37 is the new... 37?

so full. the past few days have been so full. let's see if I can do this in sequence.

first off, my SIL and niece got into town Wednesday, and we celebrated St. Patrick's Day by cooking them and my aunt a scrumptious dinner of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and turnips. lest you think I had any part of this, let me give it up for mr. bell, who cooked it all AND cleaned the kitchen afterward! this food was seriously delish... most of us had seconds.



after dinner, Linda, Su and I went to The Chocolate Bar for a sweet nightcap. totally fun and hip, eating chocolate cake in Montrose at 9:45 on a school night!

the morning of my birthday, the 18th, I was so loved on. Linda, Mo, and Kev got me some more of the Bella B's Mama Soak - they got me some for Christmas, and it turns out that M and I are both fans of it. :) M drew a wonderful bath for me complete with lit candles, fluffy towel, and soft washcloth. I'll take a shower, whatever - but I LOVE baths. it's such a centering time for me. when I finally got out, it was almost time to get ready to go meet my dear friend Sara for lunch. while I waited for her, I relaxed in the gorgeous weather:


this one almost became my new blog header... husband thought it looked almost indecent, but I love the rolling belly hill in the foreground!

my time with Sara was so great... she's hosting a shower for us, so we looked at my registries online, did a little maternity shopping for my birthday, and strolled across the UofH campus to the deli to have lunch. I'm so blessed to have such a good friend.

later in the day, we all decided to head to Eastwood Park. their playground was totally re-done and it's all brand new and super-cool. Morgan really enjoyed it:

ever the animal-lover:

my lovely mom and sweet donna jo chit chatting it up... how fortunate was I to have so many important people in town?!

we took Chi with us to the park. the old man stumbled a couple of times, but you can tell he still loves the opportunity to be outside and explore. we went into the enclosed baseball field and let him off the leash, and true to form he walked the perimeter. he especially seemed to enjoy the clusters of clover that grew here and there.

for my birthday dinner, Daddy and the Bells joined us and we all went to Michaelangelo's on Westheimer. in short, it was great and I ate too much. the best part was that so many people I love could be together... it doesn't happen all that often, and I felt so blessed. for the record, I'm not sure why people are so hung up on being young. maybe it changes the older you get, but my life gets consistently better with every passing year and I'm more and more comfortable with myself. I'll tell you this - you couldn't pay me to re-live my twenties!

my brother came into town Friday, so after we went and picked him up from the airport I ended up taking mom, Kev, Linda, and Mo over to see the house on Woodfin. here's Mo leading the hula on the deck out back... something about that deck just screams 'I'm a stage! perform on me!':

we'd planned to go to the zoo, but it was CUH-RAZY around there with spring break and all. we ended up at the Children's Museum instead, and that turned out to be the right decision:

Mo exerting her strong desire to NOT pose for a photograph at this time:

my brother, taking a photo of himself:

woo-hoo, Children's Museum!

during the day, M texted me to say that we had plans that night... plans that involved me looking cute and wearing comfortable shoes. I had no idea what was afoot, but his surprises are always good so around 7 we headed out and down 45... to the Dot Shop, a throwback of a restaurant we've always liked. we scooted into a booth and, just as he tossed an envelope that said 'happy birthday' onto the table in front of me, our friends the McDs slid into the booth across the table from us! I was SO surprised, and a little overwhelmed that people planned something like that for me. not to sound mushy, but it really is such a tremendous feeling to be considered and it honestly makes me want to be more thoughtful of thinking to honor others. throughout the evening, I kept silently thanking God for giving me such a fun gift of a night. receiving good things can sometimes be awkward for me, but I so appreciate it. my husband is one of the most thoughtful people I've ever met, and the care he shows me is humbling and so very, very sweet. oooh, in the envelope were tickets to the Jennifer Knapp concert that night!

the lady can write songs. still. she opened her set with my prayer song! it was great to see her play, and I really enjoyed getting to be a witness to a rebirth of sorts of this woman's music career. there's been a lot of speculation about her life, but whatever has or will come of it all, I appreciate the artist allowing us to follow the music along the way.

yesterday involved cold and rain and crown moulding. M and I hung moulding in the living, dining, and skylight rooms!! just the bedrooms to go! the walls/ceilings are pretty wonky so I have a few gaps to fill in and some caulking to do, but it really does make everything look so nice. the fam was at the rodeo all day, so we all met up at The Black Lab for dinner by the fire, which was the perfect call for such a cold, rainy night.

everyone went home this morning, and this Lord's day has been lovely. I enjoyed church and getting to see my friends, Christian Cattle Co. pot roast lunch with mashed potatoes and exceptional homemade gravy was the bees knees, and everything was capped off with a thoughtful and connective 242 tonight. I really liked that we went around at the end and asked about any special concerns or needs to share... I've been thinking about that recently, about how it's so much easier to try to do everything yourself and not let people know about things going on with you. I want to learn to ask for help or prayer when I need it and allow people the opportunity to use their gifts, and hone some of my own in showing up for others. mostly, I think it's just about allowing yourself to be really known, and being willing to know others.

and now I'm so tired. while I wrote this, the health care bill was voted in. wow.

-m.y.