36 years (oink!)

My birthday came in the midst of chaos. We're surrounded by boxes, and certainly not settled, whatever that means, but we took the time to go out to lunch at our favorite Indian buffet. (And then came home and took a nap!)

I was born in the Year of the Pig, which has rolled around again. Next time the Year of the Pig comes, I'll be 48. And the time after that I'll be 60. In addition to the twelve animals, the Chinese zodiac also cycles through the five elements (the year I was born was the metal pig--this year is the fire pig), so it takes 60 years to get through the whole cycle.



Here's the "Year of the Pig" kit that I finished up in time for the Lunar New Year. (That's what my cute little papercut piggy was for.) It's been fun to see what people do with it. I wanted to share a couple of links:

Marci's "Only in Vegas" (I really like the way she cut the flowers out of the paper and layered the other stuff on them.)

Kat's "One Month (Very cool strong graphic design!)

My birthday sale!

Prolonging the agony

This was going to be the weekend we moved. It didn't happen. Kate is still sick, I've been sick, and now Doug's got it. We all stayed home from church today, convalescing. Rebecca brought us over some yummy lemon chicken soup (thanks Rebecca!)

We've been dreading this move for a while, and the delay is not helping. Unfortunately it's not one of those things that'll go away if you stop thinking about it. We have started boxing up our books, but it's a small dent in everything we have to do. (We have six bookshelves. With books on them.) Kate has been having fun getting into things that we're trying to pack. I've seen her a few times pick something up, and she gets this look on her face like, "Wow, we have this? I didn't know we had this!"

Kate has started asking to have her nose wiped. Wow.

The answer is 42

The question: How old is Doug today?



Kate has been sick. She was feverish on Sunday, threw up twice on Monday, and has in general been needing a lot of comfort and care. We haven't been getting much else done. This morning I looked at the date on the computer and thought, "Oh yeah, it's Doug's birthday!"

Kate was much better today--not completely well, but much better, and going stir-crazy from being cooped up inside--so we all went out to I Love Bento for a birthday lunch. Kate got her own bowl of miso soup with extra tofu, which she was just gobbling down. That was good to see. It's so hard when she's sick.

It's also my sister Barb's birthday, so we called tonight and sang to her and then she sang to Doug. It's a tradition in my family that we always call and sing Happy Birthday to each other over the phone (often as badly as possible, holding out the "toooo yooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" at the end, like the stork on Dumbo). As the family has scattered it just means we get more phone calls and more songs. It's fun.

Happy Birthday Doug!

Footprints

(I can't help it, this makes me laugh.)

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand, one belonging to him and the other to the Lord.

When the last scene flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that for many times in his life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened to be at the very lowest and saddest times in his life. At still other times in his life he could see only a single footprint, with a circle-print where the other foot should be, and a straight line between them. This really bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it.

"Lord, you said that once I decided to follow You, You'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only ONE set of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed You the most You would leave me."

The Lord replied: "My son, my precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, It was then that I carried you." The man felt much better, but was still perplexed.

He asked: "But what of the footprints with the line and the circles? Where did they come from?"

"My son," said the Lord, with compassion in His voice, "that was when we were joined by a one-legged pirate with a wheelbarrow."


(I am compelled to add that if you google footprints pirate wheelbarrow you get Princess Bride references.)