i am way too excited to sleep!!!!

And I cannot say why...not yet. But I will give one hint, I am not pregnant, and we are not adopting a baby. Unless someone has one they want to give us. But anyway....

Here are SOME of the reasons I cannot sleep:

1. Our trip is coming up.....

2. It is Christmastime, and since I am still like 10 or 12 years old, I get SO excited....

3. Benjamin called last night, and it seems that he is getting some use out of that bible I bought him from Walmart. He opened it up to the verse in Romans, "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us..." (Ben shared this with the guy on the top bunk, and he replied, "This will be the verse which shall get me through basic!") Ben is having a good old time reading his bible, he is surprised and pleased how relevant it is to his life.

4. I woke up before the birds this morning, took Rosie-The-Bad-Dog for a little walk, and it is quiet in here...I am all dressed, hair brushed, and am going to go to the little store in town for some bread and things for lunch, as we are eating together after church today.

5. I hate having secrets I cannot tell....but alas, I cannot tell until tonight.

Anyway, our house has seemed like a constant party lately. The Dome workers came home, Abigail settled in for the afternoon, I made pizza with the little ones....I cut the doughs up and let them make their own pizzas....even Camille made one. She ate more cheese and pepperoni than she put on her pizza, and she was licking the flour off her hands, then patting her pizza again....anyway, then Emily came over for the evening....(when I went to bed after midnight, I apologized because she was still here, but she said, "Mom, it is night time, people sleep at night, it is okay." She had to stay up all night so she could sleep today and work tonight.)

The older kids have some Amazon dollars that Paul got for a reward at work a while back. Five of them get $50 each, but I asked them to share if one of the other older ones wants something. They are having so much fun speculating what to get. Mali insists she is buying a polar bear hat with mittens attatched....I figured I would give it to them before Christmas, and they could shop for themselves, or use it for their Secret Santa gifts...which we are doing again this year....I have to do better than last year....Mirielle loves to remind me how I forgot to get her something (I had her name)(but hey, I had to help a few of the little kids, and somehow it just slipped my mind)...anyway, I forgot and when it was her turn to get a gift, everyone was asking who had her, and I just blissfully sat there, totally forgot it was me....when it was clear that NO ONE had had a present for her, I pretended I knew it was me all along, and went over to the tree and picked out her food processor....she KNEW I didn't pick it out for her Secret Santa gift....so to make amends, I bought her a new coat a few weeks ago for 75% off at Target....but she says she still gets to tell the story...

And I need to get to the store before the kids start waking up or it is going to become a big production....not that I don't like big productions, but.....