little bits of lovely

I know why the powers that be created a spring break for students.

It is a bit of a regrouping period in the middle of a long winter full of academia and missing husbands.

BYU refuses to acknowledge a need for said spring break.

As a result, I find myself complaining more, missing my husband more, getting frustrated with my busy toddler more, losing my patience, and refusing to admit my life is still as wonderful as it was three months ago.

I have been given so very much.

How could I feel this way?

So, in an attempt to eliminate those dark clouds that I seem to be forming around my head, I have compiled a list of the little bits of lovely around me. I find once I take time to see all that is good around me I feel more like myself: the happy, enthusiastic girl I know is still in there, but who always seems to disappear around this time of year.

*Graduation is 3 weeks away. Wes's announcements came in the mail this week and wow, it looks so good to see his degrees he will be earning written out in ink and on official paper.

*Ryan is coming home next Wednesday. I am hopping on his connecting flight from Salt Lake to St. George. He has no idea. Hopefully, he will think it is a good surprise. I get him all to myself for an hour before anyone else sees him. It doesn't feel real that his two years are up.

*Halle had chocolate all over her face today. I left it there for a few hours because I loved it so much.

*I am going to be an aunt again. I guess it hasn't really been announced, but I can't hold it in any longer. I am already so in love with the little chicky princess that will be joining the Bodine family this summer.

*Intramural basketball nights at BYU. Having anxiety attacks on the bleachers while Halle runs around eating crackers. I am fully invested. Wes's team is undefeated so far.

*The incessant "mama mama mama mama" I hear all day long when Halle wants to tell me something.

*Each day when Halle wakes up from her nap I ask her what she wants to do that day. I love her answers, they are always the same. Mcdonald's play place, or the dinosaur museum, or the park, or Rachel's house, or the animals at Cabela's or the merry-go round at the mall. Her ability to communicate astounds me.

*At night when I put Halle to sleep I ask her if she wants to sing a song about Jesus and she looks up me with those beautiful eyes and says "oh-ho boy!"

*Personal revelation. I have never felt the windows of heaven open so much and guide my footsteps so much as I have felt the past few months.

*I coincidentally made all of Wes's favorite meals in the same week. He was a happy boy.

*When I make our bed, Halle turns on my radio and dances in my room and asks me to call out the kind of dance moves she should be doing: marching, jumping, turning around, and waving hands in the air.

*Two days ago on our walk to the park, Halle ran into a small white dog who started licking her hand. She looked at me and said "mmmm good."

"Keep your face to the sunshine and you will never see the shadow." --Hellen Keller