Takin' a Break

Tonight Brian and I got a lot of work done moving furniture around the house. We took down the bed in Jonathan's room, put up a bunk bed, re-put up the bed that had been in his room, and moved a dresser. All in under 2 hours, and with Jonathan running around "sweeping." He did a great job tonight, playing with his toys and just in general being in a good mood. After we finished, Brian laid down in the guest bedroom to rest, and Jonathan decided he wanted to be like Daddy. Too cute!

Jonathan

Please be praying for the Franklin family right now. Jonathan started getting sick with the fever/cough bug this past Sunday night. By Friday, when he wasn't better, in fact seemed worse, Brian took him to the doctor. There we learned that he has a mild case of pneumonia. So he's a pretty miserable little kid. Even with cough suppressants, he coughs most of the day, and much of the night. He's exhausted, and so are we.

Please pray for him to be healed, and to start feeling better quickly. Also, pray for Brian and me to have strength and patience. And pray for me to remember that God is faithful. Sometimes it's hard to see at 3 in the morning.

All About Brian

Ok, so a while ago I was tagged by Hannah to share some things about Brian. In the spirit of "better late than never" (and because I love to talk about him), here are some things you may not have known about Brian...


1. Where did you meet? We met in October of our first year in grad school, in Wade and Marian Coleman's kitchen. We had an RUF thing there on a Sunday night, and I walked into the kitchen to get a drink. I can't really say that there was an instant connection on my side, but he was pleased to finally meet me, as he had seen me a few weeks previous, and thought I was pretty. :)

2. How long did you date? We dated for about 7 months before we got engaged, and then had a sixth month engagement, so 13 months?

3. How long have you been married? 3 years New Year's Eve.

4. What does he say that surprises you? Every once in a while he'll tell me about something he did to serve someone, or help someone; or something he'd like to do to serve or witness. I don't know that I'm still surprised by those comments, but I'm always challenged. He has a very missional heart, and God frequently uses Brian to challenge me in that area.

5. What is your favorite feature of his? I really love his hands, among other things. And I think he's the perfect height. ;) Any taller and I'd get a crick in my neck when I kiss him.

6. What is your favorite quality of his? In the last few months I've been really touched by his selflessness and his servant heart. He had the perfect excuse to quit doing any kind of housework or cooking in the last few months while he was studying for exams, but he continued to spend time and energy helping me out.

7. Does he have a nickname for you? Not really - Brian's not into nicknames very much. And the endearments he does have for me...are for me. ;)

8. What is his favorite color? Green

9. What is his favorite food? I actually asked his this a few weeks ago, and he said he doesn't really have a favorite, though if I had to pick one for him I'd probably go with ice cream or watermelon.

10. What is his favorite sport? I think baseball

11. When and where did you first kiss? In his first apartment, after we'd been engaged for 2.5 months.

12. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Hmmm, we use to take weekly dates to Starbucks just to talk and see how each of us was doing, I think we both liked that.

13. Do you have any children? Jonathan


14. Does he have a hidden talent? He's written several songs, words and music, most people don't see that often.

15. How old is he? 25

16. Who said "I love you" first? Brian. One week before he proposed.

17. What is his favorite type of music? I'm guessing acoustic rock? I know that Jars of Clay is his favorite band - does that help?

18. What do you most admire about him? Over the last year I've grown to appreciate and admire his work ethic far more.

19. Do you think he will read this? Yep - I'm linked on his Google Reader.

20. Where did you go on your first date? Christopher's for dinner and jazz music, and then back to my apartment to watch the original "Sabrina." That day is still one of the favorite memories I have of us. :)

Call me Mrs. ABD

He's done!! Brian sat for his oral exams this morning and did excellently! He has worked so hard and diligently these last 7 months - it is a huge blessing to see his work rewarded.

He says he doesn't feel a big sense of relief yet, but I certainly do! I have gotten teary-eyed a couple times already just thinking about the big load of work that has been lifted off my hard-working husband. Now "all" he has left to do for his PhD is his dissertation, making him an ABD (All But Dissertation).

