Happy Birthday Ely!

Last night, we had a little surprise birthday party for Ely at Hector and Ednita's apartment. She was really surprised! :) We had a great night of food and laughter especially while playing the Wii. It was so funny when I was trying to do something with the Wii and Chen was yelling at me in Spanish and Ednita had to remind him that I don't speak Spanish! ;)

It's a Jungle out there :)

• Made a little trip to the rainforest today - aka Krohns Conservatory. :) Love that "planty" moist smell. :)

• Well, life is good and happy. Yes, busy - trying not to figure out how the homework is going to get done with the number of days left. The math just doesn't add up. :)

• Ok - what movie did I just watch?

"Stella, Stella, Steeellllaaaa!!!"

"But I like the cookie!"

"I'm a cRaZy rabbid squirrel, and I want my cookies!"

"This face was bred for beauty, and I can't smell."

"We are now going to bring out your inner beauty - HAAAA - was that out loud?"

• Have a fabulous weekend!

A Bit o'Yellow

Thank you God for cheery daffodils that show their face once a year. :)

The Week in Pictures - not in chronological order!

• VIP Day Banquet - That's Amore! A great happy time was had by all! :)
  
• Grandma and Grandpa came from Missouri - it was so good to be with them!

Went down to Dayton twice for IHC. Thursday was especially good! It was so cool having such a big orchestra!!

• Easter Sunday was really good! The teens did a painting while the ensemble sang - very neat! Then had to get those family Easter pictures! Then Monday we colored eggs! :)

Well - that's about it. I think next week might even be busier than this week!! I have some stuff to do Monday and then rehearsal with the Academy bands. And I really need to go to the doctor sometime to have him check out my finger again. Tuesday night I'm going to play with the Academy bands - it's always fun. :) Wednesday - kid's class at church. Friday night - Panera. Saturday - Panera for a couple of hours. Not to mention homework and Portfolio. Wow - time's a flyin' and I have so much to do!

Well, I need to type up a test review and then I'm heading outside to read! (homework!) :) Have a lovely rest of the weekend. :P

A Birthday Lunch

Katie's birthday was over Spring Break - so we went to Max and Erma's last week to celebrate! I love you Katie - just think - when you have your next birthday, you will be a married woman!! ;)

They just match so nicely!

Bia and I didn't match so nicely! lol

The "Caymanian" beauties!

Free Cake - yay!

And she shared, of course! :)

And I look like the traveling gypsy with my flute, purse, and bag of food. It was so cold outside, I didn't want to leave my flute in the car - if Mr. Wolf only knew how well I take care of my (his)instrument. ;)

Cheesecake Factory!

A cool atmosphere!

Delicious Cheesecake!

Wonderful friends! :)

Pictures from Katie. Thanks!

Grrr...

Doing taxes makes me want to PULL OUT MY HAIR. And if I listen to any more classical music through the phone as I'm waiting to talk to someone at the IRS, I WILL CRY! I just want to get it done and do it right. Humph.

Babysitting

There's is something inexpressible about the feeling of a 2 yr. old boy's hand in yours as you slowly walk together down the sidewalk and steps. Or the smiles when you tell a 3 yr. old girl that she looks like a princess with a dandelion in her hair. Or the giggles of the 2 yr. boy as I tickle his tummy, shoes, ears, cheeks, (etc). as he's swinging on the swings. What delightful little kids. :)

My Apologies

I opened my blog and heard music that was most definitely not Point of Grace. Someone had mislabeled it, and I didn't catch it when I was adding them to my playlist. It's fixed now.

I had a delightful lunch with Mary, Rachel, Bia, and Katie - to celebrate Katie's BD which was over break. Pictures are coming.

And it was also brought to my attention that I had failed to post about another exciting little outing that I had before break - going to the Cheesecake Factory! Those pictures should also be coming soon. :)

We've had rain, sleet, snow, and now sun - I love it! :P

Snippets from a Monday

• My brother is so cool. Last night he asked me what time we needed to leave this morning, and then this morning he proceeded to come in about every five minutes to tell me to get up and how much time I had until we needed to leave. And he also made coffee (upon my suggestion). He's so awesome! :P
• We had an Ireland meeting today. I'm SO EXCITED!!! I also went to my bank to ask about using my debit card over there. They said it was just a 2% charge on purchases, so I think that is what I'm going to use, so I don't have to worry about exchanging money (even though it would be cool to have some English money.) [Does the period go inside or outside of the parenthesis? This drives me nuts!]
• Tires are rotated and balanced. Go Tire Discounters! They do it for free if you buy tires from them. :)
• Scheduled a babysitting job for Thursday - the kids are so cute and fun.
• I'm enjoying the rain/sleet. Hey, if we had beautiful days all the time, I'm sure we would take them for granted.
• Thanks to some of the music on Tiffany's blog, I remembered how much I love POG! (See new playlist below.)
• I'm so thankful for a wonderful church service last night and an refreshing chapel this morning. God has really been speaking to me about being more bold in my faith. I don't have time to be shy and insecure. I want to use every opportunity God gives me to share about Him.
• I'm just feeling so bubbly and happy. Hmm...maybe it's the two coffees I've had today - :P

Well, I'm off to read American Ways - a very cool and eye-opening book. Let's just say that I'm pretty American. :)

Have an AWESOME week!

Nylon, String, and Air

It's such a relaxing and comfortable feeling to be driving down the road with the windows down, music loud, singing to the top of my lungs to the Newsboys and Third Day, while my brother plays air guitar next to me after an hour of flying a kite together. Pretty sweet.

The Purple! It's Coming!