Earth Day!

Yes, my birthday is on Earth Day. One of the first really large celebrations was on my actual day of birth. My 21st birthday was when Disney opened Animal Kingdom. It's kind of a neat celebration, really. So, for my birthday today, go out and plant something. Recycle. Repurpose something that seems like junk. Choose natural products. Save a tree or an animal - my aunt rescued a blind dog, keeping her alive. Do something for some part of our Earth. Beca has been learning about it too - she likes to help with the recycling! And she said to me with the most pleading eyes the other day "But we need to save our Earth". Check out Wall-E if you haven't for a light-hearted look at the potentially serious issue. Maybe we can all green our lives just a little bit and help our Mother Earth be her very best.

I don't pretend to be a complete worshipper of our Earth but I try to do what I can in my realm of convenience. Even small steps are steps. But I am super excited that our big recycling bin from the Town of Cary will arrive sometime very soon! And there''s a lot more paper products and such that they can take now!

Easter Day & a busy week

Easter Day was actually a really good day even though it started with a 2:30 AM scream when Beca realized she had peed in her pullup. She's been trying so hard not to do it and she gets so upset when she does. But she also sleeps like her Daddy once she is asleep and in the middle of the night, there's no waking her up. But we ended up getting to the church nice and early for the 8AM service. Even got a good parking space but ddn't have to stand outside in the grass to get our feet wet for the sunrise service. Beca spent part of the service trying to sing with us but most of it wallowing on the pew with her feet over her head.

It was chilly but we got a family picture outside at my parents anyway after church. Then we headed in for pancakes, eggs and sausage. Beca got an Easter basket from our house and an Easter basket from Oma. She was also in the mood to demand everything. Luckily, one of those demands was to stay with Oma while Steve and I went home to change (oh, and a nap). We also got some food together and then we all went to the Bloom's for Easter lunch.

There was lots of great food - ham and fried chicken! Beca only grazed but flitted around to visit everyone. then it was time for the egg hunt. Remember, Beca is the only person under 20. She got a head start and of course the most help in the first round. The second round, the "children" got to hunt eggs and ended up attacking each other. Then they hid eggs for the adults - Beca helped hide them, then helped Oma by pointing them out. Final round was a hunt just for Beca. she ended up with a basket from Jan, a basket from Traci and a basket from Tricia! Then she was given a bunch of the other toys and candy that the "kids" had gotten in their baskets. It was a sugary sweet and super fun day!

Monday, our Marble walls were put in for the shower in the master bath. The looked really nice. Tuesday, we had tickets to Happy Days, the Musical. It was a great show!

things I love 46 - restaurants

I love to eat food other people have made. I like to bake but not really cook. So I really enjoy getting food from somewhere. I really love it when we are able to plan something around food, which most of our vacations are. We actually plan out our Disney meals, especially when we want to eat the good stuff! Reservations are my friend and I love meeting people somewhere just to eat and catch up. Can you tell I'm hungry?

Good Friday

For some reason, I had to go to Good Friday service this year. Or as I call it after years of TEC, Die Day. It just is.

"Truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." John 12:24

I am glad I did. I chose the 7:30 service and did not make Beca and Steve go. Good choice. It was a very good service, with much of the responses to readings done by our Choir as pieces from Handel's Messiah. What an amazing gift to the human race. An amazing collection of moving music. It was truly a reminder that Jesus was selfless for everyone else.

things I love - 44 & 45 - cake & ice cream

As I got farther behind, I realized that I just needed to finish this up. There will be some time later for the longer posts I had planned.

So, I love cake & ice cream. Cake is one of my very favorite foods. And paired with ice cream, it is even better. Now, an ice cream cake is truly marvelous. I love good cake, especially when it is not too thick but not too light. Ice cream is one of those wonderful treats and I can only rarely find my favorite, which I believe still keeps it as my favorite. Raspberry ice cream (not sorbet) is perfectly purple and dreamy creamy. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

things I love 43 - spas

I love to be pampered and have someone give me a massage or facial or pedicure or manicure. My favorite spa treatment though is a sugar or salt scrub. There's an element of massage but the lovely warm water trickling over my muscles is the ultimate relaxation for me. I love having some time where I get to really relax and not worry about what is going on. Just wish I could go do it more often! Maybe when our bathroom is finished, it will feel like my own mini spa. Now who is going to teach Steve how to give a massage?

things I love 42 - vacations

I live for my next vacation. The next big one is the beach with my dad's family! It will be so fun and Beca is really looking forward to hanging out with her cousins (well, really mine) Rachel and Andrew and Dayna. I'm looking forward to a new bathing suit and just chilling and hanging out with my aunts and uncles! After that is our "October Surprise" - Beca does not know where we are going for Halloween but she knows it is a surprise. It's Mickey's FL house - but don't tell her! I can't wait for that trip either - we will be celebrating my grandparents' birthdays too!
Thus far, that's been mostly the focus of my scrapbooks! We ahve such a great time and a good relaxing vacation is just what the doctor ordered! I LOVE VACATIONS!

things I love 39, 40, & 41 - puzzles, family games, and bowling

Again, this post was started weeks ago and I am just now finishing it up.

