Love as a Way of Life - a new book by Dr. Gary Chapman

I've recently had the privilege of reading Gary Chapman's latest book, "Love as a Way of Life". Good news is that I have another one of these (hardcover) books to give away as well! You don't even have to pay shipping. It's a great addition to any library or even a wonderful gift. I will be drawing one name from everyone who comments on this post over the next week, so please add your name to the list. I'll be announcing the winner in the evening on Tuesday, July 22nd.

In the book Gary teaches us how to cultivate a lifestyle of love and how doing so leads to satisfaction and success in every area of life.

His emphasis is on the seven characteristics of authentic love: kindness, patience, forgiveness, humility, courtesy, generosity, and honesty. It sounds a little bit like a Boy Scout pledge, but actually many of these principles are not new to our society...they've just been lost in our selfish lives somewhere along the line.

At first I thought the author was missing some key elements of love, but there are several times where he mentions affirmation under these various headings, which I believe to be a critical characteristic of showing love. And although he doesn't use the word too often in the book, his definitions of patience can also be defined as grace in many ways. In one instance, I don't necessarily agree with part of his outlook on forgiveness, but I'm wondering if it's just a difference in terminology.

The book also includes self tests, practical ideas for building daily habits of love, and inspiring examples of love’s power to change lives.

Convinced that in a world of constant conflict people desperately need authentic love, Chapman paints a compelling vision of how life can be richer and relationships more satisfying for anyone who practices Love As a Way of Life.


Author's Bio: Gary Chapman is the author of twenty-five books, including the New York Times bestseller The Five Love Languages, with more than 4 million copies in print. His daily radio program, A Love Language Minute, is broadcast on more than 100 stations nationwide. Chapman, a graduate of Moody Bible Institute, Wheaton College, Wake-Forest University, and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, serves on the pastoral staff at Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Don't forget to add your comment below for a chance to win your own copy of this book. (over a $15 value if you include the shipping.) I will be drawing the name in the evening on Tuesday, July 22nd. If you don't want to wait for the drawing, or need more than one copy, you can order it here.

Good news! I was finally able to post the photos on Monday's post, so be sure to scroll down to see those...and would someone comment please so I know that you're out there reading these?

Thanks...

More fun to come from Sunday and Monday (but not nearly as exciting as the first two days).

Not sure if I'll stay with these blog colors, just needed a quick change of pace.

Big news on Aaron Mertz!

I wanted to pass along some kudos for our friend, Aaron. It's no surprise to all of us who know him that he's pretty awesome, but this is just one more confirmation of his "awesomeness"...and doesn't he look so spiffy in his suit?

You'll see here and here that he was 1 of only 3 people selected to participate in the city of Phoenix’s Management Intern Program for 2008-2009.

During the history of Phoenix's internship program, many participants have continued employment with the city after their internship year. Others have gone on to hold positions in federal, state, county and other city governments, including many who are city managers or assistant city managers throughout the nation.

Way to go Aaron! We're very proud of you.

Birthday Surprise - Day 2 - An extra special dinner!

NOTE: I was finally able to get the photos to post. Enjoy! More to come tomorrow...

After having a low key day, we all got dressed to go to dinner. The only requirement was that the guys needed to wear slacks and a collared shirt. That's about as dressy as things get in Arizona, which was totally fine with all of us. We had a reservation which Terry timed to be right around sunset. None of us knew the place that he had chosen for dinner, except Terry, but as we drove out to the western end of Sedona the red rocks were just gorgeous! After about a half hour of driving to the base of the red rocks we came up to a guard gate for the Enchantment Resort which was tucked away in the shadow of the rock formations. It appears that the only way we could get thru the gate was to have a reservation for either a room or dinner, which Terry fortunately had made.
Once inside we found our way to the Yavapai Restaurant thru this wonderful ivy covered arch. The weather was perfect and the sky was clear so we chose to sit outside on the balcony for dinner. This was absolutely the best choice because it was as though we could reach out and touch the red rocks nearby, as you can see in the background of the pictures of Kevin and Terry.

We started out with some drinks and salads, then on to the important stuff.

Terry and Andrew both ordered BUFFALO TENDERLOIN (steak) It also was served with quail stuffed with quail sausage, sweet potato risotto, and a blackberry chipotle demi-glace.

