A Stolen Balloon and an E-Card

Before getting into what I got for Valentine's Day this year (ignore the title for a second), I must start off with the contents of my mother-in-law's sweet Valentine's stuffed envelope full of goodies.

Here's Nathan posing with the sweet card, a pack of 16 Crayola crayons (yesss!), some resealable plastic bags, and a Valentine's card game. It is titled, "To Know Me Is To Love Me," subtitled "Know Me... Understand Me... Get Closer To Me... Love Me..." sub-subtitled "How Well Do You Know The People You Love?". I thought it was so cute! Then we read the packaging.

Yes, it says, "To Know Me Is To Love Me is a fun, friendly game that should be played between adults 18 years or older." Nathan started crying. Did his own mother really just send us an adult Valentine's Day card game? It came from Rite Aid! We timidly opened it, with one eye closed and the other squinted. Thankfully, the most charged question in the whole pack was, "If CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens were on the same block, which would your partner enter? 4 points."

Today I had a substitute teacher "try out" (I know, I've never heard of that either) at a really great school, and when I got home, I checked my e-mail and saw that I got an e-card from Nathan. I think it could have been on You Got Mail, the movie. It was really cheesy and he used a Comic Sans font (grrr...). BUT!!! The message he sent was so sweet. 

He also brought home a balloon that has been used for a few days for marketing purposes for a company called PWC. It's slogan is, "Being the one at the heart of the best opportunities." He makes me laugh! I tied it to my chair. :)

I cooked Nathan's favorite meal, chicken and gravy, and now (speaking of You've Got Mail) we're going to watch Sleepless in Seattle on VHS... right after I wrap up this post and dish up the strawberries and ice cream!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone, and a very happy birthday to my dearest B who is turning 30 today.

Yesterday's Sun

Yesterday, the sun came out and it was 50 DEGREES! WOOOHOOO! I celebrated the occasion by not wearing a coat out of doors for the first time in four months. Here I am modeling my sans-coat-outfit with pride. You can hardly see my face because the sun is so bright, but I'm smiling - big time. I love the sun.

 Look at those long shadows! What a sight for sore eyes!

Unfortunately, we didn't have the camera extender with us, so Nathan had to resort to his usual "arm out" picture taking method. Pasty white, but oh, so happy. 

Speaking of pasty white... Nathan said his chest needed a little sun, so he unbuttoned his shirt and made this face. Scary! Look at his vampire teeth! I'm surprised his skin didn't start sparkling like diamonds. I blame Bev for the Twilight reference.

Monday on a Thursday

When we got home from our church retreat on Sunday evening, Nathan got the mail, and I received a job application pack I requested much earlier. It was an English teaching job at a school probably 20 minutes away by car. Happily, the job started in April instead of September, which was a good thing for us. Unhappily, the whole application was due the next day, and it was too late for me to mail it back. I was overwhelmed immediately and burst into tears, which is quite common when I'm overwhelmed. Nathan encouraged me to get started right away, work on it until late, and then get on a bus and hand deliver it the next day. 

I woke up the next morning to a dark, stormy, and violently windy day. Grrr... I got up and checked the computer for bus routes and times, and I saw that my friend Mary Lou had e-mailed me asking for prayer requests. I shot her a quick response about me having to drop off the job application and asked if she would pray that it would just stop raining while I spent several hours traveling via public transportation. 

The following is an excerpt I wrote in an e-mail to her when I got home: 

"Mary Lou, as soon as I left for that school to drop off the job application, the rain stopped and the sun came out, but it was still really windy. After my bus ride, I only had to ask for directions to the school twice, and I found it with no problem. I blustered into the gates next to the soccer fields with my hair swirling around me and my bag clutched close to me. I tried to straighten myself out before going into the building, and when I did, I looked up and saw a HUGE RAINBOW! I mean... the whole thing from one side to the other. It was so bright and beautiful! I immediately burst into tears and laughter at the same time and said, "The Lord loves me!" I took a picture to prove it, but of course, it didn't do it justice. I walked into the school and handed my application in. When I came out two minutes later, the rainbow as gone. I think it was just for me.

On my way back to the bus station, I went into a shoe store and found some comfortable black boots from Clarke's at a major discount, AND I got my lunch at McDonald's, which we don't have here in Durham. I was originally really angry that I had to take three and a half hours and almost $12 in bus fares to drop off one job application, but I know now that I was able to do so for my own encouragement (rainbow, boots, McDonald's!)... and to prove to you that your prayers are powerful and effective."

If you want something prayed for, now you know who to call. But don't call her too much, because I need her full time. :) 

Weekend Away

This last weekend Nathan and I went on a retreat with our church family. We had a great time getting to know our church family better and hearing God's word taught. It was in the Lake District, which was gorgeous in theory. We didn't see much of it because it was cold, rainy, and blustery - seriously blustery - the whole time, and we didn't explore much. 

Despite the weather, several people organized walks during free time on Saturday afternoon. There was a short walk (two hours) and a longer, more strenuous walk (four hours). Yes, in the rain and mud and wind and cold. The English love their walks. I contemplated going on the short walk until my American friend, Mindy, told me that "short" did not meet my American definition of "short." 

She and I decided to take the American eight months pregnant lady's version of a short walk, and we basically just sauntered around the grounds of the retreat center for about 45 minutes. It rained the whole time, but I just imagined what it would have been like if it was in the summer. The picture below was taken in front of "the summer house" on a little pond. So adorable!

I don't know if you remember Dave and Mindy's story, but they finally got their luggage back from Heathrow a few weeks ago... sans their digital camera. Sadly, they had not transferred any pictures onto their computer and thus lost them all. They didn't have a single picture of Mindy pregnant! I put a stop to that right away and snapped this shot.

