The boys wanted to human playdoh themselves to wish their Daddy a “Happy Birthday!”

And this…

My Dearest Brian…

I can’t believe 11 years has passed since we first met. I also can’t believe you look younger now than you did at 25. What the what??? The good news is I love you more today than I did yesterday… and a million times more than I did the day before that.

Today, I can’t remember a life without you. Maybe that’s strange… but I think it’s because life wasn’t worth remembering without you in it.

You are my heart.
You are my warrior hero.
You are my baby daddy

I love when I catch you staring at me from across the room.
I love when you catch me staring at YOU from across the room.
I love hearing our kids call out for you: “I want Dadda!”
I love that you make time for our boys.
I love that you invest everything you’ve got into our family.
I love when we make eye contact… and just KNOW.

Most of all… I love that what you see above is what we get to live right now… together.

Happy Birthday, Baby…

I love you forever.

I was fortunate enough to have my birthday be celebrated over three days.

Friday: Coffee in the morning with Janet. My annual birthday lunch with Angela & Jilly. Then, I came home to a yummy pot roast dinner made by my amazing hubby, Brian. I usually do the cooking so this was a nice treat. We also took advantage of some ice cream vouchers we had and took the kids to ice cream after dinner.

Jilly made this dessert for us. SOOOOOOO good!

Ang has a birthday clown fetish/tradition. and my face looks huge in this photo. HA!

Ang made this card for me. It makes me laugh every time I see it.

Both Chance’s and Paxton’s faces CRACK ME UP!!!

Saturday: My calendar was mysteriously blocked out for me, telling me I was busy, but not telling what I was busy with. Brian and Mikey had planned for me to be treated to an all afternoon spa day. Mikey and I got massages and mani/pedi’s. Then we went to Todai for all you can eat… and got attacked by a freaky clown.

Sunday: Brian let me sleep in till 11am (which hasn’t happened since high school), then Mikey came over to watch the kids so Brian and I could go out on a date. We got to spend time some face time minus kids. Love my kids… but I need my honey.

And as I look back on how these three days were spent, I realize how very blessed I am.

Friday was filled with long-time friends. The one’s who have shown themselves constant in my inconsistent life. Friends that didn’t give up when I was ready to. Friends that didn’t abandon me when I deserved loneliness. Friends that remind me that I HAVE friends even when I feel completely alone.

Saturday was spent with my Mikey, who is undoubtedly my bestie, though I’ve known her for only a year. Not many find THAT friend you know you can trust your life with in EVERYTHING. It’s weird how she almost always knows what I’m thinking before I even say it and vice versa. She’s proof that girlfriends aren’t just a “good thing” but a VITAL need. Saturday was spent in my “new”… celebrating who I am today after ALL the changes. I like who I am now.

And finally Sunday was spent with the one person I can’t wait to live the next 32 + 32 years with… but I would also willingly die for in a second. Sunday was a large chunk (did I just call Brian a large chunk?) of what I live for.

In three short days, I saw my past, present and future… and I was yet reminded again that God has never failed me, and never will. It’s moments like this that sustain me for the moments I forget.

I’m thankful for 32. SO thankful.

Granted… it’s not full day school yet, but it’s still school… E.V.E.R.Y.D.A.Y.

He is no longer by my side Monday’s through Friday’s from 8:50am to 11:50am. This just makes me anticipate what it will be like with him gone ALL day next year. That means he’ll be in school more of his days than with me.

My baby is growing up.

Chance has homework every day. He has take home reading (flash cards and all) he’s to do with us as well as a coloring/cutting/art page. It’s definitely a new kind of life for Brian and me. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t remember having homework in Kindergarten. Whichever way… I think it’s great. It’s more intentional time for me and my boy.

I don’t know when we’re gonna find time to do his homework. I’d much rather goof off and be silly with him.

When do you have your kids do their homework?
No kids? When did YOU do your homework?

It’s now mid-July, and we’ve been back in Northern Ireland for one week after our two week trip somehow extended to almost nine weeks.

And like much of the year leading up to our US adventure, we’ve been left with brainmush : too much to process, too much to think about, too many memories, too many dreams…

Yet, not enough.

And…still no guest post written.  Any time I tried to write, it was even more random than the random list posts I often inflict upon my own readers. So random it didn’t come close to making any sense.

Until today.

Investing a windfall

Every now and then, usually two or three times per month week day hour, I like to think about what I’d do if I had $X.  X is usually more than a million, but sometimes it’s smaller, because I think small needs extra creativity to invest wisely (spot the accountant).

When we embarked on our MassLifeChange Plan™ in 2008, just about the only thing we knew for sure was that in the midst of everyone doing the opposite, God was telling us to declutter.  We knew it would be painful, as amongst other things it would mean reducing our massive debt burden.  In the 20 months since, we’ve reduced our debt by 95%, we’ve doubled the percentage of our income that we give away, and we’ve revamped our retirement savings plan (as I was saying, spot the accountant).

Oh yes…and we’ve also emigrated half way round the world. As you do.

In the midst of all this, we dreamed about being able to visit the new friends in the USA we’d made via blogging and Twitter during the time that the MLC Plan™ was in action, and while I had some ideas how that might happen, they really were just that – ideas to make dreams come true.

But emigrating is expensive; especially emigrating “with cat“ (which is kind of like being “with child”, but…not…), so it was looking like a dream for another time.

Then we were asked if we could make it to Oregon to take part in Brian & Jenni’s vow renewal. Gulp. How could we possibly say no??

So with no real notion how we were going to make it happen because the aforementioned ideas weren’t showing signs of becoming reality, we said yes. Then God proceeded to smirk as He watched me discover how it would happen : through my own lack of attention to detail.

What? Exactly.  And if you know me, you’ll know lack of attention to detail is SO not me.

The MLC Plan™ worked so effectively that a debt I’d already finished paying off, kept getting paid off.  For an extra year.  We effectively found ourselves with a savings account; an unexpected windfall.

Whaaaat?

For a split second, my mind went through all the the things we could do with that money : slash our remaining debt, sponsor some more children, leave it as savings…

But none of those options were right.  This money needed to be invested wisely.  So we came and spent two weeks months in Oregon, and the return on that investment is incalculable and eternal.

How would you invest a windfall?

I love you, Brian…
You’re an amazing father, and there’s no one I’d rather raise our boys with than with you.

Thank you for choosing me…
… for choosing us.

Thank you for all our happy days.

Chance: “My grandma has lots of flowers in her garden.”
David: “Flowers are nice.”
Chance: “Does your grandma have flowers in HER garden?”
David: “She used to, but now she’s in a nursing home.”

WHAT the WHAT???

Good thing David didn’t tell Chance about his OTHER grandmother… who’s with Jesus.