I still have cake… June 30, 2008

It’s officially no longer my birthday (sad!), but we still have plent of cake in our house!  We still have cookie cake, and my parents brought us American Beauty Cake… does it get any better?!  Well… I will not be skinny for the trip to the lake this weekend… so that’s not great… but I am happy, so we’ll count that as its own success.

As always, my sweet husband swooped in and rescued me from my rough day and made my birthday very special.  As soon as I walked in the door from work, he gave me my card (which was precious) and my gift (which is a beautiful pearl ring from James Avery).  Then we went out to eat at Uno’s in downtown Fort Worth and walked around for awhile and came home and just spent some time together.  It was just fantastic.  He is so precious.

Saturday morning, we went to the church at 9am and did not leave until 6 pm.  Wow.  That is a long time.  It makes me tired just thinking about it.  Then we went out to dinner with Matt and Melissa, which was great (as spending time with them always is).  THEN we watched some 24 while Lance put together the worship service for Sunday.

So… church Sunday morning… then my family came to celebrate our birthdays!  We all went to lunch at Cotton Patch and then came back to our house.  My parents gave us our gifts, and then my dad and I hung out for awhile while everyone else took a nap!  Ha.  Then we headed up to the church for VBS.  I think things went pretty well by all appearances, but there were definitely some minor debacles along the way.  One big one:  at the climax of my song, I sang the wrong words.  Loudly – and with great confidence.  But still wrong.  They also gave me the wrong mic, which I called to the attention of about 4 different people, but everyone told me it would be fine.  There was then some major interference, and after the show, the sound guy told me that the problem with the sound was that they gave me the wrong mic.  Well duh!  I told you THAT 2 hours ago!  Anyway, it was fun… it was hysterical though.  As I walked up the aisle in costume, all the kids started saying “There she is!  I see her!  I see her!” and trying to touch me.  It was bizarro!

Afterward, Lance and I went and got ice cream (well, frozen custard, if you want to be technical) with our small group.  That was fantastic too.

By the end of the day, I was pooped.  And my leg was hurting.  I took some TylenolPM and crashed.  I only made it through 1 episode of 24!  That is how you know how tired I was!

Anyway, I’m back at work kind of feeling like I never really got a break at all… but I wore my new ring today, and looking at it cheers me up.

Okay, my turn! June 27, 2008

Welp, it’s my berfday today!  Working on my birthday is kind of dumb.  I’d rather not.  In fact, I am blogging because I am not working.  Ha.  In actuality, that’s not a fair representation of what I’m doing.  Today is quarterly meeting day, so at 3:00, we’re all going to go sit and listen to people talk about the company and stuff for a couple hours… and then the festivities begin.  Oh yes, the festivities.  Today’s festivities include (but are not limited to) beer pong.  Classy place here.  They also rented a margarita machine and will be bringing in coolers of beer.  Super classy place here.

Anyway, on quarterly meeting days, everyone gets all distracted.  They catered lunch in today (I do love me some Uncle Julio’s!), and not much has gotten done since then.  I finished up all my work about 20 minutes ago and got my desk all nice and tidied up (does not happen nearly enough), but I do not currently have the drive/ambition/energy/ability to care enough to start up a new project with only 15 minutes left until the meeting/festivities.

Working here has taught me more about peer pressure than I ever experienced in high school.  They bring in alcohol to work multiple times a year, and they have a Christmas party where everyone gets drunk, and all my work friends go out together on the weekends – that’s right – to drink.  I frequently get made fun of for not drinking… way more now than I ever did when I was younger.  They all know where I stand in life, and they know that we’re involved in church, and I have Bible verses on my desk, and they apologize to me when they curse in front of me (well, some of them do)… and I’m not about to change who I am in order to fit in with them… but it does get a little old sometimes.  Quarterly meetings are some of those times.  While I’m on a work rampage, let me go ahead and say that my work friends forgot my birthday.  No big.  Life goes on.  But we kind of make a big deal about birthdays.  There are cards and cakes and cookie cakes and stuff.  I’m not going to throw myself a pity party (I’m a big girl now), but it does get a little old to always be a part of celebrations for other people but not get one myself.

Okay, I am definitely changing the subject now.

