It All Started on a Friday Night

This post is taking an entirely different direction than I thought it was going to go, but that's okay! More fun this way!

Several weeks ago, I got an email from a church north of Fort Wayne asking if I could speak at their women's dinner this year. I was happy to do that and began working hard on my message for the evening. Ryan, of course, was planning to come with me, take pictures, run my Power Point...all of it!

Well, a few days before the event, he told me he had bad news: he wasn't going to be able to come with me after all. He said he had something that he had to do for my birthday gift and that was the only night it was going to work out to do it, and I didn't even ask a single question about it.

See, here's the thing. I love birthdays, and big birthdays are especially huge for me. So I told him I did not care for a minute what he did for my birthday, but I just wanted something special. And I didn't want to know what he was planning, because I'm not a spoilsport that way. So once I found out he needed the night off for birthday related reasons, I gave him my blessing and called the conversation done. I didn't want to know more!

So Friday afternoon, I packed up the car and drove to the church, which was about two hours away. I had a gorgeous day to travel and found it with no problem.

I don't have many pictures of the evening, because my photographer was on birthday duty! I didn't know any of the ladies at the church (other than the one I'd been corresponding with about the evening) and felt kind of odd asking strangers to take pictures for me, so I just have a couple of quick shots I grabbed before everything began.

We had a great time, though. Delicious food, great fellowship, and the ladies were kind and attentive as I talked. I hope they got a nugget or two to take with them!

Meanwhile back at the ranch, I did not know that my gift was a surprise party and Ryan stayed home to actually assemble the party! WHAT?!?!!??

He and a whole team of my friends and family got together at the church where his family hosts all their parties, to put up a tribute to my almost 40 years on this planet! (I still have a week left, so I'm still 39.5.) Oh my goodness. They all worked so hard. So many decorations, so many details, so much work! (I felt appropriately guilty about all their hard work, but when I found out about it, I also thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it!)

I can't wait to tell you more about it! (We'll be talking about it on the podcast tomorrow, so definitely come back for that!) Ryan went all out and hired a photographer to take pictures for me, so it may be a while before I have those, but I can still tell you the story soon...and then I'll show you the pictures when I get them!

And that's the tale of a Friday night in Shafferland!

The *SURPRISE!* Shafferland Shuffle

Well! Some of you know this already and some of you don't, but my husband, family, and friends got me GOOD yesterday. Guess who found herself smack in the middle of a surprise party?

THIS GIRL!!

So obviously that will be blog fodder for days. :) I'm still a bit speechless, and it's been hours now, since that door opened and half a million voices yelled surprise!

Hopefully the old Shuffle makes sense today!

* Last Sunday we were in celebration mode, because we helped with a baby shower! Ryan's sister is having a baby this summer, and a bunch of friends and family got together to celebrate all of them! I helped with pictures, and we had a fun Sunday!

* Monday was STUNNING!!! We even squeezed in a quick walk before our day got crazy! That night, we played divide and conquer, because Ryan went to help our friends work on demo projects at their house (he was like a kid on Christmas with that!) and I went with my friend Cara to cheer on our favorite tennis coach! (Our friend and fellow class-of-96 member!) We even made fan club signs and the whole bit. It was a FUN night! Bekah's first tennis match is in the books!

* Tuesday night we wrapped up our small group for the year by hosting a cookout for our group! We had another beautiful weather day and loved opening up our garage for dinner together with these people who have become our dear friends. We appreciate them! (Phoebe even came! She was quite a helper.)

* Wednesday was our 65th monthiversary! We had a busy day, so we celebrated on the run, which included a meeting at church for some upcoming choir fun, and a Starbucks date on the way home! It may not have been the most elaborate monthiversary ever, but we were no less grateful for this life we share!

* I spoke this weekend, which meant I was very busy at home on Thursday, getting ready for everything! It was kind of rainy, so apparently that means ducks moved into our yard! But the good part of the rain this week? Leaves popped out on ALL the trees and plants! I was so excited! It did clear up enough that night for  walk, and we were so glad. We have missed our walks!

