Potpourri

Well, Brian's birthday wasn't a total bust... he actually made it home before 5:30. The kids met him at the door with birthday cards they had made for him. He liked the ITunes giftcard and car adapter for his IPod... now I have to find the other thing he needs to go with it; when I bought the adapter, I didn't read the fine print on the package which said he needs a Belkin TuneCast Mobile FM Transmitter or Cassette Adapter in order to hear it through his car stereo. And now that I have been reading reviews at the Apple website, I am thinking maybe I should just take it back. **sigh** But I digress. We had time to run to Wendy's before church for a quick dinner, then afterwards we headed across the street to Maggie Moo's for ice cream, accompanied by a couple of other families from church. Brian's mom called while we were there to wish him a happy birthday, as did our brother-in-law. All in all, it wasn't a bad day, considering he had to work. We figure we can really celebrate Saturday after the housing inspection is over... kind of a double celebration.

We had a great ladies' class last night. We started a new book, Managing Your Moods. I think this is going to be an awesome study. Last night we covered Chapter 1, "A Bundle of Emotions," and talked about how our moods can control us and how backwards that is to how it should really be. We shared a lot of laughter as well as some insightful thoughts on getting a handle on our moods. Next week, we will be covering "Happiness at Any Cost." We take turns facilitating the discussion each week, and I have signed up for Chapter 8, "Scattered." Hmm, I think I feel somewhat qualified to share some things about that!!

Today was another little brunch-type gathering for my friend Kami. She is in my ladies' small group that usually meets Thursday afternoons. Her parents were coming in from Searcy today at lunchtime, so we bumped up our meeting to this morning and had bagels at Panera together. It is hard to say goodbye and she keeps reminding us she will be back at the end of May for our minister's daughter's wedding. Then it will be time for us to say goodbye to everyone; that will be our last hurrah before we head to California.

Speaking of our minister... last week his mother died. He and his family got back from Arkansas Tuesday night, so last night was the first time we had seen him since getting the news. I told Halle and Joel about Mrs. White's passing earlier yesterday and said that Mr. Jim would probably appreciate a hug. So when we arrive at church, Halle happened to see Jim before she went to class. She went over and put her arms around him and patted his back and said, "I'm sorry about your mom." I was standing there and saw her and had one of those pleased mother moments. Later, at Maggie Moo's, Jim told me how Joel greeted him after class: "Your mom died. My mom says I should give you a hug." Out of the mouths of babes! But what I thought was really cute about Joel's reaction to the whole thing was when I told him and Halle that even though Mr. Jim was sad, he was also a little happy, because his mom loved God, Joel said, "Then she's ALIVE!" It was a really sweet moment. It's one of those things that makes you understand what Jesus may have been talking about when he said we should become as little children.

My, I wrote a book today... The kids are waiting for me to run them to a friend's house to play, so you are spared a longer entry!