So to celebrate tonight, we're going to eat at the mall's food court, and buy some new shoes for our little guy. Woohoo, Franklins sure do know how to party! ;)

This Day in History

Four years ago today, Brian and I had our first date. He had arranged with the restaurant that night to have flowers on the table waiting for me.

He said he couldn't take me back to Christopher's again tonight, but he at least wanted me to have flowers on my table.

Thanks for brightening my day. I love you, Brian.

War Eagle (anyway)

Anyone who knows me more than a tiny bit knows of my love for my alma mater Auburn University. I am not alone - I come from a long line of Auburn fans, who are more gung-ho and rabid than I. Hard to imagine, maybe, but there you go.

My Auburn fan-ness was reinforced by living in University of Tennessee country most of my life. Of course, I brought some of the harassment upon myself by wearing Auburn shirts to school, and defending them against all detractors.

The last time I saw my parents, my Mom had a surprise for me - a couple small Auburn sweatshirts I had worn as a kid. And they fit Jonathan. Let the brainwashing begin...

No, he's not watching AU football here, though this expression does look like a grimace of pain.


I wish I could say he's learned how to yell a good "War Eagle!" but he hasn't. I'm still working on him, Mom. Just give me time. He's closer than a two-year old should be, probably. ;)

Funny Faces

Just so you know...this is one of my old sweatshirts. :) Pretty funny!

Mmm...Mrs Coats' spaghetti is good!



Is this close enough, Daddy?!

My two silly boys.

They're Here!

This is just a real quick post to remind y'all that Brian's exams start this morning. From about 9 - 1 he'll be in a room taking his exams. I think the basic idea is that he'll have that time to write three essays, in which he basically has to sum up everything he's read in the last 6 months. No pressure.

So when you think about it, could you please pray for him? (and if you don't read this in time, don't worry, you'll have 4 more opportunities in the next two weeks) Just pray that he'll be able to recall what he's read and studied, and be able to clearly write it in his essays. And pray that he'll be calm; he was getting pre-big event jitters this morning. Thanks for all your prayers!

Murphy Lives Here

I got Jonathan out of the bath tonight and wrapped him in his towel to make a toga (if he would stand still long enough, I could capture this really cute picture, but so far, no luck). Anyway, he wanted to run in to his Daddy in the study, so I followed him down the hall. I observed to Brian that one of the things I liked about the hardwood in the house was that I could let Jonathan run around for a few minutes after his bath without a diaper, because I could easily wipe up any messes, instead of breaking out the Resolve to scrub carpet.

Not five minutes later, we're in Jonathan's room, getting ready to get him into a diaper, when from behind me, I hear, "Jonathan, no!" And I turn around to find him peeing...on the rug. Go figure.

One of his other fun bath-time activities involves his shirt. I'll take it off his arms, but leave it on his head - he thinks it's hilarious!

Of course, he can't stand still long enough for me to take a decent picture, but he is two, after all.

I Have Slain the Beast

For a few days, Brian and I have been jokingly referring to the stench in the master bedroom as "The Beast." It stank. Seriously. As in, the door stayed closed for the whole week after we moved in. I opened it once, just out of curiosity. Bad idea. We had to shove a towel under the door just so Brian could breathe at night.

My goal this past Saturday was to clean our bathroom. Sounds easier than reality. I spent probably three hours and only managed to get the toilet, sink and floor clean. I lost heart before getting to the inside of the sink vanity and the shower. Even more disheartening was the fact that the smell didn't go away. Brian said it at least got less, but I couldn't really tell. And I was pretty sure the rank odor was coming from an unidentified object on the floor of the vanity. So tonight after I put Jonathan to bed, I geared up with rubber gloves (I almost wore two pairs), pulled out the Clorox clean-up and conquered the Beast. I have my theories about what the foul substance was, but you'll thank me for not sharing.

