Boneman's Daughters

I just finished Ted Dekker’s new book Boneman’s Daughter. It was one of his more ‘disturbing’ books – seriously- it kept me awake at night. Note to self – when your husband works nights, do your best not to read scary books…by yourself…in the dark…when you have a bush right outside your bedroom window and it’s windy outside and you live in Spenard. I was hearing every sound outside – sitting straight up in bed straining to hear if that was next door or in my house…whoa.

Back to the book – while it was kind of freaky, the message was very clear. Ted’s message is almost always about the Love our Father has for us, and this book was no different, but the way that he illustrated our Father rescuing us from the lure of sin and Satan himself was better in this book than any of his recent books. It was similar to the Black/Red/White books in the message – with the same “love that knows no boundaries, would go anywhere to rescue one of His own” sort of message.

I would recommend reading it – and Ted’s other recent book “Kiss.” To be honest, I felt like both books were some of his best work.

First 5K of the season

So this morning was the first 5K of the season for me - it was fun, we had a great time. There were way too many people there and I felt pretty squished, but once we got going it was cool.

A funny thing happened, I know one of the guys running for mayor (not Dan Sullivan) and I did not vote for him, nor will I in the upcoming run off election, but I know him personally and saw him at the race so I said hello. He asked me to wear one of his little campaign signs on my bib. I wanted to say no thank you but don't have the guts to say no (like ever) so I just said "okay." and put it in my pocket. I kept seeing him ALL OVER THE PLACE and was all weirded out about him knowing I didn't have it on my bib.

I care about the weirdest things.

This doesn't happen every day...

John and I went out to eat last night and were sitting across from a very chatty/social three year old. I had made eye contact with her a couple of times and she smiled at me, and I smiled at her. We had just gone on a long walk right before we went out to eat so we weren't exactly snazzy - I was wearing work out pants and a t-shirt and John was wearing "work out pants" which for him means jeans and an old t-shirt.

John left our table to get something and I "felt" that feeling you get when you know people are looking at you. I thought maybe they were jealous of my sweet looking outfit. Then the little girl points at me and says "Mommy, I like that girl's hair!"

Oh man - so many compliments bundled into one sentence:

1. She liked my hair (does a woman get a better compliment than that? I can't remember the last time someone said that to me)

2. She called me a girl. At 33 that goes a long way.

I had a smile for most of the rest of the evening...simple minds...simple pleasures! :)

A long hard road...

John and I have been slowly working on filling out forms and forms and applications and applications and papers and papers for adoption. Yesterday I went to drop off our fingerprints for the background search and almost had a breakdown.

There is so much to do in this process, and I thought if I could just drop off our fingerprints, it would be one thing I could actually check off our long list. So, after work, I skipped my workout and headed over to the troopers office - not at all out of the way on my drive home. When I got in there I saw a sign that said "No credit cards or debit cards." For some reason - this really ticked me off. I only had my credit card, and we had taken the checkbook out of my purse a couple nights before for taxes. So all I had was $10 and my credit card. And seriously - aren't they going to get their money for sure if I use my credit card? What if some person comes in there and writes a lame check? These are things to consider!

I wanted to cry. All I wanted to do was drop off my fingerprints and pay to have someone dig through my past. Let me use a credit card - would you? After I talked to John and calmed down (a lot) I realized how silly it was to get so upset over something like that. I mean seriously - what was the worst that happened...I went back today and dropped them off and paid for them by check. See? No harm done, and something checked off my list.

I just wish I could have dropped it off yesterday.

Breaking up is hard to do...

I have a love/hate relationship with “Break – Up" - for those of you outside, break-up is when the snow melts, the ground melts and everything green reappears. It's a mess.

I love that we’re getting closer and closer to summer, and hate that it’s such a mess. There is water everywhere and it seems the whole town is brown and dingy. This year, the roads are worse than I’ve ever seen them, I have a theory that they're so bad because we had a deeper freeze than normal. The ruts appear to be breaking all the way through the asphalt and driving to work this morning there was broken road most of the way. The potholes are big enough to swallow a car (close to the size of Montana).

