My husband is amazing. I got off the plane this morning, my heart nearly bursting with pride. He is seriously the best dad EVER. Not that he wants me to go away for 5 days again any time soon, but wow. Crazy awesome.

Then there’s the whole Leaving-a-Piece-of-My-Heart-in-New-Jersey deal. What an incredible weekend. God is so good. SO good.

I want to tell you all about all of it, but honestly? I’m completely pooped. I got about three hours of sleep last night, and I’m feeling it. So, a nice big fat blog post coming soon.

In other news, my Diapers books are being delivered today (Tuesday) between 9 and 11 a.m. Woohoo!!

And my hubby has some really big news.

My heart is full. How does yours feel today?

It’s Wednesday, March 3rd at 12:03 a.m. Okay, scratch that. It’s Thursday, March 4th at 12:04 a.m. I’m leaving for New Jersey in the morning (this morning) and finding it hard to pack without having blog posts line up for the next 5 days. Whipped the first 4 off in no time flat (okay, like 3 hours). Had NO idea what to write for Monday, March 8. It seems like light years away. What could I write that will still be relevant then??

I know! I’ll write something that’s not really even relevant NOW. Then I won’t have to stress about it. After reading my friend Amber’s post (that totally cracked me up), I decided to follow in her footsteps (but customize it for me, of course). Seriously, if you get bored reading mine, click over to hers. She’s a hoot-and-a-half.

Without further ado…

1. What is your name spelled backwards? A-L-R-A-M. Gabe’s is EBAG. That always makes me laugh.
2. What did you do last night? Well, I’m writing this on Thursday night, so I watched the guys sing on American Idol.
3. What was the last thing you downloaded onto your computer? Worlds Apart.
4. Have you ever licked a 9 volt battery? Wow.
5. When was the last time you swam in a pool? Zoo trip in July. St. Louis to be exact. Thanks for reminding me that my swimsuit isn’t going to fit me this year if I don’t get busting.
6. What are you wearing? Black “Will Rock 4 Food” t-shirt and black sweats.
7. How many cars have you owned? It’s late, and this question is too hard. My first car was a 1991 Chevy Cavalier, I think.
8. What is the type of music you dislike most? Opera.
9. Are you registered to vote? Yep.
10. Do you have cable? Yep.
11. What kind of computer do you use? Dell Inspiron 9200. A huge silver laptop that will probably bite the dust soon. I’ll convert to a Mac after that.
12. Have you ever made a prank phone call? Unfortunately, yes.
13. Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving? Not on your life.
14. What is the furthest place you ever traveled? Okinawa, Japan.
15. What’s your favorite comic strip? Never really got into comics much. I liked Family Circle when I was little and Far Side in college.
16. Do you know all of the words to the national anthem? Yep.
17. Do you shower in the morning or at night? Morning. Or mid-morning. Early afternoon?
18. What is your favorite pizza topping? Just one? How about pepperoni, bacon, green olive? From Benny’s!
19. Chips or popcorn? Chips.
20. What cell phone provider do you use? AT&T.
21. Have you ever smoked peanut shells? I used to eat them, but don’t believe I’ve smoked ‘em.
22. Have you ever been in a beauty pageant? Hee hee. No.
23. Orange juice or apple juice? How about grape?
24. Who were the last people you sat at lunch with? Gabe and Nina.
25. Favorite chocolate bar? Skor or Heath.
26. Who is your oldest friend and how long have you known each other? Oh, wow. I don’t even know.
27. When was the last time you ate a homegrown tomato? I ate a bunch of grape tomatoes at lunch, but homegrown? Last summer at Gabe’s parents’ cabin on the lake. Oh, summer! I need thee, HOW I NEED THEE.
28. Have you ever won a trophy? Yes. Quite a few. Bible Fair, Best Actress (high school), Champaign County Spelling Bee Champ, softball, cross country… I threw a bunch of them away a few years ago in a fit of “these do not define me.”
29. Favorite arcade game? Ms. PacMan!
30. Ever ordered from an infomercial? Yes, we actually ordered an exercise thingy once for $100. Sold it for $5 at a garage sale after lugging it from house to house for a few years.
31. Sprite or 7-UP? Nasty. Makes me think I have the flu.
32. Have you ever had to wear a uniform to school/work? I’m thinking yes but can’t remember for the life.
33. Last thing you bought at Walgreens? I never go to Walgreens. Wait! I think I went there in Miami in December 2008. I bought candy to take to the Miami Zoo.
34. Ever thrown up in public? Um… Hmm… I’m not sure.
35. Would you prefer being a millionaire or finding true love? Stealing Amber’s answer here. Already found true love, so I’ll take the cash, please.
36. Do you believe in love at first sight? Not love exactly, but lust that turns into love? Sure. (Gabe the Babe!)
37. Spongebob or Jimmy Neutron? Not a fan.
38. Did you have long hair as a young kid? Yep. Always.
39. What message is on your voicemail machine? We don’t have an answering machine. My cell phone? Man, I don’t even know.
40. Where would you like to go right now? Cambodia. And a Washington/Oregon Zoo Trip and meet Ang and Gretchen.
41. What’s the name of your pet? No pets.
42. What kind of back pack do you have, and what’s in it? No backpack.
43. What kind of tennis shoes do you have? New Balance. They’re about 7 years old and worthless.
44. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? Mom.
45. Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny? Neither. Mick if I have to pick.

