Well, I'm an idiot. When I made my links to the right of the page, I added Jena's cool craft blog. I remember typing in her maiden name, catching it and changing it right away. I must not have saved the publish, though, because it still said her maiden name. For months. And I just noticed tonight. Oh, well. It's correct now--sorry Jena (and Kate, too :) )

I had a very nice birthday yesterday. I went with friends to a great Greek Restaurant here in Fountain Square. I walked there and had some guy in a pick up try to pick ME up. Ha ha ha ha hah. It was creepy, actually (especially since I was walking with Miriam), but I tried to look on the bright side. I suppose it was reassuring on my 30th bday to have some weird guy in a pick up stop and tell me I was "real cute." Or maybe it wasn't so reassuring. AAAAAAAAAAh...

Anyway, someone is interested in our house. And honestly I really hope she buys it b/c she has some cool ideas about how she'll use the house and I would love it if someone bought it to do something cool...like, say, start a bike collective and rent rooms to younger, semi-transient people. We'll see how it goes.

These are my last few hours before turning 30. Can anyone tell me why it is bothering me so much? What a silly superficial thing to worry about...more tomorrow.

nak, as usual.

it's been awhile. We're in the midst of our move. I have this house 1/2 packed, Chris is working at the new house every night after work and our amazing friends are working their asses off to help us (Chris would say--Oh my! our friends have no asses!!). Patrick and Mary worked ALL day today laying the tile in our kitchen. Dave, Mark, Laura, Greg, Amanda, Joe, Randy, Tracy, Rodney and I'm sure others I'm forgetting, have all helped with the painting etc while still others watched kidlets so parents could help.

And my wonderful family is coming tomorrow. My Family. :) Not just a couple of them, not just a few of them, but ALL of them--Mom, Dad, Jame & Michele, Janelle & Adrian, Jared & Aimee and Jonathan. I can't smile wide enough. They're driving 10 hours and can only stay for abot 36 hours before they have to head back. But they think it's worth is to 1--see Miram 2--help us with the house 3--celebrate my 30th bday.

Speaking of wonderful friend and my birthday, my lovely friend Jena gave me some awsome bday gifts: a subscription to ReadyMade magazine (I know i'll find tons of project ideas!!), a knitted dishcloth, and an outfit for Miriam (you can see the last two things on her blog. The outfit is so cute on Miriam. I took a pic with her wearing it and I'll post it to my fotopage as soon as I upload it.

Some members of my "house church/bible study" have found me. I can't be passive aggressice anymore. It's all honesty, no bull shit, from here on out.

I can't decide if I like my hair cut or not (I think I do most of the time--I'm just afraid it makes me look fatter. Mom told me it makes me look younger, so maybe that's an okay trade-off :) )

I'm scared for my dad and hurting for my mom. Having her husband cheat on her and leave for awhile isn't enough? She's got to deal with alcoholism, too? (As if watching HER father deal with alcoholism isn't enough as well!)

We're home safely from PA and now I get to be overwhelmed with packing. AAAAAAAAAARGH.

I need to ask y'all to pray for my Dad. I'm beginning to believe that he is an alcoholic. I've never seen him drunk and only once have I seen him act strange at all, but he drinks through-out the day. He puts alcohol in his orange drink, his soda, etc. He chew halls and slugs listerine to "disguise" the smell. I don't think he realizes how obvious it is. I'm scared for him. I'm nervous about my dad taking me to the airport tomorrow, even though I've never felt alarmed with him driving before.

On another note entirely, I did something I said I would never do again. Cut my hair. Short. I put a few pics up for Chris on our photoblog. If you look, please remember that it's not completely dry in the pics, so it looks flat--it's curlier when it's dry.

Oh, So many thoughts flying through my head tonight!

Luke came home from the hospital on Friday. They believe he was not having seizures after all. They observed him for awhile. He was sick and believed that the shaking of the legs was from pain, not seizures. Poor guy!

Amy started a discussion about voting the other day that was interesting. People sure do get fired up about that topic. Most people were able to argue nicely, but I guess some people need to put each other down to feel like they've made their point. I'm proud of what my husband wrote; I believe he stated what he believed succinctly and carefully, and that he did so with a loving tone.

I wonder if I am arrogant? Ang said that she finds people who abstain from parts of life in the name of Christ arrogant. (btw--Ang is not the person mentioned above.) I hate to think that I'm arrogant. I honestly don't believe I am anymore than Ang is. She takes part in something I abstain from. We both believe we are correct. We will both argue our points. Argh. I'm not sure where i'm going with this.

I'll just say I know I have lots of character flaws and I'm certain that arrogance is one of them. But I just hate to be lumped in with a large group of people and called arrogant for doing (or not doing) something about which I feel conviction.

Resist2004 It's all there. Arrogance or no.

I'm in PA and am enjoying spending time with my family. Miriam did extremely well on the flight; she charmed so many people!

If you are the praying type, please pray for my nephew John Luke. His mama is Chris's sister. Luke was born in January and has had a rough life so far. He had a stroke in utero and because of that had to stay in the hospital for a while. He finally came home about 2 weeks ago. He had to go back to the hospital this morning because of seizures. He was sick and pukey and didn't assimilate all his antiseizure medication. Pray he gets to come home SOON!

I'm leaving tomorrow morning to spend a week in Pennsylvania. I'm nervous about flying with Miriam for the first time all alone...but she is honestly such a sweet natured little one that I'm sure things will go smoothly. I'm mostly nervous about getting her and all the various accoutrements through the airport without my arms falling off. :)

I'm very excited about going to PA. I haven't been home since Christmas and no one's been out here since then, so we're overdue for a visit. Miriam has changed so much in the past 2 months that everyone is sure to be shocked by the change. We try to keep family updated with pictures, but pictures just don't do the baby justice, you know?

Thanks for all the great discussion about spanking. I'm on a couple of parenting forums and it's interesting how this topic can't be discussed civilly. Parents feel so strongly about it that the discussion goes downhill fast. I really appreciate being able to say honestly how I feel about it without people taking offense or thinking I'm psycho.

In the comments from February 25, Jena wrote "The potential for controversy is always an intimidating thing for me. (Hence, my blog is about crafts rather than life in general!) I admire your frankness very much!" I'm sure she meant the frankness of the entire group discussing this topic, but I have to admit to my own passive-aggression (is that how you write that?). If I were being truly frank I would share all these frustrations openly with my house church. Because I'm too much of a chicken to be confrontational, I shared it on my blog. My house church is not too internet obsessed and most hadn't even heard of blogs until Chris and I were talking about them. So basically, I was too chicken to say all this to the group, so I spewed it here where none of the group will actually read it. bawk bawk.

But I truly appreciate this discussion. I think Ang and Julie are amazing mothers. I know Jena and Amy will be creative, loving mothers, too. I'm so grateful to be parenting in wonderful communities--connected online and off.

I fixed my Link to Ang's Blog. Sorry to those of you who got approximately 5 million pop-ups while trying to get to bogspot.com. :)