech was able to see her kidneys and everything this time and he said she weighs 13 oz. Awwww! :) Just a few more weeks until she reaches "viability". I think its either 24 or 26 weeks when they get developed enough to survive outside the womb if something were to happen. Hopefully that won't be necessary and she'll keep baking until December.
Yesterday was our 4th anniversary so after the sonogram we went to the mall and bought her a little outfit. Tim actually helped pick it out! I think its soo cute so I wanted to post a picture of it.

20 weeks!

Half-way!! At least I hope so! A lot of first-timers go over their due date, but I'm going to just pretend for my own sake that she'll arrive on or before December 20th. :)
It feels like its been so much longer than 20 weeks! I guess we've only known about 16 weeks but it seems like it should be more. Oh well, hopefully this will be the downward end and things will pick up and go faster.
I've enjoyed being pregnant so far. I haven't had to endure the morning sickness that most women face but I've had other symptoms. Mostly fatigue. Its very annoying to always be tired unless I've had a lot of rest and getting tired very easily is well, tiresome! Also, I've developed some kind of eye allergy that is extremely annoying. I've always had very poor vision and have worn contacts or glasses since I was eleven. Well, it seems my eyes are revolting against my contacts! And its been very gradual. At first they would just get slightly red and irritated if I wore them too long but now pretty much if I wear them at all they get bright cherry red and hurt like the dickens! I've heard of women developing allergies while they're pregnant and maybe my eyes just don't like my contacts anymore! Its frustrating though, I wouldn't mind wearing my glasses but they're not nearly as convenient as contacts. And my eyes get very dry so my vision is hazy and that's extremely annoying! Well, anyway, sorry to be whiny about this but its very difficult to have your vision compromised. It was difficult even to clean for Tim's family because I couldn't tell if I was getting the floor clean or not! So if you think of it, please pray for my poor sick eyes and hopefully they will return to normal soon!
Oh and if you tell me I look like a mom when I wear glasses you are no longer my friend. Just kidding! ...sort of... :)

Love it!

Okay, I think I like this one now! I bought some polka dot blankets a while back and when I pulled them out again I realized how much I liked them. They're super cute and not too girlie. But with this one I can accent with a little pink and red to make it slightly more feminine but without going overboard. Plus, her room is very dark and has all wood floors, walls, and ceiling (feels kind of like a coffin, actually!). So this set will really brighten it up. Opinions?



Oh and its also at Target and got great reviews. Everyone says how it feels like the expensive stuff but isn't! Plus, since its from Target it won't be too expensive and it will be easy to accessorize. Am I over-analyzing this?? :)

Funny onesies

Thought y'all would enjoy these!

Colors

So I keep going back and forth with the color scheme for Libby's room. I'm not a big pink person but I love the soft yellows and blues of this one.



But then I think maybe I'll want pink. :) My mom and sister sent me some adorable little booties and a pink rubber ducky even! They are soo cute so who knows. :) We'll probably go to Babies R Us in the next few weeks and then I can feel the textures and see things in person. But until then, what do y'all think?

The original Libby

Name?

So we looove the name Liberty Ann "Libby". What do y'all think? And yes, its the same name as another little sweetie we had. Remember her?

GIRL!!!

We are having a little GIRL!!! We're very excited!! We were able to find out last Thursday and I have been floating ever since. Tim's family was all there waiting in the front room and before I came out I changed my shirt from black to pink! I also had a blue one and was going to use that to tell them. No one got it at first and then they realized I had changed my shirt! It was a lot of fun!
I had thought the baby was a boy for some reason and there are already three girls among Tim's two sisters so I thought the odds were with a boy. But she'll have fun with her cousins! We're used to a lot of girls, my parents had three before they had any boys and the first two in Tim's family are girls. It will be fun to have a girl as the first one to help out with the others, sorry sweetie! ;)
I'm now 19 1/2 weeks along, almost half-way! And have been able to feel her kick and roll around. Its so much fun!! But it just reminds me she's in there and I want her out! I'm also starting to show a lot more but I don't think strangers really realize I'm preggers. I was talking to a nice lady at the park the other day and she was completely shocked that I was pregnant, much less 4 months along! I guess people just think I have a round belly! Tim tells people I drink too much beer. :) I don't have a very recent picture but here's one from 17 weeks.

Updates!

I've got a lot to update everyone on so here goes...

