hanging in, hanging on

What were you doing Saturday morning, November 3rd? One of my friends was getting engaged, taking a new step into adulthood. Meanwhile, I happened to relate to the stage of the pre-teen babysitter discussing with a 2 year old the grossness of picking one's nose, blessings of poopie diapers and general silliness that is playing with little boys. (For the record, I voted fingers up the nose as gross, while he remained calmly firm in his stance that its ok and he just puts them in his mouth. barf) Mad props out there to parents with tots, I salute you!! Seriously cute but unbelievably tiring. A highlight (besides the 2 year old reminding me I hadn't put a diaper on him for his quiet time - only to poop in it 4 minutes later) was the time I was reading a Richard Scarry book and I feel this little arm on the back of my neck and hear this endearing voice say, "I like you." Heart--> melting.

That evening we successfully gave Kirby his first surprise party ever. It helped that he's already been in his new home for a year before giving him a house warming party. Heehee. The center of attention though went to the baby-- Jake, a puppy lab mix of some sort. What is it about babies that make them so durn cute? Post party the 5 of us just enjoyed catching up. Family time seems to get sweeter with age. I can't wait for Thanksgiving. :)


Know what else I can't wait for? Wednesday! Wednesday = vacation. I seem to have forgotten what taking a Sabbath means. Maybe I never really knew. While I truly appreciate my current commute to work (except those days the deer really crowd the foot traffic) the downside of living where I work is I never truly leave work when I go home. Granted, it doesn't usually feel like "work" but I certainly get tuckered out and definitely need to take breaks. I've found that if I want to really relax I need to lay low by hiding in my room with the blinds shut or physically leave the premises. How does one go about getting accountability on getting rest? At any rate, I am stoked to head down to Asheville, NC for about a week. BeckAY is meeting me there from Charlie-ton, SC and we'll hopefully meet up with my pal KT who lives there. Anyone know of a place we can stay? Or sweet hikes we don't want to miss? Or have free passes for the Biltmore? Not sure what exactly we're going to do, but that's really not the point. Point is, we're going! In the words of Ebbs, 'Woo doggie.'

In case I wasn't sure, I found out today I still have room to grow. :/ What are those moments called... character builders, opportunities, JOY? Sure. Things don't go quite as I'd planned, I react and then I reflect on my actions. No need to go into details at this point. However, the song "He's still working on me, to make me what I ought to be" comes to mind. Just makes me thankful for cool air to take a walk in, a GOD who's always there and smiling down on us and people to pick me back up again. Life is good, even if it seems to get messed up a lot. Signing off, time to sleep.