Now I'm recuperating with a small glass of wine to settle my stomach. If you haven't noticed, I don't have many "before" pictures of the house posted. I think some part of me wants to forget as quickly as possible and have no reminders. Some things are too gross to capture for posterity.

Meow!

Every year my office has a pumpkin-carving for Halloween. This year I thought it would be fun to do something that Jonathan would like. I found the template for the face on-line, but then added a cut-out in the back to make the tail. I must have done a good job, because he recognized it right off!

And our other "cat" today:


He wasn't too sure about the costume at first, but after I put it on over my head, he seemed a little more willing to give it a try.

Thanks to the Ayers family for letting us borrow your Tiger costume!

Staples

This post is dedicated to my sister. Carrie flew down here from her current nursing position in Nebraska to spend 10 days with us cleaning, packing, baby-sitting, spackling, priming and painting. There were probably a couple other things in there as well, but those are the main things. I was so thankful to have her help that week. And I continue to be touched that she gave up a week of vacation to come down and work her tail end off. And work she did - we could not have gotten everything done that needed to be done without her here. Toward the end of her stay, I decided to give her a new nickname: Staples. Because having her here was like having my own personal "Easy" button, "That was easy!"

If you read my blog with any frequency, you've seen the original color of Jonathan's room. Well, when Wade came by to look at the house, he was quite pleased with the color - UT (that's Tennessee for all you Texas folks) orange. That comment inspired Carrie to paint the following in primer for Wade:

Of course, then she had to show how she really felt:


Carrie was having a lot of fun with primer that week, and went on to paint a car on the wall for Jonathan. It has since been covered with two coats of green, but he still knows where that car was on the wall.

There are a couple other pics of her that week that are pretty funny and characteristic, but I'm afraid she'd fly back down here to kill me if I posted them.

Thank you Carrie! You were a huge help, and I don't know how we would have gotten it done without you. I love you.

Too Sweet

We are moved in. I would put an exclamation point, but I'm too tired. We have had so much help on this move - it has really been amazing. I'm not quite sure how this move would have happened without the help of our WPC family - cleaning, painting, moving, fixing the water heater, bringing us meals, taking care of Jonathan - you have been such a blessing to us in this. thank you to everyone who has helped us with this.

We don't have the computer hooked up to internet yet. So I can't post before and during pictures yet. (after will have to come later) But I opened up my email this afternoon to find a couple adorable pictures of Jonathan that our good friend Heather took last night at the church. It's been too long since I've posted a picture of the little guy, so here's a couple to make up for the absence.

Definitely doesn't get that hair from me! Jonathan is doing about as well as I expected in the new house. I figured this move would be kind of rough, since the last time he moved to a new place, he moved in with new people too. But he's doing pretty well. He still doesn't want to be too far away from us, but I know he'll get adjusted and get used to finding his way around pretty soon. And Brian got the DVD player hooked up yesterday, and life can only be so difficult as long as you have "Cars." ;)

Moving Day

Saturday is moving day! We're getting ready to unplug the computer, and I don't know when we'll get it back up and running. Hopefully soon and I can post some before and after pics. We'll see you on the other side...

We're In!

Just a real quick post to let everyone know that we are officially closed! We even got to get in and start cleaning tonight. It still hasn't quite sunk in that it's ours, but I guess that will come in time.

Thanks for your prayers. As we get stuff cleaned, painted and moved in, I'll post more pictures.

House Update, Take ... What are we up to now?!

Update: Apparently I was a bit too hasty in posting the below. The info about the document being picked up is true to the best of my knowledge. But in talking to Damon, our realtor, it urns out that we will not be able to close this week and get into the house this weekend, due to the number of parties that still have to sign all the paperwork. Sigh. Please keep praying for us. This is getting really discouraging.

This time good news! (We think)

If you will look closely at the image below, it would seem that our document has, in fact, been picked up by FedEx. Yea!! Since this is shipping overnight, it should get here tomorrow. So we will hopefully be able to close this week, we're praying even tomorrow.

