Favorite things Friday

Yea, Friday! It kind of snuck up on me. Since I've been staying home instead of working, Friday just doesn't have the same meaning anymore. I used to look forward to it with such passion, and Friday nights at our house, before kids, we almost always going out to dinner and in bed early because I was so tired from the work week. Anyway, all that to say that I have several favorite things to appreciate today:

1. Talking to Darius on the phone today: For those of you who don't know, he left last Sunday evening and went to a fabulous, Christian family down in Lacey. I couldn't have felt better about who I was leaving him with. They have three kids of their own and another foster boy, who Darius gets to room with, AND he gets to go to p.m. kindergarten instead of all day, which thrilled him. Sunday and Monday were pretty hard . . I didn't know that saying goodbye to him would be so difficult. But, on to my favorite thing: I called today to check on him, and got to talk to him on the phone for a minute. When his new mom asked if he wanted to talk to me, I heard him reply in the background, "Laura!" and he ran over to get the phone. The conversation was very short (his phone skills aren't great at five years old) but he made my day when it ended with me telling him I love him and his reply, "I love you, too, Laura." It doesn't get much better than that in the Foster Care world, I would imagine!

2. Clara, playing with her new wooden puzzle: We bought it for her for Christmas, but she had so much at that time, I let her unwrap it today. I didn't know what she'd do with it, since she's pretty young for a puzzle, but she was really into it! It just has nine animal shapes with small handles on them, and, although she can't fit them into the holes yet, I was able to point to the place where each would fit, and she looked at it for a few seconds, then placed the puzzle piece on the correct spot. I was pretty excited! And, she was willing to play with it for, like 15 minutes, so that was fun, too!

3. Bedtime: I think that Tiffany B. mentioned her bed as a favorite this week, and this is not copying her . . . I can't honestly say that my bed is tremendous, as we have a cheap mattress set . . but bedtime is a favorite thing of mine right now. I don't know why I don't go to bed sooner, because every night when I do hit the pillow, I just sigh and revel in the gloriousness that is that moment when first getting into a nice, clean, warm bed, especially in the middle of the winter, and with a sleeping baby across the hall. Beautiful.

4. Having a trip to a tropical, warm, sunny place to look forward to in the middle of the Northwest drab, dreary, AWFUL winter: I know that this favorite is pretty obnoxiously bragging, and I'm sorry . . . but I can't help myself. My parents are taking Jeremy, Clara, me, and my two sisters to Maui the first week of March and I am so excited! And, to be honest, the looking forward to it part is just as fun as the week itself, in my mind. I'm going to try to workout as much as I can in the next month, (I can't say that I'm dieting, persay, although I probably should do that, too) and I'm going to try to do a little tanning between now and then. I also have an excuse to look online for a good swimsuit deal, too, which is fun. Yes, the preparation is almost as fun as the actual trip!

Happy Friday to all! For any of you out there who don't do the whole "Favorite Things Friday," I would totally recommend it. It's a good mood lifter for this time of the year to sit at the computer for a few minutes and just think about happy things. :)