Lovely

It was a lovely day today. Church was great. I just love how our pastor always ties scripture to real life. We read Corinthians - 'love always protects' - and he related that to motherhood. To parents, protecting their kids. To spouses protecting each other. It was a great sermon. And a great time. The music was FANTASTIC - and I'm undoubtedly bias since 2 of my 3 men were in the music group. B. did a terrific job - he's just so great. And J. had a great bass solo. H. did a terrific job on the A/V which was pretty 'involved' - a video, multiple songs, special mom's day slides. Busy.

IHOP was packed - no surprise there. But we only had to wait about 15 minutes and had a terrific meal. It was delicious. We went to Costco and J. got his dad's day present - a touch iPod. He's debating. I guess we had a miscommunication - kind of - I know I mentioned him getting the Touch - but he was debating between the middle and the higher (in terms of memory) 'regular' iPod when last I recall us talking about it. So when the $500 iPod Touch ended up in our cart, I was a bit stunned. I don't begrudge him anything - he deserves whatever he wants. And I want him to have what he will use - he has a terribly long commute (45-60 minutes by car and then another 45-50 minutes by BART) and he should have what he enjoys to make that time go by as quickly as possible. So he'll debate it and he'll read this post and feel compelled to take it back - and I don't want him to. I want him to have what he wants.

We have signed the kids up for a two week trip to Europe next year (summer of 2009) - together. The cost of this trip is not something we take lightly - and we will be having to 'cut' a lot from our monthly budget to put toward the trip. I want that trip for the kids - I want it to be B.'s senior trip and I think it's terrific that the two of them will go together. It's not something we just 'dip into savings' for - we could. And likely will, to some extent. But I am the budget master in this house and I'm already working on how to 'cull out' some money in our monthly budget to put towards the trip so we can dip into savings as little as possible. It's good that we have 14 months to 'save up' for the trip - we do have to make monthly payments starting in July, 2008. And because there are two kids going, those payments are not 'small'. But we'll figure it out.

My mom's day 'gift' was plants from Home Depot. And I did order some cosmetics from Sephora - I am in serious need of 'de-wrinkling' and 'age-defying' makeup so I splurged on some foo-foo stuff. But for the most part, I wanted it to not be about 'stuff'. And it wasn't, which suits me fine. The kids and J. all gave me separate cards - very nice, lovely sentiment cards. And that was plenty.

Still, J. so rarely 'asks' for anything at all. He's the lowest maintenance person I know - and so he will keep the Touch iPod, I hope. I mean, the difference between that and the largest memory 'regular' iPod is only $100. And that's not enough to worry about. There's no issue here. None. We have the $$ for that iPod and anything else he wants. So there's no issue.

I'm just warning him, and reminding him that my birthday is in a few weeks so be ready. My 'frugal' nature make take a back seat to a need for some new clothes. Or my own Touch iPod. Or something else. Who knows?

We have the pool cover on the pool to help it warm up this week. I'm sure we'll be swimming by H's birthday - which as usual, falls on Memorial Day weekend. We have so many other commitments that weekend - we're going to have to negotiate when he'll have the sleepover he has requested. I love how he always gets a 3 day weekend for his birthday - but it just adds a layer of complexity to our holiday weekend that I always wish wasn't a factor. We have a church picnic that Saturday, a double college graduation party that Sunday (his birthday) for two daughters of very, very dear friends (I was blessed to be present in the delivery room when one of these two lovely ladies came into the world and celebrating their graduation from college is an honor I won't miss), and then the Monday 'holiday'. I'm hoping to try to make it a 'long weekend' by taking off that Friday and possibly the Tuesday after as well. I hope to. We'll see.

Well, it's time for the final Survivor vote so I've got to run. Have a terrific week.

J., keep the Touch. I love you, my sweet. Happy Mother's Day to you, too, - you had an integral part in me becoming a mom. Yes, I remember it well. ('nuf said).