The Beginning of a New Chapter...

Well, I am officially into my second full week living in Maryland. I can hardly believe it. There have been so many things happening this past week including many new things to get accustomed to and it's been a little mind-boggling but all in all things have been going quite smoothly thus far.

A week and a half ago, I left my family and sense of familiarity back in Illinois to join my brother, sister-in-law & nephew in Maryland and start a new phase in my life. I must admit that during the first few days of my stay there, I was filled with an overwhelming sense of helpnessness and fear and kept thinking "What have I gotten myself into?". Luckily though, God has proved faithful and has helped guide me in my transition here.

The picture above was the last photo taken of my parents and I before I flew to Maryland. I miss them a lot!

I flew out east with my friends TyTy (he's Nick's best friend) and his wife Val. When we arrived in Maryland, we met up with Nick and almost immediately packed up and headed for Rehoboth Beach, DE, where we were going to spend the weekend. I had such an amazing time! We spent most of friday afternoon out at the beach. Here are a few pictures:


I had a lot of fun watching McCarthy's reaction to the water and seeing him in his cute little sunglasses and baby swimsuit. As you can tell from above, he didn't like the glasses very much, but I thought he looked adorable nonetheless.

I live in a house with Nick and Jordan. It is an older house, but is very spacious and neat looking inside. I'll try and post some pics soon. We live in Havre de Grace, MD, which is a town about the size of Pontiac and is about 20 min. from Bel Air, which is where we work. I haven't had much of a chance to go explore the town yet, but it's very pretty and peaceful from what I've seen thus far. I'll try and post some pics of the townI am currently working at the Hickory Child Daycare Center in Bel Air, MD. I really like it there. I help out in the "older infants" room, where we have five babies whose ages range from 6 mos. to 11 mos. The reason why there is an "older infants" room is because there was a surplus in the amount of infants signed up for the summer session and no toddlers were signed up so it was decided that the infants room would be split up for the summer. I was also given the chance to help out in the infants' room (which is with 6 babies aged 7 wks to 5 mos. I loved it in there! All of the babies are adorable! Of course, I love working with the older infants as well. I can definitely say that working here has given me more of a taste of what parenting will be like. It's a bit of a challenge getting used to all of the babies' schedules, when they need to eat and need a diaper change....also it is a bit frustrating when it's naptime and you have a fussy child who refuses to go to sleep... :) Nevertheless, all of the staff are really nice, especially the two women that work in the older infants' room with me. I feel very lucky and blessed to even have this job.

Since we work four 10 hour days, today was our day off. It felt absolutely marvelous to sleep in til 9 this morning! Usually we have to get up around 6 to be out the door by 7 to get to work by 7:30, so that means some pretty long and tiring days. But I'm getting more used to it. Today was a productive day, though. We got our internet connection set up (hooray!), I mowed the lawn, set up a checking acct., and got some paperwork filled out in order to be put on the lease for the house. Plus it has been a gorgeous day outside.