If you look closely enough, you'll see that it was picked up at 6:54 this evening. Coincidence that we filed another amendment to the contract (third time's a charm), this time stating that we wanted them to help pay some of our closing costs because they've delayed things so long? Could be, but I kinda doubt it.

Cardboard

68 boxes as of tonight. And tomorrow is going to be packing-intensive. Even more boxes to find a place for.

Cardboard makes such a nice decorative statement, don't you think?

Meeting New People

Four years ago today, after an RUF event at Wade and Marian's, my journal entry said this, "I did meet a few new people tonight. One of them being a new grad student in history. Perhaps he'll become a part of the grad student crowd." Hee hee. If I had only known!

I love you, Brian. I'm so grateful for the way God brought us together, and how you pursued me. There is no one else I'd rather go through life with.

Good House News

We found out today that the missing document that has been holding up our closing has been found! Woohoo! By following a very long, rather convoluted chain of emails, it seems that it will be overnighted either today or tomorrow. This means we will hopefully get to close sometime early next week.

I had really been hoping that we would be able to close this week so that we could paint this weekend. But I have to trust in God's timing. His, not mine, is perfect.

Thanks for all your prayers. I'll keep you updated.

Box Count + 11 Days

So our current box count is as follows:

63 total boxes

32 boxes of books

House Hold-Up

Ok, so to bring you all up to date, we've kind of hit a snag with the whole house-buying thing. We still have no indication from Countrywide (who owns the house currently) of a time-line for closing. We expected to close last Thursday, but the misplaced form holding us up still has not been found.

This isn't something that should keep us from buying the house, it's just delaying it indefinitely. I'm starting to get nervous, because I feel my carefully worked out move-in schedule starting to fall down around my ears. Getting delayed by a few weeks may not seem like that big a deal, but every weekend we get pushed back puts us that much closer to Brian's exams. And he already has enough to deal with. So I'd really appreciate your prayers.

Just because

New House Pics

We went out to our house this morning and did a little prep work on the floors. While Brian and Damon were working hard, I picked out paint colors and took pictures. And because I know you out-of town folks are eager to see our house, here they are. Only, I have to warn you, it looks pretty rough right now. Nothing that some good wood refinishing and helpful friends wielding paint rollers can't fix, though.


Our den:
Our kitchen:
Unfortunately, the ceramic tile floors are rather pinkish (why?) and the counters are a gray speckle. But we have lots of counter space and I like the white cabinets.

This is going to be Jonathan's room. Maybe the one room we don't have to repaint, huh? Seriously, I don't know why this seemed like a good idea:


And the second/hall/Jonathan's/guest bath: I think pink must have been the only color they made 4x4 ceramic tile in during the 50s. Oh well.

So, there it is. It's starting to seem more real but at times it still seems pretty crazy. Please keep praying for us as we're balancing all this stuff right now.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to ask for prayer in one specific area. We expected to close this past Thursday, but due to un-filed paperwork on the other side of this transaction, we have not been able to close. I'd really like to close early this week, as we have a lot that needs to be done before we plan to move in just under three weeks. Thanks!

Box Count

I think the following numbers are correct:

I have a total of 50 boxes packed so far.

34 of these boxes are full of books. Heehee.

My prediction all along has been that 1/2 of the boxes we pack up to move will be book boxes. Looks like we're well on our way. Especially considering I haven't even touched Brian's history books yet.

Did I mention we'll be needing strong arms and backs in a few weeks...

Don't Smile!

Jonathan has developed a new funny face. When we tell him, "don't smile," this is one of the faces we get:


The hat is from my boss's retirement party. We had some left over after we un-decorated, so my HR director sent me home with a hat for Jonathan. He looks pretty spiffy, huh?

Transparent Reflection

Brian has introduced me to a new author in the last few months. Leif Enger has written just a handful of books, but they're beautiful. They're very hard to put down, not because they're action-packed, but because of the way he uses words. Here's a sample from "So Brave, Young and Handsome" that really struck me in the last few days:

"... I was confronted again by myself in the window...The window both reflected me and rendered me transparent. My clothes and skin rippled like the surface of water. There was my shaved and thwarted face, which I looked straight through to the street beyond. Here was my morbid thought: What if I am forgotten already? Suppose I go home, and she does not notice?"

