Happiness!!!

Eldon Eldon Eldon ...

Jane Bennett in Pride and Prejudice asks, "Can you die of happiness?" I pose the same question. Sometimes I can't even take the joy. I'm like the Grinch and I need a bigger and bigger heart to hold all the love and happiness in my heart. Or Samuel. That's a better example. Isn't he the one who got a "new heart". I think so. Anyway...

I always thought I'd want to get away from my spouse sometimes. In my single days and all my independence I never imagined I'd WANT to be with someone all the time. I hated that part of my mission -- When I got home I wanted a few hugs and tearful reunions and then I switched into "Leave-Me-Alone,-World" mode. I just wanted to eat, breathe, read, and just be; BY MYSELF if I wanted. But now I'm like the clock-watching crazy woman waiting to see the silhouette of her beloved through the blinds, ready to spring up and fling the door open with flurried excitement. Who knew I'd become a window stalker? :) I'm quite surprised.

I cleaned the whole house with my birthday gifts yesterday and it smelled like lemon and disinfectant. Wonderful. Celestial Kingdom-esque. And when I got home (after Eldon because I had an errand to run) he'd made chicken enchiladas and washed all the dishes. Bless him all his life. Actually, that's what I try to do. I was just so grateful. We've entered a really fun serve serve serve stage in our marriage, and it's the best thing ever. Not that we weren't serving each other before, but somehow it almost has a game-playing feel to it now, and we just laugh and play and talk for hours at night. I wish we saw each other more, but the hours after 7:30 at night when we DO get to chat and catch up on the day are delightful.

Sharon, if you're reading this, I ADORE you for raising such a wonderul, wonderful man. I'll be eternally grateful!

That's all for now. We get to find out Baby's gender on the 30th, so we're really excited about that. I can't wait to get cute little onsies and things. I was walking in Walmart last night (my errand was finding more plastic shelves and another bucket for our wheat) and they had so many darling little newborn clothes. I almost got teary I was so excited to be a mommy. I let myself finger the little booties and jackets before forcing myself to move on with my quest. I love the cream and brown with pastel look ... My gosh. Oh, I also made TONS of progress on the baby blanket I've been planning on making. I've never made a patchwork quilt before, and I didn't ask anyone's help, and you can definitely find evidence of those two facts displayed blatantly in the uneven bagginess of my attempt. But I just have to finish three sides of edging and I'm done! It's cream, brown and light green. Very very cute. More girly than boy-y, but we both tend to think we're having a girl. Our present name favorite is Arianna. We'd call her Ari. I still LOVE Evelyn, but Eldon thinks it's an old-pioneer-woman-type name. If we have a boy he'll be Justin Ray. We'll see! Oh, I'm just in love with my life!!

P.S. Watching our baby flounce around like that all flopsy-like seriously makes me walk more cautiously...like I'm in my own special mommy-marching-band and I have to roll my feet so I just glide around. No respecter of gravity. No jingling. No umbilical-chord swooshing like it's the jump rope of doom. Just me, carefully and conspicuously making my way around my world.

I'm a total freak.