And Then He Bloomed

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend! I know we certainly did!

Good Friday was extra good for me since I got to take the day off! Katie and I met for lunch at Chick-fil-A (our usual) and then spent some quality time at the Target. This was a good moment for us:

Jen: It is so beautiful outside today!
Katie: I know! Me and Mo were thinking about going out to the levee and riding bikes.
Jen: You could drive a Chevy to the levee...
Katie: It will probably be dry.
Jen: Yeah....
Target Employee: (shakes head in disbelief at the conversation that has just taken place)

Anyhoo, Friday night Mo & Katie came over for fajita/margarita night. We have such a ball when they came over, those two are such a blessing in our lives! (You can see how precious my Katie is for yourself at her blog).

Saturday morning husband woke me up at the butt crack of dawn to go to New Orleans. We went so early because Grant and his dad and his brother went off shore fishing. Yawn. But the ladies had fun! Ronda and me and Grant's mom had a lovely little meal at La Madeleine and saw a movie that none of our husbands would ever watch with us EVER. We saw "The Other Boleyn Girl" starring Scarlett Johansen and Natalie Portman. I have read the book and LOVED it and had very high expectations. That was an INTENSE movie! It was alot of drama and ambition and betrayal and decapitations. Very well acted and very fascinating for me since I am a huge nerd and for some reason I am a little bit obsessed with the entire British monarchy, specifically the Tudor dynasty. I'm so weird.

Anyways, we went to church yesterday morning in New Orleans and then came back to Grant's parent's house for our Easter lunch. Grant's grandparents joined us and we finished off our Easter weekend with a very intense game of "Sequence". Has anyone else ever played Sequence? It's part board game, part card game and I get a little bit too into it. I was playing against my husband which makes me even MORE competitive (for the record, my team won, BOO-yah!)

So I wanted to share my favorite little Easter story with you. My precious sister, Jaclyn, had the cutest little voice as a little girl. She talked like she had a bubble in her throat and also couldn't say her "R's" and that has always provided quite the funny little quote. Anyways, we have a home video of all 3 of us sisters as little girls one Easter Sunday morning. We are all in our matching pastel dresses with big bows on the back and our white hats, white shoes, white purses. Daddy is talking to us as we are opening our Easter baskets. Then Dad zooms in on precious Jaclyn, who was about 4 or 5, and says "What is today, Jaclyn?" and she says back sweetly "Easter" (pronounced without the "R" of course). Then Daddy says "And what happened on Easter?" to which Jaclyn replies:

"Um.... Jesus died... and then.... He bloomed".

Silence

Mom: "That's right baby, He aROSE, didn't He?"

Jaclyn: "Uh huh"

Melts my heart :)

Things I'm Looking Forward to

1. Today is my Friday because our office is CLOSED tomorrow for Good Friday! I plan on sleeping in. And that is as far as I have planned!

2. Easter! Grant and I are heading to New Orleans to be with his family. I love Easter, it really is right up there with Christmas. There is nothing greater than celebrating our Risen Lord!

3. Family Vacation! Grant and I are joining my family in April for a few days in the Texas hill country for some much needed R&R.

4. At this family vacation, I plan on having atleast 1 of my 3 nieces in my arms at all times. Aunt Jenny is gonna be giving some loving. And lots of kisses!

5. In April, THE OFFICE is returning to my television. Be still my heart.

6. In May, my twin nieces, Juliet and Scarlett are turning TWO (unbelievable!!) and my little Parker is going to be ONE! Those girls are growing up far too fast!

7. Also in May, me and my Lindsee and my Jo are having our Girls Weeked 2008!! (We spell it WeekED instead of weekEND because Lindsee makes a cake each year and the first year we had Girls Weeked she misspelled the cake and I think I almost peed). Sadly, our Sally Ann cannot join us this year, but we are thinking of her and praying for her and her new little boy growing in her tummy! :) To see pics of Girls Weeked 07, click here.

I will leave you with this little picture of Grant and me at Scott & Lauren's wedding a few weeks back. Can you see his camouflage vest peaking out there? ;)
















Oh, and one more thing! Tomorrow is my blog-a-versary! That's right, I did my very first post one year ago tomorrow! It's fun to look back and read the things I wrote way back then. It has been a joy in my life and such a creative outlet, as well as a way to meet some amazing people!

I love you ladies!

I'm True to Who I Am

Let's get right to it.

This little bundle of cuteness is Brooke White, my new favorite on American Idol. She is sweet and adorable and she sings well and she plays piano and guitar and I love her. Precious.

Jason "Long Eyelashes" Castro is my favorite boy. He also is a Texas Aggie and he gets cool points for that. Great voice, and he seems like a great guy.