I think I stopped and read that passage two or three times before I moved on. I know I've seen that same phenomenon in a window - transparent reflection - but I have never put it into poetry like the above. And his sad question at the end, makes my heart hurt for him.

Anyway, if you have free time and you're looking for a really great fiction author, I recommend trying a little bit of Leif Enger. Great read! Here are links to his two biggest books:

Peace Like a River and So Brave, Young, and Handsome

We're Moving!!

No, we're not leaving Bryan/College Station. We're buying a house. Everything fell into place today and we'll close in a little over two weeks. Crazy! I'm excited, nervous, terrified, stressed and happy. Typical, I guess.

We'll need to be out of our apartment by the end of October, so the next few weeks are going to be really busy. Unfortunately this comes at just about the worst possible time for Brian's studying, as he takes his exams in mid-November. Please pray for us as we're adding yet another (very large) thing to our already busy lives.

To update from my last post, Jonathan is mostly back on a normal sleep-schedule, which has been a huge relief. Thanks for your prayers and advice. Right now he has some kind of virus that has him coughing pretty constantly (especially when laying down) so we're struggling with getting enough rest again. But hopefully he'll sleep well tonight and he'll be feeling better tomorrow.

As soon as I can, I'll take some pictures of the new house. I'm warning in advance, however, that photos aren't going to be at the top of my to-do list. So I'll get them when I get them. :)

Sleepless

Can anyone tell me why my two-year old would switch from going to sleep at 8:30 at night on a regular basis, to staying up (crying) until 10:15 or 10:30 (or later - he's not asleep as I'm writing this) from one night to the next?! And then waking up at 5 the next morning?! Anyone? Please?! I'm about to go crazy.

As much as I think he'd enjoy the taste of my Strawberry Acai Smirnoff, I'm thinking that's probably not the answer to this problem...

For the Grandmothers

I should be going to bed, but instead, here's some pics of my cutie...

Has anyone seen July...

... I seem to have misplaced one. I can't believe it's already August. And almost half-way through at that. It's been busy here at the Franklin house. Of course, I don't have time to post much now (I'm skipping the Olympics to go to bed - haha), but I've gotten a few comments about how I need to post. So here's a pic to tide ya'll over until we get back from Alabama.


I wish I had more time to write and update on the last month, but it's time for bed. Maybe before August is over, I can sum up July. Going through picking out these pictures, I saw tons that I'd like to post. And I know there are dozens more trapped on the camera. We're so behind on uploading, we don't even have a July 2008 folder. Sigh.

How Organized Are You?

No, this is not a post to brag about my closets or make you feel guilty. Quite the opposite, in fact. I keep a watch on Nancy Wilson's blog (wife of Doug Wilson, pastor and author of Her Hand in Marriage). She had a great post today on trying to be too organized, and I thought I'd share it with my other over-worked friends. It's a very encouraging post, and I already feel less guilty about my less-than-perfect housecleaning. Click on the link below to read it yourself.

How Organized Are Your Closets?

Back to Work

So today was my first day back to "work" (because I've just been lazing around the last few weeks). Thanks to everyone who was praying for me. It actually was a pretty good day. It was definitely sad to be away from Jonathan (and Brian) all day, since I'm used to spending so much time with them, but it was ok.

I got to work to find that a lot has changed in the two months I've been gone:
- two full-time people have left or are leaving
- at least three new people have joined the office
- two people are back in the office from educational ventures
- my desk space has moved
> the good news is, I now have a window view
> the bad news - the window view is directly under an air conditioning vent in the coldest part of the office...brrrr!
- email really piles up when you're gone for two months!!

