Laughter is Key.

So these past few days have been pretty exciting here in Iowa.

My sister had her baby, Brant David. He's a blessing, and I'm glad he came a little early so I could meet him. Here are some funny quotes from that experience:

Braden (4 years old): "Hey, Ashie, the baby got out of Mommy's tummy! It didn't even explode Mommy's tummy! Come, look!"

Ryanne and Tyler got married. :) Everyone looked beautiful, and my date was pretty fantastic, too.

Curtis and I met our goal of taking 190 photos together.

When Curtis was in the UK, we set this silly goal of taking 190 photos together. We didn't know we would be *together* at that point, but we still met the goal. (Thanks to 4-H for making us goal setters as well as procrastinators.)

I have some free time to...

... catch up on Good House Keeping magazines.
... eat lunch and dinner with some important people I didn't get to see over the summer.
... drink some tea.
... bake.

I'm learning to laugh at small things and take God's gifts as life's beauties that we don't come across everyday. Staying with friends in Ames has been slightly stressful and living out of bags isn't the best, but I am excited to see three little kiddos in Niger very soon!