Patience anyone?

As was recently pointed out by one of my good friends and then reiterated by my husband - "Good things come to those who wait." And, as a Christian, I know that life doesn't happen according to my schedule, but according to God's plan for me and my life. While I know that both of these things are true, it doesn't make the waiting any easier. I am not a patient person, I never have been and the jury is still out on if I ever will be. I've been waiting for a response from someone since Monday (Friday in my mind though). While the answer is out of that person's hands now, the waiting is driving me mad crazy.

As I was showering this morning, I thought about what Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 teaches us:
For everything there is a season,
And a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
A time to tear, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate,
A time for war, and a time for peace.

I will get an answer, but I need to remember it's not going to be on my time, it will be on God's time. In 1 Peter 5:6-7 God instructs people to: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God … casting all your cares upon Him, because He cares for you.”

Blog redesign?

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Exciting news!

After selling their home in July less than three weeks after being on the market, my Dad and Mom are set to close on their new home (which they are having built just for them!) on October 26th!!!!

Standing on their front porch

When they first decided to build a home, and signed the contract, the completion date was slotted for late November, early December. They received news on Wednesday that the date had been moved up! And, on Tuesday, they found out that the base price of their home had been lowered $10,000! The Lord really has opened doors for them during this whole process, which has been very amazing for them - and for me as well to watch. It's amazing to see and hear how excited my parents are about every step. My dad is so cute...he takes his camcorder out each time they go out to get new footage of their home.

Photo of the kitchen-to-be:

We all went out to see the house on Saturday. On Saturday, they had all the drywall up. And my mom said when they went out last night, the builders had the rounded corners finished meaning they are ready to paint, a temporary garage door was up, the tops of the front columns are in, the back stoop is poured and the stone is almost all mortared.

Photo looking from patio door into family room, over 1/2 wall living room:

My parents even got a couple unique touches added to their home. The builder doesn't offer custom touches; however, after their pre-drywall meeting, the contractor said he would "make a mistake" on their half wall (see photo) to make it taller than usual. They recently bought a 52" TV for there, and now you won't be able to see the TV from the living room, or from the front entryway.

I know that when Brooklyn goes to visit Grandpa and Grammy, she'll have a blast. She'll be able to see out all the windows because they start out pretty low - and she'll even have her own corner of the kitchen where they plan to buy a table and chairs small enough for the lil' princess.

We all had so much fun wandering through their house on Saturday, and I can't wait to see the finished product!

Popsicle night

Last night, we shared a cherry popsicle with Brooklyn. She really liked it so much in fact that she grabbed it by the frozen part, not the stick, and put it in her mouth, as her puppy looked on in horror. After all, aren't all popsicles supposed to be for him!?!

She sat there enjoying her popsicle with this lil' smile spreading across her face. I think she was surprised we didn't grab the popsicle out of her grip. The fun came to an end when she bit off the tip of the popsicle and got a little chunk. She had this look on her face, like "whoa, brain freeze" and "what am I going to do with this?"

Her puppy anxiously watching all this, jumped down off the bed, and began begging for the rest of the popsicle, which he got!

These days crawling doesn't seem so bad

My daughter started crawling a couple weeks ago.

This means a couple of things.

First off, our house looks like we are preparing for a flood. Our shelves are stripped of all items at the very bottom. Anything within grabbing reach has sought higher ground. She likes to pull herself up on to our furniture, then grab something, preferably fragile, and swing back it back and forth with one hand as she holds on with the other hand – think Fay Wray and King Kong on the Empire State Building.

And, after my daughter gets through strewing her toys around the house, it looks like the flood has already come and looters have rummaged through in an effort to find any valuables they can pawn.

But crawling also means we are quickly approaching another important phase – toddlerism. I’m not sure I can, grammatically, put an ism on the end of that word. It almost sounds like something you go to a weekly group meeting for.

“I’m Stan and I have a toddler.”

“Hi, Stan.”

Toddler is Greek for “two-legged terror.” I’m new to this but I’ve heard it can include anything from shaving the dog to using permanent marker on the car door. I’ll be sure to provide the Beagle a comb.

But it is also a time to be amazed. I am stunned by the different paces my daughter and I live our lives. When I’m usually ready to sit down, she’s ready to crawl away or remove the DVD player from the entertainment center.

When I’m looking for the last couple minutes of sleep in the morning, she’s smacking me in the face.

Then at night, she’s sleeping so still in her bed. Usually it’s too still and she gets an obligatory body shake. It’s amazing to see this ball of energy completely at peace. Because I know the next morning, she’ll be re-energized and raring to go.

The only similarity we share is that I occasionally crawl to the shower.

She’s so eager to go, ready to taste every bit of life, fuzzy shreds of carpet not excluded. And I spend most of my life trying to find a way to slow down.

That’s when I catch myself envying her. I can’t even remember now when life had such simple rules – eat, play with my toys, sleep, repeat as needed. Not a care in the world, except when she has to get her face washed and her pajamas on for the night. Then we get a little glimpse of that temper that I can only guess means a bedroom door will have to be temporarily removed from its hinges somewhere down the road.

I’m a lost cause – caught up in bills, work and everything in between. I don’t know where I lost it, the ability to just play, to be free. It was probably somewhere between getting my first job and determining I wanted big things like cars and a house. Will I ever get it back? Probably not.

Will I protect it for her as long as I can?

You bet.

Zzzzzzzzz......
I took Brooklyn swimming yesterday, and after two hours of kicking, laughing, screaming, talking, floating, splashing, playing....she crashed in the pool! We were swimming around in the circular wave pool. She had her head on my shoulder and was floating on her back. Within a few minutes, as I glanced down at her, her eyes were shut, and she was snoring just every so lightly. I took her around a few more times before we got out. As I headed for our towels, some old men (the only people in the pool area besides the lifeguards) said "Oh, what a tuckered out baby!"

15 days and counting...

SEPTEMBER 23rd

15 days and counting until the beginning of the autumn season - one of my favorite times of the year. Autumn brings cooler temperatures, leaves changing from green to red to orange to yellow, cool crisp mornings where you need a sweater, cuddling up next to the fireplace, pumpkin patches, the home welcoming smells of Thanksgiving dinner....

I went for a walk on my lunch hour with one of my good friends and I felt that cool crisp air. 15 days and counting...

nudge, nudge..
"The babe's awake. I'm gonna get her in a minute."
groan and roll over...
[Alarm clock reads: 4:20 a.m.]
"She's awake? She doesn't sound upset, sounds like she's just talking to herself - give her a few minutes."
2 minutes pass...
get out of bed and head down the hall
"Don't get her up yet. She's having fun talking to herself."
angry groan
"Just making sure she isn't standing up. You can get her!"
laying there silently listening to the sounds coming over the baby monitor, suddenly I hear "wahwahwah..."
[Alarm clocks reads: 4:39 a.m.]
She wants to be fed!
-----
Waking up every morning (weekend or not) at 4:30 a.m. isn't something I am accustomed to and this will be the fourth month of it. But, this morning was different. Brooklyn woke up and didn't want us right away - she wanted to play and talk to herself. How sweet it was to hear!