Well, my intention was to come in here and post pictures of some pictures that I want to hang in Little I's room. I need your help deciding what to frame (I just have too many to choose from!!).

But let's just put that aside for a moment, so I can talk about something that is more relevent than wall hangings. And what I am going to say comes in the form of a warning, which is: Pray, and pray often...But be careful of what, exactly, you pray for! In looking for a particular poem I was trying to remember, I came across this book by Jeanne Zornes: "I Prayed for Patience...and God Let Me Have It!" I make no claims about the content of the book - I haven't read it. But I think the title is great - and totally a propos to what I am about to write.

One of our prayers, as of late, has been that we will stay good and busy till 'the call' comes around. I've really felt good about this prayer...after my last post, you know I've been feeling down and out about the whole waiting process. So we figured that if we prayed for things to keep us busy, then that would help keep our minds not-as-focused on the fact that we are not in Russia.

But......Busy? Yes. Why we chose that one instead of a slew of other things, I don't know. What I do know is that I do believe our prayer may've been answered - but in the grand (somewhat humorous, yet a bit stressful) scheme of things, it wasn't exactly answered in the way that we though it might be. Because let me just tell you a little bit about the past two days. I'm just going to list these out - to do otherwise would take too much work:

• I've been working almost nonstop on this grant for work. This is great, though, it makes the day go by pretty quickly. But I'm beginning to seem like a hermit that never comes out of hiding. Well, not much longer and this grant will be finished - I'm so excited about that day!
• I know I speak for Nathan when I say that he's been crazy busy, too. Maybe he'll comment and let us know what all he's been up to at work - or maybe not. But suffice it to say that he is going nonstop right now. (and this is his off-week from school. As of next week, I don't even wanna know what things are gonna be like for him)
• When Heathcliff (our german shepherd) has an upset stomach, he typically breaks out of his crate and makes it as far as the livingroom. As a result of this, he has learned to just break out of his crate for the fun of it. To keep this from happening, we use a wire (well, actually a piece of a sturdy wire coat hanger) to keep his crate from coming open. Yesterday, I guess he reaaallly had to go - so instead of getting out the normal way and failing at his attempts, he completely ripped the front of his crate off...and yeah, made it to the livingroom. Crates are fairly expensive, and this is the 3rd one we've gotten for him in the past year or so. As of yesterday, he now stays outside when we are gone, and frankly, I think he likes it fine
• Our a/c went out yesterday. Changed the filters today, since that's something that is a bit overdue, and it didn't help. My dad (the a/c expert) says that it should've helped in the first little bit, but it didn't - so we are gonna be without a/c for a couple days. I'm just thankful that it is cooler tomorrow.
• And because the a/c is out, the ceiling fans are going. Well, just a few minutes ago, I noticed the light fixture on our den ceiling fan begin to creep down & down. It is now hanging on by a thread (i.e., wire). With the advice from my dad (not the ceiling fan expert, but he knows more about it than I), I removed the lightbulbs and glass fixtures, and am not going to do any more with it tonight. I have no clue what I'm doing anyway!
• I'm sure if I searched I could find more to talk about - but this gives you an idea, at the very least, anyway.

So there you go. Do you think I've had time to continue dwelling on the sorrow I wrote about in my last post? Not as much. I still miss Little I - but we now have other things to think about in addition to him. You know... like keeping our house held together so he has a place to live when he comes home.

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And before I close, let's all sing around of Happy Birthday to my dear husband! He turns 30 TODAY. And for his birthday, he gets to celebrate at Drill! How lucky is that?! On a more serious note, though, I do thank God and Nathan's parents every day for him. I am so fortunate and blessed to have such a wonderful husband, and if not for his family, he wouldn't be the person I married 8 1/2 years ago - or the person he is today. So thank you to everyone who has had a part in his life growing up - and now our life together.

Incidentally, we were engaged to be married 9 years ago today. What a sneaky guy he was - giving me a ring for his birthday present!!

And now, I'm off to celebrate with a bowl of ice cream, an episode of What Not to Wear, and then...bed! :)