Lance and I are going on a date – like a real date – tonight.  We’re going to eat in downtown and either go to a movie or just walk around or whatever.  We are skipping VBS to do so, and we’re going to be able to spend some time together.  I am SO excited about that.  Life has been 90-to-nothing lately, and we’ve barely had a chance to breathe.  Lance makes me happier than just about any person in the world, so I am super happy to get to spend my birthday with him… finally taking a break together!

We have a 9-to-5 VBS practice on Saturday.  Yuck.  That is all about that.

On Sunday, my parents are coming over and meeting us for lunch and coming to the musical and celebrating our birthdays.  I’m really excited about that.  I love spending time with them too.

Really, I can sum up my life right now in just saying that I need a break.  I am ready for some days of relaxation and getting all caught up.  I also need to post some pictures again!  I figured it out and then only did it once.  We finished our bathroom this past weekend, so maybe I should take some pictures of that and post them.  Our bathroom’s pretty.  I like it.  Well, it’s got dirty clothes on the floor most of the time… but I still like it.

Okay, well, I think it’s quarterly meeting time, so that is the end of this post. 

I am officially 24.  Weird.  I’m so old…  Hey Jonathan – I’m older than you for a week!

Not quite the berfday we’d imagined… June 26, 2008

Yesterday did not end up the way that Lance and I imagined at all.  Well, it started out pretty much the way we’d thought, but it definitely did not end up that way.

I met Lance at church, and we ate the dinner that I’d picked up.  We sang some VBS songs with the youth group and then had cake and ice cream for Lance’s birthday.  So then we randomly heard this loud peal of thunder and it started raining.  Well then it started REALLY raining.  Like… the rain was flying past the windows sideways.  No big deal, we thought…. until one of the kids came to tell us that the rain was also coming into the building… through the door… that was closed… in the brand new youth room.

Fantastic.

So…. we went and got a ShopVac and a mop and went to work.  We then discovered that the water was coming in in an even greater quantity on the ground floor, so we then went to work down there.  We worked for a good long while and then called it a night.

When we got home, we saw that our neighbor’s tree had broken in HALF.  The trunk SNAPPED at the BASE.  I cannot emphasize the craziness of this enough.  She had a giant oak tree… and now she only has half of an oak tree.

Wow.  Crazy.  And not quite the birthday I’d imagined…

But I am incredibly thankful that our house was so protected!  There are many broken/demolished trees on our street, and ours was not harmed.  Thanks, Lord!

Hooray! Lance’s Berfday! June 25, 2008

Today’s blog cannot be another ode to Lance (I hear that’s been done recently), but I do want to wish my precious husband a very happy birthday!  He’s pretty spectacular, so he deserves a pretty spectacular day.

Well, as I’ve mentioned before, we’re in the midst of all our VBS practices, and I am pretty ready for them to be over!  It stresses me out to have something to do every single evening.  It is exciting to think that it will all be over one week from tomorrow… I will have my evenings back!   I have high hopes that consistent blogging will resume after I get back into my normal schedule

This week has gone by so slooooooowly thus far.  My mind is boggled that it’s only Wednesday!  I’m kind of sad because I don’t even have any meetings to help this afternoon pass more quickly.

Yesterday I trained an entire department in how to use PowerPoint.  It was the first time I’ve ever done a training like that, so that was pretty cool.

Really, life has been all over the place… so here is the lightning round version of an update:

• Lance is no longer vomiting, so that’s good.
• Lance and I watched like 10 hours of 24 on DVD this past weekend.
• I don’t know my VBS lines…. but my lines aren’t so much “lines” as paragraphs.  I should more accurately say, “I don’t know my VBS novels.”
• I apparently have to wear a black wig for VBS.
• Today is Lance’s birthday.
• Friday is my birthday.
• Friday is also quarterly meeting day.  Sad.  I don’t get to go out to lunch on my birthday.
• I am going to be a super careful driver this Friday.  I will not total my car on my birthday this year!
• One of the guys I work with is wearing a shirt so bright that it hurts my eyes to look at it.
• We have an entire batch (or something!) of BITTER Diet Dr. Pepper.  It tastest AWFUL.  The only good ones have Indiana Jones on the can… and my friend drank the LAST one today!  Horror!
• We are less than a month away from our vacay to Mexico!
• Lance’s mom is having knee surgery today.
• My sister is in Canada.
• Last night I interpretive danced at VBS practice to add to the drama of the musical.  It ended with me dramatically posed beside Allan as he sang his best Jean Valjean…
• I’m about to go fight with someone in Marketing because they can’t seem to write in complete sentences, and it makes me cranky.
• Every night I ask to take Buddy to VBS practice with us, but every night, Lance says no.    I feel like the worst puppy mommy.
• Buddy is rocking at his tricks.  He can shake and roll over with the best of ‘em!