* Friday was (as you probably read) our little Braeya's (Brailey's) birthday, and I fear she had a rather lackluster day because both of her parents were far too preoccupied with other events. :) We did try to make her feel special, but you know, she's a cat. Who knows if she figured it out!?!? I spoke at a women's event that night and went solo, because Ryan said he had birthday stuff to do. Boy, did he ever!?!? I had a great time at the church, though. Such sweet ladies!

* And then there was yesterday! A day of shopping in Indianapolis with Ryan and taking pictures at our niece's birthday party turned into a big big SURPRISE for me! What in the world! I cannot possibly condense ALL of yesterday into a little blurb here, but let's just say there were LOTSA people, LOTSA pictures, LOTSA fun, and BELLE was at my party! (Yes, Belle the princess.) I am so grateful for all the people who were able to attend and for Ryan and his army of helpers who made the day a wild success. (Seriously, people. You want Ryan to plan your parties. He has mad skills.)

Can't wait to tell you about this party!!!

The Saturday Six

One.

I really enjoyed this post about accepting God's call on your life, not trying accept God's call for your neighbor's life. I actually just talked about this (in part) at a church last night, but it's something that doesn't necessarily come naturally to me. I thought this said it better than I did, so check it out!

Two.

I kind of fell in love with this sign. I love the saying and the design. Wedding season is coming! This would be a perfect gift!

Three.

Maybe it's because I have a goal of organizing my office this month, or maybe it's because I'm a sucker for cute things, but I loved these chalkboard painted mason jars for storing office supplies!

Four.

The end of the school year is rapidly approaching (or so half of my carpool crowd reminds me on a daily basis). Time for teacher gifts! Stumped? Check out these ideas!

Five.

I stumbled upon this vacation idea this week and immediately put it on our bucket list. Of course we live too far away from all the locations to make this a weekend trip idea, but one of these days it could surely happen, right?

Six.

Source

Unless I have too busy of a week to read a book, you know the #6 slot on this post is always about a book I've read. This week I'm doing it a bit differently, only because I know I've reviewed something to the tune of four Irene Hannon books in the last two months. :) You obviously know I like her writing style and am unlikely to say anything bad about ANYTHING she writes!

This week I read another of her vintage novels called Where Love Abides. It holds all my favorite parts of an Irene Hannon story: small town flavor, sweet love story, and a thread of faith weaving through to hold it all together. This book is in the "Love Inspired" series, so it's a quick read and a bit shorter than some novels.

I identified with the main character of this story, Christine, because we share a fear of law enforcement! My own fears stem from dumb encounters when I've been pulled over. (You honestly wouldn't believe the stories!) Her fears stem from much more legitimate reasons, but that common ground made her feel a bit like a kindred spirit!

If you're looking for a sweet little love story, I recommend Where Love Abides! (Thanks, Shari, for sending it my way!)

A Hodge Podge of Friendship and Such

I have so many things to catch up on with you - so many random little bits of information, so if it's all the same to you, I plan to just throw them together in a big post today! :) And since I feel bad ranking them in what could be perceived as an order of importance, I'll go chronologically instead. :) 

* Allllll the way back on April 15th, Ryan and I spoke together at a wedding shower here in town. We did not know the bride or the groom, but one of the shower planners is a friend of mine. She'd heard me at the bridal shower I did last spring and asked if I would come and speak at this one as well. When I found out it was a couples' shower, I asked if Ryan could join me, and she said sure! That experience is what precipitated the I CHOOSE YOU blog series we did for a couple of weeks (first post's link is here if you missed it) and we so appreciated all the kind feedback you sent us! I never did an official post on the shower, though, so here are a couple of pictures from that:

That last picture is with my friend Kari, and I am so grateful for her. I used to work with her mom in my IWU days, and she "set us up" as friends. That's been more years ago than we will pause to count, and Kari has become so so so dear to me over the years!

