28

This year, my birthday/Christmas list says a lot about my life right now. Usually, I ask for an assortment of clothes, gift cards and jewelry, but this year is a little different. Here's what my list says about me:

- Someone to write grad papers and take an administrative law test for me: "HEEEELP." (Actually, this wasn't on my list, and now that the semester is over, I can laugh about it. I honestly considered asking/bribing/paying lots of cash to someone to do all that work for me.)

- A steam cleaner for my carpet: "I'm in nesting mode, but bending down to scrub spots off of my shows-every-tiny-spot carpet is not in the cards right now." (How do those spots even get there in the FIRST PLACE???)

- Cute flats/Toms: "I will be sad if I get a really cute pair of heels and can't wear them for more than an hour without getting swollen feet or losing my balance and falling over."

- LOTS of books (this is not an out-of-the-ordinary gift request for me, however, perhaps I should share my list):

Knuffle Bunny is my absolute favorite. In fact, on our first date, David took me to Barnes and Noble (lots of brownie points for that one) and I showed him this book.

How could you not like this book? It's about a pigeon....driving....a bus.

Such a beautiful book.

I'll admit, I don't know a lot about this one. But I found it and fell in love with the illustrations (the dog looks like Remus) and the name. The title makes me laugh every time I say it!

So that's my list. It certainly has a different feel to it than my lists in years past. However, I will say what I've said to David for the last week. It means more to me to be done with the hardest semester of grad school that I've ever had to endure, to have a job that I love, to be healthy and surprisingly comfortable for almost 7 months pregnant, to have a freshly-painted room for Elysen that is filling up quickly with gifts from friends, to have my 2 sweet dogs who are so happy to see me every minute of every day, and to have my greater-than-great, sweeter-than-sweet husband who I love so very much. I am far happier this year on my 28th birthday than I have been on any birthday before, and far happier than any list of presents could make me.

"My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for the Mighty One has done great things for me - holy is His name." (Luke 1:46-47, 49)