Yesterday was Lew’s birthday. It wasn’t a very fancy one, but the little girl and I did bake him a cake yesterday. And I HAD to put all of his candles on it. So here’s the evidence right before we had to call the fire department and tell them that the smoke alarm was a false one.
And if you *must* know, Iobnoxiously put 36 candles on his cake for one and only purpose. To make him feel old.
I’m 983 days older than my loving husband. If you do some of that math stuff, some would say that I’m three years older than him. But if you just look at pure numbers, he’s now 36 and I’m still 38. So for the next 213 days until we celebrate my 9th annual 30th birthday, I’m only two years older than my husband. And that makes me feel quite young again.
I was thinking the other day that I just don’t have enough going on in my life. I hardly have time to read the books on my list (see the sidebar on the left & notice how much it hasn’t changed in the last three months or so…) yet I’ve still got this desire to be in a book club. I think it stems from Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons from a couple years back…
I even tried to start one up a couple of years ago and failed – we never got to the first meeting. I don’t remember what happened, but somehow it got pushed aside and I never got it off the ground. Maybe it was because the first book kind of sucked and I never finished it and never felt the need to talk about it.
But I love to read, and I love to be social. And I’ve got random friends who need to meet and connect. So I think I’m going to try it again. Maybe I need to pair the first meeting with a wine tasting or something…knowing my friends, that will certainly get them to commit to at least coming out to play with me!
We had a major leak yesterday and it turns out that we need some work done in our kitchen to re-route some piping from under the floor (where the leak is) to behind the wall to the sink and the dishwasher. Right now we have no water in our kitchen…and of course, a dishwasher FULL of dirty dishes. And did I mention that we don’t really have any money in our budget for such repairs? So, we start calling on friends and family to find a plumber that we can trust and won’t charge us an arm and a leg to do the work.
He & Lewis have become friendly and this morning, Lewis decided to stop and talk to him about our issues and ask him for prayer about our situation. Guess who is a plumber? Yes, this man on the street with the Jesus signs every day is a licensed plumber. And he’s going to come over to our house today and do the work that needs to be done with Lewis, and he isn’t going to charge us. Of course, we are going to pay him, but it won’t be as much as Mr. Rooter was going to charge us to do the same work.
Just a little potpourri of what I’ve learned today…
My husband has a mirror in his cubicle. It serves two purposes. 1. He likes to make sure that he has a “phone smile” when he’s on the phone. 2. With the mirror, he doesn’t get lonely in his cubicle. He’s always there to keep himself company.
My daughter has found a love of catalogs and is learning how to covet. (I’m reassessing the value of this trait – I’ll get back to you.) She has a fine eye for great fabrics from the Lands’ End catalog.
Bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, basil and chicken make a great meal.
When my boys are not reminded, they don’t brush their teeth.
A thank you note from a friend can make your day.
When summer hits in Georgia, you are reminded that Heaven is going to be a much better place than the alternative.
When I walk by the fan in my bedroom, it makes me want to crawl into my bed and sleep. I love my bed (that’s a post for another day) and the feeling of that cool breeze on me while I snooze.
A hot bath is more enjoyable with a six-year old who also appreciates the smell of lavender vanilla bubble bath.
A naked mole rat is really really really ugly. Check google images and see for yourself.
Soy milk is tasty on cereal, but not so good in coffee.
Rainbow trout fishing at camp is fun for the kids, but not fun for mom when they bring the fish home in a bag.
Mosquitos are also attracted to the smell of lavender vanilla bubble bath.
Lew’s Father’s Day present will be here tomorrow. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to get a 70lb box hidden without his help. Let me know if you have any suggestions.
It’s been a good day. I feel smarter having lived it.
Scrabulous is another Facebook application – online scrabble. In real life, I don’t like to play Scrabble…I call it Sleeple. It is way too boring to sit and wait while the other person goes, and then the pressure of having to form a word with your own letters before the other person falls asleep – it is just too much. I avoid this game like the plague. It also doesn’t help that the person I have to play with whoops me every time. Not really because he’s THAT good, but he’s just a better speller than I am. And that’s equally as frustrating as fighting a nap during the game.
But SCRABULOUS is another story. I can take my time with that one. Sometimes, I even write out my letters and take them with me. What’s a better way to spend my commute time than pouring over 7 letters to make the best possible word? And if I can’t find something right now, I just wait until the inspiration hits me and take my turn later.
But my FAVORITE part about Scrabulous is the ability to play with letters to try to make a word. I put letters down on our mock board and arrange, reaarange, move them here, move them there…find the best possible combination for the most points. And the other person can’t see me playing around! They don’t see all of my options. And once in a while, you create a word that you didn’t even know was a word. Or, you create a word that really is a word, but you never would use it in a sentence.
