I can still post about Christmas...right?

I meant to post this on Christmas Eve. But after I collapsed into bed with my husband, intending to get up again and post as soon as he was asleep, I ended up falling asleep too. I wish I hadn't, because I had some moments that I want to post on here while they were still fresh on my mind. But here they are anyway, because I don't want to forget them.

The Christmas Eve service was really nice. We sang a lot of songs, in between reading the Christmas story in Luke. There was a short message, and after it all, we darkened the room, and candles were passed to everyone in the sanctuary. The pastor lit the advent wreath, and after lighting the last candle, he passed the flame to some people, who in turn passed it to everyone else, until the room lit up. It was so beautiful. The last flame represents Jesus, I loved the symbolism behind the passing of the little flames.

After the service, we went to some friends' house to sing more songs and fellowship together. It was around Micah's bed time, so I took him upstairs to try to get him to sleep. The house our friends live in is a neat little cabin with an upstairs loft as the bedroom, and downstairs is the living room and kitchen area. So there was really no escaping the noise. But I didn't mind. In the glow from the light downstairs, I picked up my precious son and held him close to me. He snuggled in to my neck, and I laid my cheek on his soft, downy head. I quietly sang to him as the chorus downstairs rang out,

"Fall on your knees,

O hear the angel voices,

O night divine, 

O night, when Christ was born!"

Tears of utter joy and gratitude sprang to my eyes. I couldn't help it. I am SO THANKFUL that Jesus came down to earth, made himself the lowest of the low, and died an excruciating death, just so that we sinful, wretched beings can know Him and come to the Father. It astounds me to think of it. 

Even though I ended up having to take care of Micah upstairs, by myself the rest of the party, I didn't really mind all that much. It was a beautiful evening, one I don't want to forget. 

Playtime!

It's been a relaxing, happy few days around here. I haven't had access to the computer much, probably won't until a certain someone goes back to work. ;) But while I have just a few minutes, here are some pictures (in all their unedited glory...technical difficulties) from the last few days.

Happy little boy...

SOMETHING is giving him grand entertainment...

Hmmm.

"It's so FLUFFEHH!"

 Mom's mouth is fun.

And this pic was my mom's idea (thanks mom!).

Things I Wish I Had Been Mentally Prepared For Before Having a Baby

So, I've been thinking with quite some amusement lately about the things that I wish someone had told me before I gave birth and became a parent to a newborn. I thought I'd share them for the amusement of other moms, for those who are about to become moms, or those who look forward to being moms in the future. Lots of moms. I also keep thinking about all the things I THINK I wish I had known, but then I realize that if I had known some of this stuff, I might have been too scared to go through with it. So I won't list those things. Anyway. Without further ado, here is what I wish I had known (in no particular order because I'm too lazy to really give much thought to the order).

1. I wish I had known that I would have to nurse, burp, and change my baby (sometimes change him twice or even three times) in a befuddled, somnambulistic state every single morning before I had my coffee. (Except when grandparents were here. Praise GOD for grandparents.)

2. And before breakfast. In fact, forget food altogether for a while.

3. I REALLY wish I'd known that moms never actually get any breaks or vacations. Even if I am away from my baby, I can't stop myself from thinking about him, and wondering if he's ok, and hoping he's not being too much of a burden on whoever is watching him. And I feel either so tired or mentally drained (or both) all the time, that even recreational or relaxing things feel like work.

4. I wish I had known that I would NOT, in fact, get a good, full night's sleep right after giving birth. You'd think I would deserve that after being awake for 40+ hours, and practically pushing a watermelon out of my body. But no. If you're lucky, the nurse will take the baby for a couple hours, and tell you to "have a good nap." I think I cried.

5. I wish I'd known that I might also be too exhausted to take a shower right after giving birth. Which is nasty, because there are copious amounts of sweat involved. Make that blood, sweat, and tears.

6. I wish I had known that life, at least for the first two months or so, would be like one of those nightmares I get sometimes where I am really, really late for work or for something really important, but in the dream I keep stopping to tie my shoe, or talk to someone, or do some other random thing that just keeps me from getting to work/appointment/big important thing at all, let alone on time.

7. I wish I had known that my temper, which I thought had pretty much faded into the past, would rear its ugly head over and over again as I battle physical exhaustion, sleep deprivation, spit up, and screaming/crying/fussing for hours at a time.

