Happy Birthday to Me!

So, it's not my birthday yet. In fact, my birthday isn't until November. But my totally awesome hubby surprised me a little bit early this year.

It all began about one and a half weeks ago. He asked me if I would be upset if I received my birthday present early, then only get a card on my actual birthday.

I said, "I guess that's fine. Why?"

He replied, "Well, I want to order your present, but it's too big to hide until your birthday."

Whoa! That really got me thinking. I started guessing all sorts of things that would be "too big" to hide until my birthday - such as a new couch, the dining room table we've been saving for, someone to paint our house . . . The list goes on and on. Each time I would make a guess, my hubby's standard response was to fold his arms, put on a total neutral facial expression, and not say one single word.

The stinker.

So I waited.

And I waited.

Then I waited some more. (Hey one and a half weeks can be a really, really long time when you're waiting for a surprise!) I kept watching out the window from some big delivery truck to stop in front of my house. But did it come? Nope.

Then finally, Saturday afternoon, I got it!

Of course, my hubby couldn't just give it to me. Nope. That's too easy. Instead, he hid it in the garage and told me to go search for it.

Huh. Man, I was really, REALLY hoping it wasn't a power tool!

So, I searched.

It didn't take me long before I found a simple white envelope with Happy Birthday, Dear! written across the front. I picked it up and turned towards John & the kids.

"Hmm . . . what could this be?" I asked.

I opened up the envelope, and I found the following coupon book:


Each page was signed by one of the kids or John. These are the files John made to print out the coupon book, so you don't get to see all the cute signatures. Sorry!


Signed by my daughter, MJ.


Signed by my son, Isaac.


Signed by my daughter, Anna. I'm sure someone helped her. :)


Signed by my son, Rob.


Signed by my awesome hubby.

Wow! I was so surprised! I had been trying and trying to figure out a way I could financially afford to go to Time Out for Women all year. But something always happened before I could purchase a ticket to any conferences that came close enough I could attend. I even applied for a scholarship to attend this conference, but then realized I wasn't going to have enough money for the gas, hotel, and food. I was so bummed. Especially since my Relief Society was planning a group trip to this particular conference. (You can find out more about TOFW here.)

What I hadn't realized was that John had started saving his lunch money and plotted with my Relief Society secretary (Sister Brown) to plan it all out. I hadn't realized Nancy could be so sneaky!

My sister, Cheryl, even got in on it. After I told her about John's question & trying to figure it out, she texted and called my hubby. Then she would deliberately call me and egg me on. She never said she knew. She would just ask me, "So, did you get your present yet? What do you think it is?"

Yep. That's my sister. :)

Then I found out, there were actually a group of ladies at church who knew about the surprise. Man. I definitely have some very sneaky friends! I never once guessed anyone knew anything!

It was funny when I stopped my friend, Charlee, at church to tell her I wasn't going to be able to come to her Adults Only Halloween party. She got a big smile on her face and said, "Yeah. I already knew you wouldn't make it."

Yep, like I said - Sneaky friends.

Aren't they awesome?

But my hubby is the awesomest of them all. He's incredible. I don't know how I got so lucky to have married a man so considerate, generous, and totally fun. I'm so blessed that he's my best friend. I often tell him that I'm the lucky one in our relationship, but that he got stuck with me for eternity. Hee hee!

Cookin' Up a Storm, Consignment Sales, & Missouri Drivers

Cooking, cooking, cooking . . . we're doing lots of cooking!

Why?

Well, let's rewind to Friday night. Around five in the evening, the tornado sirens went off. So, off to the basement we all went. Since the weather wasn't bad where we were, we didn't expect an actual tornado to come through. So we pulled out our pillows and stash of books and read away for about an hour when the sirens stopped.

Now, let's fast-forward to Sunday morning. Our oldest daughter went to the basement to get something out of the freezer. The pillows were still on the floor. In typical seven-year-old fashion, our daughter grabbed what she needed, then turned and let the door close behind her . . . not checking that it actually closed. Do you see where this is going?

Several hours later, my hubby went down to pull out some stuff for dinner. Instead, he discovered the freezer door stuck on one of the pillows, with a huge puddle of water surrounding it. Upon closer inspection, he also discovered all of our meat (which we just stocked up on) was well on its way in the defrosting stage.

We spent most of Sunday night cutting and cooking seven pounds of chicken. We made two BBQ Chicken Sandwiches meals, then bagged them and refroze. We also cut up a bunch to make Teriyaki Chicken. It marinated over night. Today, I'm frying up the Teriyaki - two dinners worth. Also, hamburger for tacos and spaghetti sauce. I'm going to cube up some steak for beef stew. I also need to figure out what to do with the rest of the chicken and pork chops. And I need to get it all figured out by the end of tonight - or at least that's what my butcher recommended. And I totally trust him. So tonight is the deadline for having everything cooked, packaged, and back into the freezer.

Consignment Sale

I did get a little break from the stove this morning. I took a bunch of stuff over to the Kids Closet Consignment Sale. For anyone living near Olathe, the sale is Sept. 16-19th in Lenexa at the Cedar Ridge Christian Church (8835 Lackman Rd.). For more info, click here. I'm also going to participate in the Kids Closet Gardner sale in October.

Missouri Drivers

On the way home from dropping stuff off, my friend Michelle and I were talking in the van. Picture this - I'm on the corner of Lackman Dr & 87th St, stopped at a red light. There are two cars in front of me. One turned right onto 87th (we were on Lackman), which left one car in front of me. This car wanted to go straight through the intersection. I needed to turn right. There's no turning lane, so I'm sitting behind this car, talking to my friend, waiting for the light. Got it?