Right now, I’m in the best game that I’ve ever played. I have a love/hate relationship with the game because the last few moves have been each of us playing just a couple of letters to play them & not open up a space for the other person. I finally opened it up and got burned. She played on the triple word score. But that’s okay. I’ll take it. Because that allowed me to use all seven of my 1-point letters and use them in one fabulous (or should I say Scrabulous) word for an extra 50 points. In this one game, I’ve done that twice. PLACEBOS and OUTEATEN. Even with the respectable 92 points for placebos and 70 points for outeaten, I’m not winning by as much as I should be.
This is the first three-day weekend EVER that Lewis & I have off together. We’re both sitting here at the kitchen table enjoying our coffee with the windows open, birds tweeting outside, dog snoring under the table, the Today Show sounds in the other room, on separate laptops. He’s catching up on the news, I’m scanning recipes, message boards, facebook (saw that my friend’s husband Mike just became friends with his brother who lives down here in Atlanta) and random websites. I’ve made a list of things to do, none of which says “waste time on the internet.”
We had some social plans today, but got trumped for tonight. Apparently, friends of ours don’t communicate with each other – she makes plans with us, he makes plans with his sister. Family won, so now we’ve got all this food for the grill and beer just for us. Tomorrow is a social day with a small party at a friend’s house, and then we have more plans for Monday for another cookout at someone else’s house. I’m thinking it is a +2 pound weekend. Just how I like to spend 3 days in a row away from work. And did I mention that Lewis is along for the ride ALL WEEKEND LONG!?
It is the little things. Maybe we’ll get off the laptops long enough today to actually enjoy each other’s company.
Since Lewis is half Japanese, he grew up eating all kinds of (he says) delicious Japanese food. I’m not a huge fan of all of the pickled stuff and sushi. But, I do like most of the ingredients in a California roll. Except the nori. Which is kind of an important component. So when Lewis has a craving for sushi, I run and hide.
I’ve tried it. I even tried it again. And then again. And I’m sorry to say that I just can’t enjoy this one thing that my husbands loves. I’ll watch basketball until the cows come home (or until the major wind from last weekend knocked our satellite out of alignment and we can’t get TNT) but I can’t stomach the sushi.
I’m sure you know that sushi isn’t exactly an inexpensive little treat. And with the bottomless pit of a stomach that Lewis has, we’ll go broke trying to support his habit. And since I don’t like it, I don’t understand the allure.
But then I found out that we can actually make it at home. And since I love a good challenge and I love making pretty things, we hit the Asian market and picked up some supplies. Thanks to Google and YouTube, we learned how to make some basic California rolls.
And yes, I even got fancy and made some with the rice on the outside. And the yellow on the outside of some of them? EGG! That was my sushi since I can’t handle the nori.
Good stuff, my friends. Good stuff. Who’s coming over for dinner?
And for once, I’m NOT talking about myself. The following video really doesn’t need an introduction. We just had to capture this one on video. This was really about a 20 minute ordeal and I edited it down to three and a half minutes.
That’s what Lewis called today when I said Happy May Day via IM this morning. Have I mentioned why Lewis was put on this earth? To make me laugh…and that’s just what he does. I love that he has an office job now & we can play a little during the day.
I love the first of the month – it is a starting point, a chance to get into some new habits and get rid of some old ones. As you can see by the last post, I’ve had a pretty big awakening in the past few weeks. One of my friends died of cancer. Thirty years old. 52 days from diagnosis to passing. That just isn’t enough time to do what you want to do with your life. It isn’t enough time to prepare, to say what you need to say as John Mayer so eloquently puts it.
One thing that I’ve vowed to do since learning once again how precious life can be is to love more deeply. Not get so stressed over the little things anymore. Make more time for the important relationships in my life. Let go of the negative stuff that weighs me down. Laugh more. Try to just “be” sometimes and to not take myself so seriously. Not that I take myself that seriously now, but I want to be even more authentic. I am so blessed and I don’t want to ever take that for granted again.
So Uno de Mayo has now been claimed as the first day of the rest of my life. I’m going to learn to love my life, just as it is. Live for today and just enjoy the world around me.
Today, a friend left this world for a better place with the Lord. She leaves behind a loving husband, three beautiful children, loving parents, two brothers, and many friends. She has touched so many lives and will be missed. She lived her life to the fullest and loved others deeply. She loved Jesus and shared his love with others whenever she could.
I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. Matthew 5:24
In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day by Mark Batterson
On the List:
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
The Observations by Jane Harris
Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott
This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff
Naked by David Sedaris
Recently Finished:
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel by Jonathan Safran Foer
Lucky by Alice Seabold
The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
The Shack by William P Young
One of the best books I've ever read.
Get Out of that Pit by Beth Moore
Just what I needed to get out of the pit.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Excellent read!
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
It was hard to get started, and I enjoyed it for a little while. When I was done, I just wanted the time back that I invested.
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Highly recommend this one - it was a great read. Thanks, Sherry!
