Good morning! Well, I certainly have lots of happy news to report this morning. :) Where to start?

First off, I just wanted to share a tremendous answer to prayer. On Friday afternoon, Ryan was made aware that he is being promoted!!! He will now be managing the entire Northern Virginia area!! It's effective immediately, and will involve a lot of hard work, but I can't even tell you what an amazing answer to prayer this is. Especially in this area, (very high cost of living) it's a little scary to go from two incomes down to one, but we really felt that it was what we needed to do. This promotion really won't kick in, financially speaking, until December, but we can definitely make it till then, and it's just a huge weight lifted, especially off of Ryan's shoulders.

Previously, we had been thinking that the next step up for Ryan would require relocating. I had mixed feelings about this, (we'd be further away from both sides of our family, which would be especially hard with a new baby) but the one positive note to moving would've been that we'd be in an area with lower cost of living. Meaning we'd have a better chance at buying a home, for one thing. Obviously, though, we're supposed to be in this area a little longer! :)

We were down visiting with Ryan's family over the weekend, which was really great. :) I know I haven't mentioned it here, but Ryan's grandparents sold their house up in northeastern PA, and just moved down to VA, really close to Ryan's parents, this weekend. Given the health issues that Grandpa S. has had relatively recently, it'll be a lot better for them to be close to family. I'm also really excited about it, because they're so close by now! (relatively speaking, of course... 2 hours is a lot better than 6!)

My Mom's birthday was yesterday, but we weren't able to celebrate it with her because she was many states away at a family reunion. So, we had to settle for birthday wishes over the phone. She and my Dad will be back in VA soon, so we'll be able to celebrate her birthday properly! :)

In any event, I just wanted to wish my Mom a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I honestly was given the most incredible Mom on earth, and I'm very, very blessed to have her. She is absolutely one of the main reasons I am who I am today.