To A Special Friend

Happy 16th (!!!) Birthday Susannah!!!!!

It's Somebody's Birthday...

Happy Birthday Grandma B!!!!!!

I Live for Stories

I've been crying a lot lately. It's not a bad thing; it isn't anyone else's fault. I'm just really good at becoming emotionally invested in...you guessed it...

Stories.

First it was Cinderella-the new one that just came out. Katherine and I went to see it with our friends on Sunday. I loved it. And I cried three times, at one point the tears were falling down my face-I love that feeling! Twice because it was sad, yet beautiful, and once because, I'll admit it, it was romantic and beautiful. I sometimes cry out of happiness even more than out of sadness.

Katherine and I started reading The Hunger Games last week. We both finished the trilogy yesterday. I'm sure we would have finished it faster except that we had to wait for the books to be available at the library. It was rough. But I didn't cry because of waiting. I cried while reading. The first book made me hurt inside. Those times when can't quite cry, but your heart is aching. I love that feeling too. There was a point in the third book where I started moaning; I'm pretty sure that's not the right word. I probably sounded like a sick, dying puppy. While Anna looked at me and kept saying, "Stop. Just stop." But at the end of the book I cried. Oh, yes, I cried. Tears down my face and all. I had to stop reading because my tears were blurring my vision too much.

It was beautiful.

Stories.

I've always loved stories. I remember begging for stories from countless people over the years. Every time I heard someone mention anything about a story, I'd be right there. "Please, oh please, pleeeease! Please tell it!" And ever since I learned how at 5, I've been reading almost any story I could get my hands on. I know I've read hundreds of books over the years, many of them a hundred times. (OK, so that's definitely an exaggeration.) I think I've mentioned before about how hard it is for me to pick favorites...of anything. Books are no exception. Have you read the list of "Favorite Books" in my blogger profile? It's longer than anything else on that page. And it keeps growing. I hope it always will.

Then there are all the stories in my head. The ideas that come to me, set off by the most random things. Thoughts that can't be ignored. Those that beg me to tell their story. Even if it's only to myself. I can't get away from stories.

And I would never want to. Because I want to live in light of the greatest Story of all. And it's not just a story; it's real.

More real than I could ever imagine.

SPRING!!!

It's here! It's really here!!!!

I was not one of the many people in my house who were lamenting (more like complaining, which is more annoying in my mind) about the cold weather and longing for spring over the last few weeks (months?). I'm a knitter, guys, I love winter. (About as much as I love all the other seasons. ahem.) Frankly, I could have handled a few more weeks of winter. Maybe I could have knit a dent in my sweater queue. Now that spring's here I probably won't pull out the sweater I started to swatch for until late summer. Not that I'm complaining, I have thirteen hundred other things I want to knit. I'll be fine.

Besides, who would complain about such delicious weather like we had on Monday?!?! That day was almost idyllic. (I can't believe I used that word properly in a normal sentence. Yes!) It was around 70 degrees out and I was knitting with the breeze wafting through the window. Then I hear that some people are going to Dairy Queen because they are giving out free cones. I managed to get shotgun, which meant I spent the whole drive there and back with the beautiful breeze blowing on my face (And hair, which is a really romantical feeling-put that in for you, darling Sharyssa). And while Mom and the younger kids were eating their cones inside, some of us went for a walk halfway over the bridge while we ate our ice cream. (With the beautiful breeze blowing as before.)

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.......

Birthday Greetings

Happy 14th Birthday Johnathan!!!

14...yikes, he's that old?!?!

And...

Happy Belated Birthday to Grandpa Kuhr!!!!

My Monday

I had a pretty good day. OK, scratch that, a great day. I got a good amount of schoolwork done. (At this point in time that means I did ~3 lessons of math-it's pretty easy stuff-and a Physical Science experiment. I'm waiting for holds from the library about female Civil War spies so I can start my research paper. That will be fun research. Plus, I got a fictional book that was related to the topic "just for fun".)

I also spent some of the day being super happy about the contents of the season 5 finale of Downton Abbey that aired last night. I said to Khyrstyn today over chat, "I think I was satisfied enough to pretend that I can wait a whole 'nother year for the next season..." Besides the fact that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. starts tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, I'm super excited about that.

I swept the kitchen floor today! That doesn't seem like something that you would mention as a good part of your day on your blog, but it was the first time I had done it in a few days. Which meant that it took a lot longer than usual, but looked waaaay better after I had finished.

And tonight, Grandma B and her friend Nancy came over for supper, and Nancy brought us Italian beef from Portillo's. Oh my gosh, it was delicious. Just delish. And afterwards, Mom and I went over next door and played Bridge with Grandma and Nancy. They taught both of us last week. Mom has been wanting to learn how to play Bridge almost her entire life, so I thought it was pretty cool to be able to learn at the same time she did. Though part of the reason was because she wanted to be able to eat bridge mix...