Internet-less

Brad cancelled the cable today...and the INTERNET SERVICE!!! So I may be gone for a couple of days. Thankfully he just wants to switch to another provider. He knows I need my blogging fix :) I hope to be back online soon!

Oh the Nothingness of it All

I'm back! I haven't really been gone, I've just been....chillin'. I have had plenty of time when I could blog the last few days, but I just kept putting it off because I didn't have anything to say.

Unfortunately, that has not changed. But lucky for you - I'm here anyway!

I think it's time for some random bullet points :)

• On Monday I think I did 7 loads of laundry. It amazed me that we still had other clean clothes to wear. And that I couldn't remember the last time I'd done laundry...
  
  
• Daisie keeps tricking us into thinking she is out of the puppy phase, only to prove very clearly that she is not. Yesterday while I was in the shower, she shredded two of Brad's Nascar magazines. Apparently she and I have similar feelings towards racing.
  
  
• We are cancelling cable tomorrow in an effort to save more money towards the adoption. This may not seem like a big deal to many people, but to us it is MAJOR. We watch too much t.v. - I will admit it. So this is a big step for us towards saving money and setting ourselves free from the grip of the box that claims too many hours of our day. Gulp. Does it make me a bad person that I am sad to say good-bye to cable???? Don't answer that.
  
  
• I am THANKFUL for so many things (and people) this week: the headaches are gone and I'm feeling great; my sisters who are ALWAYS there for me; my dear friends who made me toast, bought me a scarf, and prayed for me when I was feeling lousy; the lovely chocolate bar sitting in my cupboard that was brought all the way from England just for me; my sweet little nephew who has already stolen my heart; and the Lord's faithfulness and patience with me.
  
  
• Brad and I have started eating fruits and vegetables this week. I wish I could write that we've started eating more fruits and vegetables, but unfortunately that would be a lie. Lately the only fruits I have been eating are ones that begin with "chocolate covered" and the only vegetables Brad has been eating are ones that came on top of a pizza. But we are making a change!
  
  

Hopefully I will be back soon with something more interesting to report! Until then I will leave you with a random picture:

Me and Brad (2006). It is so weird to see him with facial hair! The day he shaved it off, I screamed really loud!

A Day of Recovery!

Today was so wonderful - we did absolutely nothing! We have had a busy couple of weeks and it was so great to just lie around the house not doing much. I slept until noon (something I have not done in ages) and feel so much better today. I even managed to make it to the gym and ran 2 miles! I am feeling so encouraged to have energy again and to not have a headache for a change.

Last night we had a youth group activity at the local Christian school. I was pretty tired going into it but had such a fun time. I just love working with teens and having time to just hang out with them last night was a real blessing.

I told Kylie I would put this picture on my blog, so HERE IT IS :)

I just love her!

Just What I Needed

The concert was FABULOUS! Being with friends, loud rockin' music, and worshipping the Lord. It does not get any better than that!

As soon as we walked in to where the concert was being held, we started cracking up. It was being held at a local university (where I went to school actually) and we quickly realized that we were much older than the average concert attender! By like 10 years. How did that happen?

Before the concert we got to go and meet the David Crowder Band, which was cool but a bit awkward. It was so weird - none of us could think of what to say to these people we didn't know and didn't know much about! But they were really nice and the awkwardness was soon ended as Chris suggested a photo. What a good idea :)

David Crowder

Our group - we may be old but our tickets were free! HA!

After the concert we stopped by Culvers for a treat and Rachel was working. It is possible that the people she works with now think her friends are crazy :) Well, they might be right!

An Adoption Update, Concert Tickets, and A Strange Side Effect (But Not in that order)

I just got home from a wonderful praise night at youth group and am now watching American Idol, drinking a cup of Ovaltine, and blogging. Life is good :)

I am SO happy to say that the Lord has answered my prayers (and the prayers of many dear friends) and my headache is G-O-N-E!!!! The crazy part - it disappeared before I started taking my medicine. Totally a God thing!

Still, I started taking the meds last night as a preventative. I was looking over the lovely list of side effects and noticed a couple of strange ones that I have never seen on any medication I've taken before.

1. Excess sweating. Um, that is just gross.

2. An increased appetite especially for sweets. Oh dear.

I am wondering if someone has been drugging me with this medication for years...because I seem to have always had an increased appetite for sweets. At least now I have a valid reason for it...

So if you see me with a donut in one hand, a chocolate bar in the other, and sweaty armpits...now you know why.

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The Adoption Update - I hope I did not get your hopes up. I really do not have much news to report. But I did want to say that as of tomorrow we will have been on the waiting list for SIX MONTHS!!!! Time is passing, sometimes more slowly than I would like, but the day is coming!

People keep asking me what comes next (and by the way, I am never annoyed when people ask about the adoption - it shows me that they care and are interested in our lives and I love it!). So I thought I would just tell a little more about what we are waiting for.

We hope *so much* that maybe by the end of the summer or sometime in the fall we will receive what is called a referral. This is the time when we are matched with a child. We will get their picture, any medical information they have about them, background info, etc. I'm guessing that at this point the waiting will become almost unbearable :) After this, it will still be 3-6 months until we can bring them home (paperwork and immigration stuff I think). And then...our baby will be here!

And I will need to rename my blog! I think I might name it, "I Never Want to Wait for Anything Ever Again..!" Although I'm guessing that by that point the waiting part will have faded away and I will be writing that it was totally worth the wait :) Maybe I will rename my blog, "Waiting? What Waiting?"

Oh, how I long for that day.

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Tomorrow night I will be going to see the David Crowder Band in concert!!!! Our friends, Chris and Mindy, won tickets from a local radio station and they invited us to go with them! We are so excited :) I just love live concerts!

They won backstage passes too. The crazy part is that another good friend, Tamara, won tickets too on a different station! So we are all going to be there and hopefully we can sit together.

Do you ever sit down to publish a short little zippy post...and then end up with a great big long one? That seems to be happening to me tonight! Sorry!

A New Little Nephew

Today we welcomed our new nephew, Benjamin, into the family.

So sweet, so beautiful...truly a gift.

"For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalm 139:13-14