8. I now know why it's so hard to stay fit and healthy as a mother. I had this delusion that I'd keep working out and eat healthy and all that good stuff even after I became a mom. I thought I could be different and do it. I wish I'd realized that, as it turns out, the healthy stuff all takes work to prepare. Plus I usually have to choose between whether to take a nap myself, eat, use the bathroom, or do laundry/clean up, let alone work out or prepare a nutritious meal.

9. I wish I'd known that I WOULD have to make these kinds of choices while my baby sleeps.

10. People told me this one, but I wish I had truly known it for myself before I had him - that he will grow SO fast, SO quickly, and even those first 8 weeks of torture hardship are still weeks filled with awe of how beautiful this tiny little person is, filled with the most incredible love I have ever felt for such a little one, filled with laughter and delight over every new little thing he does, and filled with lots of growth and learning on my end.

Being a mom is definitely the most exhausting, heart-wrenching, painful thing I have ever been through, but it is also, truly, the most worth it.

Rant turned thoughtful

I am feeling very un-Christ-like today. I mean more than usually wretched. As I write, Micah is currently in his crib, unswaddled, fast asleep. Because I put him there and walked away. Because I just don't care anymore for all the screaming. Actually that's an understatement. I want to scream right along with him, possibly even at him. He has been changed. He has been fed. He has been watered. (Ok, not really.)

He has been weighed. He has been measured. And he has been found wanting.

Everything I can think of, I have done. And yet he insists on screaming his ever loving head off. I sort of feel bad for him, because I suspect there may be some tummy troubles involved here. But I'm only human. There is only so much screaming (after everything I've done for him) that I can take. (Not that that's an excuse to not strive to be more Christ-like.) I hate this about myself. I thought I had long ago surpassed the days where my blood felt like it boiled at things. I matured out of it, or so I thought. Apparently not. I'm getting better at overcoming these powerful, angry feelings and try to see it from Micah's point of view, but I don't always succeed. Like today. But I'm not allowed to run away from home, so I guess I'd better suck it up and calm down.

I must say, this DOES give me a perspective on Jesus I never had before. I feel like I give everything up for my baby, I sacrifice a lot. He takes up most of my time, attention, rest, sanity, costs a lot of money, and by himself can just be so overwhelming to handle at times. And it's just going to get harder as he grows and as I have more babies. And yet he still screams at me and isn't thankful at all for all that we give up for him. Kinda reminds me of ME. Christ gave up far more for me than I ever have, and ever will, give up for my son. And yet I ignore Him, far too often choose other interests over spending time with Him, almost scream at the incredible little gift He gave me, and don't surrender my entire life to Him all day, every day. I get angry and hurt when Micah does this to me, and he doesn't even KNOW what he's doing. It's very humbling, to say the least. Praise God for His HUGE mercy and forgiveness. And praise the Son for loving us unconditionally, dying for us, so that even when we mess up all the time, we may still approach the Throne. How terribly grateful it makes me to think of it!

And now that I am calmer, better go check on that boy. I think he's still asleep.

Good old Jumparoos...

Yesterday Micah was a bit fussier than usual, and I had no clue what to do with him. To keep from going nuts, I tried very hard to play with him and keep him distracted from whatever it was that was making him fuss. I remembered the Jumparoo we have in his room, and realized he's plenty big enough for it now. So, I put him in, and he got a good 40 minutes' entertainment out of it! It was really fun for me, because I got to watch him discover that it made noise every time he jumped up and down. So for 40 minutes, he did just that. And this was the result:



Pretty adorable. I'd call that a success.

An early morning rant from a tired mom...

My child is absolutely ridiculous. Lately he's decided he is going to be a jerk blockhead and wake up 3 or 4 times a night again. At least I didn't have to get up for one of those times, since he just cried a little and then fell back asleep. But every other time I had to get up, re-swaddle him, change his diaper, and either feed him or stick the pacifier in his mouth. When he woke up again this morning, an hour after I had laid him down, it was a little too much for me.

I grumpily stormed into his room, (probably with circles under my eyes by now), and looked down at his crib. I had been fervently hoping the whole trudge to his room that I wouldn't have to re-swaddle him yet again. No such luck. I narrowed my eyes at him. He looked at me and gave me a huge, gummy grin. I informed him that cuteness would not work with me. (I think. Or maybe I said it in my head. Anyway...)

