"It's almost fall!" or "I'm feeling sappy!" You can choose the title.

Today we were able to meet my hubby for a quick lunch in front of the hospital, V gets so excited to see her daddy! It maketh my heart to be quite glad :) She starts waving her arms and laughing as soon as she sees him coming, ah pure happiness.

Fall is coming! The crickets have invaded our downstairs bathroom once again! They show up every year shortly before fall, and they get me all excited! (As long as they don't come out of the bathroom.) By the way, there must be a goodly sized hole somewhere, in order for them to get in. Anyways, I love fall (and the beginning of winter)! September 23rd through February 14th, is my favorite time of year! Can't wait to break out my Josh Groban Noel CD in just 2 weeks! V and I will put some fall decorations around, and burn some apple and spice smelling candles! Woohoo!

V is 9 months old (yesterday)! She has started doing so many exciting little things, she's been clapping for a while now, but lately if I just ask her to clap, she will! It's so exciting to see her learning the meaning of words. Not just copy me when I'm clapping, but know what the word "clap" means. This must all sound so silly, but it gets me pretty excited! Feeding her nowadays is so much fun too! She's eating all sorts of thins, blueberries, cottage cheese, peas, mango, lasagna, really! She gets a little of whatever we're eating, and mealtime is a blast! For breakfast every morning she has oatmeal, yogurt, and some kind of fruit. Yay for somewhat of a routine! (I LOVE routines.)

Any day now I'm going to go into her room to get her from a nap, and she'll be standing in her crib. Ah I want it all to slow down for a moment! Each stage has been just a little bit better than the last, I never would have thought that was possible! She follows me around the house, babbles to her toys, laughs at my silly faces, loves the song "Los pollitos dicen", ah and so many other cute things! It's an overwhelming feeling to look at her sometimes, and think, "did I really give birth to you 9 months ago?" This 100% complete human being, who relies on me ever so slightly less each day... is so much more amazing than I ever would have thought! My husband and I both wonder what we thought was cool before we had her, raising V has been more wonderful and fulfilling than either one of us could have imagined. Every day we're both more thankful for her.

*Sniffle.

OK I'm all done now.
Hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend!

So apparently political survey people have my cell phone number. That's OK! I've enjoyed answering those calls since I was far to young to vote. I remember once while Bush was president, lying to the lady (about my age) and then telling her how highly I thought of our government at the time! Well anyways, I was very happy to tell this lady that yes indeed ma'am I sure did vote in the 2008 election! But she hung up on me about 5 minutes into the survey after I gave the President a 2 out of 100... so does that mean my opinion won't be counted? So not fair! I'm very disappointed.

Tonight we ate the most fantabulous barbecue pork sandwiches. I used a recipe from my friend Victoria again, and they were so phenom!

V has been working on her 4th tooth now for some time. Unfortunately this is the meanest tooth yet! Within the next few days (my guess is, tomorrow) she'll have her two middle bottom teeth, and her two top outer incisors! Her little smile is too cute. I was telling a friend how her front top teeth aren't showing up, but the ones on the sides are, she informed me that she's never seen that before! Well I'm told mine came in that way, and I'm quite happy that V takes after me in some ways :)
In the last week V has started giving High Fives, clapping, and my favorite, saying "hi!". She says it all the time now! Sometimes I'll watch her playing, and she'll pick up a toy, look it in the face and say "hi!" then clap for herself!

Oh my word I just love her so much.

I also love that we're going to visit my side of the family for Thanksgiving! We're so thankful that they live near one of the 5 cities that Hubby can take this one incredibly expensive exam in, that just happens to be on the day before Thanksgiving! V will be just a couple of weeks short of 1 year old, and it will be such a fun time! My sister is even planning to have a small early birthday party for her while we're there!
I am SO excited. My family is great! Now if only we lived closer...

and so we wait for interviews! Hopefully we'll get some near to where our family lives! Even a 7 hour drive would be welcome! That covers a lot of different programs, our family is quite spread out! With my luck, we'll end up on the west coast, just to spread it out a little more.

So this is where the Trusting God comes in handy. I know His plan for us is good. It's pretty clear He wanted us where we are now, and has even shown us in some ways why! In the words of a dear old friend, (OK, so maybe radio drama character would be a better term for him, but he was an integral part of the soundtrack to my childhood!) named Mr. Whitaker,

"The best is yet to come!"