I had the SEA BASS which just melted in my mouth and came sitting on top of tasmanian crab, heirloom tomato and mache salad, with a meyer lemon lavender vinaigrette. I would love to have the recipe for the a meyer lemon lavender vinaigrette. Doesn't that just sound delicious? It was the best dish I've had in a very very long time. Or as Linda would say, "It was the best thing I've EVER tasted in my whole life!!!!" (love you Linda)

Amy & Kevin both chose the FILET MIGNON which was excellent as well. Unfortunately, I don't have all the details on that one.

All the meals were amazing and we enjoyed a leisurely pace over a couple of hours since the atmosphere was so gorgeous as well. We took quite a few pictures and I'm sure the people at the next table, who were obviously from out of the country, thought we were crazy, but that's o.k. We had lots of fun.

At the end of the meal, our waitress brought out this amazing dessert that was dark chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate, with a little bit of raspberry to top it off. These are two of my very favorite flavors. Wow! It was awesome!!!

Terry made an excellent choice! I am so blessed to be so well taken care of...yeah a bit spoiled probably.

Sorry that I didn't get around to posting more about last weekend, but nobody commented on the last post, so I don't know if anyone has read it yet anyway. In the meantime, I'll post this amazing photo that our friend Marshall took of a hummingbird feeding at Fool's Hollow Recreation area in Show Low. Isn't it perfectly gorgeous!

So, I just noticed that it doesn't enlarge when you click on it, but I don't have time to fix it right now. I'll do that tonight. Sorry.

Don't forget to check back often this week because I'll also be posting my new book review with a chance to win a copy of the book, Love as a Way of Life, by Gary Chapman - The review should be up by Wednesday at the latest, then you'll have a chance to comment and win a copy of the book.

Back soon...see you then!

Surprise Birthday - Day 2 - woke up at 3:30 a.m.!
There was no pink jeep tour!
Let's consider this more of a photo description of the morning since I have so many pictures and thought it was very interesting how everything happened.

Amy also has an account of our morning here. And Kevin has random photos from the weekend here. So far Andrew hasn't posted anything, even though I'd love to hear his account of this day since it was his birthday and he said he was a little nervous before going.

To start with, when we were waiting out in front of the hotel at 4:30 a.m. in the dark, the vehicle that greeted us was not a Pink Jeep, like Terry said, but an older model SUV pulling a trailer and guess what? The trailer was carrying a hot air balloon basket!!! For those of you who read my post about Day 1 and Item # 25 on my 50 Random Things About Me List, this is what I was suspecting and even hoping for. I've always wanted to ride in a hot air balloon and now I was so excited that it was going to happen with the rest of the family being able to enjoy it too. Now I'm not anything close to a daredevil but I never thought once about being afraid of going up. It just seemed like it would be so peaceful and beautiful...and it was, but I'm getting ahead of myself. BTW, for any of you who want to know more about hot air ballooning (as opposed to gas ballooning - there is a difference). Here's more info. The company we used was Northern Light Balloon Expeditions and we were very happy Terry chose them since the company with the larger baskets (that hold 16-20 people) didn't even get off the ground that day, probably because of a slightly higher wind than usual that morning.

Our pilot, Dan greeted us in front of the hotel and we loaded into the car. On the way to the launch site and thru-out the trip he filled us in on all manner of facts and trivia about ballooning, Sedona and any other topic that came up. He looked pretty young (maybe 30 at the oldest) but was very knowledgeable, helpful and friendly. We were glad we had him as our pilot. He even told us that he grew up in Sedona and was raised by his great-grandfather (who made him learn how to back up those crazy trailers in tight spots). It would have been interesting to hear the background on his youth, but he moved right along to other subjects.

So here are the basic steps that go along with the pictures:

We arrived at the launch site and the pilots released a small helium balloon (like you have at a party) to see how the wind currents were moving. At the first spot, the wind was moving too fast up at higher altitudes and would have taken us over the city limits (which isn't permitted) so we had to drive to a location farther west of town.
Arriving at launch site # 2 they did the same thing and seemed to be happy with the course of the little balloon, so our crew found a clear spot to start preparing to launch.

As we waited patiently (and tried to wake up - I would recommend a nice touch would be offering a cup of coffee here), they pulled the basket and the balloon (it was inside the big bag) off the trailer and tipped over the basket on it's side. It appeared to be quite heavy. Good thing since we were all going to be in it later. Then they spread out the balloon on the ground.

