Gibberish

Sit down, take a few minutes and have some coffee with me.

It's mocha mint today, I bought it at a cute little tea room on Saturday night where many of us from our little church had a Valentine's dinner.  It's delish.

Pardon the green bathrobe and crazy hair.  I've been wearing it curly again because it's just so much easier that way, but curly hair is not very forgiving after being laid on...it's unfortunate really.  

I overslept this morning.  It's Jack Bauer's fault.  Ben and I stayed up till midnight watching the first season of 24.  I'm not ashamed to admit that we watched 4 or 5 episodes in a row last night. We're completely hooked.  Junkies, I tell you.

I have all three of my boys home today.  Jake was sick last week and he passed it along to his big brothers...no barfing involved, so I can't really complain.  

Have I mentioned Julie?  :)  I don't think I've had one conversation with anyone this past week that I have not managed to weave her in...and whip out some more pictures for them to see. We've only been communicating for a week now, and already I feel like she's a part of our family. It is really quite amazing.     I can't wait for her to come to tiny-town...but I've got some stuff to do first. 

Which leads me to painting.  I've got some big painting plans.  

Alright, your turn...  

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Two Things...

So the title of my post yesterday was sneaky, I'll admit. Shame on me ;)

I think I could start a new blog series called "Why it's better to have a pretend teenage daughter than a real one" For example, yesterday was our first day we were able to communicate and one of the first things Julie wrote was, "You are so young." I'm pretty much positive this is not something a real teenage girl tells her mother.

It made me love her even more. Of course.

And I think when she gets here, we should all talk her into doing a regular guest post on Life in the Parsonage: The teenager from Norway version...good stuff.

Here's some stuff I learned about her already:

• Her English vocabulary may be better than mine. She used the word flabbergasted. Which impresses me beyond belief. Nice that I need to have a foreign exchange student in order to expand my own English. By the time she lives with me for a year, she'll be using made up words and improper grammar like no one's business. :)


• She is not a "pink person" which is good, because I'm not either. No pink bedroom walls in this house. But I've got a girlie plan that is cute as all get out, and I'll share it with you when it's complete in its perfection.


• She is sweet. And charming. I can tell she's charming already...I just can. And witty! Go check out the comments on my post yesterday, she commented at the end.

I have one picture of her that I got from our exchange student coordinator...wanna see her?!?

Bloggy friends, meet Julie:

In other news: Remember that book The House That Cleans Itself that I went on and on about?!? Well, the lovely author of that book, Mindy Starns Clark sent me THREE autographed copies to give away to ya'll! Thanks Mindy!

Two things:

1. The give away is not until TOMORROW! So you have time to tell your bloggy friends OR be selfish and keep the news to yourself in hopes of increasing your odds of winning. It's between you and the Lord ;)


2. Comment on the post tomorrow and then on Thursday I will randomly choose THREE winners!

See ya tomorrow!

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We're Expecting!

Friday morning Ben and I left tiny-town for a couples retreat in an actual city. The first session didn't actually start until 7:30 Friday night, which means we left are home as soon as humanly possible in order to make the most of our time.

Friday was also THE day that I was to hear from the school. We we're hoping to know by around 10 AM. Every time my cell phone rang my heart raced. I jokingly said to Ben, "You wait, that Principal will wait till the END of the day to call."

And...he did.

I was standing outside Banana Republic when I got the call. And we got the slot! Which means in August we will become pretend parents to a lovely 17 year old girl from Norway, named Julie!

YAY! Did I mention she's adorable? And smart? And friendly? Well, at least I think she is from her application ;) We now have the all clear to communicate with her, so we're awaiting an email. We'll have six months to communicate before she arrives.

I've very distracted with girlie bedroom decorating plans.

I do want to share some of the stuff I learned while waiting (other than the fact that I really don't enjoy the waiting)

• Knowing God is in control of the situation, and acting like He is are completely different. Knowing is easy. The other: Not so much. I found myself continually handing it back over.
• I spent a lot of time copying down different Psalms because it brought me such peace...calmed the anxiousness that I could not calm on my own.
• God does not make we wait in order that He can see how I'll react. He already knows. The waiting is so that I can see my own heart.
• I have learned that no matter what I think should happen, I ultimately want to be in the center of His will, not mine. No matter what.
• God is in the details.

I can't wait to share more with you all on this journey. I sent Julie my blog address. Hopefully she doesn't change her mind about coming ;)

Now...I have about 30 loads of laundry to do. Exciting stuff.

PS - Ben and I had a great time on our short getaway...the topic was Love and Respect...more later.

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