Guess who's a graduate?!

 My mom and dad with Ploopsta

My little brother graduated college last weekend.  I'm so proud of you, Garrett!!

Some thoughts this week-

I have such a caring husband and he is so patient with me.  Sometimes I get really cranky at home and take my mood out on him and then I have to apologize again and again.  

My Gram and cousin Ryan are coming into town this weekend and I cannot wait.  I'm really close with my Gram and talk to her almost every week on the phone.  She has been friends with our family friends here in town for way longer than we have known them, so we all get to spend the week together, and we have so many fun things planned for them.  I'm really looking forward to hiking with my cousin and Brian this week.

I hate it when my mind spins around in circles, thinking or worrying about things, or being impatient for things.  Sometimes I wish I had better control over my thoughts.  I don't like getting all caught up in things that don't matter and then completely ignoring the things that do matter.  I'm praying this week for a mind focused on the right things.

I can't wait for Brian and I to buy a house.  Honestly I love where we are living right now and would kind of like to buy that house, but it's way too small.  Brian and I are both sick of renting and "throwing away" that money each month, and I can't wait to be able to put a down payment on a house of our own.  Since we're going to start looking for houses within the next six months (to a year), we've been talking about our criteria for a house.
My list:
- two bathrooms with lots of counter space
- kitchen with lots of counter space  (can you guess how much counter space these two rooms have in our house right now?  Yep not a lot!  But seriously it's still so cute.)
- hopefully a front porch

Brian's list:
- house that's not on a busy street
- large backyard
- has a garage

Plus a bunch of other little ones but they might change once we actually start looking.

This little house is for sale a couple of blocks over from us and I looove it every time I run past it.  It's on a super busy street though, which wouldn't be the best for kids.  Or Samantha, who runs toward cars that pull into our driveway.  Like she almost tries to run under the tires.