1.) We had 7 members of Tim's family here for the past week and we had a fantastic time! We went into the city, two state parks, and out on the lake. It was awesome having them here and showing them around everywhere. Thanks for coming, guys!! I'll post some pictures as soon as I get some from them, I've gotten really lazy with taking pictures.

2.) Today I got a call and found out I do not have a job anymore. The little baby I was watching has taken a turn for the worse and the family thinks it will be best to have someone live with them. An aunt is going to come live there with them and it will help give him some consistency. I'm sure this is all in God's timing but as we all know, that isn't always our timing! Please pray for us and we figure out what our plans are. I was going to quit at the end of October but before then we had lofty plans to pay off my car and save up a little. Things don't always work out the way we want them to but I know God will take care of us and we'll be just fine.

3.) Tim's job is going great! He had an evaluation and they told him how happy and impressed they are with him. They also gave him a very generous "salary adjustment" which makes everyone concerned very happy. Tim is loving the work and the people and feels like he really made the right decision to move up here. Its really a blessing and the Lord has taken very good care of him. It has also allowed us to meet a couple of terrific new friends, Jonathan and Vanessa, who live in the city. They're a blast to hang out with and have come out to the country a few times with us.

4.) We have not found a church yet. :( We haven't been able to visit very many but have not been too impressed by the ones we have visited. The Northeast is certainly not like the Bible Belt!!! Please be praying that we can find one soon!

5.) I'm hoping to have the opportunity to visit Texas this fall at some time. My dear friend Katey has generously offered to throw me a Fort Worth shower and on the same weekend my family is also giving me one in San Antonio. I'm really excited about that and cannot wait to see all of my dear family and friends, I MISS Y'ALL!!!

More to come soon but for now I am going to sign off. I'll write a baby update soon. :)

OK, nevermind!

So I love my mac and the blog utility but I also like my money and don't wish to part with $100 every year! So I'm going to switch back to using blogger. Got any ideas to fancy it up at all?

We've had a very busy past couple of weeks and I will write some updates today because I'm staying at home.

5 weeks!!

Still working on my mac site, sorry!!
Here is the first pic I took and the last flat belly one for a while!! I'm now 11 weeks and I'll post a new one soon. :)

Horrah!!!

http://web.mac.com/smerkin83/Site/Welcome.html

My new blog is finally up and running! I broke down and did the .Mac thing so it will be much better this time around.
Have a great day!

Hillary vs. the coffee maker

LOL!!!! Sorry y'all!! I just couldn't resist!!!

Friends are a blessing!!

We have some of the best friends in the world! And we have been so very blessed in the past couple of months to meet some great people. (yes, they do exist North of the Mason Dixon Line!) When we rented our house we didn't realize we were getting friends in the package! Our landlord, Vincent, has become a good buddy of ours along with his sweet girlfriend Christina, and his sister Christine and bro-in-law Rob. The whole group came over for cake and ice cream on Tim's birthday and we visited and had a great time.
So here are some fun pics of that event:




And this past weekend we also had our first company! Tim's cousin Kristin, aka 'Strongsome' came up from DC for the weekend. We all had a fantastic time! I didn't get a lot of pictures from her visit but we made dinner together, had Vincent over, worked in the yard, shopped at the outlet mall, and ate a ton!!! I love her so much and it was great to see her! Hopefully her visit opened a floodgate and we are ready for lots of company! So break our door down and come soon!!


Thanks for protecting the new grass seed from those pesky birds, Kristin!!!

Pictures!

An update!