Next they asked for volunteers (Kevin & Andrew) to hold up the "throat" at the bottom of the balloon and turned on a good sized fan to start blowing air into it while the crew straightened the balloon and made sure none of the ropes were twisted, etc..
Once everything looked ready, Dan turned on the burners to heat the air in the balloon and make it rise just enough, but not too much to go up in the sky.

You can see 3 other balloons almost ready for take-off from one of the ground pictures here.

Soon we stepped in the little slot near the bottom of the basket and climbed into the balloon. (max capacity was 7 people plus the pilot and we had 5 plus the pilot) Seven would have been pretty cozy with the 4 fuel tanks that were also in there.

After lift off we went up to about 2000 feet at the highest. It was pretty awesome to see the other balloons so far below us and the gorgeous red rocks of Sedona in the distance. Since the city won't allow the balloons over city limits, they don't get too close to the rock formations, but it was still beautiful all the same. And we also got low enough to see jack rabbits running along the ground. We had a couple of visitors in the sky in who got close enough to say hello. Dan knew them both and enjoyed the company, I think.

I like the one photo of the balloon above us using the flames to make it rise higher. In the twilight of morning, it was kind of cool to be able to see the flames light up the inside of the balloon.


Unfortunately, since things were moving so quickly we didn't get a picture of all of us in the basket...oh well, you can't have everything. We have the memories.

We were in the air for about an hour and it was glorious! The landing was a little bumpy and actually pretty comical to watch everyone trying to hold on and not fall over onto Dan, the pilot while he was trying to do whatever needed to be done to actually land the thing. We all made it out o.k. though and I would do it again in a second. It was so much fun!

After the balloon ride we gathered with all the other folks who had gone up (in the other 4 balloons) and enjoyed a light breakfast of fresh strawberries, a cream cheese and marshmallow dip, danish and a mimosa toast, which was a nice touch. Then we headed back to the hotel.
Since we hadn't had much breakfast, we went out to Oaxaca to eat, thinking that they might have some good Mexican style breakfast food, which is Andrew's favorite. It was his actual birthday after all. They didn't really have much that was different and the food was pretty average which was a bummer.

Oh well, our dinner that night made up for it big time. I'll post about that maybe tomorrow...

Speaking of dinner, I better go make some since Terry's been working outside all day on the yard in 100 degree temps and is probably exhausted.

Hope you like all the pics. I tried to get a good sampling to give you an idea of what it was like, but if there's something else you want to see, let me know and I'll post it.

Thanks for your patience in getting thru all this.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREW TOO!!!
Oh by the way, don't forget to wish Andrew a Happy Birthday too. His was on Saturday and kind of got overshadowed by my big half century milestone.

We love you Andrew and are so thrilled that you're in our family.

My Amazing Birthday Surprise!!!!!!!!
Day 1
Well, it's hard to know where to start, especially since many of you have probably already read Amy's account of my 50th birthday surprise. For the benefit of those who don't know the details, I'll start from the beginning.

Let's see...just a little background on how it happened from my perspective. Terry (and everyone else who knew) did an excellent job of keeping it all a secret. A few weeks before the event I did find out that something was going on, only because I was trying to plan something on the 4th and he made it clear (without really saying anything) that I shouldn't. This told me that something was going on that weekend and that I'd better just wait and see what it was. I really do enjoy some kinds of surprises so I didn't try to find out more.

So, when Friday, the 4th of July came around we were both off work, as expected. I got up, started cleaning the house, did some laundry, etc. Terry never said a word about anything. He went for a walk, read the newspaper, watched some Olympic trials on TV, helped with laundry and still didn't say anything. Finally around mid-day I went in to take a shower and while I was in there he got 2 suitcases out of the closet and left them on the bed. Of course, this meant we were going away somewhere! Sounded good so far. He told me we were going for 3 days, which meant I wasn't going to work on Monday (my actual birthday). He had called my boss to arrange for me to have off without my knowledge of it. So they were in on it too and didn't tell me. He told me the temperature range to expect, but not exactly where we were going and to pack mostly casual with one nicer outfit for dinner one night.

