my new bathroom

This weekend I had our church leadership team over for a cookout and for most of them it was their first time to visit my home. While the guys were out back, I decided to have a little fun with the women so I told them I had just redecorated my main floor bathroom. Of course they swarmed to the bathroom to see my skillfull decorating skills. I assumed that once they walked in and saw the atrocious wallpaper and old flooring they would laugh and realize that of course I had not redecorated my bathroom. I intended to redo it, and it's been on my to do list for over three years, but in actuality, I have done nothing to it.

I don't know if these women are just really that nice (they are actually, that nice!), or if they really think I have interesting decorating tastes, but they proceeded to ooh and aah over the bathroom and compliment my wall paper hanging skills. I moved back away from them and starting laughing so hard I was crying. Finally Kris (who is much too in tune with my orneriness to fall for something like that) told them the truth and we all had a good laugh. It was almost as funny as our meeting a few months ago when Paul sat on a whoopie cushion, but not quite.

Thanks all you kind, gullible women! You made my day by falling for my joke!

Kara's Graduation

My little niece is all grown up. Kara graduated from High School on Sunday! It's hard to believe she could be out of high school already!

Congratulations Kara - I'm so proud of you!

Happy Birthday Tracey!

To conclude my week of birthday honors, today is my friend Tracey's birthday. Tracey and I met in college and have remained close friends ever since. She is one of my funniest and smartest friends. She is my go to person for all theogical questions (she is getting her doctorate in theology or something closely related, I can't remember the exact title) and when I need a good laugh. Though she lives in Colorado, she can entertain me for hours on IM....earlier this year she kept me amused through the entire state of the union addresss.

Tracey and I celebrated our birthays together on choir tour when we were in college. Our college choir (the Celebration Singers) always went on a two week tour at the end of May when school was out. I wanted to go on tour, but I don't sing well enough to be any choir, so I joined the hand bell choir (the Inspiration Ringers - go ahead, it's okay to laugh!) so I could go on tour too. Tracey, being the multi-talented person she is, was in both.

Here's a photo from our first year of choir tour, when we headed east to Washington DC. Our fellow tour friends decorated a special "birthday" seat for us to share.

And another photo of one of the many, many games of cards we played as we traveled the country on the tour bus!

And one of my favorite choir tour photos....drinking coke with our friends Sheri, Laurin, and Kevin (I have no idea whatever happened to him!)

Happy Birthday Tracey!

Happy Birthday Becky!

Tomorrow is my friend Becky's birthday. Becky and I met in junior high and have been friends ever since. We were in a lot of classes together at school through the years and attended the same youth group. So many of my teenage memories involve Becky and her sister Bonnie, not to mention their mother who was our Sunday School teacher and whose series on Revelation is still the most comprehensive I ever had! The memories range from traumatic (when I slammed Becky's thumb in my trunk when we supposed to be out canvasing a neighborhood), to hysterical (every youth group trip we ever took - and there were lots of them!). We had lots of sleepovers, parties in her basement (and mine!), great bible study time after school with our youth pastor, and birthday celebrations at the Wichita River Festival watching the fireworks. And so much more.

Here's a photo of Becky and I with Renee, another good friend from high school. This is from one of our many trips to Colorado with the youth group. We were doing pretend senior pictures with the pretty scenery. And my pretty swatch shorts, for those who might remember the swatch phase in fashion when not only did I have numerous swatch watches, but clothes to match! Don't you love the 80s?

My Twin Cousin

I have a twin cousin. I don't know if that is an official word or not, but it means that we were born on the same day in the same year. I think one of us is a couple of hours older than the other, but I can't remember who any more. Our mothers are sisters and we were born 25 (+13) years ago this week. Michelle, my cousin, lives in Kansas City and I haven't seen in her in several years, but I think of her often. Here is a photo of Michelle and I with our grandmother when we were toddlers.

Here's another photo of us at one of those old time photo places at Worlds of Fun with her dad when were in junior high. I always loved going to Kansas City to visit Michelle and her parents when I was little. She is an only child and my only sibling is a brother 9 years older, so visiting each other was always a big treat for us!

I have several good friends with birthdays this week so I thought I'd take the opportunity to showcase them on my blog! I think if I do one each day I can make it to the end of the week, then it will be time to celebrate my niece's graduation on the blog!

I don't want the rain to end!

I know everyone is sick of the rain, but I really love it and I don't want it to end! I love spring storms and one of my favorite things is to stay at home on a rainy day and read a good book. But I've been so busy the last few weeks that I haven't had time to really enjoy the rainy days. I don't think I'm ready for summer yet. I'm hoping there's still a few good spring thunderstorms coming my way (but not during the River Festival).

Today I had lunch with one of my best friends from high school, Becky. She and her family are moving back to Wichita after several years in California and I'm so happy to have her nearby again! We went years without seeing each other, but with old friends it's always easy to pick up where you left off. This year should be our 20th high school reunion, but I don't know that the Goddard High School class of 1987 is planning a reunion. That's okay by me! It seems like a joke to me that I am that old...like it can't possibly be true. So if we don't have a reunion, I can keep up my state of denial, which I fully intend to do.

I cannot keep up...

I can't keep up with the blog world. Or the work world. Or even the house cleaning world. I feel like I am behind everywhere!!! I'm not sure if I need to be more disciplined with my time or if I just need to give up sleeping.
But maybe May will be better than April. April was a tough, busy month at work and I'm still trying to catch up. I'm a month behind in my read the Bible in a year plan (though I am determined to catch up! I read 18 chapters in Deuteronomy last night while I was babysitting.) And I haven't accomplished any of my 2007 goals yet and pretty soon we'll be half way through the year. Ugh!!!!

But I did something really fun last week. On Thursday I came home from work in a really bad mood. I had gone to Topeka for the day for a meeting with 3 of my co-workers. While I really like them and enjoy their company, it was too much people time for me. I'm used to spending most of my day alone in my office in front of my computer, occasionally coming out for meetings or limited social interactions. Anytime I have to spend a whole day interacting with people I get grouchy. I can handle a few meetings each day, but anytime I have an all day meeting (which happens more frequently than I would like), or a trip out of town with others, this happens. I always warn my coworkers when we go to week long conferences. I have to apologize in advance and explain that when I get moody and say mean things, not to take me seriously because it's just that I'm needing some solitude. Fortunately we have all worked together long enough that no one takes me seriously and they can ignore me or laugh at me when I get too annoying with my sarcasm and mean comments. I wish I could change that about myself, but no matter how hard I try, it still comes out.

But that's not the fun thing I did. The fun thing was that Thursday after work I went to hear Anna Quindlen do a reading of her newest novel at the metroplex. I wanted to be in a place where I could just sit in silence and not interact with anyone and that was perfect. I'm not really a lover of fiction but I have read one of Anna's non fiction books, and I enjoyed her columns in Newsweek for years until I finally canceled my subscription a couple of years ago. (I got too stressed out over all the Newsweek magazines laying around my house waiting to be read. But after listening to her, I'm close to subscribing again!) It's not that I agree with all of her views (at the prompting of an audience member she gave an endorsement for Hilary Clinton as our next president), but I loved listening to her talk about how she develops her stories and her life as a writer. It even motivated me to buy her newest novel! And best of all, it put me in a better mood for work the next day....though the four hours I got to spend alone in office the next day helped too :)