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.

honey, if that's movin' up then I'm movin' out.

it's a billy joel song. show of hands, who else had his greatest hits album?!

this evening, we'll be going over to Woodfin to do a walk through with our tenants and get the keys from them. as a fun blast back in time, here's me when I left the house to move in with my aunt in Montrose. I'd lived there 7 years - I'd invested a lot into the place and so much went down there. this photo was taken when I thought I was leaving it forever... I didn't know I'd be buying it a couple of months later:

it's pretty wild to us that this has all worked out so fast and we choose to believe that, like most things that've happened to us since we met, God is streamlining and expediting things. it's very comforting to have enough experience barrelling down life roads and wedging myself into uncomfortable situations to see the earmarks of His timing and orchestration: things tend to fall into place very naturally and yet all of the steps to be taken are still there... nothing is missed or skipped or forced.

that was one of the most remarkable things about dating mr. bell, actually, that gave me the most certainty that this was different - with past beaus, there were hardships and frustrations and something that didn't feel right, no matter how I contorted myself or how many discussions we had. and there was a lot of impatience, uncertainty, and self-doubt on my part... I sincerely hope to encourage my daughter to be more confident than I was. but when I began dating mr. bell, these things were out of the ordinary: a) we hung out a lot and talked, but he didn't try any funny business AT ALL. which was... different. I wasn't sure that he was really interested in me, but it certainly set a slower pace from the get-go, which actually allowed us to b) pretty much lay our cards on the table, instead of my usual modus operandi of going along and thoroughly enjoying the moment and hoping the dude would like me enough to accept the important parts of me as they came up later. a little wiser in my mid-thirties, I felt the impetus to lay out the things about me that are true and fixtures in my life now up front (like God and Jesus and my church and my Saturday night meetings and salient information from my past) and give him the opportunity to walk away if they weren't things he could fully accept. c) as problems and differences of opinion arose, we would hash them out as people do and I'd sometimes get that despairing feeling of 'it's not going to work, how CAN it?!'... and yet it somehow would, and instead of the same enduring arguments or repeated unfulfilled needs there would be compromise and change and increasing acceptance on both our parts. totally grown up, right?! d) for many reasons, one of the secret desires of my heart was to share a faith with my partner, but after years of dating I had begun to believe that it simply wouldn't happen. when mr. bell and I started dating I wasn't quite sure what he was up for in terms of practicing faith, but I determined that I wouldn't force or manipulate anything into happening. today I love the fact that I get to grow in and share my faith with mr. bell and completely trust that God is the author of all of it all.

to make a shorter paragraph: I used to live in a dating world full of red lights yelling 'STOP'. with mr. bell, while there were a few yellow ones to make you slow down and pay attention, they were mostly bright green and on those wonderful timers that cause the whole road before you to say 'come on, it's clear!'.

similarly, the events leading up to this move have been remarkably smooth. even though we're going to take some time and work on the house before we start physically moving, I'm going to need to start sorting through our things and packing up, especially while I'm still feeling so good. *cue heartburn from morning egg with toast. sigh.* while the house is clean, we took a few pictures yesterday for M's dad to use to advertise 406 to whomever lives here next. it's really wild to think of the place 2.5 years ago, when I first saw it. M moved into it first in, oh, September/October?, he proposed in November, and we worked very, very hard to make it a home for us so I could move in after our wedding in April. though not the easiest or most comfortable choice, it's no doubt been an incredible blessing to us and we have a lot of good memories and invaluable life lessons to take with us. here's one of my favorite photos of us when we were working on the house:

the kitchen, renovation underway:

and after!:

those countertops are a little more cluttered now. :) while looking through old photos I also found this sweet one, taken shortly after we'd finished the library/music room. and that's Ripley in it, too!

current photos:

I still need to get current shots of the kitchen and bedrooms, but they need a little orgainizing before that commences. :)

other note-worthy images:

it was asian night at our house the other night, and M served up this action:

those dumplings and vegetables were the BOMB, people!

and just because it makes me soft inside:

I could bury my face in that space between his softsoft ears all day. this was actually taken moments before I climbed in bed and husband really felt our baby for the first time. he talked to her for awhile and the more he talked the more she kicked. as I think about it again now the sweetness is overwhelming, really.

