7 Quick Takes Friday

1.  The hubby's home.  All is well.  I am no longer pouting.  I'm so happy to have him back safe and sound.  I truly miss him when he's away and realize how bad I am at handling small sacrifices of the heart heroically.  I think God knows this too and perhaps that's why he's gentle with me.  Others are inspiring to me and I wish I were as strong as they, but am honestly grateful that Shaun's military service is already "served".  I look every day at a photo we have near our door of him when he was an Army Ranger years ago, taken in Jordan.  Ava pointed over and over to his picture while saying "Da-da! Da-da!" each day he was gone and I think now of how my sacrifice was so puny next to these courageous women who may have similar photos they look at every day with their own little babies saying "Da-da" to them, but for them their sacrifice is not over.  It's daily. 

I thought of how I was spared it and how grateful I am, not just to be spared, but so grateful to those who are not.  Even if his days are somewhere between 4am-8/9/10/11pm long... and he's ready for bed as soon as he gets home,  at least I have him sleeping soundly by my side at night.  This little time has made me reflect again on what I have to be thankful for.  Feel free to read the link above on "Others" if interested in how we can be of greater support to military families.  After all, it's for us and our brothers and sisters throughout the world that this sacrifice is made.

2. On a semi-related note, I think this is why I'm SO angry about the situation in Libya/Bengazi as time goes by.  The more I hear about it (or don't hear about it, depending on which station you watch) the more I think of those who are sent into harms way and we send them trusting that our government is looking out for them.  To have so many questions left unanswered 7 weeks later is simply infuriating to me.  To have this issue ignored by many news channels who refuse to seek answers (or just plain cover the NEWS) because there is an election and their questions might potentially hurt the incumbent is also infuriating.  That there are so many who do not care about what happened and think we should just "move on" is angering.  We'll "move on" when we recieve answers.  Why are we not more upset about the way this is being handled?  Does anyone else feel this way?

3.  This past Sunday we joined Shaun's family for the Boston Kidney Walk.  Here's a photo of the biggest cheerleader!  Out in the rain & cold right before a hurricane!  Oh, they're still recieving donations for our team, so if you're interested, let me know.  We had TWO family members this year with Kidney problems.  One was a young donor recipient who's life has been changed considerably after his miraculous donation (we walked in honor/love of him and his donor, an 18 year old from our area) and the other was a close friend who lost most of his Kidney through cancer.  He walked with us this year as well and is doing reMARKable.

 

And the lovely Charles behind us

4.  Baby Fullen #2 is growing away!  Have I told you her name yet?  We've pretty much picked it.  *thinks to herself* I wonder if I should keep it a surprise to the blog world.  *then thinks* I'm totally incapable of keeping surprises, though.  ...Maybe one more week... unless there's begging involved.  She's kicking me regularly throughout the day and this morning as Ava woke up and came to hang out with me in bed (our morning routine), I was snuggling with her and the baby was kicking and I couldn't help but think of how in 3 short months my arms with be overflowing with cuddly goodness (and I'll be running on far less sleep).  SO excited she's coming.

5.  We've decided to reapply for a loan ONE more time.  Upon giving the dish of everything to a friend's recommended Mortgage advisor, I told him to be super honest with me and if there was a chance we'd lose it I didn't want to go through the whole process again.  I don't have TIME.  HECK, we need a new roof before winter!  He assured me that he didn't see any issues that should keep us from getting it (reaffirming that we lost the previous loan for bogus reasons) and to proceed ahead.  The problem, NOW?  I don't know if it's because we're going through a credit union this time, but I guess it takes a "bit" longer.  Instead of 2-3 weeks, we're looking at 60 DAYS to process!  What???  I don't know how we're going to do this and not hit winter weather, but we're stepping out in faith.  Maybe say a little prayer to the patron saint of "speeding it up".

6.  Halloween/All Saints Day  Honestly?  We didn't do much.  Shaun wasn't home until late in the evening and I didn't feel like going out without him.  Instead I helped my Mom pick up gifts for a church fundraiser and Ava went to bed right after Daddy came home.  She DID get to see our ONE and ONLY trick-or-treater come to the door and gave her chocolates.  Hmmm... Whatever will I do with the rest of them???  All Saints day she did her best Saint impression by being pretty close to perfect at Mass and throughout the day.  We'll really enjoy it more when she's older!  You have plenty of recent Pumpkin pics of Miss Ava, but for more exciting/scary halloween stories visit Cari here or cute pics, visit Colleen, Sarah, or Jamie Jo.  They've got older kids and are a bit more together with these things. 

7.  Here are a couple of cute videos from this past week of Miss Ava outside getting her final birthday gift while we battened down the hatches before Sandy.

And her new favorite toy is this chair from Nana.  It's been sitting in our basement until she was  big enough.  Now she thinks it's the best thing ever.  We all should be so excited about the little things!