What to Post on...

There are so many things I have in my head that I want to post on, and since I don't have my camera to get the latest pictures of our Cascade project posted I'm going to post about everything else in my head... (good luck to all of you out there!)

1. This week I celebrated my 25th birthday, yay! What? I don't sound excited? Well, I'm not, really, and I don't know why. I feel extremely old. We spent the day nagging people about carpet and visiting with my cousin Tyann and her family. Honestly, we got showers, and that was a treat for both of us (don't ask, you really don't want to know!) After our shopping excursion we found a Barbque restaurant for lunch. John is always on the hunt for authentic barbque, so we tried it out, I must say it was quite yummy (although expensive). Then we headed back to Tyann's. We spent the afternoon chatting while one of the older girls made me brownies for my birthday. Finally, when I thought my birthday had been all but forgotten by my immediate family, the phone rang. To my surprise, I heard little girl voices singing me Happy Birthday! Thanks to the Frei girls for making my day! After that it seemed like my phone rang all day, my family called, John's mom called, and even Jenny and Megan left me a message singing Happy Birthday. Thanks to all of you, it definately made me feel much better about life!

Tyann just had #6. I've always had a special bond with her and now her kids. The 2 year old was fascinated with Tuffy. By the time we left the house, he was John's shadow and was always asking about Tuffy. The 4 yr old and I really hit it off. She loved me tickling her and pulling her on my lap so John could then tickle her. She was not very happy with us when we left. These two also had great fun trying to take pictures with my phone, I'll have to get them off and post them. Such cute kids! I also got my share of holding the newborn, gosh, I love holding other peoples kids and handing them over when they get fussy! Thanks to Tyann's family for letting us invade and play!

2. Seeing my dad's grave. It is beautiful, and exactly what we were shown it would be. I'm so impressed with what they can do. I miss my dad terribly, I hate not being able to call him and hear one of his random, not so funny, yet hilarious, jokes or one of the words he would make up to call me. Most of all I miss seeing and hearing the light in his eyes and pure joy he always seemed to have. But back to the headstone. All of the kids names are on the back of it with a family picture, and that's the side you see when you drive up. One of the first things John said to me was something like this "Now that's scary" I said, "I think it looks really nice!" and he said "Yes it does, but seeing your name on there is scary!" And I have to agree, it is odd to see your name on a headstone!

3. The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass Last October and November I got 30 or so forwarded e-mails about this series of books saying how not to let your kids see the movie, the books were horrible, the author is atheist, they kill of the "God" figure in the end etc. Well, I'm never one to jump on a negative bandwagon without finding out for myself, so that is what John and I have been doing. I must say, we both really enjoyed the book The Golden Compass. Then we saw the movie, I wasn't very impressed, the book is much better, but then again, they usually are. Through all of our travels this past month we've been listening to the last two books in the series, and all of a sudden here are all of the reasons in the e-mails about why you shouldn't let your kids get involved in these books exposed. While it is a fictional book, there's a little too much "truth" involved for kids, and some adults to get past it. So if you can just enjoy the first book, it's great!

Well, I think I've gotten things out that I wanted too, at least that's all I can remember now. I'll post more from Cascade sometime soon!