They Say It's Your Birthday Dear Lima

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to H. Yes, 40 does sound weird.

But, we have a LOT of fun, exciting things to look forward to in the years to come and I'm glad we'll be doing it together!

I love you.

My Heart Grew Three Sizes That Day

I hope that before the world ends and computers everywhere crash I will one day print off all my entries and therefore have a sweet, sweet journal for posterity. And, since this is MY journal, my latest entry involves my daughter.


Last night we saw said daughter in a concert choir performance. This year she is in the Chamber Choir, choir level III, the only choir in the junior high for which participants had to try out. She sings soprano.


We watched choir I as they sang and then choir II. Then in her beautiful, black, floor length gown here comes choir III and my gorgeous daughter.


They sang The Voice, Feed the Birds, and Concertschtick. The Voice and Concertschtick were my favorites.


As a mother, I was in fine form last night. I couldn't help it, as I watch my daughter (she is beautiful by the way, but not just face-pretty, she glows!) sing her heart out and do something she loves to do......my heart grew three sizes. There aren't that many times in my life I can actually feel my heart (there is the occasional chest twinge that makes me think of what my dad said long ago about how every time he feels a chest pain he thinks to himself "this is it, this is the pain that's gonna take me down."), but last night I felt my heart grow. And I bawled. Wow, I love my daughter.


For more information on the Joy of Motherhood, read here.

I'm Not a Witch, I'm Your Wife!

Yes, Halloween approacheth. I'm dressing up this year. Believe it or not. I may be only sporting a witches hat, but I might have more to my costume. You'll have to trick-or-treat in our zip code to find out (or I might post pictures, ok, who am I fooling, of course I'll post pictures). But, if you DO come here, I'll make sure I give you some of my chocolate. We bought two 150 piece ALL CHOCOLATE bags of candy at Costco. I'm tired of skimping every year. Buying a few bags of yummy and throwing in dollar store candy to make our stash look bigger. Then I spend all night trying to figure out if I know the cute trick-or-treaters, because if I KNOW them, I give them chocolate. If I don't know them, they get dollar store pixie stix. But hey, maybe those little unknown treaters like pixie stix....what kid doesn't? So, maybe I should just get all kinds of candy and let the kids choose. Wait, I can't do that either because if I put the bowl (I typed bowel there first, medical transcriptionist fingers sometimes go to autopilot) out at the kids, they inevitably grab a whole chubby fistful of goodies, and at that point they don't CARE if it's chocolate or what!

I'm still a tad worried that 300 pieces isn't enough. I just cannot stand the thought of running out. There are those of you out there who buy just enough and then basically say, first come-first serve! and then let the drifters come upon your darkened house and be ever-so-disappointed.

Not me, Halloween is all about one big, fat party....full of candy ALL NIGHT LONG at EVERY SINGLE HOUSE! I refuse to party poop on the best day of the year!

***It should also be noted, I have NOT opened either bag of candy. Only 11 days to go...

Harold's Opinion on my Poll

I agree that we should NOT post the pictures. No one wants to see them. If you want people to visit your blog, posting the pictures would be a massive deterrent. No one would ever visit again. It wouldn't ruin your marriage or cause any strife. It would ruin your friendships and would cause unhappy feelings.

That's my opinion.

H.

OK PEOPLE, do you agree??

Fall Table Top Quilts

I have had these table topper quilts in the works for YEARS. When my old ward started a table topper quilt night, I was in. But, when I saw these Halloween babies, I was all over it! I love Halloween, as you know. I love pumpkins and I love Fall.

Here is the larger specimen with the fun pumpkin faces:


Here is a closer view:


Corner shot:


I love this shot. This shows off the fun fabric I chose for the back and the stripey fun binding fabric. Also if you look close you can see the quilt pattern, the fun leaves (click on the pic for a better view):


This was the first one I started on, more of a fall pattern, not necessarily Halloween:


This is the full view:


And this one shows the fun fabric on the back and the stripey (love the stripes) border print. On this shot you can also see the pumpkin pattern quilting. Don't forget to click for a great quilt view:


Isn't it spooky how I actually got these done? Go ahead, admire me.

Poll

How bad would it be to post pictures of my husband before and after 9 weeks on Body for Life?

And by "bad" I mean, would posting the pics cause major marital issues? What do you think?

While The Sun Shines

Do you ever wonder why when we look at someone else's life that is so hard, we seem to appreciate our life much more? Why is that? Why does it take a tragedy to bring us to our senses?

And how does the person whose life is so difficult feel about me, whose life is not that hard? Does that person get irritated that I have finally seen the light? Does that person feel glad in their heart that their tragedy has brought others clarity?

I read the Nie Nie Dialogues and I get inspired every single day by Stephanie. I don't know her other than through her blog. She will be on Oprah today. She was beautiful before the plane crash, not just her physical beauty which is very, very apparent, but her spirit was beautiful. She shined from the inside. And now, since the crash, her light shines just as bright. I am humbled by her.

Life is too short to complain and to wish our circumstances were different, don't you think?

Hope

I could not say this better, never in a million years. But, I want anyone who reads this to know our Heavenly Father loves us all and I know the Son of God is my Savior.