Gardening

This is why I am the family's least committed gardener. This isn't even the bad arm (accidentally deleted that picture.)

More dreaming...

I don't think I really expounded properly on the things I'd love to do for others. I would love to send care packages to "our" missionaries. They'd be stuffed with fun things, like maple syrup and brown sugar and Nyquil, but also stuffed with resources for their ministries. Computers, books, audio lectures. Things for the people they minister to that would really reach them, such as firewood for my friends in Bosnia. Baby clothes and "accessories" for my missionary friends. Little luxury items that they crave but would never ask for. We'd go visit them, not just to help with whatever they needed, but also to just give them some company from home. I'd give them money enough for a nice vacation away and some evenings out. Trips to Disneyland while they're home on furlough. A nice car, computer and cell phone while they were home. Oh, and I'd have "mother-in-law" house for people to stay in that needed a place to crash in between things. Wouldn't that just be fun to do that for people?

Oh, and I didn't mention that my husband would get to get his PhD.

This is just too fun! Like I said, it doesn't make me discontent with my life, it is just fun to dream.

Dreaming

I am really, really satisfied and content with my life It is a wonderful life, and I'm so, so grateful for it. I am thankful that I can stay home with Lucy, we have all that we really need and don't worry where our medicine and meals come from. We don't worry about heat or clothing or gas for the car (well, we are all worried about that!). So don't get me wrong when you read the following. It isn't discontent, but fun dreaming.

So the question I ask myself is what kinds of things I would do if I had unlimited funds. First, I would squirrel away money for retirement and to take care of us in later years. I'd also make sure all my children are provided for in education and a start in their adult lives. Then the fun stuff...

I would love to give money to people and organizations in creative ways or to really needed purposes. For Biola and Immanuel High School, I'd make sure money went to their endowments, and also to Talbot and IHS scholarship programs. I'd also give money to the housing program for Biola and to the benefits program for Immanuel. I would love to give money for projects that people dream about doing but can't do. I wouldn't want people to know I was loaded, because I wouldn't want them to solicit me and try to convince me to do what they wanted me to. There are other non-profits I'd give to. I'd also want to find out, just by stealth, things that people around me really wanted and give it to them without them knowing how they got it.

For me... I would pay off our mortgage and pay to have a ton of projects (kitchen, bathrooms, add onto bedroom, windows, redo front yard) done on our house. Or else, we'd get a new house somewhere with sidewalks. And I'd have to buy houses all around me for my friends to live in.

I'd have a personal shopper who would pick out great clothes for me--not flashy, but great fits with a bit of style--and toss out stuff I didn't want anymore.

I'd get a babysitter more often, and hire a personal trainer and work out more.

I'd make really yummy dinners for our friends... things with expensive ingredients like really, really good meat.

TRAVEL! Austria and Switzerland, Norway, England and Denmark again, somewhere in Africa, New Zealand, Banff, Alaska, Colorado, Australia... First class tickets to everywhere. Maybe private plane! Flown by my sister-in-law!

Grand piano.

Mini Cooper, 64 1/2 Mustang, and pay someone to fix the Land Cruiser up. And the Z.

Flat panel TV so it wasn't taking up space.

New couches.

Cleaning service.

Okay, that's enough for now. =)

29b

Yes, in less than a month it actually happens. I turn 30. I've been talking about it so much I don't think I believed it could actually happen. But as things will be as they are to be, I suppose it will happen. I like Kristen's interpretation of 30... 29b (no not a bra size... that would be awesome!). I thought I'd tell you my plan for Birthday Month Extravaganza. I never expect people to make my birthdays for me--that is just setting people up to misinterpret your expectations--so I like to make my own fun. Here's the plan:

In honor of the big day, my husband is flying to Texas for a conference. Poor guy, he offered to stay home, but the way I figure it, it doesn't make sense. Everyone else is going to this conference, and I think he should go. Plus, what would we do? He'd be at work all day, and then we'd do the bedtime routine with Lucy and then maybe eat some cake? Or go out at the end of the day? I'd hate for him to miss it all just for one day. So instead we will celebrate before or after he goes, and I will spend the week with my parents, which I LOVE!

Mom will make THE cake. I can't say it's my favorite favorite, but I do love it's delectable yummminess that is certain to mark my chubby tummy forever. It is a yellow cake with holes poked in it, sweetened condensed milk poured all over it and Cool Whip on top. I'm telling you, it's really to die for. It used to come with coconut (see Susan's blog for discussion of this topic), but when we realized only one of us liked coconut, we nixed it. I am proposing some kind of candy topping this year... gotta think about it. We will probably also have steaks and Dad's sauteed mushrooms (one cup wine for the mushrooms, one for the cook). I think I will request a margarita, too. Olé!

Then I think we (Steve and I) will find a place to stay on the beach, just for fun. If anyone knows of any amazing deals, let me know! Thank goodness for the off season!

Theeeeen, I get a Girls' Night Out with the Bible Study girls. I'm insisting I get a Midori Sour or some such nonsense, and something amazing and Chocolate. Still deciding between Cheesecake Factory and Claim Jumper.

Theeeeeeen, my in-laws are going to Palm Springs and have invited the family, so we will get a lovely week with them, which I suspect will include dinner and some shopping. Yay!

Theeeeeeeen, my mom comes down sometime, and we get to redo my room! Yay! New quilt for the bed, new shams, new skirt. So excited!!!

Okay, 'nuff from me. Just thought you'd like to know. =)

Fall!

I hate to do any sort of ode to Fall, as I am certain there are plenty out there more polished, more moving, more humorous and generally better written than mine. But I think the outpouring of my soul demands vent, so here's my humble ode. Yesterday was the first time I felt it. I saw the imperceptible shadow that just looks like Fall. I felt that twinge in the breeze that feels like Fall on your skin. I heard the shouts of students at night that sounds like Fall. Football is on, John Madden is like a guest in our home, and I just await Howie and the boys on Sunday. The sun is going down earlier, the shadows are falling at new angles. I made chicken pot pie the other day. I think the thing that excites me most is the air, though. It is still warm, but there is an overtone that says summer's fury is expiring.

I've discovered that I just hate summer. Now that I am out of school and pay my own electric bill, summer feels like a burden, something you get through. I feel shut in, and I get tired of the little hairs constantly tickling my face from the fans, not to mention the noise of the fans and the a/c.

But Fall is on the way, and before I know it I can put on an evening sweater and drink my ritual hot chocolate.

Oh yeah... Fall means birthday! More to come on the 30th birthday extravaganza!

Ghost Poopie

These lovely, low fat dessert cookies are called "kisses"or meringues. Basically egg whites and sugar, they taste a lot like marshmallows. So my dear husband has decided they look like ghost poop, and has turned many of our visitors off to my baking. Ah well. More for me! But here's the thing? How doe he know what ghost poop looks like? Ask me one day how he knows what alien frogs sound like.