habits of husbands.

Oh Ryan. Sometimes he just does the funniest things. This last weekend I had to work so he was left to his own devices while I was gone. When I got home he had so very thoughtfully cleaned the whole house AND put the rest of the things that weren't on the walls up on the walls. Isn't that amazing!? You have no idea how much of a difference this has made in our home. It's so much cleaner and more peaceful... everything off the floor...just lovely.

But this isn't about that. This is about the way that Ryan cleans. He is truly an incredible housekeeper. He's super thorough and so much of a perfectionist that everything ends up just as it should be when he's done. BUT he has this tragic flaw. He hides and stows. As shown in this picture above. This is Ryan's sock drawer. Inside this sock drawer is everything that used to be on top of our dresser, but didn't belong including: painting tape, napkins my mom bought me, a returned wedding thank you, a card from aimee, and a deck of cards. So as I am putting the laundry away I open his drawer and just start laughing because of the contents of the drawer. Classic Ryan. When you look at a glance everything is perfect, when you search within everything is just tucked away... but neatly. 

I just thought everyone might appreciate this. Husbands are funny sometimes. Funny but nice. 

one of those movies.

If you know me at all you probably know that there are certain movies that have become staples in my life. They're either movies that you've probably watched with my entire family if you have ever visited my home or they're movies that I know by heart and turn on to just listen to because I already know exactly what's happening on screen. One of those movies... is You've Got Mail. Boy do I love that movie. 

But beyond my love for that movie and at the risk of sounding like an absolute moron, I've thought about a certain part in that movie more than once in the last two weeks. (I wasn't going to go through all of this, but I decided to explain my love for the movie in case someone came up to me later telling me that my thoughts resembled a movie they had seen). Anyway, living here has been tough. Being away from the people that I love and the places that I know is not necessarily something that I wanted to happen. I never saw myself leaving. But I did. And in the past couple of weeks being away has become increasingly difficult. So, here is where the movie comes in. There is a part in that movie after Meg Ryan has lost her business and she's saying how people always tell you that change is a good thing, but all they are really saying is that something you didn't want to happen happened and there's really nothing you can do about it. And then she says this, "The truth is, I'm heartbroken." (Man, I'm really setting myself up to look like a big cheeseball). But the truth is that I have been heartbroken. There have been days, maybe weeks where all I want to do is go back home. When I think about all the people in Nampa that know me. That miss me. It makes living in Kansas seem so pointless. Why live in place where no one cares who I am? 

Unfortunately, this story doesn't really have an incredible epiphany at the end. We did get the chance to visit home a week ago, however, and loved every second of it. It was wonderful seeing everyone. And hard to leave them behind. BUT there is hope. I have to believe that God would never send us to a place and not provide any sort of connection to the wonderful people who I'm sure live somewhere in this state. So we're going to wait patiently and openly for some really great friends and keep repeating this from Romans, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."