Time for a big update!

I haven't really updated in a while, and I DO have stuff going on besides Bright Blessings, so let me try to catch up a bit.

A couple of weekends ago, we (Brian, J and I) went to east Texas to spend the weekend with Brian's parents. J was mostly very well-behaved, although he had a fit when Brian and I tried to get him to ride on the golf cart (well, more like a ramped-up go cart for getting through woods and over bumpy places and stuff) - he didn't want to ride and didn't want me to go, but Brian's mom got him settled down and Brian and I took a ride around their property. But other than that and getting antsy in church on Sunday (and the pastor was long-winded, so I was a little antsy myself), he was fine. He's adopted Brian's parents - they're now Memaw and Pepaw. LOL We got to see the baby calves, and play with all sorts of equipment (backhoe, lawnmower, you name it, J wanted to pretend he was driving it), and go out to the lake in the big woods, and Brian and J played in the dirt with monster trucks. Julian was so tired Saturday night, I don't think he moved at all for several hours after he went to sleep!

We got home that Sunday around 6:30. It was only about a two-hour drive, but it felt like forever. Brian left to go back to Waco around 7:00, and just after he'd gone outside to get in his car, J started pointing toward the door and crying. We had to go outside to tell Brian goodbye again, and when Brian drove off, J just sobbed. He said, "Mama, I miss Brian!" and he just cried like his little heart would break. I wanted to cry right along with him, and Brian said he nearly lost it when he saw how sad J was. So, something just needs to work out. My family likes Brian, his family likes me, J adores him, it's been nearly two years - enough already, we need something to break our way. J told me last night before bed that he missed Brian and wished he could stay here all the time, and this morning he told me he wanted to go see Brian's family again.

I think some trips out to the country would be good for him - Brian has two nephews, and none of them are afraid to get out and get dirty and do guy stuff, and a little dirt is good for a growing boy! I figure it won't take too many trips before J not only will *want* to ride the buggy through the woods, but will want to drive it, and it won't be long after that before he wants to try to do wheelies on the 4-wheeler like Brian's younger nephew. I grew up in the country, so this is all like home to me. I can't tell you how many go-cart and 4-wheeler crashes my cousins and I had when we were growing up!

On the "ending up in the same place" front, Brian has a possible job lead. He'd applied (for the second time) for a position with the National Archives a couple of months ago. He'd interviewed back in late 2005, early 2006, and was one of eight selected for an interview out of over 400 applicants, but didn't get the job. The woman who was hired went back to the art museum world, and the position came open again. We'd both sort of given up on it this time, as it had been a while and he hadn't heard anything. He got home one night last week and found a letter - just one page, and he thought, well, crap, that's the end of that, it's a neg letter. But the letter said his application had been forwarded to the hiring manager for further review, and he'd be contacted if he was chosen for an interview! It's not a job offer yet, or even an interview yet. But it's a step further along in the process, and I can't imagine that he wouldn't be called for an interview this time, since he's already interviewed with them once. So if y'all have prayers, good thoughts, lit candles to spare, we'd appreciate them. We've been seeing each other for just about two years now, it's time for this long distance nonsense to be done with.

We've even talked about figuring what Brian would need to make in terms of a part-time job, should a solid permanent job offer not pan out by next May. Brian's lease is up in April, and he wouldn't want to bail on his current job during the school year (their busy season) without a solid offer, but he said that if his lease runs out and nothing has worked out, he'd find something part-time to do until something did, and just go on and move up here anyway. So, EEK and YAY all at the same time!!! At some point, there will be a wedding, then - I reckon it's just a question of when. (I'd really prefer the National Archives job to work out, though!)

More to come....