She insisted on taking one of me in the same spot.

This is the path into the grounds. I'm sure those trees are gorgeous in the spring, summer, and fall.


Everyone was encouraged to bring "cake" (translation: dessert that you can eat with your hands, like muffins, cake, cookies, etc.) to share during tea breaks, and I got to try a lot of different homemade desserts. Tasty! Something wonderful happened during a tea break when Mindy marched up to me with one of my cookies half eaten in hand and said, "These chocolate chip cookies are amazing!"


"How did you know I made them?"


"Because these tasted like my mom's. They're proper American chocolate chip cookies, and you're the only other American here."


That warmed my heart. :)


One of the other highlights for me, and this may sound stupid, was coloring and talking at a table with five other ladies. My 49 pence coloring book is getting great mileage.

Thoughts About Valentine's Day

It's no secret that my mother's favorite holiday is Valentine's Day. I'm not sure how it started, but she loves it and loves sharing the love. I have worked hard to love it, and now I like it. It's taken me a long time to like it, and hopefully I'll get to the "love it" stage someday.

I started disliking it when Paul put an extra chocolate heart in my valentine in kindergarten. Then Dustin wrote, "I like you," in a valentine in 2nd grade. In 9th grade Josh brought me flowers, balloons, and a poem to youth group. In 10th grade I got a candygram from both Mike and Ryan. I did not like (as in "like" like) any of these boys at the time. 

I was so embarrassed. Humiliated. Ended up in tears. 

Speaking of tears, rewind a little to about 7th grade. We were having our annual Valentine's Family Dinner. My mom, as usual, had decorated the whole house, but the table was particularly festive. She turned the plates over to hide our Valentine's Day treats, probably some heart socks or some butterscotch suckers from See's Candies. We started on the food shortly after and then Mom started what is probably her favorite moment on her favorite holiday.

"Let's go around and say what we love about each other!"

Like every year, we all had to take turns and say something specific that we loved about each person in the family. I'm sure I rolled the eyes of my heart - as I did a lot when I was in 7th grade - and begrudgingly rattled off the compliments as quickly as I could. 

"I love my brother because he cleans my room sometimes. I love my sister because she lets me borrow her clothes sometimes. I love my mom because she made this really nice dinner. I love my dad because... because..." 

Now, I love everyone in my family very, very much, but my dad and I were/are two peas in a pod. I was suddenly caught up in a flood of emotion. Imagine now the quivering of my middle school chin and the welling up of some fat middle school tears.

Imagine my mom trying to keep herself from laughing but a little snort coming out.

Imagine me doing the only middle school thing to do, which was to whisk away from the table and sequester myself in my room with the middle school slam of a door. 

I was so embarrassed. Humiliated. Ended up in tears.

I've never been able to live it down since. Every year I've been away from home, I've received my valentines from the family in the mail, including some remark about how tragic it was that couldn't make the annual Valentine's Family Dinner and provide the entertainment.

On the first Valentine's Day that Nathan and I knew each other, we were engaged and I was visiting him in Atlanta. Nathan stole away to the drug store while I was napping and bought me some waxy chocolates and a stuffed bear... and a birthday card. Because all of the Valentine's Day cards were gone. I surmised that if that performance was what I was getting from him while we were engaged, 50 more Valentine's Days with him weren't going to be much more thoughtful. 

Two years ago he forgot completely. Not even a birthday card. That day, we went to our friends' wedding in a next-door state and I sulked like a brat the entire ride over to celebrate their love. For a girl who didn't even like Valentine's Day, I was paradoxically quite upset. 

I can totally laugh about all of these stories now, but I can't figure out what's wrong with me. Why do my past memories and future expectations for such a Hallmark holiday cause me such anxiety? I mean, it should be all about the people we love, for goodness sake! If I label my 7th grade Valentine's Day family love-fest experience as the most scarring of my childhood, you have every right to question my view of reality. If my husband - who loves me really well every day, not just Valentine's Day - doesn't make a big deal about it, even after I tell him I don't want him to make a big deal about it, and I still get upset, I've got serious issues. It seems that I may have a self-centeredness problem. How to root it out?

All that to saaay, my mom sent us a Valentine's care package. Woohoo! I love that she was spreading some early Valentine's Day love!!!

It came complete with heart stickers and a hot pink box underneath the brown paper.

Inside, each item was uniquely wrapped in its own Valentine's Day decorative packaging. A lot of love went into this box, I could feel it! For some reason, I didn't take any more pictures of the items in the package, probably because Nathan and I were tearing into everything so quickly. There were practical things like taco seasoning and Italian dressing mix and chocolate chips. There were Valentine's Day specialty items like red, pink, and white peanut butter M&Ms and hot pink heart comfy PJs from Target. There was an In N Out T-shirt for Nathan, a new watch for me, and some special items from my childhood - a "Going to Grandma's" red canvas bag and my special cup I kept at Uncle Bob and Aunt Deanie's, both of which are personalized with my name on them. 

Thanks, Mumers, for taking time and care to put this box together for us. I will miss you all this year at the annual Valentine's Day Family Dinner.

I Heart Heart Cake

Yes, you read that right.

Here's how to make it.

Winnie is Here

Winnie Paige has arrived! 8 lbs. 10 oz. and 21 inches long. I saw a quick peek of her on my brother-in-law's iPhone using Skype, and she looks just like my sister when she was born! Just perfect! I already love this little girl so much...


Congratulations to the blessed parents, Nick and Kristen, and of course, to big sister June.

Love all around...