* Then a little later in the month, my best friend and her husband were in Indiana (they live far away, out of state) for her grandma's 90th birthday party. They decided to spend the night at our house before leaving for home the next day! I am so grateful for our house and the way it allows us to actually house friends from out of town! (Our old house didn't support that so well.) It was fun to spend time with them (and their dogs) and show them our house, which they had only ever seen on the blog! 

* We also had the chance to go out to eat with one of the couples from our small group. (We've been out with a couple of the other couples and want to eventually get to all of them!) These two are newlyweds! In fact, it was their wedding where the photographer took the photos of us that we featured in that one I CHOOSE YOU post. We have really enjoyed getting to know these two and are grateful for the chance to be part of their lives!

* TODAY is also a very special day for our loved ones. First it's my sister's birthday! Happy birthday, Lori! Her life has been very busy lately as she has embraced her new role as Nana to little Caroline. (Aren't they the cutest?) But as crazy busy as she is, I appreciate that she still takes time to text with me and swap stories. This is the sister whose graduation I nearly upended when I was...you know...born. :) Hope she has the happiest day!

* And TODAY is also a very big day for our little four-legged girl. TWELVE years old today, and I bet she has the distinction that no other cat has ever had. We recently renamed her. True story!

Back when I got her, twelve years ago, I named her Braeya. I'd had her for all of (almost literally) five minutes when she got lost in my house and I couldn't find her. She was lost for so long that I honestly thought she'd somehow gotten out of the house, and she was SO tiny, I figured I'd never see her again. It turned out she had just gone into some kind of kitty coma under the washer and didn't come out for hours and hours and hours. I was so relieved and so mad all at the same time that I immediately gave her a middle name. I could tell it was obvious she needed one. So she became Braeya Jo.

Well, this last December, when we were on our Friendtastic Fifth Anniversary Adventure, our neighbor watched her for us. But she misunderstood her name and called her Brailey. We felt bad correcting her, so we just joined her. LOL! And somewhere along the way, we realized we were calling her Brailey ALL THE TIME.

Then, a few weeks ago when our niece and nephews were visiting, Brailey was acting up, and I gave her a stern BRAILEY JO. My niece thought I said Jones and started calling her Brailey Jones. It so cracked us up that we adopted that too.

And that's how it has come to be that as a twelve year old, our Braeya Jo is now Miss Brailey Jones.

So happy birthday, Brailey Jones. We hope turning twelve is fun for you!

Whew! Hope you feel caught up! Happy Friday to you!

Ryan's 39th birthday!

I haven't had a chance to tell you about Ryan's birthday! :) It was actually back on April 24th, but we were in the middle of our I CHOOSE YOU series then, so I didn't get to tell you!

For the past few years, we've gone to Tucano's to celebrate his birthday, but our last experience there was a little rough, so he wanted to try something different this year! That was fine with me! Also new this year: he took off work on his birthday! He's never done that before, and I have no idea why. I think everyone should get to have their birthday off work! :)

I had been planning and planning, trying to make the day special for him. He said he wanted to eat at Giordano's pizza, and we actually now have two locations in Indianapolis, so I knew that was our destination.  Weather permitting, I planned for us to explore part of the Monon Trail, because we've talked about doing that forever and just never have. And then I found the coolest thing. I discovered you can take tours of Lucas Oil Stadium. How fun would that be for a Colts fan??? You couldn't buy tickets ahead of time, the site said. You have to go to the stadium on the day and buy tickets there. So for over a month, that was the plan. I was so excited, and when I told him the itinerary, he was so excited.

Wife win!

About three days before his birthday, the weather forecast shifted abruptly from warm and sunny to cold and rainy, canceling our trail-walking plans. Womp womp.

The day before his birthday, I discovered some conflicting information online about the tours. (Mostly about the cost and the days they offered them.) I did not want any unpleasant surprises on his birthday, so I called the stadium to ask. The lady did not even let me finish my question before she cut me off and said, "We're not giving any tours this week. At all." Apparently someone had rented out the building for the week. I hung up the phone and literally melted into a sobbing pile of goo on our bedroom floor. I cried (so not even kidding) for a solid HOUR. Like projectile tears and the kind of wailing toddlers do when you wait for a breath, and the longer you wait, the louder you know it will be. THAT kind of crying. That tour was the crowning moment of his birthday celebration, and Miss Personality had just killed it without an ounce of remorse. I was done.

