nice day. :)

Today I had breakfast with two wonderful people!! My great friends John Parker and Sophia Paton recently went on a choir tour of Europe, visiting tons of countries and getting to explore tons of awesome places! The original plan had been that I go as well-- we were all invited by the Voyageurs to be in the choir (brush my awesomeness off the shoulder... ;) ) but I decided earlier this year not to go with them. Boo. I was sad and so were they. But the lovely people brought me gifts!! I feel so honored that I was thought of on that busy trip! Sophia was in the quartet we made in high school along with Wendy Austyn and Bethany Swiontek (you'll see their names in lights one day...) and John has been an amazing friend and cohort over the past couple of years. They are such a huge blessing in my life!! And not just because of the gifts. ;)
They got me a scarf in Paris and a stein in Germany...I won't be using the beer stein...just for show haha.
Here are the wonderful gifts!
Not pictured is a really cool journal John got me for when I'm traveling these next 9 months...it's awesome and vintage and I will definitely be using it.



Some GREAT news... Delta gave me the wrong quote the other day. So Blaze is COMING YAYYYYYYYY. It's gonna be $550 approximately. Praise the Lord!! I'd be depressed if she couldn't come. Here's a photo of my pretty girl...She always poses just perfectly in pretty green grass or flowers. Goof.And today I finished painting her a water bowl at Color Me Mine... I had to finish a couple things and get them fired before I leave!! There's a dog bowl contest going on...think I could win? This is pre-fire so the colors will be much more vivid when it's done.

Today I figured out what my favorite hymn is. How Deep the Father's Love for Us. Holy cow, it floored me. Listentoit.

Now I'm at Granny and Pop's enjoying a nice weekend with my sista! :) Gotta love it.

I've learned...

...that if somebody's drunk, they don't keep secrets.

happy and sad.

Last night I realized something I’m good at—planning things. I’ve always know this to an extent, or gotten comments from friends like “hey you should plan (blupblupblup)” or “that was sooo fun!” and when I say “why don’t YOU plan (whatever it is)?” they say “Nobody will come if I plan it, they always come when you do!” or whatever… but yesterday night was a grand tea party if I do say so myself. A Mad Tea Party. All of my girlfriends and I dressed up with a hint of insanity (a la Alice in Wonderland) and did what ladylike ladies do. And it was fabulous. The food and the look of it—I could so do that for a living. It was FUN! Even though it was a lot of work to put together… I made cranberry-chocolate scones, raspberry shortbread cookies, strawberry jello with mandarin oranges, chocolate chip muffins dusted with powdered sugar, finger sandwiches (chicken salad ones and cucumber ones), chocolates… decorated the table SO pretty (but I do think that pretty food makes a pretty table) --I really enjoyed the work because the outcome was spectacular. And I got to thinking…how could I do that often?? And then, duhh. Wedding planning. I already gather inspiration hoping one day to use it in my own wedding, but all those unused and brilliant ideas can’t go to waste!! One of my very best friends has already said she would love for me to plan her wedding (although most likely that will be in a couple years haha).
So… I’m dreaming and scheming. Nothing new there. :)
I’ll post pictures of the tea party setup soon!

On a sad note, I may not be able to bring my doggy to Germany with me! I spent like a half hour sobbing today...it would cost around a thousand dollars to ship her, whereas having her in the cargo on MY plane would normally cost $200...but there's an embargo for heat so animals don't have a heat stroke. But I'd rather have a live dog in the States than a dead one on the other side. :( I thought the shipping cost was around $550 but I called and it's not. So I'm distressed.
Cheryl (the lady I'll be working for) is looking into it...but for now, I just hope it all works out the way it's supposed to. My trip also got moved up 2 days so I'm leaving in exactly 2 weeks! That gives me less than a week to recover from getting my wisdom teeth out so PLEASE pray that that goes completely smoothly and that I heal so fast!