I picked him up (yet again), and hauled him over to the changing table, all the while telling him that I was NOT feeding him again, and that he just needed to go BACK to sleep, blah blah blah. Not a happy mom. Since I had just changed his diaper an hour ago, and he's gotten to a point where he doesn't usually need a diaper change until he wakes up for the day, I just decided to forget it and start swaddling him up again. Who knew a baby that appeared perfectly calm and still as he contentedly blew raspberries could somehow wiggle his way out of an attempted swaddle without looking like he was doing it? I tried several times. Tucking one piece over him, I was just about satisfied with that part before I moved on, until I noticed his hand had somehow gotten out of it.

"Micah! Hold STILL! Auggh!"

"Ptbhbhbhb..." was his only response. I tried again. The arm managed to stay out again. Then he lifted his legs and started nonchalantly rolling away from me. I was pretty much beside myself at this point.

"SERIOUSLY?? Are you kidding me right now? Mommy is TIRED. And YOU should be sleeping right now! Why are you being like this??" And other such rants escaped my lips.

"Ptbhbhbhb..." I threw my hands up in exasperation. Fortunately, Scott was still around getting ready for work, and he came in, wrapped the boy up tightly, changed his diaper, and laid him back down in his crib for me, before I completely lost it. I just sat in the rocking chair and stared blankly at the slightly comical scene. Because Micah didn't go down without a seemingly passive aggressive fight. The entire time, he was trying to roll from one side to the other, escaping Scott's swaddles, blowing raspberries, and all around just having a very agreeable time while Scott and I both became increasingly aggravated. Finally, after he was laid down in his crib, I tried to put his pacifier in his mouth so he'd nod off. He promptly spat it out and blew another raspberry. So I just left him. And now he is finally asleep again. But it's only a matter of time.

A Christmas Tree

In the words of my dear husband, "I am beat-dead tired." The past few days I've been getting up at the same time as Scott (actually earlier, because Micah usually is crying at about 5:00 am) to have more time in the day, and have it while Micah sleeps and I can enjoy my coffee and breakfast in peace. Yesterday, I almost fell asleep while Micah was taking a nap. Scott had just come home, so we were peacefully snuggled up, and I dozed off, only to be awakened to the sound of Micah waking from HIS nap. I groaned inside, and thought, "What the heck?? We JUST put him down!" I was obviously delirious, because I had laid him down two hours ago, and it was only 3:30 pm when he woke up. This is the usual state of things. But for some reason, I thought we had put him down at 9:00 like usual, and that it was night, we had just gone to bed, and he had woken up at 10:00. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks that he was just waking up from his NAP, and that it was not, in fact, time for bed. So that was rather amusing. After I got over the fact that I couldn't go to sleep until it was actually bedtime.

We put our tree up the other evening, which makes it feel a little more "Christmas-y" here. Still doesn't really feel like Christmas, because we are nowhere close to our families, and this time of year has always been time to spend with immediate family and extended. I miss my family so much. But, this is Micah's first Christmas, and although he won't remember it, I can at least make it the best one I can for him, and document it so we can tell him all about his first Christmas when he's older.

And now I might try to sneak in a nap. While a certain, precious little boy sleeps.

Prayer Request

Ok, so here's the prayer request I mentioned earlier.

My grandmother (my Dad's mom) is going to have an MRI on her head I think next Wednesday. She's apparently been really forgetful lately, and she finds herself saying things she didn't mean to say (just sounds like babble, she can't seem to get words out clearly). She thinks she could have had a mini stroke or something, but they really don't know. Please pray that they get a diagnosis soon, so they can start treating it, whatever it is. And pray for our family as we support her.

Thank you all.

Ohhh - money, money, money...

As a lot of you know, we are planning a really big, amazing, month-long trip out to two different states, for one month. To see all of you wonderful people of course. And to show off the baby. But as I'm sure you can imagine, the tickets will cost us a small fortune. Unfortunately, all of Micah's inheritance. Ok, ok, not really. But it WILL cost a lot, and in the words of my dearly beloved, "We'll have to live off beenie weenies for the next several months..." really, it's not that bad. We had a pretty good amount tucked neatly away, we can afford this trip. But we do want to build our savings back up to where they were before, so we're looking for ways to save. We can't cut the internet bill anymore, we've decided to keep Netflix since it keeps us from going to Blockbuster and renting movies, and then having to pay late fees all the time. I think we've figured out what we're going to do to cut the grocery/food bill (*coughstopeatingoutsomuchcough*), and we're going to do our best to consolidate trips to Fairbanks and save on gas. Also, if we absolutely need something, we plan on looking for it at a thrift or pawn shop. That's all we've thought of so far, though. Scott gave me the brilliant suggestion of posting this on my blog and asking all of you: how can we save some more? What have you done in the past (or even now) to spend less money? Any suggestions?

