What do we do when we're not on vacation?

You wouldn't know it from this blog the last few months, but we do have a home. We love our home, and sometimes we even spend time at home! :)

We have a lovely big livingroom when you come in, and we've finally figured out a way to make such a large room feel warm and inviting. We have 3 bedrooms, two of which are currently set up as "offices", but one of them is dying to be a baby room.

I am excited about decorating a room for a baby... but I am VERY glad that we didn't do it 3 years ago when we started on trying to adopt. It would not be fun to have that constant reminder of the 'missing person(s)' in our family right now.

We are grateful for those of you that are praying for us, and we have strong hope that our family will be growing soon. (No, we haven't heard anything, but we will keep everyone posted if we do.) :)

Speaking of our home though, I (Nicole) love to improve our home. So, on Saturday I took a tiling class. My brother, Donny, taught me the basics a couple of years ago, but I didn't have the confidence to plow ahead on the laundry room before Home Depot's free DYI class. Now I'm ready to charge ahead, and SOOOO excited to put my new skill to work installing the gorgeous tile that has been collecting dust in the garage since we moved in 3 years ago.

Home improvement projects are TIME CONSUMING!!! Holy Moses! Every step needs to be taken on it's own terms. For people who are fast-paced achievers like myself, it can be frustrating, especially when I think I can speed things up. You can't. Plastering, dry-walling, sealing the joints... it takes puttying, sanding, puttying, sanding... on and on... until suddenly-- wala! It is done, then preping, then priming, then painting.

But, in a way it's relaxing to have to hunker down to a good work pace and just keep working at something. It is certainly rewarding to finally finish it. Of course, that is theoretical now since I haven't actually finished... But, I'll let you know. :)

The other thing that I have taken on recently is keeping a scripture study journal. This has enhanced the quality of my scripture study by about ten times! The stories become more meaningful. My life experiences become more meaningful. As I review the journal over time I can see patterns that add dimension to the lessons... a whole new level of teaching. I would recommend this habit to anyone, and I am setting out to renew my commitment to do it daily starting this week. I'll keep you posted on how that is going.