A Few Days in My Life

Friday evening, I dragged my friends Laura & Jamie to my first Zumba Party! [OK - so the "party" part was sneaky: it was actually a super-long Zumba class with a little décor & some refreshments, (but barf - who wants to eat a brownie before or in the middle of jumping around? No, thank you. Laura & I hit Chick-fil-A for peach milkshakes afterwards ;-)) In my defense, I had no idea how much Zumba we were actually going to do ...and if I had, I probably would have used it as an excuse to skip my morning class! :-P] I was CRAZY PROUD of myself for essentially taking the equivalent of almost 3 Zumba classes in one day and NOT wanting to die the following two days!!! I could definitely feel my muscles, but I never actively hurt, like I anticipated. [This really boosts my confidence re: getting certified; endurance (or my lack thereof) is my one point of intimidation.] Oh! One more way it *was* a party: prizes! I won a nice Zumba beach towel for bringing two friends, and Laura won an awesome metal Zumba water bottle! :-) After an hour of regular Zumba and the prizes, we did a little Zumba Toning with hand weights, too - so glad this instructor is now certified to teach that, as well.

When I pulled into the garage about 8:15 PM, Will gingerly opened the door & asked if I would mind staying downstairs a little longer; he said they were doing a project upstairs. OK... but after about 45 minutes, I was fairly certain that their "project" was just Wii & that Daddy was asleep up there on the couch. ;-) I even posted on FB: "Now the REAL dilemma - do I go up & force beddy, or keep enjoying TV & FB down here on my own?"

Y'all, I had to post a retraction 15 minutes later! It *WAS* a REAL project!!!! :-D JB & the kids built this amazing 700-something-piece Lego fire truck - the ultimate Daddy project. So awesome!!! [And PS - I didn't even know the Wii has been dead for well over a week. Yeah, I'm such a gamer. ;-)]

We spent most of Saturday going through more boxes in our office area upstairs. We did a ton when we first moved in, but honestly, that's been awfully low on JB's free-time priority list the last few months, you know? We're much more about family time in the pool, etc. during his time off! We did hit some keepsakes, though:

Annelise has now commandeered my old school Cabbage Patch Kids sleeping bag!!! Holy mackerel, was I excited to sport this thing at sleepovers! The couple sleepovers I went to before I got this, I had to use my cousin's: it was a picnic theme with LITTLE BLACK ANTS on it. Ewww. I was sooo embarrassed; when I got this one, I was over the moon and rolling in cool points! ;-) Now it's totally VINTAGE! :-D Yay for recycling!

I also came thisclose to chucking all of my old cassettes & mix tapes...

...but they received a stay of execution in the 11th hour; there was just that much room left in my final sentimental keepers box. I'm going to get a USB cassette-to-MP3 converter to see what I can save on my computer, and THEN they'll feel the ax next round.

Yesterday, we went back to church at Sherwood. [I am STILL praying for some major peace or sign either way, if this is where we're supposed to be. Part of me thinks it's a waste of life to debate: every church we've visited has things we like & things we don't. They ALL WILL. I just want to give my heart & settle in. The end.] The sermon on Habakkuk 1 was great: give Jesus control over everything, rest in Him knowing you don't have to worry about working it (or HOW it will work...) out yourself, and be amazed when He uses even tragedy to build you up & rescue you. God ALWAYS hears your prayers; you may not get the answer you want or have your situation changed, but if you are HONEST when you talk to Him, you will always deepen your relationship with Him. We closed with a favorite song of mine that I (happily) CANNOT get out of my head, "Came to My Rescue". [I wish they did a few more songs like this; I *LOVE* the old hymns I grew up with mixed in, but a lot of the more modern songs they do I totally don't know, which is hard for me when I get SO MUCH spiritual fulfillment from congregational singing. :-)]

On the polar opposite note, we flipped through the channels yesterday afternoon and fell on Talladega Nights...not so family friendly, but so stinkin' hysterical! :-P Will said, "STOP!!!" b/c it looked like NASCAR; it was the race scene where Ricky wrecks & then runs around like crazy, thinking he's on invisible fire. I have NEVER heard Annelise laugh as hard in her life as she did when Will Ferrell ripped off his not-really-burning clothes & rolled around on the race track in his underwear to put out the faux fire. She was dying. It was about the cutest thing ever!!! ...And then we quickly changed the channel. ;-)

Last night, a tsunami of nostalgia washed over me - maybe it was all the memories stumbled upon unpacking boxes Saturday? I don't know what possessed me to open & *start* pouring over every.single.page of my last scrapbook when I should have gone to bed, but wow, have the last 2.5 years been a whirlwind of blessings! I can't believe how many amazing people have come into our lives, & even though we've moved away from most of y'all, please know how much I still treasure our together times...even on random days post-midnight. ;-)

My bleary eyes paid for my late last night this morning, but we still managed some awesome summer fun! It was chicken noodle (Will's fave there) day at Cafe 230, and after our ultimate downtown lunch, we checked on Sissy's turtle, Sparkle. (Annelise takes care of her; she's Sparkle's adoptive mommy and makes sure she takes her vitamins.) We moseyed over to the RiverQuarium for a bit...oh yeah, since we're now MEMBERS! [I know, like we need to be members of anything else; but when we booked Will's bday there, it worked out to be $35 for a membership that's usually $80 - too good to pass up when we're downtown a lot for lunch anyway, we live for animals, and unlike the zoo, it has lovely A/C for those too hot or stormy days.]

Speaking of Will's bday, yes - we DID decide on the RiverQuarium, and everyone's thrilled!

[Invite with pics of his growth & life from the last 12 months:
sports, snakes, sushi, summer :-)]

As we exited the RiverQuarium today, we heard a noise. A noise that stops everything else for our family: train whistle! A CLOSE one! We saw the engine peek out from b/t the trees right beside us as it began to cross the rusty bridge that goes over the river, (hence RIVERQuarium. ;-)) We ran down to the river's edge to watch:

I don't know what made this feel so idyllic - the childhood joy of the train, how massive the bridge & river felt up close, the picture-perfect summer day, the Spanish moss in the trees, my kids balancing on rocks like my brother & I used to do... It was just a sweet moment I wanted to bottle.

We got our final surprise of the day when Daddy walked in the house early! We had a post-dinner swim, [now THAT is luxury!] and JB even asked as we bobbed around, "How are we ever going to live anywhere else?" :-) Not a question that needs further ponderance today... ;-)