Still, spring has sprung…my tulips will reappear, and we will be playing outside shortly. In the meantime, I’ll scoop poop, rake the yard, and put up with the wet, brown mess knowing summer is coming.

And try not to think about what happens once summer is gone! J

Night out with the girls

I had fun tonight - I went out with a few friends to a movie (Paul Blart, Mall Cop at the Bear Tooth) and dessert (at Sugar Spoon...yum!). It's funny how even five years ago a "night out" meant that we'd at least be out past 10:00...tonight I was ready to go home at 8:30 (mostly because I hadn't seen John all day and wanted to spend a few minutes with him before he went to work tonight).

I've really come to appreciate this particular group of girls because we've all been friends for over 10 years. We met when we were all college aged, single women, wondering what God had in store for our lives. Now we've seen it all - seen each other get married, have children, move around the country, reconnect with family members - it's been amazing. One of the coolest things is that these women share the same faith as me, and no matter what has changed in our lives, that remains constant.

Anyway...lots of laughing, lots of calories and a good time. YAY for girls night out (even if I am home by 8:30)!

VOTE!

I admit - I really do get my underwear in a bunch over this one. My Marlene has heard this rant so many times she's probably already decided not to read this blog! :) I really struggle with people not voting in municipal elections.

It matters who our mayor is. It matters more than people might think. I won't go into a huge lecture on this, but who our mayor is is so important to our every day lives, it impacts us in more ways than you may think. In my opinion, who is in office over our city is in some ways more important than who our governor is.

And the bonds...don't get me started on those. Property taxes alone and the threat of higher taxes with all the millions in bonds on this last ballot should push (at the very least) homeowners to the polls. But yesterday's election boasted only a 25% turnout - which is average for our city. It's so sad.

Also - while I'm on the subject...I know that Sen. Stevens would have been voted in again had that bogus trial not been going on. I'm just sayin...things would have looked a lot different for the US senate had he hadn't been in that mess.

It's been so nice!

I'm fighting a cold...or allergies or something, not sure which - but I can't complain because seriously - it's been SO NICE outside!

We're melting like crazy - lakes everywhere, hiding ginormous potholes - and I love it. I know that my tulips are going to poke up in a couple of weeks, the rhubarb is probably already getting excited under the snow, and the soil in the shed will be ready for flowers in another month! YAY!

In the meantime, I wear my water boots - slog through the puddles and put up with the dripping because I know the spring is on its way!

I so like Saturdays

I just love Saturdays. I don't usually have anything I have to do, and it's nice just taking my time doing things and not feeling rushed. Today I worked on laundry and hung out at the house in the morning, and then went shopping and hung out with a friend in the afternoon. By the time I got home this evening, John was awake so we got to spend the evening together.

I tried a new recipe for quiche for dinner and it turned out really yummy...mmmmmssss.

We're off to John's parent's house to pick up the girls and take them for a walk - we have sunshine and clear skies today...not a day to waste inside!

Birthday Fun

So yesterday was my birthday (the crowd goes wild) and I had a great time. People at work were so sweet, someone brought in muffins and someone brought in peach cobbler and there were lots of Happy Birthdays on my FB page. I even got a birthday card from my friends at the Girl Scouts...awwwww.....

John was awesome this year, he brought home potted Easter Lillies and the sweetest birthday card I have ever seen. He also gave me an i-touch and we had a fun time last night playing with some of the applications. We went out to dinner with John's mom and with some friends - Mongolian BBQ. It's been a while since we've had a chance to hang out with these friends, so it was a extra special treat.

I tried to keep it a WW friendly birthday and that went pretty well - yay John for helping me with that.

Not much else goes on - day to day stuff. We're trying to catch up with friends that have been ignored the last few months under the mounds of our stress. Thank God for friends that understand how that gets put on hold now and then.