For the next few weeks, I'll be helping out on a fire station project. It's actually the one I was heading up before I took off, but someone else is coordinating it now. Really, I'm fine. I found out today that the project I should get to start working on after the Fourth is an interior build-out project. This means that there is an outside to the building, but nothing on the interior but structure and insulation. So, working with someone else in the office, I'll get to do the programming (figuring out what spaces they need, how big they are), space planning (figuring out where the aforementioned spaces will go, and how they relate to one another) and the interior finishes. This is my favorite thing to do in architecture/design. Yea! So I'm really looking forward to this next project.

So, anyway, for those of you wondering, my first day back was pretty good. I don't have any pictures, sorry, but it really wouldn't be that interesting anyway. ;) Thanks for your prayers!

PS - Brian had a good day at home with Jonathan. J took a really long nap (3.5 hours) so Brian was able to get a lot done during that time. My hubby's getting up at the crazy early hour of 5 these days to maximize the time before J wakes up in the morning, so he's getting work done then, as well. And Brian said J would even play by himself a little today (which he won't always do) so Brian was able to get more reading done then. All in all, a good day for my guys.

Water Fun

Today something happened that I had almost given up on. Jonathan played with the water hose. When we first got him, he was not a fan of water - he screamed every time we gave him a bath. As he grew more comfortable with us, he would play for the first part of bath time and only scream when we washed his hair. In the last few weeks, he's given up screaming even then (mostly because Mommy and Daddy have gotten better at keeping water out of his face) and he enjoys all of his bath. Yea! But he still doesn't like having water in his face. Or so I thought until this morning.

My mom and Jonathan came outside with me as I watered our lawn this morning. Jonathan started reaching out and putting his hand in the spray, and grew bolder and bolder. As you can see from the pictures, he had a great time playing in the water and ended up wet from head to toe. Even getting water sprayed in his face didn't seem to faze him. Maybe in the next few weeks we can brave Tanglewood's Splash Pad...

Will you marry me?

Today marks the three-year anniversary of the day Brian proposed. The whole story of the week leading up to the proposal is too long for this post, just know it was a crazy, emotional week, and on Wednesday, neither of us expected to be engaged by Saturday. That said, Brian did a great job of making the day special and totally surprising me. :)

We started our evening by going to the movies to see Cinderella Man, which was actually the first time we had gone to the theater together. Then we had dinner at Cafe Eccell. His inability to eat much at dinner was in fact due to nerves, but I thought it was a result of the malaria pills he was taking in preparation for his trip to India. Convenient.

After dinner, we went to Bee Creek Park to take a walk. When we got to the first split in the path, I noticed a small white flower growing in the middle of one of the branches. I may have commented on it, but didn't really think much, other than that was kind of a weird place for a single flower to be growing. At the second branch (and second flower) instead of becoming curious, I thought I saw the reason for the lone flower. Up ahead, I could barely see white growing around the base of a large tree. In my head, I just thought that somehow seeds had migrated and this single flower was part of the larger group that had kind of "wandered away."

When we got up to the tree, Brian stopped and gave me a hug. He started talking to me and then before I registered the tone of what he was saying, he was down on one knee in front of me. It was one of the sweetest moments of my life. Then I found out that all the flowers I had seen - those in the path and in a circle around the tree - had been planted by Brian that morning, while I thought he was packing and having lunch with his sister. Crazy boy!

Here we are just after the fact. If I look a big more tired and weepy than excited, I had in fact spent part of the afternoon crying - Brian would leave the next day for a 6-week mission trip to India, and I was not looking forward to it.


The tree was an old, dead skeleton, basically. On a previous walk, I had commented on how cool and interesting I thought it was, and Brian remembered. Unfortunately, this spot has been almost destroyed due to the "improvements" in that area. Now there is a large drainage ditch beyond our cool dead tree instead of more trees.


And here's Brian, looking handsome, young and very pleased with himself. ;)


I love you, Brian. Thanks for making that day such a special memory!

Wacky Wendesday

(No, this day wasn't particularly wacky, I just needed a title)

Wow, I just realized that I'm through Day 5. Somehow I missed counting Day 4. (for those of you sick of this count, I promise it will be over soon) Thank you to everyone who helped out and hung out with us this week. And thanks to all the people who offered to hang out, but didn't get to because the week was actually too short, or because Jonathan was sick. It has been a real blessing to know that I had so many friends who were there for me.

