Caleb Matthew Meighan

I only have 1 brother. He's 2 years older than me, and we've always been very close. We never really fought growing up, and he always looked out for me. He's a great big brother! What could be better than that? Then, Jill came into the picture. We all immediately fell in love with her too! She has become like a big sister to me in the 4 years they dated, and the 5 they've been married. Life was grand, and then, we got the BIG news! On Christmas Eve 2009, Matt and Jill found out they were pregnant! (Christmas Eve is a big day for our family- in 2007, Will proposed, and then this news in 2009!) Since that moment, preparations and excitement has been high as we await the arrival of Caleb Matthew Meighan. Caleb is the first grandchild/nephew on my side of the family. He's also the 1st in Jill's family. It is possible he might be slightly spoiled. ;) He's due September 3, 2010.

A few weeks ago, Matt and Jill's church gave them a baby shower. Mom and dad were in town, and I drove up to Indy for the shower. Here are some pics!


In the picture above, we played a game where we had to drink milk out of a bottle. It was HARD and it took forever! Seriously, I have no idea how babies actually figure out how to drink. They must have some powerful jaw muscles!
Time for presents! I just posted a few pictures here. Caleb got a LOT of loot!

An explanation of the picture below: My grandparents (mom's parents) died in a tragic car accident about 12 years ago. Grandma loved to sew and had tons of fabric, etc. Right after they died, mom pieced together 2 quilts from grandma's fabric- one quilt for Matt's children, and one for my children. She gave Jill the quilt at the shower.


Releasing balloons from the shower. Yes, it's possible to be this pregnant, and still this cute, but only if you are Jill Meighan. :)
Matt and Jill's other "child," Sammy. They got Sammy about 6 weeks after they got married. I think he'll adjust well to Caleb, but he has no idea what's about to happen to his happy, predictable routine! It was a great shower, and a wonderful day! Now we're just anxiously awaiting the arrival of Caleb! We can't wait to meet him!

2 Down, Many, Many More to Go!

Last year, we got each other a new washing machine for our anniversary (not intentionally, it just happened to go out right around the time of our anniversary, and we weren't expecting that at all, so... guess where the $ we had saved for our anniversary went?)

When we celebrated our 2nd anniversary last week, we new we needed to do a little better than that! Between classes, my parents coming in town and need to go to Indianapolis for my sister-in-law's baby shower, we had 2 nights, and we knew we needed to stay in Louisville.

So we got a hotel. We checked in Friday night after Will got off work.


We tried a new restaurant- BD's Mongolian Grill. DELICIOUS!
This is us waiting outside the restaurant.

...and Will enjoying his food!

Then, we went to Half Price Books (yes, we're nerds). We got there about 20 minutes before they closed. Here is the damage.


The next morning, we went to Lynn's Paradise Cafe (if you're ever in Louisville, you MUST go here!) and split their Bourbon Ball French Toast- yummy!!!

After our bellies were stuffed, it was off to Churchill Downs, and the Kentucky Derby Museum. It flooded last year, so they've recently renovated and updated the museum. It was really neat to see! Here's some pictures.





Last but not least, we headed to The Melting Pot for our anniversary dinner (have you noticed a theme to our weekend yet?- eating!). We had never eaten there before, but it's at the top of my "favorite places to eat" list now! Delicious!
This one was my favorite! Dark chocolate with passion fruit infused white chocolate- scrumptious!



The next morning, it was off to Indy for the shower, and that's another blog post! But for now, Happy Anniversary to my best friend, and the man that I am proud to call my husband! It's hard to believe that I love you now more than I did when we got married, but I do. I'm excited to see where God leads us in the future. It's certainly been an adventure so far!

Happy Birthday America!

Okay, so I'm a few days late, but it's still America's birthday week, right? :)

The 4th of July was an interesting weekend for us. Will is taking a J-term this week (an entire semester's worth of class in 1 week) so he had a lot of reading and writing to do to prepare for class, and I'm in a 6 week class, so I had a lot to do as well. Celebrations in our home were mostly limited to Monday.

Sunday we had a potluck at church. Is there ANYTHING better than a church potluck?? Seriously, fried chicken, sides, and desserts as far as you can see (and our church has 3 LINES of it!) Okay... enough of my fat kid rantings. We enjoyed eating with some of our dear friends from church, and it didn't even feel like the 95+ degrees that it was outside, because we scored a spot in the shade! :) After we got home, it was back to work for both of us...