Okay… well… I guess I’m going to get to work on my boring afternoon now.  Happy birthday again, love!  Have a fabulous day!

One at a time, please…. June 19, 2008

Update:  I sound less manly now.  Ha.  Although my voice is not quite back in the range where I’d like for it to be and my cough still sounds like I smoke, I am feeling much, MUCH better than I was.  In fact, I can kind of sing again (it doesn’t sound fantastic, but at least my voice comes out… because it surely did not come out yesterday) and was getting pretty excited about finally being able to go back to VBS practice.  Then, at about 10 til 7, Lance walked in the back door (which was a surprise since he wasn’t supposed to be home until 7:30 or later) and looked at me with these sad, sad eyes.

He took the kids to a movie today, and apparently got quite ill while he was there.  So ill, in fact, that another man from our church gave Lance his truck and sent him home and stayed with all the kiddos.  I just went and bought sprite, gatorade, saltines, etc., and Lance is now in bed feeling pretty miserable.  I’m watching So You Think You Can Dance (and blogging, obvi) and feeling bad for him.

One thing that amazes me – it’s as though the Lord holds off one sickness for one of us until the other is well enough to be the caregiver.  I have felt terrible, awful, no-good, very bad for the past few days, but today… I feel back to my old self.  Now my poor husband (who’s been caring for me all week) is sick, but I am well enough to care for him.  Maybe that’s the unwritten/unspoken part of the marriage vows – “in sickness and in health” (and then the fine print says: you will inevitably be sick one after the other, so that whole “keeping no record of wrongs” thing will be super-easy because you will both be sick and both take care of the other… so if you’re unhappy to be the caregiver, wait a few days – you’ll be the sick.  And if you’re sick of being sick, just wait.  You’re about to get to serve a vomiting person.  See how that works out?) 

Okay, so maybe the fine print doesn’t say that… but I am thankful that the Lord provides for us in this way.

I am going to go learn some lines now.  I have missed so many practices now for SYS and my being sick and now Lance being sick… I have some catching up to do!

Oh, wait.  One more thing – I was absolutely astounded by the sheer power of my heavenly Father on my way to work this morning.  Wow!  What a lightning show!  It looked like the sky was being split in half over and over… Wow.  Just wow.  It was amazing.

Okay… NOW I’m off to learn lines…

                                           While I watch SYTYCD…..

I have a man voice. June 16, 2008

I think it’s allergies – I really do – but I have this awful waffle cough, and each time I cough, my voice lowers another half-step or so.  It’s icky.  I pretend it’s my sexy voice like Phoebe Buffay’s (my sticky shoes…), but really I just sound manly.  Do not like.

Things have been crazy (as usual), but I am looking forward to this weekend.  We don’t have much going on, so maybe we’ll actually get some rest.

You know, in college, I really thought that I was as busy as I could get.  The second semester of my senior year, I was a full-time student, I worked 20 hours per week, I was planning a wedding, I did Sing Song (2 acts), I maintained a social life, I was all involved in Siggies… I mean, really.  I thought things could only slow down there from there.

False.

I am busier now than I have ever been in my life.  I leave for work at 7:30 every day, return home around 6:00 (if I leave on time), and walk back out the door for either VBS practice or youth activities multiple days a week.  Take today for example.  I left at 7:30, left work at 5:45, got home between 6:00 and 6:15, ate dinner as quickly as possible (a big thanks to Lance for grilling dinner!), and walked right back out the door to VBS practice.  I was 15 minutes late (probably due to the 15 minutes late I left work…) and was there until 9:00.  That’s a pretty typical Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday right now.  On Wednesdays, I never even come home.  I just take dinner to church.  Don’t get me wrong - I love church.  I love being involved.  I love knowing people and being able to walk through the lobby/vestibule/concourse thing and know families.  I’m thrilled to be involved.

I’m also really tired.