Our adventure for today came via Eric and Theresa. They came over at short notice and brought us dinner. Then, because Jonathan's asthma is still acting up, we headed to Chick-fil-A's indoor playground for a little after-dinner fun. Of course, Jonathan had more fun playing with the door than on the actual play equipment, but whatever. At least he got a change of scenery (I think my closet door was losing its appeal).


On a different note, Jonathan was evaluated today to see if he would need Early Childhood Intervention services. I was actually kind of surprised, but he failed two of the four areas she was testing. However, I was not surprised by which areas were weaker (does that make any sense?) His dexterity and verbal/comprehension skills were not where they should be /are expected to be. Now we will be referred to someone who will come and do a more in-depth study to see if and where he needs more directed help and development. It's an odd mix of emotions - I certainly want him to have help if he needs it and it will help with his development, but at the same time, my mommy heart wants to say, "Hey, what do you mean telling me my kid failed your test? I think he's just great!" Hopefully they can direct us to different things to do with him that can help him develop the skills he's behind in.

Ok, that's enough for one posting. My Mom will get here tomorrow evening to meet Jonathan for the first time, so hopefully I'll have some more good pictures to post soon.

Day Three: Survived

Thanks everyone for your prayers and encouraging comments.

I did get to talk to Brian today. Unfortunately, as soon as I heard his voice on the phone, I started crying, so of course, he thought something was wrong. I was eventually able to explain that we were ok. Jonathan had not been feeling well all day (asthma + allergies is a bad mix), and that had pretty much stressed me out. Brian confirmed that I needed to start him on the steroids the doctor gave him last week, and he is already doing much better. I still put him to bed early, because he's so tired from trying to breathe all day, but he is obviously doing better. I can hear him talking/singing to himself right now. :) Including a sing-song, "da-da," which I can only assume means that he loves and misses his Daddy.

Brian said they put in a hard day of manual labor today. Specifically digging holes. Haha, apparently he's doomed to dig holes on mission trips. (that's what we did the whole time we were in Peru two springs ago) Thankfully, no one has fallen in any of the holes yet! ;)

Just for fun, here's photos of our last hole-digging experience:

Day Three

We've made it through two days without Brian. And into Day Three. It's been a quiet morning so far, mostly because my little guy is still sleeping. Yes, that's right, almost 11 am and still asleep. He's been sniffly and coughy and kind of congested since Saturday, and he woke up a lot during the night, so I think he's just catching up on missed sleep. (Maybe I should be doing the same) About every 20 minutes I'll hear him cough and whimper, but no real sounds of being awake yet. Crazy. Last night I started showing signs of allergy problems or a cold, so it could be a rough couple of days. Please pray for health for both of us. Trying to take care of a sick child while feeling sick myself does not sound like fun.

I have now gone over 48 hours without talking to my husband. (except for a 5-minute call on Saturday to tell me they were there safely, which hardly counts) That's the longest I've gone since we've been married. And I don't like it. I hope he'll be able to call tonight, but I don't know.

I've been rereading letters that Brian left for me when he went to India three years ago. In the one I read this morning, he reminded me that God's mercies are new every day. So I asked God this morning to open my eyes to see His mercies today. These are a few I've thought of so far:

- Jonathan is sleeping, catching up on much-needed rest
- no more ants in my den (long story)
- I'm feeling much better, with less cold/allergy symptoms
- I have a very wide network of friends who would love to hang out with me and my son when I can't handle being home alone any more! ;)
- I have a husband who loves me
- my mom is only a cell-phone call away (and doesn't tire of me!)

I pray that I will continue to see God's hand in the rest of my day. I take so much for granted; I need new eyes to see how great our God is.

Because I need to see my husband's smile:


Because it's so sweet, here's Jonathan giving his Daddy kisses:


We miss you, Brian!