It's WONDERFUL.

Spring in Alaska...it's finally here!

Blah

Ever have one of those days where you just don't feel like doing ANYTHING? I've had the laziness bug all week. Part of it probably has to do with the fact that Micah has been waking up every night, several times a night lately. It's exhausting. The other part is probably the medical issue I talked about earlier. The medication I'm taking works to control it better, but I still don't feel great most of the time. *sigh*. So I drag myself around to do the chores when they need to be done, but the past week I admit, I've just been quietly playing on the floor with my son or browsing the internet dreaming about doing things (like photography or camping or running or a missions trip) and wishing I was feeling really good. It's pretty pathetic.

Anyway, I figured I'd do something that is somewhat productive while sitting around all day. Here is the result.

First time with sunglasses, woohoo!

He's pulling himself up and cruising a lot these days. :)

    Smiling at Daddy

                                THIS. IS. SPARTAAAAAAA!

              PRECIOUS smiles.


P.S. - Does anyone know how on earth to get rid of the silly white borders around all the pictures I post? I've done a bunch of searching online for the "how to" but nothing suggested has worked. Help?

Charming

So, yeah. This is the face he's been making the last couple days. All day long. And he rapidly sniffs in and out every time he does it. It is pretty much one of the most adorable things I've ever seen him do and I don't ever want him to stop. (I'm snickering just looking at the picture.)

(P.S. - In case you didn't realize...I (read: my hubby) figured out how to get my pictures off the camera. Woohoo!)

It's quiet?

The babe is down for the night, the husband is shooting things (on the computer), the living room is picked up and I'm determined to not start on any other cleaning projects until the weekend ends, and it's back to the grind tomorrow morning. So here's what's going on in my head:

"Wow! Time by myself! Should I work on my to-do list for the week? Go take a shower? Laze in front of the TV as the husband is lazing in front of his computer? Go clean up the kitchen even more? No, no, no. Not until tomorrow. Clean up our bedroom? Start a load of lau- wait. NO! Eat chocolate? Eat ice cream? Spend all this free time figuring out what I'm going to do, give up, and go to bed? Extra sleep would be nice. But then morning will come too quickly and then no more free time. OH! Should I start those baby booties I want to crochet? Should I try to figure out what's wrong with my camera? No wait, Scott's on the computer."

As I'm reading back on this though...I am rather ashamed. I've had nagging thoughts that perhaps I should dig into my Bible, but I'm so tired and I don't feel like I can read and pay attention to anything. I'm also ashamed as it dawns on me that there are billions of people in the world that do not have these luxuries. They don't have clean water, mindless entertainment at their disposal (which could be somewhat of a good thing), hardly any roof over their heads, are dressed in rags, hardly have any food, and most especially not ice cream or chocolate.

I know that it's not exactly my fault that I have all these luxuries while so many people do not. But I am growing increasingly aware that we take SO much for granted, and don't even really think to generously give to people who are truly in desperate need. The pizza we bought for lunch today? We could have used that money to give a pair of chickens to a family who lives on less than a dollar a day. (Long pause in which I am wracking my brain trying to remember other things we bought recently) My brain is too dead I guess to think of any other examples. I'll come up with more later I'm sure. But you get the point. Lately, every time we spend money on something that we could live without, I've been realizing just how much we spend on ourselves and how little we give to others. It's definitely not a nice realization, but I'm sure God will use it.

For tonight though, I'm going to guiltily slink off to take a shower, then watch a movie with my husband while I eat ice cream.

I'm going to leave you hanging again...

...but I'm going to tell you again that GOD IS AMAZING. I told Scott the other day about what happened at Bible study, but he was understandably not nearly as excited about it as I was. He wasn't there. Anyway, I found myself quickly losing excitement and wondering if maybe I was just making it all up in my head and acting totally ridiculous at Bible study and maybe God wasn't really showing me anything after all. But yesterday, as I ran errands, I went to Barnes and Noble to feed Micah...and sitting RIGHT there was the guest speaker from Bible study! We greeted each other and chatted, and both of us agreed that it just could not be coincidence. I will say that I'm still not quite sure exactly what He is trying to tell me, but I have absolutely no doubts that He will show me what's going on in His own time, and I am absolutely thrilled that He is going to guide me in an unmistakable way.

Praise be to God!

AUGH!

Well...

