Matt is getting married tomorrow.

I think I might actually cry.

I don’t know WHY, really, because weddings are generally happy. Danielle is a great girl, and I know he’s happy.

But it’s Matt.

I have so many memories with him in them, and we’ll never have those times back again. It’ll never be the way it used to be. I don’t want it to, really, but at the same time, I miss the times that we all used to hang out and how close we were. We’re still close, but it’s so different now. The rest of us hang out, and Matt isn’t really a part of it anymore.

When they get married, I’m saying goodbye to a little part of my past that I’ll never have back again.

So many memories.

One of my favorites is one of the first times that we all hung out. Even though we were friends in high school, we didn’t start “really” hanging out all together until college. Em, Tom, Paul, Matt, and I were at my parents’ house, and we were trying to figure out what to do. We decided it would be fun to make omelets and hash browns for dinner. We weren’t exactly sure how to make an omelet, though, so it turned into a big pot of scrambled eggs with stuff in it. Then Matt and Paul shredded a whole bunch of potatoes for the hash browns. They weren’t very neat about it; I think my parents were finding bits of shredded potato for months. But we didn’t know how to make hash browns, either, and they ended up as a big blob of undercooked potato.

By the time we had finished making all the food, it was almost 9 pm. We set the table and decided that it should be a “romantic candlelit dinner for 5,” so we lit some candles and put on romantic music. We laughed, joked, talked, and enjoyed our meal and our time together.

We’d get together and play football, take pictures, go out for dinner, play games, go to the SPoT, play racquetball, talk, play four-square in the Walmart parking lot, celebrate each other’s birthdays…everything. It wasn’t always easy. Sometimes it was hard work to be friends. Things were awkward, and we had to work through relational issues. But we all got much stronger because of it, and I think we now have a bond that won’t ever really disappear, no matter what happens.

Posted by Mrs. Bee on July 4th, 2008
Filed under: Friends
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When Tom and I were on our honeymoon, we went to a dinner theatre in Nova Scotia where one of the characters kept saying, “It’s your birthday. Have a clothespin!” over and over. To keep with tradition, we give each other clothespins on our birthdays.

I had a nice birthday on Wednesday. My new Macbook Pro came in the mail, and really, does it get any better than that? Em, Nate, Tom, and I went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner (and brought cheesecake home with us, YUM), and it was nice to just hang out with them. Did I mention that the cheesecake was really good? I finally opened up my new computer and started testing it out.

Things I love about my new Macbook:
• the keyboard lights up
• you can scroll on the trackpad if you use two fingers instead of one
• it has a big hard drive
• the screen is big and pretty
• it’s really fast
• the desktop wallpaper I downloaded

Things I don’t love as much:
• the keyboard feels different and I keep skipping letters when I type
• the magnetic power cord pops out of place sometimes

Hmm. I think that’s it. I just LOVE it! I haven’t even tried opening Photoshop and seeing how beautiful and fast that runs. I’m still transferring file and getting everything organized. It’s kind of fun to start over with a “blank slate.”

Em and I spent the night at my parents’ house while Tom was at Matt’s bachelor party, and we went out for breakfast with my parents this morning. It was fun! There was a parade going down Main Street, which happened to be where the restaurant was, so we had to park far away and walk. But it’s a gorgeous day, and it was nice to be outside.

J is finally picking up on how to blow kisses…it’s pretty cute.

I think it’s time for me to go back to loving on my Macbook…….

Posted by Mrs. Bee on July 4th, 2008
Filed under: Family
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J and I were visiting my mom’s classroom the other day, and I took these pictures on my cell phone. I just HAD to share them, even with bad cell phone quality pics, because they’re too darn cute.

J was playing in my bedroom with me while I was blow drying my hair this morning. At one point she took a flip flop out of my closet, brought it over to me, and set it on top of my foot. “On,” she said. And then, “thank you.” She went back to the closet and got another flip flop, brought it over, and set it on my foot. Rinse, lather, repeat. Apparently whenever she gives me something these days, she always says “thank you.” It must be because I always say it.

Then, at lunchtime, I was giving her some yogurt. I said, “Yogurt,” which she repeated. Then she said, “Yummy!” I hadn’t been sure that she understood what that meant, but it seems like she does. She’s saying some things that we don’t understand, one of which sounds like “thank you” in Chinese. I guess it’s possible, with Joanna around…

When she was really little, the only thing that she wouldn’t eat was peas. When she stopped eating pureed food, I tried again with “real” peas. Nope…she still wouldn’t eat them. Then one day I tried again, this time mixing them in with other food, and she ate them. She’s eaten them just fine since then. Tom and I had a discussion about it - apparently he doesn’t like peas, either. I also discovered, through talking with several people, that many people don’t like peas. I was shocked. I’ve always eaten them and enjoyed it, so I didn’t realize that they were the bane of many children’s existence when they were little. SO…what do YOU think? Do you like peas?

