For the last week I've been working my fingers off an a huge state proposal. (Ugh... I'd honestly rather get a root canal that write a friggin' proposal.) Anyhow, I figure while I'm enjoying a little lunch ova here, I deserve a break and might do some blogging before I dive back into to the dry stuff again. Blegh.

So here are just a few random things from my world...

* Last night I spent some time in Photoshop reducing the file size for a bunch of pics we took while camping this weekend. I wanted to post them on here and they were all over 1MB in size. Of course, by the time I was done fixin' them, I lost my gusto and decided to leave the blog post for another time... so maybe I'll post them on here tonight instead... if I get around to it.

* Yesterday we got home from work to find our first letter from our foster child in the mail. He's too young to write for himself, so someone else wrote on his behalf. I learned that his parents are peasant farmers, and that he has a four year old sister and a one year old brother. He also lives with a bunch of other relatives. When he grows up he wants to be a teacher.

Because he couldn't write for himself, instead he drew us a few pictures on a ragged piece of scrap paper. The drawings included a soccer ball, a chair with a person sitting on it, and a table. I found myself staring at every crooked line, wondering where each picture started and where it ended. In the background I could see a faint shadow of a picture of a person that had been erased. The style didn't match how our little guy draws, so I can only assume the piece of paper had been previously recycled. In the foreground, dirty little fingerprints danced across the page. I couldn't help but stare at every brown smudge from him tiny hands, wondering what he had been doing just before drawing the pictures. (But don't *ALL* little kids' hands get dirty no matter what they were just doing?) We were both so excited to finally receive a letter from the little guy, that J even suggested we frame his drawing. I think we might.

* A few months ago I wrote on my calendar that June 20th would be my last day of work. I forced J to do the same, even though he thought that I was being absolutely ridiculous. We then forgot all about it... until the month of June rolled around, the calendar page was flipped and we were suddenly reminded of this goal. What is kinda cool is that we realized that our current irons in the fire actually make this fantasy June 20th end date a not so far-fetched possible reality. Not that we'll actually quit that day, but it's within the realm of possibility that we might give our notice on that day... if all goes well. Go figure.

Now, even though I don't believe in "jinxing" stuff, I don't really want to get into all the details right now... mainly because I don't have time to at the moment, and also because it's still a bit too early to bother getting all excited just yet. What I will say, however, is that good things *are* on the horizon. How everything will shake out is yet to be seen, but I'm sure we'll know sometime before the next week is over. Funny how things work out like that, isn't it?

In the meantime, we're staying grounded, and my daily mantra has become, "I believe. I believe. I believe."