I thought it was strange that we were just hanging around the house, and thought that we might be catching a flight later, so I asked him if we were flying or driving to our mystery destination. He told me we were driving. Now at this point, I was a little disappointed but didn't want to let on since I knew he had gone to a lot of trouble to plan a special time for me. You see, deep down I was hoping that we were going to see one or more of the kids, and I assumed that if that was the case, we would have either left early in the morning (if we were driving to L.A.) or we'd be flying (if we were going to Omaha) or we wouldn't be leaving town at all (if the kids were coming here). So needless to say, I was a little sad for a few minutes. Then I realized what an amazing husband I have to even go to the trouble of planning this big surprise, so I would enjoy whatever he had in store for me. I will say that after those few minutes, I was ready for a wonderful weekend with my sweetie. You see, even though he doesn't show it much to others he's very sensitive, creative and quite a romantic, so I knew it would be awesome, no matter what.

O.k. so I'm 3 paragraphs in and we haven't even left the house yet. I'll really need to skip a few things. I will definitely do this in stages (like Amy did) and I won't go into so much detail, but I wanted to set the stage for the weekend.
Anyway, even after we were packed, Terry was still just hanging around the house, which I thought was odd. Finally we left around 3 pm and started driving north on I-17. O.k., so this eliminates, the White Mountains, Tucson, Mexico, or anywhere else in southern Arizona or the southern U.S., which is a good thing since many of those places are blazing hot right now. Some of the possibilities that I considered were Flagstaff, Prescott, Sedona, and the Grand Canyon although there could have been many more. As an added bonus we had a really nice thunderstorm on the way up the freeway too, which was a nice touch. I love the rain!

My first real clue to our destination was when we exited the freeway and saw this sign...so it narrowed it down a little more. Looks like we're going to Sedona, right? Terry wouldn't confirm or deny it. While on the road toward Sedona the gorgeous rocks were bright red set off by amazing greenery from the rain.

We kept driving and while on the road Terry called a restaurant to tell them that we were running a few minutes late for our 5 pm reservation. We would be there by around 5:10. This seemed a little strange for him because we don't usually make reservations when we're on a road trip and I wasn't in my "nicer" outfit so I was hoping I would be presentable wherever we were going.

We arrived in Sedona and went straight to Tlaquepaque, a quaint little "village" of shops, galleries and restaurants along cobblestone streets, surrounded by stucco walls and huge sycamore trees. Although most of the shops are out of my price range, I still love to stroll around and enjoy the look and feel of the place. It has so much character. We got out of the car and walked to a place we've enjoyed several times in the past, the Oak Creek Brewery and Grill.

As we walked in, instead of checking in at the hostess stand, Terry started walking straight back toward the tables. Of course, I had no idea what he was doing and only had enough time to think..."there must be someone back there that he knows...". By the time that thought crossed my mind we were standing in front of a booth where Andrew, Amy and Kevin were scrunched down in the seat trying to hide as best they could so I wouldn't see them until the latest possible moment. My heart flooded with joy and my eyes filled with tears (of joy) as soon as it registered in my mind. (It makes me cry just writing about it.) That was really my only wish for my birthday...to have our family all together for a little while. It had been over 7 months (since Christmas) that we had all spent time together. I still can't believe that they pulled it off to all get there for the weekend. Andrew even gave up his own birthday celebration to come. What an awesome gift!!!
The rest of the night we enjoyed dinner and each other's company at the restaurant, I had my first birthday dessert of the weekend (even though Andrew's birthday was the next day) then we went back and checked into the hotel.

After we arrived, the boys decided to test drive the "Sleep Number" beds and Kevin tested it even a little further, as you'll see from this photo.

Before we went to bed Terry told us that he had made reservations for all of us to go on a Pink Jeep Tour in the morning. We had to be ready and waiting in front of the hotel at 4:30 am!! The jeep was supposed to be taking us up into the red rock formations so we could enjoy breakfast on the rocks and watch the sunrise. It sounded pretty cool and we had gone on a Pink Jeep Tour before (but not this particular one) and liked it, so we gladly went to bed early to try to get a good night's sleep for as much of the night that was left.

Unfortunately, I don't have caffeine very often any more and I had had a Diet Coke on the drive up, along with some of the chocolate cake after dinner so I pretty much tossed and turned most of the night. I didn't have any warm milk to put me to sleep so I just suffered thru...around about midnight, as I was laying there trying to fall asleep, something hit me. I'll bet we're not going on a jeep tour. How could those jeeps drive on those precarious red rocks in the dark. That would be pretty dangerous. I had an idea where we might be going, but didn't want to assume anything...then I finally fell asleep for a couple of hours.

