Sunday Smattering

This past week has been insanely busy in Bekahland. I can think of three nights when the clock was past 2 a.m. before I went to sleep. I sure paid for that one yesterday. Slept til almost noon!

* Monday was Labor Day, and I had the opportunity to, in fact, labor. Lucky me! Because I work in an office that serves students directly, we are always open Labor Day weekend. My shift was Monday morning. As a consolation prize, I was allowed to wear an IWU T-shirt to work. That was a fun break from the normal business attire.

That evening, my friend Jonathan and I went to Ivanhoe's for ice cream. Ivanhoe's, if you're not from around here, is a local ice cream shop that has 100 shakes and 100 sundaes. Jonathan always gets a sundae and I always get a shake. (The sundaes have way too much topping for me.) This time I got a tin roof shake - it was good and definitely went a long way in drowning my sorrows!


* Tuesday I tried to get back into the swing of normalcy by celebrating the start of a new school year with a breakfast treat for the office. I made my quick cinnamon rolls and took them to work. They turned out quite yummily. (New word. Feel free to use it.)


* Wednesday evening I went over to Alexandria to the Gaither store with my friend Ronda. I love that place and don't think I'd been there since APRIL! Good grief! Anyway, we shopped and I got the new Vocal Band CD, called Greatly Blessed. Oh man, it has some great songs on it. I think my three favorites right now are You Are My All in All; Greatly Blessed, Highly Favored and I Know How to Say Thank You. OH! and Please Forgive Me. THAT song has a killer David note in it. I may or may not play that particular line over and over just to hear him hit it. L-o-v-e this album.

Ronda and I shopped long enough that we needed some sustenance, so we ate in the cafe there in the store. I always try to get something different so I can try out everything. For being such a small cafe, they have a huge menu! This time I had their Texas chili (I even ate the beans...Mom was SHOCKED when she heard that news!) and their grilled cheese with this special sauce on it; yummy! Ronda and I split a piece of chocolate cake, which of course, is merely a vehicle to eat frosting, and I had a chai too. (My appetite has returned, in case you can't tell.)

ALSO...Wednesday was my Mom's birthday. Happy birthday, Mom! I won't tell your age. Yet.

* Thursday night was the start of football season. I know, I know...WHAT!? How do I know this? It seems that many of my friends are football fans...okay, fanatics. So I'm trying to learn the fine art of appreciating the game. I ended up watching that game over at Ronda's house with her, Jonathan, and Austin. And I was a good girl and didn't ask any questions during the game. (Learned that one the hard way last year!)

* Friday was the end of the longest week IN HISTORY. I celebrated its survival by going over to my friend Faith's house to hang out in the evening. Faith was the one I went to Tennessee with in June.

Here are some pictures of that outing. Faith's kids are not exempt from the Silly Bandz craze. Kaylah came up with this on her own. She found the 0 in the numbers set and stuck it in her nose and said "I'm a bull!"

Hannah wanted to show me her ENTIRE collection. It has been noted that the yellow band down at the bottom looks like a bikini top. Faith and I rather hoped it was supposed to be a pair of sunglasses. Questionable little band, though.

This is what happens when a five year old is set loose with a camera....

*Saturday was a perfectly wonderful lazy day at home, spent mostly catching up on cleaning and organizing, neither of which have seen much activity during the desert months.

But I wanted to share a couple of OTHER exciting pieces of news from Bekahland with you!

My friend Julie (the one I went to Brown County with last fall) called me up a couple of weeks ago and said her church's Ladies Bible Study was interested in doing a study I wrote a couple of years ago. Julie had done the study as part of a trial group last year, and she must have liked it enough to remember it and suggest it to her group. I was so excited to hear that! So for the last week, I've been busy tweaking the study and formatting it for a quick print job. I picked up the finished product yesterday!

Julie is going to be leading the group, and I know she'll do a great job...and I can't wait to hear the feedback from the group. In fact, I hope to crash one week of their study to meet the ladies.

I've also wanted to tell you about this for a while, but I didn't have pictures. A few years back (six or seven, maybe) I got my nails done every two weeks. It was a fun treat I lavished upon myself just because I could. When my roommate moved out, I had to give up manicures to redirect the funds to regular bills.

I know it's probably fifty kinds of vain, but I have to tell you I miss my fake nails. I have freakishly small nails. The only tiny thing on my whole self would have to be my nail bed. (Just to explain to you HOW tiny they are...I had to have my acrylic nails sculpted onto my own nails because the pre-made ones are too big.) Well, as my desert came to an end, I decided to bring back the manicures as a treat for myself.

The lady I wanted to do my nails (I'm picky about where I go...don't want icky infections!) doesn't sculpt acrylics, so she started doing this new nail system on me. It's called Shellac, and I am SUCH A FAN!!!!!!

It's basically this extra festive polish that makes my nails just as strong as the acrylics, but there's no acrylic involved. These are my own nails with the polish that doesn't quit. The true test was last week (and I forgot to take a picture!) when I had red polish on for 2 1/2 weeks. In that time frame, it didn't fade off the tips, it didn't chip, I did not have any broken nails, and best of all, it didn't leave red streaks when I dragged it across paper! I declared that if the red held up that well for that long, this thing is amazing.

This is this week's color. It's not black. It's Fedora. (AKA chocolate brown.) I love it. LOVE it. Also love that because this polish is cured under a light immediately after application, I don't have to worry about smudging. It's perfectly dry the minute I walk out of the salon. AND it's cheaper than acrylics!

BRING IT ON!!!!