Category Archives: special events

Aug9

Birthday Loot

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Birthday Loot

Because apparently there were persons who felt left out for me not specifically mentioning what they gave me, I will make out a complete, public list here. And know that I AM grateful for all these things people gave me, even though I didn’t maybe mention it in the last post because that wasn’t the point of the last post.

So, the birthday loot, in no particular order:

1. Jared: A lovely card, surprise birthday party with homemade ice cream cake, satiny sheets and a piano lamp (Thanks Phyllis and Nana for giving him that idea!)

2. MOM and Dad: Visited last weekend, half spa day, a balloon, a sweet card, and movie gift card.

3. Phyllis and David: Letters to My Daughter by Maya Angelou

4. Sarah: Soul Surfer movie

5. Aunt Linda and Co.: A beautiful card (Did you make it yourself?!) and a gift card to Target

6. My visiting teachers: Two pairs of earrings to feed my earring fetish 😉

7. Sandi and Mike: Amazing homemade caramel (which I have already eaten too much of).

And of course, thanks to those who came to the party or wished me happy birthday on Facebook.

So hopefully this will appease the people who felt neglected or unmentioned in the last post. Most people mentioned on here do not fit this category, so you’ll just have to imagine who is who. :-p

That’s all for now, folks!

Aug8

A Surprisingly Happy Birthday

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A Surprisingly Happy Birthday

I am officially a quarter of a century old. Woohoo! And what I had expected to be a low key day was actually a very sweet and wonderful day.

Jared had been acting strange all weekend. (Well, stranger than usual…) And when he’s like that, I KNOW something is up. Like the week before he proposed to me. All sorts of weird -for HIM- behaviors, like being late to things and only having lame excuses. Turns out he was masterminding a rather awesome proposal (as those of you familiar with that story know). But I was ready to strangle him up to that point where it all fell into place.

Anyways, Jared had been doing strange things all weekend. Like, buying a MONSTER chocolate cake from Costco. You know, the one that’s eight pounds of pure chocolate heaven? If you DON’T know, please make your way to the nearest Costco and locate one of these cakes. And bring a lot of friends to help you eat it to prevent cardiac arrest.

Costco Cake

This is a quick picture I found online. It doesn’t do the cake’s enourmous size the justice it deserves, but you get the point.

So Jared bought one of THOSE cakes, and knowing that I am attempting to stay to my diet somewhat, refused to let me invite anybody over to help us consume it. Strange.

Then, the morning of my birthday, Jared got up early and told me that if I value my life, I’d stay out of the kitchen. MY kitchen. Fortunately, most mornings I am sleepy and enjoy extra time in bed, so I didn’t fight it, even when I heard strange noises emitting from downstairs. I started to smell something sweet- something that reminded me of cake or brownies- but shoved that thought out of my mind because we already had an EIGHT POUND chocolate cake of doom in our posession, and it would be ridiculous to have more sweet items in a household trying to fight off sugar.

After going to church and coming home, Jared banished me back upstairs, as if he had lots of important things to do. Which apparently included cleaning up the downstairs, like vacuuming, mowing the lawn, and doing dishes that I wasn’t allowed to see because it might give away the early morning cooking. So I changed into my pajamas, cuddled with the dogs, and was a lazy bum.

We then ate a delicious dinner (which he only let me prepare half of), and we opened a few presents and cards (shout out to Jared, Aunt Linda, Sarah, and my in-laws for great cards and/or presents!).  Jared mentioned how he cleaned up the downstairs as part of my presents. Which, to anybody who does most of the work around the house, is always a sweet thought and appreciated. But there was something WEIRD about the whole thing.

It only got stranger when he hinted that maybe I should change back into something nicer than my pajama bottoms because he might want to take a few pictures of me opening up my last gifts and having some cake and ice cream.  Since when does Jared like to take pictures of that sort of thing? That’s usually what I do. So, to test him, I asked him if he was SURE we couldn’t have anybody over to share that humongous monstrosity of Costco Cake with us.

Nope. He was sure.

So, I got ready, called my parents back (because they had called while we were eating dinner), and chatted with them.  As the conversation was finishing up, the doorbell rang. And Jared refused to answer it. Grr. So I had to get off the call and go get it.