Also, keep an eye out for another post later today. I have a pretty big prayer request. But I wanted to post it separately because it involves someone who is very important to me and I want the sole focus of the post to be on her.

Until that post...

Ciao.

Answered Prayer

The house is quiet, baby is asleep, and I wanted to use this opportunity to share a few things that have been on my heart lately.

I have been praying for a long time that God would give me a desire for Him. I fully believe He has really answered that prayer. I am finding myself more and more just longing to know more of Him, and what's more, to really serve Him. I am absolutely thrilled by this discovery. It's actual feelings I have, something I have very rarely experienced in my entire walk with the Lord! I am greatly hoping this is the start of a huge change in my life, where I love God more than anything or anyone else in my life and want to give up everything for Him. I'd like to share a few things that have happened to me and that I've learned that have really made me thoughtful. I pray that if whoever reads this has not already learned this, that God would open up your hearts and minds to discover these same revelations I've been having, because I am so overjoyed about it and I want so much to share it and hopefully, be used to plant these seeds in the hearts of others as well.

One thing that I've had a revelation about recently is actually the gospel itself. I've lived for a very long time under the impression that God disapproves of me all the time, because I am so wretched and I mess up SO much, and I don't read His word nearly as often as I should and I'm just, overall, a huge mess. I couldn't figure out what the line was between faith and works, that whole topic made absolutely no sense to me at all. I've spent so long trying so hard to please God through works, trying and failing all the time. Just recently it hit me: because Christ died for us and was without sin, God only looks at Jesus and not me. He looks at, and is greatly pleased with Jesus, and not at me. So no matter how many times I mess up, because Christ died for me, God is looking at His Son. I am SO thankful. It's amazing to me that God cared enough to send His Son. Now I think I really understand.

Also, the other day I was able to sit down and have time with God, and I was reading in Luke chapters 20 and 21. Amazingly, my brain didn't wander like it usually does. I was able to be very intent on what I was learning, and ended up being absolutely floored by what I discovered. Luke 21 is the chapter where Jesus is talking about the end times. My Bible's notes referenced me to Romans 11:25, and I read on down to 32-

25I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, 26 and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written:


"The deliverer will come from Zion,
he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
27 And this is my covenant with them 
when I take away their sins." 


28 As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 29 for God's gifts and His call are irrevocable. 30 Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. 32 For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.



After reading this, I felt absolutely astonished and in awe. God let the Israelites be disobedient so He could save everyone outside of His chosen people? The Gentiles?? Even me? I am completely humbled and absolutely astounded that God would care enough about us to give everyone, even those who were not His original chosen people, the chance to come to Him and know Him and love Him. I cannot even describe how awesome that is and how terribly grateful I am. What a merciful, incredible God. 


I've been making time ever since this to get into the Word at least a little bit every day. I've found that even in my free time, when I would usually be either frantically cleaning the house or trying to relax by doing some recreational activity I enjoy, the last couple days I've been using it to read my Bible more. I discovered the other day that Acts is really Luke: the SEQUEL, and I am really excited to start reading that one, because Luke kind of leaves you hanging. But I wanted to finish John first, so I've been devouring that one to get to Acts. (Though, don't get me wrong, even after reading the other three gospels, John still has even more to offer and I've been enjoying that too). But I'm very excited to start on Acts. I think now I will understand more of that one, where I didn't before. 


Anyway, all this to say, I think I am now truly thirsting after God. I am absolutely longing to know Him more and more. I want so much to learn everything I possibly can about Him. I am now also very much longing to meet the Jesus of the Bible. I want to see Him face to face, or rather, face to His feet, because I'm also terrified of that prospect, even though I want it more than I ever did before. 

How we spend our evenings...

Actually this was a very out-of-the-ordinary evening, we don't usually spend our evenings like this. But we TOTALLY should. Usually we just sit around watching Netflix and playing with Micah until his bedtime, at which point we either do some cleaning up in the kitchen or just hang out with each other and look at silly stuff online until we succumb to sleep.

Last night was a lot of fun, and it was great because I felt like it was good, quality time with my husband. So, without further ado, here's what happened when the lights went down. (Get your mind out of the gutter.)