Ryan felt so bad about it and assured me all he really wanted was a day off to spend with me. I reminded him of the meltdown and told him maybe he should have new birthday goals. (HA!)

Soooooooooooooooooooooo...here was the way the day actually panned out!

* Ryan slept in, which he never does, and then he got up and opened his presents! He had saved a bunch of cards that had come in the mail so he could open them on the actual day, and he opened his present from me! I gave him his very own coffee bean roaster!

(One step closer to being fully self-sufficient on our coffee addiction!)

* We took the kiddos to school, and they were SO excited to see him in the car. They jumped in and took it upon themselves to sing Happy Birthday to him! (It was so cute.)

* Ryan loves a McGriddle, so we went through the McDonald's drive-thru to get one for his breakfast, and then we went to Starbucks so he could cash in his free drink. (You have to do that ON your actual birthday now, and we didn't want to risk being too full later in the day!)

* We headed to Indy and made a couple of errand stops on the way. By the time we got downtown, it was almost lunchtime, so we decided to find a parking place and go to Giordano's. Weird thing: almost all the downtown parking garages were completely full at noon on a Tuesday. We finally found one that had a handful of spots left and claimed one. On the seventh floor. WHAT!?!?

* We made it almost all the way down to the street when we noticed the sign that said to exit this garage, you have to pay at a kiosk, because no one works at the exit. So we climbed all the way back up to the car to get the ticket, and back down. Sigh. We had to walk a few blocks to get back to Giordano's, and on the way, we passed a gentleman having trouble with the newfangled parking meter, so good Samaritan Ryan stopped to help him.

Giordano's at last!

* It was blissfully slow inside, so it was nice and quiet for conversation and photo opps. I'd found a coupon online for a free appetizer, so we got that, and then we ordered a pizza (which we promptly ate over the course of four meals. Those are so huge!).

* They're not only huge, they're also heavy, and we wanted to walk around downtown Indy for a bit, so we climbed back up seven floors of the parking garage to put our leftover pizza in the car. We were thankful that although it was a chilly and rainy day, it wasn't pouring, so with umbrellas, we could comfortably walk around outside. And we did! Among our finds? American Ninja Warrior was about to film on the Circle, and Ryan wanted pictures with their trailer:

He found a little coffee shop (okay, Siri found it) called Pearings and we decided to go there for coffee and frozen yogurt. (And free WiFi and phone charging.) It was such a peaceful way to spend some time!

 This is the Instagram gallery wall I told you about in the Saturday Six last week. I think they had 3 or 4 of these in there, and I loved them all!

 From here on, I'd like my coffee served this way, please!

After that, we decided to come home and just enjoy some time there. I felt bad later that Ryan's official birthday dinner was leftover pizza, he never had any candles to blow out, and the only singing he heard was from the kids! (Whoopsie!) But he declared his day was fun, and I'm grateful for that! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RYAN!!

What I Learned in April...

I know. I know. It's May second. April was so last month! But I didn't want to interrupt my I Choose You series to tell you trivial things I learned last month, I'm telling you today! :) HAPPY MAY! Happy arrival of sunshine, happy almost summer, happy nearly end of school, happy birthday month to me, happy EVERYTHING!!!!!

I don't think April filled me with any life-altering knowledge, but I did pick up a few bits and pieces of information, so here you go! Here are the things I learned in April!

1. Snow is not a funny April Fools joke.

Thankfully, April Fools Day got a bit lost in the shuffle this year, since it fell the same day as Easter. I actually don't like practical jokes, so that is never my favorite day of the year. But what was especially NOT funny was the five or six inches of snow that fell that night. Not a funny joke!! ;) Wasn't funny any of the rest of the weekends that brought snow this month, either!