Missed y’all while I was gone! See you in person (well…) tomorrow!

Much in my head, much on my heart. A Whirly Wednesday post might just be in order.

Read the parts that interest you, skip the parts that don’t. Of course, you’ll have no idea which is which until you’re already too far in. Stinks to be you.

1. I sent the check to my publisher Monday (for the order I had to pay for before they’d release my Diapers books). Woohoo! As soon as it clears, they’ll send my 1100 books, and I’ll start shipping them your way!

2. I’ve been getting lots of questions about my Zoo Book lately. Like, “Man, this is taking a long time. When’s it coming out??” Oh, how I’d love to give you a satisfying answer, but things just aren’t going all that hot. For starters, we still haven’t found a publisher who’s willing to take a risk on it . But I’ve been reworking it and giving it a little more zing, and I’m for sure not giving up hope. More next week.

3. Speaking of promises I don’t keep (at least not in a timely fashion), I have NOT forgotten about the necklaces, apron and boas for Cambodia (and Kenya). We’re just about ready to go with it.

4. And speaking of just about ready, FUN NEWS! You know my NaNoWriMo novel? The one I said Gabe was going to make a website for and I was going to sell as an e-book and give 50% of the proceeds to missions? IT LAUNCHES FRIDAY. I know! Isn’t that fun? Basically, you’ll be able to read a section of it each day for the next 10 months. If you can’t wait that long to get to the end, you can buy the whole thing at once for $80. (or $8)

5. More fun stuff! Do you know Laura Wilkinson? 2000 Olympic Gold Medalist Platform Diver? Well, she’s just an amazing, godly woman, and I love her to bits. I heard her speak at a conference a few years ago, and then we struck up a Twitter/e-mail friendship a few months ago (follow her on Twitter here). We had plans to meet while I was in Texas in January, but it didn’t work out.

ANYWAY. Gabe interviewed her for his podcast today, and you can listen to it here. She’s got lots of cool stuff to share about kids and sports, the Olympics, following your dreams and taking leaps of faith. Can you believe she got kicked off her high school diving team? Her coach said she was a WASTE OF SPACE. Well.

6. Before I forget, see those ads on my sidebar? When I started my new blog last year, Gabe put ads there in case we wanted to make a little extra $. And we have. Except mostly I forget to have people pay me or I let them have an ad for free because they’re AWESOME (and/or my relative). Anyway. There’s a new one. My cousin Jonna has started her own business as an educational consultant for Discovery Toys. She’s excited about this new opportunity and you can click on her ad for more info. (I do have one more spot if anyone’s keen to buy one. It’s like $2/year or something.)

Last thing–and it’s a biggy. If you skipped the rest of this post, please start reading here. A little girl in Ava’s school was just diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor this week. Her name is Faith, and she’s in first grade. Her oncologist is giving her six months to live. My heart is breaking in two for her and her mommy and daddy and two sisters (9 and 2). I know our God is a God of miraculous healing power, and I’m praying He heals her completely. But if He chooses to take her to heaven, I’m praying He does a miraculous work here on earth in the hearts of everyone who witnesses the next few months of Faith’s life.

EDIT (8:19am): I hadn’t seen this latest post from Faith’s mom, and I can barely type through my tears. The tumor is so aggressive that doctors think it must have just started a few weeks ago. They say that in six weeks, she’ll stop breathing on her own. Oh, Lord, please be merciful to your precious child!

Will you do me a favor? Will you write a quick note to Faith (and/or her parents) in the comments? Just tell her that you’re praying for her and that God loves her (or whatever He leads you to say). I’m going to print out your comments and send them in a card (they’re collecting them at school) for sweet little Faith. And just so you can picture her while you’re praying, Ava says Faith is about “this tall” (4′ 2″ maybe?), has white skin and short, black, straight hair.

Please put your first name and city/state (totally optional) so Faith can see that she has people all over the country praying for her.

Praying blessings on your day, friends! Now, go hug someone special and tell them you love them!

…take a little break. Catch you tomorrow, lovelies!

I do love a good word game. One of my favorites is where you take a phrase (or big long word) and see how many little words you can make out of it.

For example: ANTIDISESTABLISHMENTARIANISM (a word I used to spell really fast when I was a kid because I thought it made me cool)

You can make words like: tarnish, militant, table, raiment, trash, marla.

Some ladies at my church threw me a bridal shower way back in the day, and we played the game using:

MARLA RACHELLE TAVIANO

Oh, the fun you can have making words like evict, chair, latch, hell, alarm, teller, ovarian.

Or how about this one? Rearrange the letters in MOTHER-IN-LAW to spell WOMAN HITLER. Of course this does not apply AT ALL to my own mother-in-law, and the funny thing is, my brother-in-law Tug (the son of my mother-in-law) is the one who told me about this outrageous palindrome in the first place.

Anyway.

So, because the winter weather is driving me nutso, and because I’m in some sort of lackadaisical slump, let’s liven things up around here by playing a word game together.

I’m going to choose a phrase/sentence I especially need to internalize today. Maybe you do too.

Let’s see how many words we can make from

TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART.

Ready? Set. Go!