-m.y.

maternity modeling... generous cousins are the bomb

my cousin Robyn lent me a tub full of wonderful maternity clothes at Christmas, and this morning before church I dove in and pulled out this pretty, super-comfy blue shirt that looked totally fly with the awesome scarf my brother and sister-in-law gave me. thanks so much, cousin! here's me trying to be all catalog-y:

close-up on the bump... there's an avocado-sized baby in there this week!

and this is is one of the reasons I would lay down my life for mr. bell... he had to run to his office this morning, and on the way back to pick me up for church he stopped at La Mexicana and got me a breakfast taco of refried beans, egg, potato, white cheese, and green sauce. AND chips and queso! mi corazon belongs to you, senor.

I have to drive to Dallas in the morning to work for a few days, so everyone have a good week!

-m.y.

ripley shanequa christian-bell

this morning we chose to say goodbye to our sweet kitty. she'd been going downhill for a few weeks, and we were really hoping she'd die naturally at home before being terribly compromised. her breath's been short and labored, she became more and more weak and listless, and she's not been eating well... for the past few days she was unable to eat or drink unless I maneuvered water or wet food under her nose, and even then she wouldn't swallow enough to do much good. when she stopped moving at all, even to relieve herself, we knew it was time to face some sad decisions. I called M and he met me at the vet, and we cried and lived through that hard experience together. I'm so glad he was there, I can't even tell you. I'm so glad I married a man that I can fully share these times with, as they overwhelm and ebb and hit you in different waves... you don't really know what it's going to be like until something happens, but I'm acutely aware today today of the comfort, love, and safety of his presence. thank you, God, for giving me this man. he took off the rest of the day and we made it the best one it could be... Champ burgers, DVR'd Office, errands, some work, a movie. every now and then we'd say, 'I'll miss her. She was a sweet cat. I'll miss cuddling with her. Remember when she..." it was good day, living and mourning her. when we came home, there was this brilliant sunset... I ran inside and grabbed the camera, hoping to catch it before the light disappeared:


there are blessings in everything. I'm so glad I got to have this kitty for my family for so long. she's been with me fourteen plus years, and her passing feels like the end of something. she picked me in the beginning, both by walking into my house as a tiny kitten and preferring me above others... she saw me through a divorce, endured it when I introduced a dog named Chino into our lives, grad school, the move to Houston, my crazy years, my sober years, that wretched hurricane evacuation, the passing of her son, Owen Meany (she became a lot needier after Owen was gone), and my courtship/marriage to mr. bell (who was as much her knight in shining armor as he was mine, for real). while we were living at my aunt's house, Rippy was so skinny and beat up from having to fight with the other cats for food that M took pity on her and whisked her away to come live at 406 with him until I could join them after the wedding, and she showed her gratitude by attempting to sleep on his face every night and eating her weight in cat food, loudly letting us know if her bowl looked like it might be getting the slightest bit empty-looking. she had a really wonderful last two years, and I'm grateful to have married a man and extended family who care for animals the way they do. the bells have shown such love and generosity... words really can't express the extent of our gratitude, both for them and for my own sweet family. thank you, all of you.

and so, our hearts are a little broken. we're thankful for what we've been given, and I praise God for Ripley and what she brought to our lives, and His kindness to us today. I still wonder if there will be animals later, in the afterlife. I'm inclined to believe it could happen... I mean, God prioritized to fashion them once for His pleasure, and He deemed them Good. here are some pictures of her... if you want to see M's favorite, it's the one in my sidebar where she looks like she sprouted out of the flowerpot. I keep thinking about this song tonight, so I'm going to dedicate it to my fun, fluffy, mouse-catching, sweet-smelling girl.

in Baton Rouge

Ripley's son, Owen Meany. this was one hilarious cat.

'you want a piece of me, dog?'

this was taken just yesterday morning.

I love you, pippy.
-m.y.