This is what winter will do to you...

Winter will make your cheeks a little chubbier and your skin a lot whiter.

But the cold will also make you want to cuddle more.

J.B.

Something I should find disgusting, but I'm actually intrigued...

Yesterday, my husband was unclogging our drains. The bathtub and one of the sinks in the master bathroom were clogged. BAD. There as water sitting in sink for at least half the day on Saturday. The drain was open, but nothing was going down. I think the only way that water actually got out of our sink was by evaporating.

Clogged sinks and tubs are gross. But everyone needs to deal with it at some point.

My husband probably spent over an hour working on our drains using that spider tool or whatever it's called. A logical person would keep their distance from our bathroom as all the old gunk and hair and soap residue and grime made its way back up the pipes.

But not I.

I find that nasty stuff intriguing. I had this yearning to know how much stuff he was collecting.

The coolest part was when he was fixing our sink drain. We found treasure! Dave found a metal piece and he called me to come and look. I put on my archeoligist hat and determined it looked like the metal from a pendant. A long-lost pendant that was now decayed and gunk-covered. It was like buried treasure, pulled from the depths of the ocean. This thing wasn't even mine. It must have come from the stripper that lived in our house before us.

And then he pulled up another piece. The jewel that once sat upon the pendent.

And then he pulled up the chain that went along with it.

My very own Heart of the Ocean. IF only it were valuable.

J.B.

Flashback Friday -- Gracie's homecoming

Like a lot of high school students, I got my senior photos taken the summer between my junior and senior year of high school. While at the photographer's studio, I noticed he had a tub of kittens. Gray ones. Tans ones. White ones. I asked him if I could incorporate the kittens into one of my poses. They were so cute! He laughed, but obliged. He offered me a kitten to take home, but since I was going to school in Washington, I wouldn't really be able to take care of one.

Fast forward three years. I must have made an impact on the guy. I accompanied my little sister to the same studio to assist her with her photos. She wanted moral support.

The photographer immediately remembered me as the girl who wanted the kittens in her pictures. He said that if I had known you two were sisters, I would have brought more kittens. He lived on a farm, so he had cats in his barn and there were kittens born every summer.

He offered us kittens again. But this time, I had moved home for the rest of college and was going to be living with my sister. After talking with her (I think I talked to her about it...I'm not quite sure...haha), I called the photographer and told her I'd take one.

So I drove out to his farm and picked out the little gray kitten with green eyes. My own little girl. 

Read my previous Flashback Friday posts: Dave's homecoming | Otis' homecoming | The beginning of us | Our first Valentine's Day


J.B.

The perfect sandwich

I'm not talking about peanut butter and jelly. I'm not talking about a grilled cheese or a ham.

I'm talking about an Otis Sandwich.

J.B.

I can't turn a pumpkin into a carriage, but...

I have been asked...

And I've accepted the invitation...

I'm going to be a Godmother! I'm going to have a Godson!

It is an honor to be asked to forever be a special part of someone's life. It's an honor to be asked to help nurture one's faith. I'm deeply touched to be given this opportunity.

J.B.

Beginnings and Ends

For some reason on Valentine's Day, I was thinking of beginning and ends. It just seemed like several of my friends were dealing with ends. But I was also seeing friends face new beginnings. One friend saw a relationship come to an end. Another friend had a first date. One friend was laid off from a job, but I was a reference for another friend who is probably close to getting a new job.

All this thinking about beginning and ends led me to start thinking about more significant beginnings and ends -- birth and death. First, I was thinking about birth -- pretty much the beginning of life. It was Valentine's Day, so I was thinking about what a joyous and love-filled day it was and how somewhere, someone was being born that day. Then I thought about the reciprocal of birth -- death. With my experiences of death, it is also a love-filled experience. Knowing that you won't be able to see someone's smile, you won't be able to have conversation with that person and you won't be able to hug that person anymore, and feeling the ache in your heart -- it's love that is making your heart ache. Albeit a much more painful love to feel than the love you feel when someone special is born and brought into your life. But through it all -- through the beginnings and end, through the ups and downs -- love is constant.

Little did I know that 15 minutes later I would be getting a phone call from my mom about death.

A boy from my church was in a snowboarding accident that morning. He hit a tree and died. Just like that. He was 21. He was always so full of life, always sharing his bright smile. He had amazing musical talents. He was authentic. He was wise beyond his years. He was healthy. He was definitely not someone who should have been dying that day. His death was shocking. It was tragic. (The local news did a story about him the other night. I thought it was nicely done, so here it is.)

It's one of those things that is really difficult to process.

My heart is aching for his family. After I heard the news, we drove up to my sister's house to take my nieces ice skating. I was feeling guilty for doing something fun when something so tragic had happened. But then I thought that he would not want me to not enjoy the company of my nieces. So instead, I did what I knew how to do. I gave my nieces extra hugs. I pulled my niece around the ice extra long because it's what she wanted (although she wasn't very happy with me when we went inside and I'd only hold one of her hands). I enjoyed the company of my husband as we finished making our Valentine's Day dinner together. I gave my puppies beef sticks. I loved.

J.B.

The Great Transition

One thing I worry about bringing home a baby (when it someday happens), is how the dogs will react. Because right now, the dogs are our babies. When a real baby comes home, suddenly the dogs won't be our babies anymore. We'll definitely still love them, but we obviously won't be able to give them as much attention as we do now.

I think Cooper will be a good brother. He'll be protective -- probably overly so. He'll be curious about the little babe.

Otis. He'll have a hard time. He was our first puppy. We spoiled him. We gave him lots and lots of attention. We let him cuddle with us whenever he wanted (meaning: all the time). He's the captain of our house. He still wants (and usually receives) the most attention and cuddling time with us. I don't know how he'll react when he can't get what he wants all the time.

Case in point: Last weekend, Andee and Bryan and their precious little baby, Lucas, came over to our house to watch the Super Bowl. Otis liked Lucas. He was really curious. He wanted to smell the little guy. But what did he do when I held Lucas?

Sat next to me and started giving his super high-pitched Don't-you-dare-give-others-more-attention-than you-give-me-bark.

So I sat there with one arm holding Lucas and the other hand petting Otis. I really didn't want Otis to keep barking like that when we had company -- he gets just a little annoying. Dave would distract him by playing ball, but the Otis would come back to me and start barking again.

Otis survived the transition of getting a second dog in our house. I know he'd survive a transition with a baby too. But it might be rough. It will most likely be known in our house as The Great Transition.

J.B.