On my doorstep, two friends, one from church, one that I worked with, were standing there with big smiles.

And then it all clicked.

The cake. The cleaning. The refusal of inviting people over. The hints to look nice.

That sneaky Jared had been planning a little surprise party for me all along!

A few more people showed up, and then Jared showed off his culinary skills by producing the ice cream cake that  he had spent a significant time earlier in the day making. And we all just talked and hung out and ate ice cream cake and chocolate Costco cake and played us some Guitar Hero.

After everybody left, Jared apologized for not getting me a lot of presents. He thought maybe, because I had been so down lately, what I needed was an affirmation that people did care about me. And was that okay?

Yes, Jared. It was perfect.

All those dear friends who could come and share part of their day to wish me a happy birthday, and especially Jared, planning and pulling together the whole celebration, were the best presents I could have had.

The best presents don’t always come wrapped up nicely in a box.

Sometimes, the best presents you can get are the intangible ones that remind you that you are loved.

And now that I think about it, we never did remember to take any pictures.

Aug4

End of another visit

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End of another visit

So, the past several days, we had my parents visit us here. Why anybody would want to visit Texas in the middle of summer, especially a Texas experiencing its third worst drought on record, is beyond me. We must just be worth it. Or perhaps it was just the lure of some cute grandpuppies.

Sleepy Stevie

Dorky Bonz

Yes, Bonnie can and does sleep like that for long periods of time. But I digress.

Anyways, there was a lot of chillin’ around the house, but we did go out and do things, too.

The Parents arrived quite early Saturday morning (2:30 AM, to be precise). That meant we spent a lot of time recuperating. from a late night (and I cleaned most of the entire day Friday because I’m overly paranoid about people showing up and my house not looking nice, so I was tired too) and Saturday was a chill day.

Other things that occurred with the Parents here:

1. Went to church

2. Went to the spa

3. Went to the outlet mall

4. Went to the normal mall

5. Visited Jared’s work’s annual convention downtown and admired all the cool machinery and software wizardry that his work affects

6. Was given a balloon, card, and a cake as a pre-birthday present

7. Ate at some of the good restaurants around here that didn’t follow my diet

Honestly, it was just too hot to do much during the day here to do a lot of meaningful activities. Even with the air conditioning on full blast, traveling in the car is still miserably hot in 105+ degree temps. That plus the fact that the back to school deadline is looming over me, I was rather moody, cranky, and unpleasant to be around. Fortunately, I think the dogs’ cuteness made up for all of that, too.

Despite all of that, it was a good visit. Times like that make me sad that we live so far from all our family and old friends, even though we have new friends here.

Good thing I have these goofs to keep me company during those lonely moments!

Bonnie Sweetie Sweater

Jul18

My love affair with Harry Potter

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My love affair with Harry Potter

I am admittedly a Pottermaniac.

So, when I say it was an emotional weekend because I watched the Harry Potter 7.5 movie, it’s a little complicated.

Let me explain:

I had heard about the series off and on, but was skeptical about how great they were, really. I mean, everyone goes on and on about Justin Beiber, and I just don’t get it. (PLEASE DON’T THROW ANYTHING AT ME OR LEAVE AWFUL COMMENTS BECAUSE OF THAT!) So I hesitated on trying to read them.

What changed my mind? Well, way back when I was about 14, one of my awesome cousins, Amy, was visiting our house. Instead of hanging with me, she had her full attention in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. And every fifteen minutes or so, she would start laughing out loud. She would try to explain something to me, but like any time you haven’t read the book and gotten to know the characters, I just couldn’t appreciate it like she could. I started to feel really left out.

So what can you do? I immediately grabbed a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and I was lost. Within a few days, I had voraciously sped through all the first four Harry Potter books.  I fell in love with the various characters, the humorous writing, the allusions to all sorts of mythologies. I then joined the nearly four year wait for the fifth book to come out.

(By the way, this would be a great place to say that there are NO hard feelings about being ignored by Amy for Harry Potter. I GET IT. I only feel indebted to you for opening my eyes to an amazing series.)