Finally the light turned green and traffic moves on. I turned right onto 87th and the next light we approached turned red. Well, this van pulls up next to me and stops. The driver (an older man with gray hair & beard) still has room to move forward, but is motioning to me to put the window down. I'm thinking, Did something get stuck in the trunk and is hanging out? So, I put my window down a little, and he says . . .

"Are you from out of state?"

I look at my friend, like What? Then turn to the man and say, "Excuse me?"

"You must be from out of state, because you were too stupid to know you can turn right when the light is red."

Co-incidentally, the light turned green and he drove on. I, on the other hand, sat there with my mouth hanging open. And what do I see on the back of his van?



Hmm . . . Let's see. We were in Kansas. I have a Kansas license plate. He has a Missouri license plate. Who's from out of state? Apparently, he must have failed geography since he couldn't tell the difference between Kansas and Missouri. Also, his eyesight must be going because anyone with good vision would be able to see that you can't drive through another car.

After ranting to Michelle for a few minutes, I started to wonder . . . What kind of a person goes through life with such anger built up that something so in-consequential as waiting to turn at a red light, makes him actually take the time to stop, get another driver's attention, just to say something so completely stupid. A normal person would just shrug his shoulders and move on.

And then, I pitied the poor guy. I'd hate to live with so much negative emotion. This is a guy who seriously needs to learn the value of prayer and forgiveness and get rid of all that heavy weight that must be sitting on his shoulders.

Conclusion

Well, that's a bit of what's happening here. I hope your Mondays are wonderful. I know I'm personally looking forward to Family Home Evening tonight. I have some fun stuff planned for our family . . . hee hee hee! Happy Monday, everyone!

Miracles Really Can Happen

So, my hard drive crashed and died a brutal death. My hubby tried to save it, worked laboriously, sweat pouring down his face, with no success. The files, pictures, and data were all frustratingly irretrievable.

But then, a small glimmer of hope appeared. I was telling a friend from church what had happened. She said, "Oh! My husband knows how to do hard drive recoveries. He thinks it's fun. You should let him look at it."

Could it be possible? I was desperate to get something, anything, from that hard drive. So, I double checked with my friend's hubby who told me to bring it over that night.

Last night, he called to say he had recovered most of the files and data. I almost fell to my knees and cried, I was just so darn happy! And HUGELY thankful. Wow. I had just a teeny bit of hope - but this was like a miracle! I'm totally awed.

What a great end to a really odd day - and a great beginning for today.

Holy Kadukah!

As you can see from the image above, it was not a computer-friendly weekend. As my eight-year-old would say, "Holy Kadukah!" And right now, he's totally spot on.

Friday: After re-formatting the chapters and outline to send to Lisa at Deseret Book, I started printing. Of course, half-way through I ran out of ink. Since I just bought the cartridge a few weeks ago, I was very surprised. Usually my cartridges last much longer than that. So, I ran to the store and came back to complete chaos - not to mention a get together I had completely forgotten about. So I put off finishing the print job.

Saturday: Isaac had his State Special Olympics tournament in Wichita. About an hour down the road, we received a phone call from our coach saying that the weather was horrible (hail and severe thunderstorms) and the meet was canceled. We had actually just passed the exit to go to John's brother's house. So we turned around and did a surprise visit (at 8:30 am!). We spent about two hours visiting, then stopped by another friends house on our way back home. We had a quick dinner, got the kids into the tub, had scripture study, then off to bed. It had been a long day!

Sunday: After church, we had Isaac's aide and her family over for dinner. We had a blast. That night, there were messages on our phone. I opened my laptop to check our online voice mail . . . and something funky was going on. It wouldn't start up quite right and was sounding really odd. John took it downstairs and started working on it. He pulled my Teaching Special Spirits stuff off, and then BAM! The hard drive crashed and the laptop went up in smoke. Not good.

Monday: John called into work and took the day off. He tried to recover stuff from my hard drive with no luck. That afternoon, we went shopping for a new system. We also decided it was a good time to put together a little office area for me to work from. So we stopped by Home Depot, figured out what the project would take and was pleasantly surprised that it was so affordable. So we ordered the supplies we needed, then came back home to set up the new desktop system.

Tuesday: John finished setting up the desk top. I finally printed off the remaining chapters for Deseret Book, then ran to the post office, and mailed them off. I spent the rest of the day setting up programs and working on some additional writing.

My, oh my. What a nutty couple of days! So many trials, but also many unexpected blessings. I am truly grateful for such a supportive husband. I'm still kind of dazed that he just called in to work and said, "Sorry guys. Gotta help my wife today." And that was that. He did everything he could to help me get back on track with my writing. He is just absolutely incredible.

So, here's to growing and learning - and to getting life back on track! Have a fabulous day, everyone!

The Death of Another Computer

Another computer has bit the dust at our house.

I don't know what happened. All I know is the monitor, keyboard, and USB no longer work. My three-year-old keeps telling me it's because the wires are all unplugged and that's why it isn't working. Isn't he observant?

So, yes, my hubby has pulled the computer out and started testing it. Of course, then he had to leave for work, so the silly thing is still sitting out, waiting for the testing to be completed and the results to be turned in.

Will we need a new video card? Perhaps a new monitor? I certainly hope it won't be that we need a whole new computer. Yikes!

It's moments like this when I feel just like Garfield; he's my hero.