it's yo birfday

happy, happy birthday, dear mother-in-law! i am so thankful for you for many reasons!

#1. you raised such a precious, awesome man! i am SO thankful for everything you taught charlie about God: listening to Him and having a relationship with Him. it's created the foundation for our 13+ years of friendship.



#2. Not to mentioned the rest of the great family you are such a firm foundation for. I appreciate how much you love them and courageously fight for them to fulfill everything God has for them. You're a great mama.


#3. And you welcomed me into the family! You were my first friend and confidant in Louisiana, and I will always appreciate our long talks. You have such a great way with people... making them feel special and important and like God cares about them, too. Thanks for the many times you've let me laugh, cry, and "work" with you!


We love you, Mrs. Annie/Mom/Mimi/Gammy! Happy happy birthday! We're so blessed to be a part of your family!

Currently listening: Twothirtyeight

charlie actually picked out the above selection ^ and it's very, very loud! however, he is currently cleaning the kitchen so he can listen to whatever he wants to as loudly as he wants to! :)

i'm trying to figure this summer out. some friends from college may? possibly come? for a weekend? sometime this summer? i would like to spend a week at home with my parents, stacy, susan and caleb! (and of course charlie and al if they can make it..) we also really need to go to minnesota to start figuring things out. and i want to go to kansas city to see the new hunt household once they get moved in. PLUS i have friends in nashville, pittsburgh/california, and dallas that i haven't gone to see! ugh. if only money were unlimited and i didn't have to work :)

i hope charlie enjoys minnesota as much as i have in my (limited) experience. i think he will, but that must be kind of scary MOVING somewhere for 2 years that you haven't even visited before. fortunately, he's laid back and patient, and i feel positive he will transition well (probably better than me!)


crystal... this is for you, in honor of national breastfeeding month and my little sister's birthday month! around the time this picture was taken, my mom overheard me say to stacy, "okay... you can try, but i don't know how much you'll get!" wasn't i sweet for offering, though? haha

in case of emergency

i skipped class tonight. it was AWESOME. charlie and i took the puppies for a run through the ponds and spotted the spoonbills again. one of the pairs has lost each other though :( i hope spoonbills have meeting places in case of emergencies.

my dogs bring me so much joy. punkin, who still has a hurt paw :(, runs as furiously as she can to keep up with the other two. she's definitely smiling the whole time, too. she runs and runs and as soon as she catches up, the other two are on to the next thing.

moomoo hops like a kangaroo through the tall grass on the pond embankments. she comes home completely soaking wet, without ever having swum. punkin wants to play with her SO badly, but she is more focused on following rufie.

rufus. that goofy, rufie dog. he chased an opossum, raccoon, and rabbit through the weeds. charlie and i would see said animal run out of the weeds, and rufus would still be sniffing and searching for it. he'd come out a minute later with a victorious smirk on his face like he conquered the creature.

the new picture on my banner ^ is a favorite. i wish it had the whole "family," but i highly doubt we'll ever be able to make the three of them sit still long enough and face the same direction at one time. so punkin will have to do.

i'm having a hard time finding words right now on the only serious thing on my mind, so i guess this will have to suffice.

currently watching: friday night lights

sooo charlie and i just sat in the dark for the last 3 hours. that was fun. right when we were getting up to go to bed, i got off the couch to let pernky out to use the bathroom, and loandbehold the lights came back on. right as i was standing in front of our open living room window in my panties. niiiiiice.

i have had a massive headache since friday. i'm hoping with this weather coming through it will be gone tomorrow. Please, Jesus, pleeeease.

currently reading: Nutritional Biochemistry

i got to spend the morning/afternoon with some of my favorite people. we had amber and john's engagement shower today.

i also really like events. i love setting everything up and getting things ready and the anticipation... and i even love clean up. (when you have a fun/efficient group to clean up with.) and get to take home leftovers! today reminded me of my college years with iLead (the leadership program i was seriously blessed to work for.) we usually had around 15 events per semester which we repeated each year for each class in the program. we had big events and small events, but we ALWAYS had food at them. i miss that. and my director friends. and my mentor/boss, becci.

when i first moved down here i was offered a job as an assistant event planner for a non-profit in baton rouge. i was SO tempted to take it (and it paid REALLY well....) there was just something not right about it, so i turned it down. but everything worked out like it was supposed to (or else i might be a nurse now, EWWW!), so it's okay, but i was really happy to work on this shower over the weekend! i had a really good time!

blahg.

today i helped all the loup-family women (actually... i think it's glynn family women) get ready for amber and john's engagement shower tomorrow. i dipped and decorated petit fours (mrs. annie is probably as patient with me as her dear son)... i think they turned out alright. afterwards, we went out to the crawfish ponds with Aunt Pat and Aunt Sharon to look for some wild flowers. i was really excited and definitely wanted to tag along in the golf cart because going back there and seeing all the beautiful trees and water and birds and wildlife is quickly becoming one of my very favorite things to do.

as you read earlier this week, i missed seeing the roseate spoonbills the other day. charlie said they never come this time of year, so i would probably miss them. but on our ride collecting thistles and other swamp plants, we approached and slough with 4 feeding spoonbills! and they must mate and stick together because they were very obviously two pairs of birds. when we got too close for comfort, they flew way up in the air and circled around until we left. i was... ecstatic. it was like the happiest thing that had ever happened to me (Dramatic, i know. i told my mom this story and she said it's in my blood to love birds, but she's just thankful that i can finally appreciate nature! i may or may not have slept the whole time we went to the grand canyon when i was in high school...?)

but anyway... in my not-so-distant past i went through a dark time. i couldn't think of ANYTHING that made me happy. a good friend recommended that i do something that made me happy every day... and i couldn't come up with anything. even things that used to make me happy. i felt... purpose-less... discontent... and just... unhappy. at the beginning of the year i felt like God said things would change this year... and i feel like it's true. dark times don't stay dark forever. hard times are relieved by lighter times full of joy. (i even think my hormones are more balanced thanks to my insulin-resistance diet!) I feel... happy and content and thankful. thank you, God!

April Fools Day

charlie did this WAY better than i ever could have...

so this is what you shall read...