2. Julie on Matlock is Julie MARCH, not Julie MARSH.

Yes, it's true. Ryan and I are Matlock junkies. We may or may not have DVR'd all the shows so we can watch all the seasons straight through. During one episode the other day, Julie (the redhead) said her name very slowly, and Ryan and I just stared at each other. Did she say March? All this time we thought her last name was Marsh! Whoopsie!

3. I've missed garage sales.

I was driving the kids to school one day this month and saw a sign for a garage sale, and I nearly decided to declare my own field trip for the three of us. I went to several sales last summer and have apparently really missed them, because that little sign made my heart giddy!

4. "Our" coffee shop is closing...temporarily.

While we often go to Starbucks, because we have gift cards, there is a little local coffee shop near us that we enjoy visiting. We knew they were in the process of building a new building, but we did not know their lease was up where they have been, and they have to get out before the new building is done. So we learned this month they're closing temporarily.

5. Sally Hansen makes gel polish. 

Back when I worked at the station, Lynne gave me some bottles of Sally Hansen's (then) new "gel" polish. It was supposed to function with all the greatness and longevity of real gel polish without all the curing beneath a light. Did. Not. Work. On. Me. At. All. Chipped in a day flat. Smudged like crazy. But this month I learned they also have a line of actual gel polish! Like the curing-beneath-a-light kind! Who knew? I haven't tried it yet, but I found it at Meijer, so I sure will try it!

6. You're supposed to drive at 9 and 3, not 10 and 2.

Apparently this information is a few years old, but I just learned it this month! When I took driver's ed, I was taught to grip the wheel at 10 and 2, but apparently now "they" say to use 9 and 3! I figure I'm okay since I normally drive at 6 (ha!) but that was brand new for me!


So there you go! Things I learned in April!

I Choose You: Works for You!

Happy podcast Tuesday to you! We've got some stories - including the recap of Ryan's Plan D birthday! Enjoy!

 Listen here!

This really is it! The final day of the I Choose You series. I wanted to give it a proper conclusion! :)

Here are some of our final thoughts on this subject!

In our home office, we have an art print that displays a saying adapted from The Book of Common Prayer. It says, "Make our lives together a sign of love to this sinful and broken world."

That is our ultimate prayer. We desire, more deeply than anything else, for people who eavesdrop on our marriage to see a sign of love. We desire that they see a couple of redeemed and restored people doing their very best to love each other through the power of the Holy Spirit.

A while ago, as we prepared to share this I Choose You message with a church group, we asked some of our friends if they could describe us in three words. We were just curious to see what they see in this marriage we have. Here were their thoughts. (Some answers were duplicated.)

Caring, thoughtful, fun, busy, emotional, devoted, fun-loving, intentional, Christ-centered, gracious, partnership, committed, loving, respectful, dedicated, and togetherness.

We were excited to see the themes that prevailed through our friends' thoughts. But we also loved what one of our friends did in his response. Rather than giving us three separate words that described us, he gave us a phrase: works for them.

We. Love. That.

The specific things we do to show all these traits people see in us are the perfect blend for us. We didn't share this series to convince you to imitate our every move. We want you to find what works for you. 

What can you do to be a couple committed to actively choosing one another every day? How can your lives and marriage be a sign of love to a sinful and broken world? How can you work together at being intentional, keeping chronicles of your days, helping one another, sharing optimism, keeping the lines open, protecting what is sacred, conjuring up excitement, carrying your half of the yoke, looking only at each other, and living with deep understanding?

And if you're not married now, how can you prepare for this as you wait and pray for your someday-marriage?

Do what works for you, and in so doing, make your lives - and your marriage - a sign of love to this sinful and broken world.

Thank you again, so much for reading along with this series. We hope you have found nuggets you can take (or save) to apply to your own life. We hope you've found words of hope and truth here, and we hope you can join us in being a sign of love!

If you missed any of the earlier posts, you can catch them all here!

I Choose You: Introduction

I Choose You: Intentional

I Choose You: Chronicles

I Choose You: Help

I Choose You: Optimism

I Choose You: Openness

I Choose You: Sacred

I Choose You: Exciting

I Choose You: Yoked

I Choose You: Only

I Choose You: Understanding

I Choose You - Works For You