In preparation for starting my new job on Monday, Sam and I decided to take a little road trip to Raleigh, NC to see his brother, Jon and wife, Melissa, and the newest little blessing to Brown Clan, Parker Brown. He just turned 5 months old. It was a long drive, but well worth the time, even though my SIL had to go out of town on Thursday for a preplanned beach trip with some of her friends. Although a little out numbered by the boys in the house, I was able to give the brothers some much needed time to themselves, and I got the better end of the deal, more time with little man. 
Unfortunately about an hour into the drive up to NC, I realized that in my sleep walk to the car at about 6:45 a.m, that I had totally forgotten to grab our camera...so I don't really have any noteworthy pictures from this recent trip to share. But, I will say it was a kind of enjoyable to just be in the moments and not have to worry about capturing all the sweet faces that Parker made or all the silly things that my husband and his brother found themselves doing. I do have plenty of lovely mental images, rest assured.
I feel like every time I talk about Parker, all I can say is, "he is such a happy baby!" I've been around my share of babies, and seen some good ones, but he's created a whole new level. Call me partial, but I'm serious. Of all the little "moments" we had together over the last few days, my favorite by far was when we were going back to the car on Friday after walking around downtown Raleigh. We had just finished dinner and Parker had been such a trooper to put up with our somewhat aimless sight-seeing, and I knew he was getting tired. Instead of putting him in his stroller to hike to the car, I just carried him in my arms and it seemed like he just melted in them...and as I cradled him in my arms, I would walk a few steps, and I'd lift him up and then swoop my arms down, giving him that eerie falling sensation, only to be reciprocated every time by the sound of his hilarious laughter! I loved it. He loved it. I was amazed at how content he was to be thrown around in my arms, without a fear in the world that I would drop him. I felt in that moment like he reminded me of how the Lord wants us to be in His arms....totally secure. Unafraid that He will drop us when life hands us ups and downs. Easier sad than done for me more often than not...but how neat that God would use little Parker to remind me of that.
On a lighter note, we got back to our place yesterday afternoon after driving for a good 8.5 hours with a very large couch in the back of our truck that Jon and Melissa were gracious to give us, only to find out that our new, free couch wouldn't fit in the bonus room we had planned for it go in for the last week. Needless to say I was a "little" perturbed about the whole situation and poor Sam had to listen to my stubborn ramblings about how awful this was and that it was completely messing up my "design plan" for our small living room. Enter my type-A personality. Sorry Sam that you had to be my verbal "punching bag" again.
The couch now sits awkwardly in the middle of our narrow living room about 12 inches from our dining table. {deep breathes} no visitors please.
In all serious, I'm a thankful for a free couch, just looking forward to it one day being in the right spot.
Ok. One more thing, please pray for my sweet husband and his boss as they are on the road to a conference in Illinois this week. I do tend to get a little nervous about him being out of town, but after looking up about ten verses on "anxiety" and the pointlessness of it in view of how big our God is, I am doing a little better than earlier.
