another birthday note!

How did I leave this part out of my birthday post?

For my birthday, Joe gave me a gift card for a local day spa! I definitely did not see this coming. I had a lot of reactions all at once - I've never been to a spa before. I've only had one manicure in the states, and Joe had set that up as a surprise, too. That was over 6 years ago. I did get a manicure and pedicure in Bangkok after about 5 weeks of grime had built up on my sandal-clad feet, but I don't think it was the same as what you'd get here. I've never had a massage or any other sort of spa-treatment.

As I flipped through the brochure of services available, I kept being amazed that I was actually going to get some of this done for me (Joe had made the amount high enough that I'd have to chose more than one thing)! At first the thought ran though my mind that I didn't deserve any of the pampering - that I shouldn't accept something so extravagant (yes, in my mind even a manicure is extravagant). Then I felt overwhelmed with the fact that Joe had chosen it for me, he had found me worthy, so I AM worthy of it. What a wonderful feeling that is - a totally unexpected part of Joe's gift, and I believe a reflection of the way we have to accept God's gifts of righteousness and worthiness.

This part is just for fun... That night I had a dream that I was using the gift card. In the dream I could choose to have someone come to my home instead of me going there. I chose to do that, only it wasn't my house, it was a huge beautiful mansion a friend let me stay at for the day. It started out great and my spa-treatment person was a woman not much older than me. However, I kept being indecisive on what all I wanted to have done. The woman would leave to let me decide, and I kept noticing that more and more people - both employees and clients - were coming in the house. Because I did not know what to expect, I think the woman took advantage of the situation to visit with some other employees instead of spending the allotted time with me. The house became full of people, and I started to wander around to try to find the woman who had been helping me. I saw lots of people getting treatments, even a woman and her big, white, Fancy-Feast-type cat getting a couples massage! I think the dream ended not long after that, before I ever got anything done. It was confusing and somewhat sad. I guess part of me is still anxious about my time at a day spa! I'll be sure to write about it after I go. :)

camp part 1: cute kiddos

I have lots in my head to write about church camp this year! We went down Thursday night and came back last night (Sunday). It was very good, but I'll have to hit it in parts.

I got to spend time with some of our kids at church, which is (almost) always fun. There are several kids that I met as babies who now can carry on long conversations with me and seem to have opinions about everything (maybe they always did, just now they have words to express them). It seems like they are always amazing me - even with little things like asking where Joe is when I'm around (how do they know we go together when they can barely talk?) or even remembering my name. Ella Grace (one of this guy's little girls) is one I got to spend a good chunk of time at the pool with. She just turned three and is adorable. I love it when other people post cute things their kids say, so I'll share a short part of our pool conversation with you:

(note: Ella is very articulate, but does switch "she" and "her")

Ella: Who is her?
me: She's the lifegaurd.
Ella: What is her doing?
me: She watches us swim and keeps us safe.
Ella: Oh. Safe from the big, bad wolf. (this was not a question)

Birthday... and a small confession

There's so much to catch up on, but I know I would regret it later if I didn't post about my birthday. I'm trying to keep track of what happens that one day every year.

As you hopefully know, we've recently bought a house and are working to fix it up. Last Monday night (my birthday) we tried to have both work and fun. I love pasta and could live eating only pasta for a long time (and have a year of college to prove it). So Italian food is high on the types-of-food-I-like list. Since it's expensive we hardly ever eat out at an Italian restaurant. Since it was my birthday (and I had steak - potentially the best food ever - recently) we went to Carino's. Much to our surprise, they have a Monday night special - a family meal for the price of a single entree! We ordered Bowtie Festival, a dish with bowtie pasta, white sauce, grilled chicken and bacon (not the fatty looking type). The whole thing tastes like bacon and it's fabulous. So we got salads, plenty to eat ourselves, and leftovers for lunch one day for the price of one entree - about $12 instead of the usual $23. It was so yummy!

Next we went home and painted primer on a room. Originally I had planned to take the evening off house work, but we really got a good amount of time off the house the week before. Besides, it feels good to get something accomplished. Part of the time Joe left to drop off a couple of things friends were borrowing. Check out pictures of the room on my home improvement blog.

Once we finished the room, we enjoyed delicious cake from HEB that had layers of chocolate cake, milk chocolate ganache, white chocolate icing, and white cake. I enjoyed every bite!

Now it's time for the confession. Hopefully I rambled enough about Italian food to loose most of you by now. Here goes: we ended the evening by watching an episode of Battlestar Galactica. This isn't the first time I've done that. Not even close.

In the very recent past, Joe and I have started watching BSG (I feel even nerdier using the abbreviation). We've now watched all of season one and two. It's not like Star Wars. I don't think it's like Star Trek, but I only have really seen Star Trek the Next Generation. It's hard to describe what it's like, and it's likely to make you even more sure I'm a weirdo, so I'm not going to try. In case I haven't been clear with this confession: I like Battlestar Galactica.
Any other closet fans out there? I'm going to head some of you off - no comments from Dwight Schrute.

Spelling

If you frequent this blog, you know my issues with spelling. I had high hopes for this article, but the writer did not go anywhere interesting.

Here's the one slightly-interesting (to me) paragraph:
Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Carnegie, Teddy Roosevelt and even Noah Webster, father of American lexicography, all lobbied for spelling reform, their reasons ranging from traumatic childhood spelling experiences to the hope that easier communication would promote peace. In 1906, Mark Twain lobbied the Associated Press to use phonetic spelling. "The heart of our trouble is with our foolish alphabet," he once wrote. "It doesn't know how to spell, and can't be taught."

It went downhill from there. I guess that's what I get for trying to find thought-provoking articles on cnn.com.

Happy Birthday, Grandmas!

Both of my grandmother's birthdays were on Wednesday, and with everything going on, I didn't call either of them. :( While I won't tell who's older, I'll share a couple of stories on their behalf.
Happy Birthday, Grammy! One of my happiest memories with you is one that was repeated many times. I loved to chop your homegrown pecans in your chopper jar, similar to the one above. Now, I've always hated nuts in brownies and cookies, and never liked pecan pie, but I loved to help you bake. So nut-chopping was a critical job I could contribute from a young age, and I loved it. Now I love to bake, and I'm sure the many delicious things that came from your oven (and from Aunt Rhonda who was often there, too) helped to spur me on to bake more on my own. Grammy, thank you for the time you spent baking with me!


Happy Birthday, Nanny! We all know you're the wild one in the family. Right after my senior year of high school, you took all the cousins and their friends (there was between 12 and 15 of us) to Disney World and some surrounding attractions. It was a fun and very memorable trip. Somehow, you convinced me and two cousins to go on the world's tallest skycoaster (literally). It was very fun, especially the free-fall at the beginning! I usually don't need much encouragement in the rational thinking department, but it's good to have someone like you pushing me to go for something out of the box. Nanny, thank you for some fun and unique memories.