Good Friday.

We went here last Friday. Intense experience, beyond words. 

New car...

finally! 98 Nissan Sentra. 

Why I feel so tired today.

• I made fourteen 5 and 6 year olds become my factory workers, complete with uniforms. One kid almost got fired. Good help is hard to find these days...
• I inadvertently signed myself up for the Lynden Tribune to come and take pictures of my factory workers (hope they don't turn me in to the cops) and write an article about the after-school program. 
• As I was talking to the reporter, I realized I have no idea how to explain the after-school program. That was embarrassing.
• Not realizing that the Lynden Tribune was the big newspaper for Lynden (kinda like Gazette-Times in Corvallis), I offered the writer to send in pictures that I would take on my $100 digital camera! That was double embarrassing. 
• I messed up on making a pie crust for the top of my apple pie, TWICE today. 
• Bjørn and I just got back from Community Group.

things i didn't know...

or forgot.

• to wear green to school! How bad of an idea was that, when I work with children?! (Note: I HATE being pinched!)
  
• the shamrock is part of St. Patrick's Day because St. Patty himself used it as a missionary tactic to talk to the Irish about the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. My only question is: what do you do when an Irish lad finds a 4-leaf clover?
  
• Only at Sumas can you openly talk about the religious roots of holidays without any fear of being politically incorrect.
• My Spring resolution (why limit resolutions to only the New Year?) is to not kill any of my plants! In my defense, out of 12 plants, only 4 died over the winter: 2 from thirst, 1 from a freak disease, and the other 1 had a serious smoking problem--I always told him it would catch up with him...some plants just never listen.
  
• Sauerkraut can tend to be a little "gassy" but cooking it in beer helps to neutralize the acidity of the sauerkraut. Recipezaar told me so! ;) Think I might try it with some spicy italian sausage tonight.
  

What a day...

Bjørn and I have been stressing since last night about buying a car for sale down in Marysville. After driving down there last night (1 1/2 hrs from lynden), and waking up at 11:30pm to find out that Bjørn's car had overheated and he barely made it home, I was a little exhausted. And Bjørn was probably worse. We stayed up late trying to figure out everything financially and decide if we should get the car. 

Needless to say it was a weird way to start my birthday. I then got a call at 6:30am from my boss asking if i could ride on a pre-school bus. I was already catching a ride to the school an hour before i was spose to be there, so I thought, 'at least i could get paid for my hour by riding the bus.' So I agreed. As soon as I got to Sumas, she had to drive me 15 min. down to the bus grounds (in Everson) and we missed the route by 5 min. After all that, I didn't work extra...but i did get paid extra. I didn't tell anyone it was my birthday, cuz it was such a funky start to a day it didn't really feel like a birthday...and I didn't want my boss feeling bad for me. 

But my Aunt Kay, who was subbing the whole day at Sumas, bought me a cake at lunch (a delicious chocolate cake might i add), and had all my fourth grade kids sing me happy birthday.  The rest of the afternoon passed with all the kids wishing me a happy birthday every time they saw me and saying, "You look so pretty", etc. 4th graders really can boost your self-esteem! She's a real gem. 

I think in the end, I realized that birthdays are becoming less of a big deal to me. From being around kids, I remember thinking it was the BEST day ever! Now though, I feel like, "So you came out of your mom's wound one day, and now, we celebrate that day every single year?!" BUT of course, that's not to say I don't enjoy how special your friends and family make you feel on your birthday. :)