I WOULD have edited and posted some pictures tonight. But something is wrong with my camera. And the silly USB cord. I'm not terribly happy about it. Hopefully I'll get it figured out soon. Until then I suppose I will be posting things with no pictures. Sad.

SO full

My heart, it is so VERY full right now. I simply MUST write about it because I'm alone right now, the baby is sleeping, I have no one to talk to, and I just can't stand it any longer.

God is INCREDIBLE. Today, He gave me a very, very clear answer to prayer that I was absolutely not expecting. It actually shook me up because the moment it happened I realized that it was NOT coincidence, and that He was speaking to me. It was at Bible study today, through a couple of guest speakers we had. I sat there with tears streaming down my face because I knew that God was speaking personally...to me. To ME of all people. Astounding. I talked to one of the speakers right after, and she had tears in her eyes as well because as soon as I started talking to her I started crying more (tears more of astonishment than anything, not sadness) and she got to see God actively at work through her. Her husband is stationed where Scott is stationed, so she gave me her contact information and we're going to arrange to have dinner with her and her family so we can discuss this answered prayer more and "pick her brain," so to speak. Unfortunately for you, my dear readers, I can't disclose what exactly this "thing" is just yet. I feel the need to be discreet until Scott and I reach a final decision. But I will say that I think God is about to be working through us in a very big way.

Another big thing that is happening with me that I CAN talk about, is that as a result of reading the book "Unplanned" that I shared on here a couple months ago, and contacting the coordinator in Anchorage asking about what I can do...I will be helping bring the 40 Days for Life campaign here to Fairbanks this fall. Or really, God will be bringing it here through me. I can hardly WAIT to get started. I think this is going to be an amazing way to see Him work through me, first-hand. Besides the fact that abortion is a horrific thing and I desperately want to do something about it, that was the main reason I wanted to get involved in this venture.

So, that's mainly what's on my mind now. I'm afraid I am about to go "stalker" on the poor coordinator in Anchorage, I e-mailed her last week about something, and then saw the horrible news story today about Planned Parenthood (I'll post a link at the end of this post) and e-mailed her again, and then I realized that I have a phone number I can call to reach her. I completely forgot about it. Poor girl. :)

And now writing about this has just excited me even more instead of calming me down, so I leave you with the story, and probably wondering what in the world has gotten into me. :)

Aaaand we're back!

Whew! I know it's been a long time since my last post. We got back from our month-long sojourn to the lower 48 last Thursday. I'm still unpacking and trying to get back into a routine. As soon as I am done with all that, I will try to post pictures. It will take several posts, however, lots of catching up to do!

The trip was good, but exhausting. It was wonderful to see all of you again! I AM actually very glad to be home again though, I was actually starting to miss the routine. And now, it's been in the mid 50's - low 60's the past couple days out here, winter is finally over! Still lots of snow in our backyard, but most everywhere else it's melting and making gigantic puddles everywhere.

For a few updates...some of you know that I've been struggling with some physical issues since about the middle of our trip. I went to the doctor as soon as we got home, and they put me on medication for a year and told me to come back if the condition hasn't improved in the next 2 - 3 weeks. It seems to be improving so far, the only problem is the medication is this orange flavored powder I'm supposed to dissolve in water and drink every morning and evening, and it makes me feel nauseated. Disgusting. I gag every time I drink it. The powder never completely dissolves despite my best efforts, and it leaves a residue in my mouth. The problem isn't completely gone, but at least I'm able to function more normally now. I've lost about 8 pounds from this issue (which I'm DEFINITELY not complaining about), but this is certainly not the way I envisioned losing weight. :-P The praise I have is that the doctor is certain it isn't Crohn's disease or something serious like that (they considered the possibility) and she feels sure that it is related to me not having a gallbladder anymore. Now I'll back off before I get too gross. ;-)

Scott went back to work yesterday and everything seems to be good. He's playing with a band at a big banquet this Friday, and is of course, very excited about that. Apparently they're also playing for two other events that we know of. It's been a bit crazy since they practice just about every day now, and now the craziness won't be over after the banquet. Ah well.

As for the little boy, he finally cut his first tooth! There's another tooth next to it trying to push its way up. I'm slightly sad that he's not all gums anymore, since I found that absolutely adorable, but that little tooth is ALSO very cute.

That's all for now, I'll try really hard to catch up on posting.