Can we just have a moment for Paula "True to Who You Are" Abdul? I am so entertained by her. Mainly because she can't utter a complete sentence. I also think that 98% of her critiques use some variation of the "true to who you are" phrase. That's what I love about Paula. She is true to who she is. And does anyone else think she claps like a seal?

Moving on! I had a fantastic weekend here in Baton Rouge, because my dearingest darlingest Lindsee Lou came to see me. This was her THIRD time to visit me here and I am ever so grateful. We had two quite unsuccessful shopping trips (bermuda shorts look more like cruise director shorts on me) and some incredible cheesecake called Ultimate Snickers. Holla.

Lindsee and I then headed over to have a 2 hour lunch date at Chick-fil-A with my Baton Rouge bestie, Katie. It was so wonderful for her and Linds to meet, and I sure do love me some waffle fries!

We also had a wonderful time at Chase & Ronda's house. Chase is Grant's brother, and sweet Ronda is the one who had the brilliant idea of introducing me and Grant. And for that I am forever indebted to her! (To see pics of our weekend together, go to Lindsee's blog!)

Today I did not get a chance to get my Diet Coke in the morning and I have had the worst headache the whole day because of it! I sure have trained myself to be dependent on caffiene! Goodness! I ate a snickers bar to take the edge off. Don't worry, it was the "fun size".

There is a wind advisory here and Grant and I decided to take a walk. That was a brilliant idea. We walked for a mile, but the wind was so intense I think I did the equivalent of 300 lunges. My thighs are going to feel fantastic tomorrow!

Off to finish folding clothes!

Girl, this is MACdonalds!

I had to go to Office Depot yesterday for work. I was preparing for this morning's trial when I realized I needed some more labels for the exhibits. Off to Office Depot I went. Right next door to Office Depot is a McDonald's, which everyone here at work agreed upon. I wrote down everyone's order on my pink post-it notes (very Elle Woods) and off to the store I went.

Office Depot was oh-so exciting. Those people tend to have the personalities of a potted plant.

Anyways, so after my lovely time at the Depot, I headed over to MickeyD's. The drive thru line was wrapped around the building, so I decided it was quicker to go inside.

I walked in and see lots of people just staring at the big menu on the wall. I don't know who is still going into McDonald's and browsing the menu. It doesn't really change, people. It's the same stuff that it has always been. It should not be taking you fifteen minutes to decide what you want. Burger. Chicken. Fries. Those are your options.

Anyways, I was standing there, and the guy in front of me finished paying and stepped to the side. The girl behind the counter just gave me this blank stare, which I guess meant "You can order now". This girl did not look like she was having a good day. She had this look on her face that I've seen before.... the look of "I am here because I have to be and I am irritated with you idiot people and I am looking at the clock every ten seconds to see if my shift will be over soon and I don't like it when people like you are all smiley when I am not smiley". That's the vibe I got from her.

I said "Hello! How are you today?". Blank stare. "Okay then!". I pulled out my pink post it note and began to read off my 12 orders (exaggeration). Little Miss Happy Face read me my total, and I pulled out my wallet, and took out my Visa.

I don't carry cash very often. I know I should. But I find that I spend money faster when I have cash on me. So I didn't have cash on me, and told everyone at work that I would pay with my card, and they could all pay me cash.

Just as I am about to swipe my card in the little machine, Precious Peach grabbed my hand and dryly said "The machine's broke". I kinda was wondering when she was going to let go of my wrist, but I said "Oh, okay, well can we use this machine over here?"

"They all broke"

"All of your credit card machines are broken?

Blank Stare.

"Okay then, well never mind! Have a good day!"

I was almost to the door when Sweet Precious said " 'scuse me!! How you gonna pay fo this?"

I kinda stood there a minute, confused. "I'm not gonna pay for it. I don't have the money. Unless you take a check... do ya'll take checks?"

Sweet Precious rolled her eyes at me and said "Girl, this is MACdonalds!"

Now I was getting kinda irritated. I said "Well ma'am, if you can't take a check than I can't pay for this".

"But I already put your order in"

"Well then cancel it!! It's not my fault your credit card machine is broken. You haven't started making the food yet anyway, just cancel it!"

I was somewhat ashamed of myself for talking back, and somewhat proud of myself for standing up for myself. I was somewhat looking around the place to see if the team from "Punk'd" was about to jump out at me or something. Because, you know, I'm a celebrity.

Sweet Precious and I had a little stare down. She rolled her eyes at me for the twenty millionth time (not an exaggeration) and as I was walking out the door, I heard her say to herself "Sassy!"

That's right ya'll. I'm sassy!