MONDAY NIGHT MUSINGS

- CJ says, "Let's do it" all the time and last week we finally figured out where he got it from - Bryce! Bryce actually says it all the time too. Just more proof that CJ idolizes his daddy.

- (5/19/10)  Mattie got enough courage up last week to walk all the way down the stairs! She was holding my hands, of course, but it's the first time she didn't insist on turning around and crawling down.

- (5/19/10)  Mattie started nodding her head "yes." Grandma Forsgren tried so hard to teach her while she was visiting, and sure enough, Mattie started doing it on her own just after Grandma left :) 

- (5/23/10)  Mattie said "doggy" last week and even started woofing. It's more like an airy grunt, but we know what she means.

- As you may already know, CJ is pretty much obsessed with outside. It doesn't matter how hot or cold or windy or rainy or whatever the condition may be, CJ wants to be in it. It was so nice to visit my parents in Utah, who have a big backyard, that's fenced. CJ was in heaven! And as seems to be the case lately, Mattie followed suit (she loves to be doing whatever CJ is doing), even out into the rain. It was great to watch CJ teach Mattie how to stomp in the puddles. I had almost as much fun watching them as they did playing!

- CJ and Mattie have been holding hands lately and it makes my heart melt! It mainly happens when they're in close proximity, like the car. But sometimes CJ will just take Mattie's hand and lead her. That doesn't happen very often, but when it does, I just want to freeze time!

- Man, I've been exhausted this week! I got up at 5:30 AM both Wednesday and Thursday, then we drove down to Utah Friday morning, and I ran 12 miles Saturday morning. I hate it when I'm tired and on vacation!

- Last week CJ called his cousin, Zack, "brown Zack." Then when he met his Aunt Courtney's fiance, Madhav, who is from India, he said he was brown too (thank goodness he said it after we left). I hope it doesn't offend people. We think it's actually really great that CJ recognizes the difference and we look at it as an opportunity for him to learn that yes, they look different, but that's ok. They are great  and we love them!

- So the biggest thing this week is that I had a total meltdown, something which I never do...and then we bought a house! Ha ha ha. As most homeowners could've probably told me, we experienced some unexpected last minute details of our loan contract. The final amount of our monthly mortgage payment was about $200 more than we were expecting and as soon as I heard the number, I burst into tears. "How are we gonna make this work?" Bryce kept telling me it would be ok, and my response was, "How is it going to be ok with our budget?" After I took a breather, I reviewed our budget. I felt better about it, but still not totally convinced we were going be able to make it work. But the funny thing was, I still felt good about the house. Amidst all my tears, I never felt like we shouldn't get the house. Deep down, I felt a sense of peace that we would find a way to make it work. I kept thinking about Bryce's dad's advice about buying a house, that it should be a sacrifice, and I just felt like we were supposed to be in this house and that if we were faithful and willing, we would find a way to make it all work. So we took possibly the biggest leap of faith of our lives...now I'm just hoping to land on solid ground.