While I'm not a hugs sports and games fan because I'm not overly fond of direct competition, I have always enjoyed puzzles, family games and bowling. I love how you can do a simple puzzle and just figure it out by the picture or a complex one and you have to use the ability to see both the details and the big picture to make all the pieces fit. Beca loves them too. So I get to do them more.
When I was younger, we played lots of little family games. Mostly because Kyle and I could play them all day long and still entertain each other. I love that my parents joined in, except when Dad said he wasn't going to play a game in the car when he was driving and then would blurt out "there's a J" for the alphabet game or "I found New York" when looking for license plates. It was just as much fun to pick on him for playing when he said he wasn't going to than it was to play the game. Except punch bug in the car - I hate that game. But now Beca has inherited our stash and she is slowly learning how to play them. But since she's 3, she cheats and she is learning why. But she is doing really good at Bingo now that she knows her numbers and letters better! So it should be lots of fun to play family games together again. And just so you know, chutes are for going down, not climbing up. That requires constant clarification!
My one sport that I do like is bowling. I loved the semester in college that I took bowling 3 days a week, bowled for intramural and played occasionally for fun. I was really good, even getting a 210 in a game! Not that good any more. But the Wii helps to curb the urge to toss a ball at someone! All you do is imagine someone you want to knock over on the pins, aim the ball and chuck it! I even know my stance, although with the additonal shifts since Beca was born, I have to modify that now. Can't wait for her to go bowling soon!

things I love 38 - photography

Most of the time, I love taking pictures. Photos are my preferable memory of choice. Not overly fond of videos (unless they are going to let me meet Tom Bergeron and win some cash). But photography catches a portion of a moment and you are free to remember it from your point of view. I love to look at pictuers others have taken. I like to see how someone catches a particular moment. Digital photography has changed dramatically what our abilities our and what we can do. I'm very lucky to have a camera and be able to see through it to the lives that are outside the lens. I meant to publish some pictures up here with this post but since I am finishing it almost 3 weeks later, I'll have to defer to another time.

things I love 36 & 37 - movies and books

I love movies. Books are a different matter slightly. I do love them but I get too absorbed in them to regularly read right now. There's just too much going on to sit down and chug through a book in a day. The last one I read was the final Harry Potter book. Excellent reading but I finished in less than 24 hours of its arrival.
So right now, I just watch movies. I get the jist of the story and still have an opportunity to love or hate it. Not saying that the book isn't usually better, just saying that in 2 hours, I can get the concept down. My favorite movies are French Kiss, So I Married An Axe Murderer (which is ultimately hilarious when my brother starts quoting it at dinner and my mother almost snorts), Princess Bride (also well quotes), Midnight Madness and Spaceballs (equally as amusing with the Kyle quoting machine). Why these? Probably because Kyle and I spent our summers going to swim practice, watching most of these movies, doing chores and going back to swim practice. EVERY day. That's just what we did. I also love most Disney movies but definitely some more than others. And I can't pick favorites. Don't ask.

a day of ups and downs

I'm not a fan of April Fool's Day and it was not a day where I was fooled by anything funny this year. It was a rollercoaster of a day. I figured out a wonderful gift to give someone as a birthday present and I was able to make the reservations for it and get exactly what I wanted (and it is soooo very cool but I cannot discuss because of the audience - no Stephanie, it isn't you - we've got No Doubt). I bought matching dresses for Beca and me, though hers will be too big and I will have to try to take it in for this year. Then the floor fell out. Our company lost one of its co-founders to a sudden death that was announced late afternoon with virtually no details. And then we also lost one of our quality engineers just a few hours later as he ended an 18 month battle with cancer (confirmed this morning). No laughing on this April fool's. Except that a good friend of mine was celebrating her birthday and announcing a pregnancy. Up and Down and back Up. It was a day that proves what life is all about. Our ability to continue forward despite what is put in front of us. And the decisions we make all the time to listen to the little nudges or the large slap upside the head to actually follow through with taking different steps. We have to continue to live life as long as we can because we don't know when it will be taken away. We might get to say good bye but have to suffer and watch someone in pain. Or we might never have a chance to say anything and know that the pain was short and minimal. Either way, death is inevitable for any of us and it is a matter of how we choose to deal with it as the living. I prefer to celebrate the life and times we had.