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Posted by Mrs. Bee on June 30th, 2008
Filed under: Family, Photos
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For the record, I’ve managed to get all of my files (I think) from my dead iBook. I feel very relieved. Tom is going to get a new hard drive for the iBook, and then we’re going to try to sell it…because I’m going to get a MacBook Pro instead! I’m excited. In fact, I’m VERY excited.

LCS had its graduation on Saturday, and my mom was the commencement speaker. She did a great job; I was very proud of her. We hung out there and talked to people for a while, and then I talked Tom into stopping at Old Navy so we could get $1 flip flops. After rushing in and out of Old Navy, we went to Nate and Sandy’s for Nate’s “Goodbye to Thesis” party, which was fun. We ate food, played Guitar Hero and Four on a Couch, talked, and just hung out. I tried to convince Tom that we needed to steal one of their chairs because it was SOO comfortable, but he thought they would probably notice. Too bad. We hung out at home in the evening. It was nice to just be at home and hang out and read…I haven’t done much reading since J was born, and I miss it.

Sunday was church and a meeting with Rob about small groups. Usually we go to the first service and stay for part of the second, since it’s right at J’s naptime, but we put her in the 1-yr old nursery, and she did fine. So maybe we’ll do that more often. Em and I went shopping after church, because she wanted to get some shirts from Old Navy. I bought some shoes to go with my dress for Matt and Danielle’s wedding, and Em and I bought another pair of shoes to share. We live near each other now…might as well share clothes. Then, while Tom played basketball, I worked on another Shutterfly book…this one is a 2007-in-review kind of thing. I like the idea of making these books for each year/important event in our lives. Especially if I can wait to do them until I get free ones. Ha!

Posted by Mrs. Bee on June 30th, 2008
Filed under: Family, Friends
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So, um…

I was working on backing up my files this morning. (I deleted one that I wanted to keep, so I was trying to recover it.) Then my iBook froze up again, like it’s been doing for the past week. So I restarted it.

And it won’t get past the initial startup screen.

AUGH!

I’m going to try booting it from a CD to see if I can recover anything, but…

Edit: I connected it to our iMac, and I’m transferring all my files. If I can save my files, I don’t care if the iBook is broken, so yay. Hopefully I’ll be able to save everything.

Posted by Mrs. Bee on June 26th, 2008
Filed under: Personal
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I don’t really have anything to say, but I am waiting for my DVD burner to copy some files. My iBook has been very sluggish lately, and I am afraid it’s going to die on me. So I’m backing up all of my files (trying, anyway). Then I can wipe my hard drive and re-install everything, which will hopefully fix the problem.

Anyway. You don’t care about all of that. Here are some random thoughts from the past few days, since I don’t have anything else to do:

• The CT team is off at the Creation festival in PA for the rest of the week. I’m excited to hear how it goes, and I can’t wait to see pictures of my booth/t-shirts/postcards/brochures/etc.

• My iPod hasn’t been working right, either. Hopefully when I clear my computer’s hard drive, it’ll go back to being normal.

• After spending so much time last night looking at photos from our trip to Asia (for my free Shutterfly book), I found myself discouraged. It’s so easy to remember the parts of the trip (and myself) that I wish I could change. So often I only see the areas in which I fail, instead of seeing the places that I succeed. I feel like I will never be the person I want to be. At the same time, I know I’m not perfect and life is a slow process of growing and maturing. Sigh.

• I was supposed to meet Jen, Mary Lou, and Becky tonight to hang out, but Jen texted me to say that Becky and ML couldn’t make it. I was bummed, because I love hanging out with them. It’s also a good thing for me, because I now have time to work on fixing my computer. (Ugh!) Plus, I’m really tired. I’d like to get to bed on time.

• I’ve been contemplating my camera recently. I love good photography, and I always feel slightly envious of people with amazing photography skills. I know that a good camera doesn’t make a good photographer, but you have to admit that it helps! I bought a Canon S5 about a year ago. It’s basically a point-and-shoot camera with an extended zoom lens. I love the zoom, and I don’t really use the manual settings anyway. So in that regard, it’s the kind of camera I should have. But if I got a DSLR, maybe I would get more serious about learning more about photography. Then again, probably not…

• My computer is driving me CRAZY. It won’t let me burn DVDs now or anything. Argh!

• J’s new thing is sitting. She loves to sit on anything. She gets so excited and proud of herself. We have a few 12-pack boxes of Pepsi cans in our kitchen (maybe you saw them if you watched the video I posted a couple days ago), and they’re the perfect height for her to sit on. She loves it!

• She’s also started playing a game with me…in a few years, it’ll probably be the kind of thing that drives me crazy. But right now I think it’s cute. She’ll say, “Mama.” “What?” I say. “Mama.” “What?” “Mama.” “What?” “Mama!” “What?” “Hiiiiiii.” And then she smiles at me, all cute-like.