Hello peoples!! Yes, I am finally writing an update! I'm going to get Tim to fix my real blog but for the time being this will have to work.
We've been here for five weeks now and are getting settled in just fine. First off, we love our little house! After I write this post I'm going to put up a bunch of pictures of it. It really has been a perfect fit for us, and it came with friends! Our landlord, Vincent (or Vinny to everyone else) is a doll and he's been so helpful. He's #9 of 13 kids and 11 of them live in this little town! His sister lives next door to us and she and her husband are awesome! In fact, they all came over yesterday to help celebrate Tim's 27th birthday! I made a carrot cake with a recipe from one of my new favorite blogs Pioneer Woman . It turned out really delish! They have a new little baby and he is just precious!! I know we are going to be great friends with them.
And on Saturday we went into the city for the day! It was so much fun!! It was a lot like what I imagined only with more people and more buildings! We walked around Central Park, went to a museum, shopped on 5th Avenue (well, at least I did), ate pizza, and went to a comedy show!! It was great! And our legs are very, very sore. If I lived in the city I would either get really skinny with all the walking around or really fat with all the yummy food available! The show was fantastic! It was an impromptu family-friendly show that made us laugh sooo hard! Highly recommended! We finally got home around 2 and were totally pooped! But it was a great day, so fun!
Tim is loving his job, I think he's really fitting in well (of course!). They recently put him in charge of something, a part of a part of a project. And he's doing a great job with it (again, of course!).
I found a great little part-time job watching a 5 month old baby three days a week. He's a really special little boy who was adopted at birth by this family. The family is fantastic and I'm really excited about it. And I start tomorrow! Hopefully it goes as well as I think it will! I'm not looking forward to waking up early (4:45 :( ) but I'll get over it. I'll post more about it later!
So in a nut shell, this is what we've been up to lately! We really, really miss everyone and I can't wait to have some company!!

Miss you!!

Hey guys! I miss you SOOO much!!!!

(I need those pictures y'all took on our last day of school!) I don't have any pics of Issy!

TAG!

Tag I'm it!

I get to play a fun game of tag


Five fav movies:
1. Pride & Prejudice (the loong one!)
2. Love Actually
3. Robin Hood (the Disney Cartoon)
4. The Rare Breed
5. Charades

Five fav Tv shows:
1. Friends
2. Law and Order
3. American Idol
4. Hogan's Heroes
5. 24


Five places I would like to be:
1. New Zealand
2. Anywhere with family
3. Camping with my family
4. Lying on the beach in Florida
5. Tim's family's ranch

Five fav foods:
1. Pizza
2. Mexican food
3. Italian
4. Ice cream
5. ice cream nachos/ El Gabacho

Five fav songs:
1. Bubbly/ Colbie Caillet
2. Look at your girl "Chris LeDoux"
3. Anything by Brad Paisley
4. Carrie Underwood songs
5. Mr. Policeman!!!


five Things I like to do:
1. Visit NZ with Tim
2. Move back to Texas
3. Run another half and break my old times
4. Travel with Tim all over the place
5. Hang out with friends



Poeple I'm tagging
1. Catherine
2. Susan (do you still blog?)
3. Not really sure about anyone else...
4. Tim!

This is how I feel

This is how I feel. This is how I've felt since yesterday when Tim made the decision that it will be the best thing for him to take a job in NY. Yep, two born-and-raised Texans are heading off to "Yankee-land". He got offered a terrific job up north of NYC in Tarrytown, NY, and we'll be leaving in a little less than two weeks. Its exciting and terrifying at the same time. I'm going to miss everyone here like crazy, especially my favorite family (you know who you are)! Life will go on and I know that the Lord will take care of us and protect and provide for us, but it's kind of hard to accept that right now. I usually love change and look forward to something different, but this one is very different!! So for the next while I'm sure I'll have many days when I feel like the poor little OU boy when Texas slaughtered them a couple of years back. You know we'll be representing our state up there!!
We'll miss you and we love you all and thank goodness for the internet!!

PS and I'll soon have my new website up and running again. Apparently it "broke" and Tim said, "This is why you PAY someone to host your site!" :) Poor Tim. ;)

Time to move!

Hello!!
I'm making use of all the features of my new macbook and am creating a new website!
Here is the link smerkin please check it out and let me know what you think!
**Tim says: only 10 people at a time please, no thanks to Windows XP. (He's hosting it on his PC) :)

My day job

I have the pleasure of assisting in the homeschooling of these three awesome kids and this is a video of them reciting James 1 completely from memory. From left to right: Avery, Wick, and Hill. They've been working on it since we started school in August and they reached our goal to be done by Thanksgiving! It's a little long but listen to each of the verses, they're so full of meaning that I feel like I learn something every time I hear it.

Memories...

