Being Blessed and Imminent Aging

I had my socks blessed clean off the past four days. If someone sees them, let me know...the nights are still pretty chilly here in Idaho :)

Mom and Dad arrived Thursday morning to help me celebrate my birthday. Just having them arrive in Boise and be here with me would have been more than enough, but in typical Mumsey and Popsey style, they spoiled me something serious over the whole visit. From

• new jammies picked out at the Life is Good store,
• to taking me and 5 other Idaho friends to Macaroni Grill for dinner and dessert on Thursday night,
• to goodies from the MAC cosmetics store (including a new lip gloss which is slightly berry-colored and very summery, but is named, a little disturbingly, Oversexed, so that I can now say, "I got Oversexed with my mom at the mall." Eh gads.),
• to breakfast at Cracker Barrel,
  
• to a pedicure (just Mom for that one ;)
  
• to a gorgeous dinner at Cottonwood Grille on the Boise River,
• to installing new mini-blinds with Dad in the guest room (Michael, I both benefited from and paid for the "An Open Letter to My Father" post...I am now an expert mini-blind installer...and Dad had to hear me curse a bit...)
  
• to Dad making my lawn so beautiful...

I have no doubt that I am quite the princess :)








A completely unexpected perk was winning the Bloggy Giveaway at Thoughts from Miller Manor, as I mentioned yesterday. I grabbed the computer Saturday morning to show Mom something, and there was an email from Ornery's Wife, telling me I had won. What a treat! And I get to custom-select my colors for the journal she is making me!

Winning the giveaway was frosting on the cake...birthday cake, of course, since tomorrow, as Holly pointed out in a phone call Friday night, I cease to be in my mid-thirties, and I now transition to my late thirties and the associated aches and pains (a phone call that is payback for twenty-five years of me pointing out that she is ALWAYS going to be 2 months older than me, no matter HOW old we get). Mrs. Miller had no idea my birthday was coming, so having her send me something handmade is an added birthday surprise, particularly after receiving just the day before some books she very generously sent my way. I had been reading them before I opened the email to tell me more fun was coming! And how great is this--my first really significant connection with Mrs. Miller was last September, when we figured out that we have mutual friends in MAF. I was laughing as I shared with Mom the news about winning the giveaway and talking about what a wonderful gift Mrs. Miller has become, when I remembered that Mom was here in Idaho last year when Mrs. Miller asked if I was with MAF and knew her friends. Mom had asked me a few hours before that, "Is it weird when someone you don't know posts a comment on your blog?" This time, we just laughed and thanked God for the way He weaves lives together, brings people with hearts that touch ours at the right time, and for such a fun story that exists now. Thanks, Mrs. Miller, for dropping in here, and encouraging many of us by sharing.

I seriously learned something from every comment on that post 2 weeks ago, and from every phone call and email. God provides. And He is personal--I had started to completely question that in February and March and April. I know, it's obvious He's personal when you read Scripture. But we get a little twisted up sometimes, don't we?

It's why we need each other--we need help from Him and His people for untying the knots we make.

Thanks again, Mom and Dad. Love you always. Miss you already, so much. And not just because we had Starbucks every day...at least once :)