• My computer still won’t do what I want, so I’m going to have to give up and try again in the morning. All I have to say is that it had better not crash and burn before I have a chance to save everything.

Posted by Mrs. Bee on June 25th, 2008
Filed under: Family, Personal
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I have two free 8×8” book codes from Shutterfly. One of them expires tonight; the other expires at the end of the month. I decided to make a book about our trip to Asia last winter, so that’s the one I’m working on now. Shutterfly is being a pain in the butt. I don’t know if there are a ton of other people trying to upload photos at the same time as I am, but it’s taking forever.

I hope I’m not up until 3 am working on this. Is a free book worth it? I don’t know…

I haven’t decided what to use my other book code on. I could do a “2007-in-Photos” kind of thing. Or I could do Summer 2007. Or any one of our family trips out west, like when we went to Rocky Mountain National Park in 2006. Hmmmm. I don’t know.

Edit: It’s 3:30 am here, and I managed to get my free book. Yay me! However, I still have to get up for work in the morning. Ugh…

Posted by Mrs. Bee on June 24th, 2008
Filed under: Personal
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I’ve written before about how J knows some of the alphabet. We’ve tried to get video of her saying it, but she gets distracted when she sees the camera, so they haven’t really turned out well. I captured a little of it today. (Because she was distracted, she needed a little prompting, ie me asking “what comes after __?” but usually she’ll just say them.)

I do want to say that I’m not forcing my daughter to learn things. I’m not making her do stuff to seem smart or to make me feel proud. She picks up on things very quickly, and one day we noticed that she seemed to be remembering this stuff. I like teaching her things, and it’s neat that she remembers it. I never force anything on her.

I do think that if there is one good thing to teach your children early, it’s reading/alphabet/letters. Children who love to read often grow up into adults who love to read. If you can read, you can communicate. And those who can communicate will go far in life. So…I will continue to help my daughter learn to read and communicate well, because I think it’s a valuable skill to have.

Posted by Mrs. Bee on June 23rd, 2008
Filed under: Family
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J was just pulling some things out of her diaper bag, and she found a sippy cup with a little milk left in it from Saturday. I took it away from her as soon as she started trying to drink it, and of course, she burst into tears. I had to take it away, because I knew the milk wouldn’t be good. But she couldn’t see that. All she knew was that she wanted it, and I took it away.

There’s an object lesson in there, I think.

When things happen in my life that I don’t like, sometimes I get mad at God or wonder why He’s doing that to me. Why He won’t let me have what I want, right then. But I can’t see the big picture like He can. He knows that the milk is spoiled and won’t be good for me, even if I don’t get it…or if I don’t want to get it.

I need to trust that just like I need to take the milk away from J, sometimes God needs to take things away from me so that I don’t get burned in the long run. I have to learn to give in to His will instead of mine, knowing that He really does have the best in mind for me.

Posted by Mrs. Bee on June 23rd, 2008
Filed under: Faith, Family
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The past couple weeks have just been busy. I’m not even sure what I’ve been doing, but J has been tired out. She’s been up late and awake early, skipping naps, off schedule in general. She doesn’t seem to mind and is pretty easy going about everything, but every now and then I catch her lying on the floor as if to say, “Ok, Mom, please put me in bed.”

I went shopping with Em and Tracy on Friday night; we were looking for new swimsuits and dresses for Matt & Danielle’s wedding. Didn’t really find anything, but it was really fun to hang out with them. Joanna and I went to a different mall on Saturday, but again, I didn’t really find anything. I still have a little time, so hopefully I’ll be able to find something I like that doesn’t cost tons of money. I feel like I should look nice for this wedding, since Tom is actually IN it.

Then…some of us were hanging out at Chris and Tracy’s on Saturday night when Em got a call from my grandma, who was having some chest pressure and other symptoms that could indicate a heart attack. Em told her to call 911, and then she and I went to meet my grandparents at the hospital. My grandma was doing okay when we got there and things seemed relatively normal, but we spent the next 6 hours in the ER waiting for them to admit her to the hospital for observation. I think everything is okay, but it was a little worrisome, especially since my grandma’s heart is so weak. I’m glad Em and I were able to go and be there with her. I love my grandma, and I don’t want anything to happen to her!

It was a little sunny this afternoon, so I dragged Tom outside in our bathing suits to try to get a little tan. Of course, as soon as we got there, the sun went behind clouds and refused to come out. It was a nice idea while it lasted, I guess, but I’d like to get a little sun before the summer ends. Maybe tomorrow.

What else is going on these days? I don’t know. I’m looking forward to a relatively normal upcoming week…and going to bed early tonight.

Posted by Mrs. Bee on June 22nd, 2008
Filed under: Family, Photos
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