So much to catch up...

Since so much has happened that I'd like to share, and there are a couple things I prefer to spend more time writing about, I'll try to catch you up on recent events in summaries.

~New development for Micah: he is now rolling over! He'd been trying really hard to do it for a week and finally managed it. Now he rolls over easily and does it every time we place him on the floor. The problem? He can roll from back to his stomach, but not stomach to back. Which means he rolls over, then eventually gets frustrated being on his stomach, tries to roll over but can't, and then starts screeching for someone to help him. I try really hard not to rescue him until he's truly desperate, I want him to learn to roll the other way so he doesn't keep getting himself stuck. Silly boy. Here is the best shot (read: the least blurry) I got of him after the first time he ever rolled over.

~I got to play piano for church again last week. And I didn't mess up too much, not even on the hymns.

~Also at church last week, Dr. Runser (he told us to call him Lloyd) and his wife invited us to go to their house after Christmas Eve service, they're having a big get together with a bunch of people and want to just sing a bunch of Christmas carols. There will be hot chocolate and cider. And there's a piano, which his wife said I could play as we sing. Woohoo! We really like these people, but Scott and I are still trying to get over how strange it is. Did I mention this is the same doctor who delivered Micah? And I knew his wife from PWOC, I had no idea she was married to HIM until last Sunday. Just... weird. But kind of cool at the same time.

~We had some REALLY bad weather last Sunday. It warmed up to almost 40 degrees! It was rather nice, the warmth, but at the same time, it was raining. Which means the roads were as slick as wet soap. It was insane. We were planning on going skiing that day with some friends, but as soon as we stepped outside, we realized we'd have to cancel. At least it gave Scott the ability to be home most of the day Monday. He got to sleep in, and was sent home really early after he got to work. So that was nice. Thankfully it's already pretty cold again and we got a bunch more snow last night. More to come this weekend too. So the roads aren't so bad anymore.

~We put up some Christmas decorations. Oh, and we may even get a free tree from the Runsers! They have it in storage and don't use it, so they offered to let us have it.

~Today was very exciting. One of my dear friends out here asked me if I would come with her when her husband gets home from an almost year-long deployment, and take pictures. I happily agreed, and today, he came home. I got a text from her this morning saying the brigade would be there at about 11:00 (which in military time means about an hour and a half later.) So I packed my camera, tripod, back-up point-and-shoot camera, the baby, and took off. Thankfully I had lots of time to get my camera set to some pretty good settings for the lighting in that building, and I think I got some good pictures. I'm excited to sit down with them and edit them a bit, and give them to her. What a huge privilege to be able to bless my friend like that. I'm so thankful and joyful for her that he is finally home, and on time for Christmas!

~I have a wonderful husband. Seriously. He helped me get almost completely caught up on the housework yesterday, now I'm much more relaxed. It's amazing to be sitting here in an almost totally clean house, with my precious little one asleep (and hence, quiet), the glow of the little bit of sunlight we get out here during winter, a good book to read (more on that later), time to actually sit down and sort of catch up on the blog, the promise of a cozy evening. So very much to be grateful for.

Like.. literally, a good trip.

I have recently discovered a new pet peeve I have. Or maybe it's not really new exactly, since I've always been somewhat of a grammar/punctuation/spelling nazi. (Auto correct wants me to capitalize "Nazi". Oh well.) Even though that may not be readily apparent in this blog since I often break grammar and punctuation rules. If I break them though, I usually am aware of it, and I have broken the rules to get a point across in a more exaggerated way. But I digress. (See? I just started my sentence with a conjunction. It isolates that phrase to make it more dramatic. ANYWAY.) My pet peeve is the word "literally" used incorrectly. It is used incorrectly very, very often these days. I was joking around with Scott the other day about how I'm going to use the correct word in its place and see how people react. I want to laugh just thinking about it. Instead of saying something to the effect of, "I was literally sweating buckets," I'm going to say, "I was figuratively sweating buckets." The word I've noticed, is most often preceded by the word "like", another word that is used far more often than it should be used. I'm guilty of that I know, just ask my brother. I find myself wondering how this phenomenon occurred. Maybe the two words just sound right together. Like, literally. I suppose "like, figuratively" would just sound funny to most people. Interesting. In any case, "literally" is still used incorrectly most of the time, and I want to fix it. Even though I should be working on fixing myself and my own, much deeper flaws rather than correcting everyone's grammar.