That's the end of day 1. More to come later. I won't be able to post tomorrow, so it will probably be Friday before I can do another installment. I promise I won't be so detailed on the next ones or you'll be bored to tears. Thanks for coming along for the ride. It's a fun one, I promise!

As of today I have maxed out my 75 Gigabyte external drive with just photos and I will begin using my back-up external drive which holds 465 GB.

I'm going to copy all my existing photos over to the larger drive so I have access to them all the time, then I'll have someone else hold onto the smaller drive (somewhere away from our house) so that I'll have them offsite in case of fire or something.

Also, for those of you who are looking for my post about my birthday trip, I hope to do something tonight. I have about 800 photos to go thru to decide what to put up there. If you haven't seen Amy's version of the trip visit her blog here. You may have to scroll down to get to her posts about the weekend. She posted at least 3 different times about it.

So I'm told by my husband that I may not be home on my birthday (its a surprise), so I'm posting this a little early.

In honor of my birthday, here are 50 random things about me, in no particular order.

1. My favorite entrée is King Crab legs
2. My favorite dessert is a Lindt Excellence Intense Orange dark chocolate bar with a big glass of milk
3. I have a wonderful husband who treats me like a queen
4. I miss spending time with our kids
5. I go back to bed for a half hour or so in the morning after I take a shower (the only quirk I’ve ever been able to think of for myself)
6. My favorite vegetable is asparagus, second favorite is fresh sweet corn
7. I’m not a person of extremes, so it’s hard for me to pick one favorite movie, song or book, etc.
8. A few favorite movies: Chariots of Fire, On Golden Pond, The Sting, Sleepless in Seattle
9. A few favorite musicians: James Taylor & Amy Grant
10. My father had 10 siblings that lived to be adults and every year at Thanksgiving we would all gather at my grandmother’s house for dinner. It was a huge crowd full of love and laughter and good food.
11. Although I love music, I have no idea what my favorite song would be.
12. I love to look at magazines for decorating, travel and just plain living tips
13. I love to travel!
14. Although I’m an organizer, I love to be spontaneous and do things on the spur of the moment.
15. I’m very visual, so I need to write things down to remember them, so if you want to send a strong message, show it to me in writing.
16. My favorite hobbies are photography, scrap booking, journaling, and decorating (all very visual)
17. I’d love to learn to do landscape design or architectural drafting.
18. I love being in the mountains, especially near streams
19. I think often of losing weight and getting in shape, but rarely do anything to move in that direction.
20. I love the fact that all of our kids are creative and talented and confident enough to pursue non-traditional career paths.
21. Because I grew up in a family of 8 without much money, birthdays are a big deal to me. No need for spending lots of money or having big parties, but a card, a kind word and a little extra attention make it extra special.
22. My favorite colors are almost any shade of blue or green.
23. For me, the look and design of a room, restaurant, outdoor space, etc. are very important to the feelings they evoke. That’s why I like to look at photos of restaurants before I go there for special occasions.
24. In all my years growing up, our family only took one vacation. It was a drive at Christmas break from Ohio to Phoenix.
25. I would love to ride in a hot air balloon someday. It just seems so magical.
26. I love my church and am learning so much about God’s grace there.
27. The top places that I’d like to visit are: Anywhere in Australia, Ireland, England (or nearly anywhere in Europe), New England in the Fall, Banff National Park, Alaska (again)
28. Some of the most amazing places I’ve seen: Havasupai Canyon in northern AZ, many of the national parks, including Denali,
29. I have the most precious friends that anyone could ask for.
30. I have been given so many good things that sometimes I feel guilty about it.
31. I grew up with 2 parents, 3 brothers and 2 sisters (that’s 8) in a 1200 square foot house, with 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. The bathroom had one small sink and a claw foot tub with no shower. We had no true closets or doors in the bedrooms and my mom painted the floors red and white so they didn’t look so bare.
32. Sometimes I mistakenly feel that my value is derived by what I do, instead of who I am…then what would happen if I couldn’t “do” anymore? Would I stop being valuable?
33. Favorite flower: Hydrangeas, but really almost anything is wonderful!
34. If I were a billionaire, I would help to fund the ODF building project or even help to move them to a new campus with more space. I’d give a good chunk to Leadership Catalyst, then I’d have such fun deciding which other ministries to give to. I would travel the world, design and build my own home, see lots of live theater, buy gorgeous original artwork and have fresh flowers in the house every day.
35. Each summer I spent several weeks at the farm with my grandmother, aunt and 2 cousins. It was an amazing time of exploring and adventure, picking fruit and vegetables, playing, swimming and enjoying life!
36. Favorite theme park: Disneyland - I love the magic of the Magic Kingdom!
37. My mother’s mother was an orphan, so it will be hard to trace a family tree on that branch
38. I love the colors and smell of Autumn!
39. In fact, I love to stop and smell the roses or anything that smells good. Some of my favorites, a freshly peeled orange, sliced cucumber, lilacs, new mown grass, eucalyptus trees, rosemary, steak cooking on a grill, and so much more…
40. I have a hard time staying in the same role (at work) for more than 3 years. I get bored once I learn the job and if the job doesn’t change, I usually need to.
41. I would love to learn so much more about photography.
42. I look forward to someday being a grandmother.
43. Age is just a number on a page. So far, I’ve enjoyed every age I’ve had the privilege of experiencing.
44. When I got married, one of the commitments I made to myself was that we’d have cloth napkins to use for special occasions.
45. If I had the chance, I could spend time in Colorado in any season.
46. I love plays and especially musicals. I watched Newsies again last night. I love that movie!
47. I have a wonderful cat named Shredder.
    
