Best Birthday Week Ever

Once for my birthday, my mr. built some beautiful shutters.
Best birthday gift ever.
I'm a tough one to gift.

But, I believe his gift has been topped.
I am so excited.

Pictures from yesterday.

8:10am ish

9:30am ish

 2:00pm ish

2:30pm ish

STINK

So little mr. b (who is now a lot taller than me) went on a 'trek' with his youth group (girls, too!!!) and a bunch of other congregation's youth groups. They were outside the whole time and needed some protection from the little critters. So I bought him this:

 

I thought, "Earth smell. Well, they're all going to stink anyway. Might as well smell a little earthy rather than chemically." 

Then I came home and tested a little out on my arm.

I failed to acknowledge the big yellow letters right above 'earth scent.'

Do you know what hunters use to smell like the earth?

It doesn't smell like earth.

And it totally would keep the critters, big and small, and especially feminine away.

I almost sent it with him.

But I didn't.

He had fun.

And didn't stink.

Guess what has two buttons.

My shirt.

It has two buttons.

Two buttons has my shirt.

And had it not two buttons,

It still would be my shirt.

And my fatty arm would've been wayyyyy more comfortable for the last, ummmmm, five (?) years.

(Loving this year's lost and found theme.  Seriously. I really could've 'let out' these sleeves long ago. Very glad to have finally noticed. Especially since I've not exercised or eaten well the past 10 months. Oh well, at least the sleeves looked good for miss H's wedding festivities.)

But it smelled of death and bacon.

 

The big garbage bin smelled of death and bacon.

So I sprayed it out, left some water in there and poured in some bleach.

And let it sit.

For a few days.

Then I sprayed it out some more.

And emptied it down the drive into the grass.

I should not have emptied it into the grass

but I thought sending death and bacon into the grass 

was a better idea 

than sending death and bacon into the street.

I didn't think about the bleach.

Don't send death and bacon and bleach to the grass.

It would go better down the drive.

(PS- please don't feel bad for the grass. It's not really grass. It's weeds and it'll come back just fine. At least I'm pretty sure it will. If it doesn't, I've got a great new product that brings death to weeds & smells funky clean to patent.)

Today was 8th Grade Day

It was not 2nd grade breakfast day.

And at 8th grade day, I got to go see a movie.

And while standing in the quiet 10:30am movie theater foyer talking with another mom and waiting for some 8th grader to buy something unnecessary, I heard this comment from a lone young man- who was not with our group and definately not an 8th grader.

"Woo Hoo, I'm not alone today."

And I thought,
"I am glad it is 8th grade day and my life is my life and that I don't normally go see movies in the morning and that I won't miss the 2nd grade breakfast because I mixed my days up and that I have friends to stand around and talk to while waiting for some 8th grader to buy something unnecessary and most importantly - I'm glad we brought that young man some joy."

Not Cool

If you get an email from me, you will get my automatic sign off that says something like, "I write, come visit if you'd like."
(As I just typed it out, I think I will change it to, "I write, come read.")
But today and yesterday, I deleted my little auto link off a few emails.
I'm embarrassed I haven't written anything of substance for a very long time.
I'm shy to share the feelings I've had over the last couple of years or so as the people associated with said feelings have feelings of their own.
I'm shy to share the lessons I've learned through experiences with them and on my own.
I haven't wanted many visitors around.
There haven't been many visitors around.
That needs to change.
The sign off needs to change.
I need to change.

School gets out for me this Thursday.
I will see you after then.

What I learned in the last 10 minutes

Posting this more for me than for you.
I'm 5 minutes 49 seconds into this podcast & already I've had quite a few moments of
insight and clarity that I've been missing regarding personal revelation.

Apparently for years.
It's looking that that's my 2014 theme.

Here's the link to what I was listening to and what I will be listening to again tomorrow when it's my quiet time:
conversation by Julie Beck on Mormon Messages

I'm off to read D & C 11.
(Click here for an explanation of 'D&C.')