Lifelifelifelife!

I love my life. I really do. Despite the fact that it can be really stressful at times, there are so many wonderful things to be thankful for that so vastly outweigh the bad. Today was a great day.

First it's my dad's birthday! (I will not disclose how old he is.) I woke up early (or to be more precise, Miriam woke me up early; I would have preferred to sleep past 8 a.m.) and ate breakfast with my family. We had worship with some dear friends. Then a veritable multi-cultural feast for lunch. Hummus, pita bread, and tabouli, corned beef with horseradish, home-made sushi, and a cake from a Highland Park cafe that was not kidding around. Everything was fantastic. And, surprise surprise, it all went well together.

My dear Courtney stopped by during church (hehehe) and gave us something that Andrew has been wanting for about a year.

Oh yes. Cointreau liquour. None of your cheap Triple Sec blah. This is the Real Stuff. We are going to make some Kick Ass Margaritas with this.

Andrew is going to be in Tulsa tonight and tomorrow, getting the last of our things from his mom's house and coming down with her truck to help move out our stuff. My mom and dad dropped him off at the train station in the afternoon. While they were gone, Jason and I had a blast. When Miriam woke up from her nap, we took a walk to the park and enjoyed the gorgeous weather, talking to neighbors along the way. It was nice to see people out of their houses. That seems to happen so rarely in Dallas.

So, this is another test week and I should be anxious, but I am too happy to let that dampen my day. Miriam is sound asleep and I am spending the night at my parents since Andrew is gone. It is nice, and I am thankful. Oh, but Jason wants to start charging me rent for his room. Today he gave me this notice of official charges for tenancy:

Yes, the words do not lie. I did do these things. I did leave a dirty diaper on his bookshelf (but it hardly had anything in it, I promise) because I was in a hurry and couldn't find his trash can. I did not make the bed. And I didn't pick up every thing that I /could/ have. In my defense, however, I have spent years of my life changing his diapers, and feeding him when I wanted to play outside, and cleaning up his messes, and putting up with his mischief, and allowing him to scribble on my books, and slobber on my toys, and put stickers where I did not want stickers. So what was my loving response to his demands?

"AS IF!!!"

I confess to feeling little to no obligation to my nine year old brother. Perhaps it is unjust, but I am sure he will find some ingenious way to get back at me in the next few days ^_^.