48. I’ve always wanted to be a travel agent, because I love the excitement of planning the trip, plus the perks would be awesome.
49. I had a pony named Midget when I was younger and if the weather was cooler here, I’d love to have a horse again someday. It’s good exercise!
50. As a child every year before school started my mom would take each of us kids one day at a time, to go school clothes shopping. She didn’t drive so we would catch a bus to the next town and spend the day shopping and having lunch, and enjoying the special day we had one on one with our mom. It was one of the few times each year we’d get time alone with her.

Although there have been tough times in my life of loss, sorrow and pain, I truly believe that am blessed beyond my wildest dreams!

Let the celebrating begin!
O.k. let's get it out right now. I'm going to be 50 on July 7th. Sure, when you say it out loud it sounds pretty old, but these days I could just be halfway thru my life, so how can that be old? And I just can't imagine how anyone can be depressed when they have a birthday. It's a celebration of you and your life for Pete's sake. I am so blessed with a wonderful family, good health, amazing friends, a great job and a God who showers me with love and everything that I could ever ask for. How can I possibly justify being depressed?

You're probably wondering why I'm talking about my birthday already. Well it just so happens that one of my most cherished friends in all the world also turned 50 yesterday, so a small group of our friends (of over 30 years) got together to celebrate with us. Andy & Julie (pictured separately) hosted the affair at their home. We were greeted with a beautifully set table with china and all, plus a gorgeous bouquet of purple and white flowers to make the setting complete. They (with a little help from Rand) made an AMAZING beef tenderloin that was as tender as butter with all the trimmings. No lie, it was absolutely delicious! Terry and I discussed the fact that it tasted like something we had at the (5 star) Four Seasons resort last year that cost over $100 a plate. It was THAT good! It was followed by a delicious dessert with angel food cake, fresh berries and wonderful fresh fruit sorbet. Mmmmm...

After dinner Sharon and I got to open presents. That's always fun. You'll see some of them in the photo below. A perfect glass topped side table that I'll probably use in the family room, as well as blue placemats, napkins and a pitcher. Julie gave us a gift certificate for time at the spa to be pampered together. Linda also promised to sew me a thread catcher like the one Sharon is holding and I get to choose the coordinating fabric. All just perfect gifts from friends who know me so well.

Oh by the way, the sunflower photo above was on the front of my card from Sharon and she took the picture herself. Doesn't it look like a professional took that picture? The blue in the sky and the flower is flawless. That was growing in their back yard. Cool huh?

And the whole night we enjoyed such good conversation with our dear dear friends.

So that's just the beginning of my birthday week. On Wednesday we'll celebrate with a few other co-workers that have birthdays in July and next weekend, I'm not sure what we're doing. Terry won't tell me. I'm just keeping it open for whatever happens. So far, it couldn't be better. I feel so loved and blessed to be surrounded by precious people who fill my life with so much joy.

What more could I possibly ask for? We serve an awesome God!