So, for the fifth, sixth, and seventh books, I was one of THOSE people who attended the midnight release parties at Barnes and Nobles to be one of the first to know what was next in the series. Because if I didn’t know, as soon as possible, I JUST MIGHT SPONTANEOUSLY COMBUST! (I really hope you all know that feeling–the excitement, tension, and relief that come with being so entranced with something magical like this.)

I even dragged Jared along to those last two. We were dating during the sixth book’s release, and had just been married for a few months with the seventh. And let me tell you, that is true love. Standing in a line with a bunch of people dressed up in ridiculous costumes because you are supporting the girl you love’s obsession for something other than you.

(And since his sister, Sarah, and my two younger brothers were both just as in love with the series, it wasn’t like he had much better to do than play card games with us. Like sleep or play video games. I am sure that I will regret this aside sometime later when he reads this post, but I couldn’t help myself. But I digress.)

So I read those books, and I cried at some point in every one of those books, Goblet of Fire and on. And the tears only increased in frequency with each new book, too. Like, only the end of book four, when Voldemort comes back and Cedric dies, kinda sad. (What?! Lord Voldemort returns in full force?! Really, have you have been living under a rock all this time?) So that was only a little bit of the end. By The Deathly Hallows, I think I cried off and on through most of the beginning and then nonstop through the last half of the book.

So with that history in mind, I have a love-hate relationship with the movies that drives anybody watching them with me crazy. Because the books are just so much more in depth and the movies just can’t get all of that in there, or focus on weird parts that I don’t think are integral. What do you expect? I AM an English teacher, after all.

And I know the movies can’t get it all in unless they do extended editions that are four hours long, like the Lord of the Rings series, meaning by the end it’s TWELVE hours. And most people don’t really have the endurance for that, especially when they might not have read the book. So you have to cut some details. I GET IT, PROMISE. But the movies, even the best of the series, all have flaws. This one was no different. It wasn’t bad, at all. It was actually pretty good, for the most part.

But, the movie was more of a hollow echo of all those powerful emotions I felt when back in July 2007, as I finally reached the end of a masterfully written tale. It was over, then, for me. Because no other format can truly cover this story that is the very picture of the word epic. As in, when you look up “epic” in the dictionary, next to where it states, “heroic; majestic; impressively great” you will find a picture of JK Rowling or one of the Harry Potter covers.

All Saturday evening, I relived the ghost of this tale, felt moved by the ghostly echoes of the powerful waves that sweep over me whenever I read the book. And when you have had a love affair with a story like this for over a decade, that can be emotionally draining.

My hats off to you, J.K. Rowling, for being able to create a world that has swept over this world with such power. I can only hope that some day, I could write with such power, beauty, and creativity as you have.

Harry Potter

Jul13

On the Importance of Flowers

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On the Importance of Flowers

When I was first dating Jared, I used to say how he didn’t need to buy me flowers for Valentines Day, birthdays, or anniversaries. First of all, flowers can be expensive. Anybody who has had a significant other or a mother knows that any flowers bought on Valentine’s Day and/or Mother’s Day are priced to rack in the big money. And then, after a few days (or if you’re really lucky, a week or two) they die. Get all limp and soggy or dried up and brown, and it’s a nasty mess to clean up.

So I told Jared not to bother.  He, like any smart man, decided to play it save and did it anyways, but I would have probably been okay without it. I really did feel badly about how expensive and overrated they could be.

But secretly, I was always really glad he did it.

I LOVE having fresh flowers around the house.

Cayenne Roses Close up

Especially since we have our own home, I feel a certain pride in the beautiful things that are around, even the temporary items like flowers that you have to keep changing.

Flowers Outside  

There’s a certain charm in having them around. The subtle fragrance. The many shapes. The variety of color. I’m always amazed with the beautiful, delicate colors that nature can come up with. I love being surprised by the natural beauty that we can find in the world, and so grateful for it being here.

Cayenne Roses Top view

H-E-B is having a “Rose Festival”. Lots of the flowers aren’t in the best quality, but I found these “Cayenne” roses in the big bin and loved that color. And for roses, they have lasted quite well for the past 5 days. 🙂 Woohoo!

On a side note, I also found this awesome color highlight setting on the phone that I tried out on the roses!

Color highlight Cayenne Roses Close up Color highlight Cayenne Roses Close up 2

What are the simple things that brighten YOUR day?