I’m in a season of feeling as though I have to be Wonder Woman or the world will collapse.  It gets exhausting to have the world resting constantly on my shoulders.  If anyone is looking for a personal assistant job that doesn’t pay anything at all… please let me know.  I could use a personal assistant.   I know that this season will pass… but for now, I am trying to learn that it’s okay to admit that I need other people to help me… that I don’t have to be strong all the time… that the world won’t collapse without me… that I am still loved even if I don’t have time to make myself look the way I want to look… that it’s okay to have dirty laundry… and that sleep is a really worthwhile way to spend my time.  I’m learning.  Sometimes I’m a slow learner.

On a totally different topic, Thursday night, some of our ACU friends got together to sing on a praise team for a Summer Youth Series.  Oh my gracious, it was fabulous.  It blessed me tremendously.  I forgot how much I love to just sing.  I really love it.  It makes my heart smile.  And my face too.  I can’t wait to get to heaven.  Singing constantly in that everlasting day sounds like a wonderful way to spend my eternity….

There’s a First time for everything…. June 11, 2008

Well, it’s a Wednesday night, so obvi I am home alone while Lance has a meeting at church.  It’s what we specialize in.

We had a fantastic weekend at the lake with our young marrieds friends at church.  As always, I got sunburned… despite my two coats of my brand new SPF 55… Anyway, the burn is clearing up now, so I itch like crazy!  I decided that I should give this whole uploading pictures thing a try… which is a BIG step up from last year.  Last year at the lake trip, I was hiding from the camera!  In fact, it was shortly after I saw pictures from last year’s trip that I decided that it was time to slim down a bit.  Good choice.

Anyway, here’s my first try at uploading pictures…

Lance and me just a’seadooin’:

Lance skiing:

Sweet little couple:

So… I took most of the pictures this weekend, so I’m not in very many of them.  I’m pretty excited about the ability to put pictures up!  (I’m easily impressed.)

Oh, PS… I said I’d update at some point – our dog now successfully shakes and rolls over!  Presh!

Surgical success! June 5, 2008

I went for my follow-up appointment today, and I actually made it through this wisdom teeth removal thing without any infections, complications, or dry sockets!  Praise the Lord!  I should also mention that Lance was a phenomenal nurse, so thank you, honey.  I got the all-clear to drink cokes and use straws and eat whatever I want today, so it was a happy day.  Well, except that I have to use this rinser-syringe thingie… and it did not feel sunshiney in my mouth after the nurse used it today.

PS the nurse actually remembered me and told me that I was reeeeally funny and that I must be very sensitive to medication.  Apparently the sedation was HIGHLY effective on me.  Eek.  Good thing there are no photographs or videos of those few minutes anywhere…

Now if the right side of my jaw will quit popping…….

Ode to Lance June 4, 2008

Be ye warned, all who tread here:  this post will get sappy.  Turn back now if you can’t appreciate my sappiness.

It’s official… Lance and I have been married two years now.  Crazy!  The time has gone by SO fast… it’s almost scary!  Yesterday was our two year anniversary, and since I just had my wisdom teeth out AND we had a VBS meeting up at church, we didn’t have any major plans… but we did go to Rosa’s where I was able to eat shredded chicken and rice… and be FULL for the first time in almost a week!  It was fantastic.  When I got home from work, he had gotten me a precious card and two roses, and since I can’t eat much chocolate right now because it takes too much effort, he bought me some chocolate fudge brownie Ben & Jerry’s, chocolate pudding, and hot chocolate.   Such a thoughtful guy.

He is amazing, and I couldn’t be happier to be celebrating two years with him.  He is unbelievably patient with me, and he makes me laugh so hard, and he sings with me in the car, and he likes my cooking, and he always asks me to play video games with him, and he always tells me he loves me at the ends of our conversations, and he is so comfortable in his own skin, and he really loves our dog (even if he acts like he doesn’t sometimes), and he takes care of me, and he lets me cry when I need to, and he lets me take care of him sometimes, and he loves middle schoolers, and he believes in me, and he tells me I look nice, and he can admit when he’s wrong, and he makes a great breakfast, and he remembers important dates, and he loves my family (and my family loves him), and he understands my obscure references in my weird (although I prefer to call it “quirky”) sense of humor, and he holds my hand during prayers at church, and he supports me when I have hard choices to make, and he prays with me, and he has a beautiful voice, and he listens to my stories about nothing, and he loves the Lord so much.  I feel so blessed to share my life with someone so wonderful!  I could not ask for more!