Last weekend we spent several days throwing our things in boxes and hauling them across the parking lot to our new apartment. I'll post some pictures soon but it made me think about the first place Tim and I lived in. It's really the coolest story, too! Tim, his mom, and I drove up May '04 up to Arlington to check out UTA and some apartments up here. We found one and decided to move in the weekend before we got married. So in August, my dad and youngest sister and I drove up from Magnolia and Tim and his parents came up from Wimberley. So we had a U-Haul truck, a car, Tim's dad's truck and trailer all full of our stuff! When we got to our new home our parents were not too impressed and the apartment people didn't even have a place ready for us! So Tim and I went to get our marriage license and the parents hung out across the street from the complex. While they were there a couple of cops pulled up so the dads went to talk with them. These two kind men proceeded to tell our dads to not let us move in here and we would really regret it if we did!!! So when we returned our parents strongly advised us to find another place. At 2:00, on Friday afternoon, when we had to return the U-Haul truck by 6:00!! We tried not to freak out and did the only thing we could think of, we prayed. And then went driving around Arlington looking for apartments. And to make this long story a little shorter, we ended up finding an apartment about as close to UTA as you can get, and they let us move in that very afternoon!! It was truly an amazing blessing from God!! We stayed there for a year before moving to a bigger place and Tim and I have so many happy memories from our little first home. And here's a few pictures so you can see our first little home as a married couple.
And I'll post some pics of our current home when I get some decor and pictures hung.

Summer vs. Fall (or cold vs. warm)

So all I’ve heard lately is how much everyone loves fall and they are soo excited about the cold weather. And I’m just going to have to see about that. Sure, the first few weeks are different and exciting but after that, aren’t we just wishing for warmer weather again? Okay, maybe it’s just me but I love summer. I mean I really, really love summer. I love summer clothes, laying out in the pool, my birthday, vacations, the sun, lemonade, fresh fruit/veggies, the sun, long days, and many more things if I had an endless amount of time. Now, on the other hand there are some good things about cooler weather. Lets see…I get to pull out my feather mattress pad (Tim doesn’t let me keep it on year-round) ☺, nice cool evenings to run in, Tim’s hot cocoa, the World Series, holidays, and sweat pants. But there are also many things I do NOT like about cold weather! Always being cold, shorter days, running in cold weather, sweaters that make me look fat, clothes that are more expensive, dry skin, and counting down the days until spring.
All right, Jess, Liz, and several others, I do admit that there are some good things about fall and cool weather, but to be honest, as soon as Christmas is over I’ll be counting down the days until April!

Camping!

Well, a request has been submitted for me to post again so here ya go, Jess! I'm really tired so I hope I don't have any troubles with posting pictures!
Last weekend we went on our 2nd annual camping trip with Tim's sis and bro-in-law. A very good time was had by all. Todd had a blast catching a ton of 2" fish, Mindy and I laid around and got a lot of sun, and Tim got to drive the boat for three days straight. The first night, M&T didn't get there until about 1am so I think we made permanent enemies of our neighbors who got their revenge by leaving their radio on all night and letting their stupid puff dog bark all night! Thankfully they turned it off the following night and somehow managed to shut up their dog. We cooked some great food and enjoyed fantastic weather out at Lake Whitney.
And the best moment for me was when I caught a 15" bass our last morning out there. It was a pretty exciting moment!!
We really had a great time with M&T, they're some of our best friends and we always have a lot of fun with them. Mindy was a real trooper and never got sick even though she's 5mo along and has been sick for about 4 1/2 months.
Other news...
Our apt lease is up at the end of next month so we're trying to decide if we want to move or not. I'm 50/50. I hate moving but some upgrades would be nice! We've never had a washer/dryer in our apt. so that would be nice!
Tim has a fishing championship this week so he'll be in and out a lot. He might get on tv too!
Jobs are going great! The kids are doing fantastically in school and have been very cheerful and positive. The other one is going well and I feel like I'm past the beginning learning stages. I really like all of the people (especially one!) ;) and it's fun to be at a job interacting with people all day.
And now it's time for bed! I hope everyone has a great week and gets to have some fun! :)

Pictures?

Hello again!

SO I haven't written on here in forever so I figured it was about time!
BIG NEWS~~
~I graduated this summer! I am now the proud owner of a BA in History degree (as soon as they send it to me) :).
~Both of Tim's sisters are preggers! And they are BOTH due in February!
~I started back as a homeschool assistant/tutor/etc... and I am also working in the kids' dad's orthodontist office! I really like it and it's nice to have a new challenge - hopefully I won't mess anything up too badly!
~My brother-in-law is going to leave this fall to work as a contractor in Iraq (so please keep him in your prayers!)
And that's all I can think of for right now! I tried posting some pictures but that didn't work so I guess I'll try again later. I promise I have proof that I graduated! :)
Have a great weekend!!