But then MONDAY came! We had planned on a day trip to Lexington, but then Will told me that he had a lot of work stil to do, and didn't think we'd be able to go :(. Liar. At about 9 AM, he asked if I could be ready to go by 10. ABSOLUTELY! I love car rides with Will. I know I have his undivided attention for as long as we are in the car. We've even come up with names for our children on our trips back and forth to Indy to visit my bro and sis-in-law. :) Lexington's about an hour away, so I thoroughly enjoyed talking with him the whole way.

Our 1st stop was Jarred's. This is where we got my engagement ring, and our wedding rings 2 years ago. We bought the Lifetime Warranty on them so we could get them cleaned and replated every 6 months. Plus, it comes with a guarantee on the diamonds. Well.... 2 years later, we had yet to get them checked. We were a little nervous about what that meant, if our warranty would be void, etc. Thankfully, our rings were still in great shape, and so our warranty was reinstated, as long as we have them checked every 6 months. Also, we found out that there are other stores we can take them to besides Jarred's (good, b/c Jarred's is an hour away, and the other stores are in L'ville!)

While we were waiting on our rings, we grabbed some lunch- Chinese at the food court :) and did some shopping! Now, Will and I hardly ever actually shop. It's not that we don't like to, it's just that with limited funds, we'd rather go out to eat than get a new shirt (again, it's the fat kid in me). On Monday, we actually SHOPPED! We both got not 1, but 2 new pairs of shoes, and I got new sunglasses- quite the shopping spree for us :). Then it was back to pick up our rings, which looked brand new, and then another hour in the car (!) to head back home.

Once home, we headed to the health and fitness center on campus where Will taught me how to play raquetball (quite humorous to watch, I'm sure) and then we went swimming. Quick dinner on the way home, and then we were able to relax for the rest of the evening!

I could not have asked for a more perfect day, and I'm thankful we got to spend some time together. This summer's been extremely busy with work, classes, and church stuff for both of us. It was great to have a break from it all!

P.S. My computer's not uploading pics for some reason, so here's an old one of my ring, all clean and shiny :). Also, I'll try not to be so verbose from now on :)

The 1st one...

So I've decided to start a blog so our friends and family can see what we're up to here in Louisville. It will be about what's going on in our lives- some things are exciting (at least I think so!) and some are pretty mundane, but still, we'd love to share it with you!

So here's what we've been up to lately!
We got married almost 2 years ago on July 12, 2008. We went on a wonderful honeymoon cruise, came back to Georgia, packed up our stuff, and moved to Louisville, KY. We moved into our 1st apartment on August 1, 2008.


Since then, we've had quite an adventure! Here's a brief summary of the highlights!

August 2008: Will starts Seminary at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is getting his MDiv in Christian Ministry. His program is 96 hours! We're hoping he'll graduate in Dec. 2011, or May 2012. Will also started working on campus at the post office/store called 5th and Broadway.

October 2008: I (finally!) got a job teaching pre-k in the local school district. My babies were 3 and 4 years old.

August 2009: I started grad school at Indiana University Southeast to get my Master's in Elementary Education. My program is only 36 hours, and I should be done in August of 2011. I also started teaching 1st grade! It was quite possibly the hardest year of teaching I've had, but definitly the most rewarding!

October 2009: Will started working full time at 5th and Broadway. He is an assistant manager in charge of Mailing Services. We didn't know it at the time, but probably the biggest perk of this job was his health insurance because....
Will got very very sick in October.

November 2009: After several doctor's appointments, Will is finally referred to a gastroenterologist who quickly diagnoses him with Ulcerative Colitis. Yep, Ulcerative Colitis. It is a chronic autoimmune disease that affects his colon. Thankfully, the doctor was able to prescribe fantastic meds, and Will started to recover very quickly. He's doing great now!

May 2009: Mother's day- While on a weekend trip to Cincinnati, we find out we are pregnant!!! We are thrilled!!! On May 18, we find out we have had a miscarriage. We are devastated. On May 22, we moved into a new apartment. Crazy month.

June 2009: I'll talk more about this in later posts, but God's faithfulness is neverending! He is beginning to bring healing into our lives, and we are beginning to understand that God has big plans for our lives that are to bring glory to His name. While we are still grieving the loss of our child, we are excited to see how God is and will use this tragedy for His glory!