The trip to Anchorage was really great. The drive down there was absolutely beautiful! It's about a 7 - 8 hour drive, and we started at about 10:00 pm. During the first 3 hours, as we drove past Denali National Park, there was not a single cloud in the sky. We were pretty far away from any big towns, so the stars were brilliantly clear, and since I couldn't fall asleep, Scott and I spent time softly talking about the constellations, and trying to find Polaris. I don't think we succeeded. I think I found the Big Dipper, and Orion, but I couldn't figure out where Polaris was, and after driving over a rumble strip Scott decided to keep his eyes on the road (wise man) and stop looking. I tried to go to sleep after that, but though I closed my eyes I just couldn't get comfortable, and every time I came close to dozing off, something would wake me. The first was Scott pulling over to a gas station.

After gassing up, we hit the road again, and he informed me that as I tried to sleep, he almost hit a moose. Apparently it was standing right on the white line on the side of the road, and he saw it just as he crossed a bridge. I gave up trying to sleep at that point, and as we were again just talking, I happened to look behind us, and I was floored. The Aurora was out. Brighter than any I've seen yet. We were passing mountains, and with the bright stars and mountains looming darkly around us, the bright display of green lights was the perfect completion of an amazing picture. We stopped so I could get some pictures, but unfortunately I've never read how to photograph the Aurora, and I only had about 2 minutes to set all the settings on the camera to what I thought they might have to be to capture the lights, on manual. Also, the camera doesn't take pictures if it can't find anything to focus on, and I had a difficult time manually focusing it because it was pitch black outside. Still, here's the best shot I could get.

I did some reading when we got home of how to photograph the Aurora, and I think I know what mistakes I made now. I hope very much that I get another chance before we leave Alaska. God's creation is so incredible.

We got to Anchorage at about 5:30 am, Thanksgiving morning. Thanksgiving day was rather odd. The friends we went down there to see were holding a fundraiser for their church youth group that day (their dad is the pastor of a Samoan church), playing Bingo. They live in their church building upstairs, so we could hear all that was going on all day. Our friends thought that the fundraiser would end at around 2:30 or so, but it went on until about 6:00 in the evening, and it took 'til about 7:00 to clean everything up and see the last stragglers out the door. Scott and I by that point started making our Thanksgiving dishes and setting the table so that supper would be ready by the time they were done cleaning up. Two of our friends ended up not being able to eat with us because one had to babysit for some people going out to shop on Black Friday, and the other works at Best Buy, which was opening up at midnight. Scott and I were very tired from our trip (neither of us slept at all the entire trip), and the G's were tired from the day long fundraiser. So right after supper was ravenously devoured, everyone very quickly wandered off to their rooms to fall asleep for the night. Thanksgiving didn't really feel like Thanksgiving at all, we were separated from the G's all day, and dinner was eaten pretty quickly. So it was definitely the weirdest Thanksgiving we've ever had. But the weekend itself was very good, I'm so glad we got to go down there.

The next day, we enjoyed some shopping around, since Anchorage has WAY more to offer than Fairbanks. There's a Target, several malls with the usual stores you'd see down in the lower 48, normal restaurants (IHOP, baby!), and just so much more to see. Mrs. G often "stole" Micah from us and shooed us out the door, so it was very pleasant to be out and about and not have to worry about the baby. I missed him a lot though. I wonder if I'll ever be able to fully enjoy being out alone with my husband again. I do enjoy it, but it's always a bit dampened by wondering if Micah is ok, and wishing I had kissed him more before we left, and hoping he's not being too much of a burden for anyone. But it was very good to spend some time with Scott by myself. In the evenings, we played board games with whoever was home that night, Balderdash was the favorite. They are a lot of fun to play with. I was grateful because I also got to spend some time alone with Mrs. G, she was my first friend out here when I first moved out here and got married, and she is such a wonderful, godly lady. I greatly enjoyed the fellowship with her.

So, all in all, the little "vacation" (Moms apparently don't actually get vacations) was wonderful, though exhausting. Nights were pretty awful because Micah kept waking up every hour and a half - 2 hours, so we hardly got any sleep. And I got a cold, which I still have, but it was still a good trip despite all that. The drive back was also very beautiful, here are some moments from that. We took 650 pictures, mostly of the drive back.

And now, to work again. I have like, figuratively, a ton of laundry to do.