Miscellany Monday

1.  Surprise Dates.  Kevin has been doing an amazingly sweet job of planning some super fun dates the past few weeks.  I've already mentioned our awesome horse-riding adventure, and this past weekend we went to the orchestra!  We got all dressed up, started with a delicious meal at Mitchell's Fish Market, then headed downtown.  It was a beautiful performance...though immensely sad at the same time, as it included an interesting twist.  It was called, "Life," and told the story of creation with the accompaniament of beautiful National Geographic photos, though it completely denied the Creator.  Obviously Kevin didn't know what it was about before we went, (so we shared a laugh about the irony!), but the panel they had after the performance was extremely eye-opening concerning the ideas that are being presented as "truth" in our world today.  Even in my own homeschooling adventures we have already had many interesting conversations as I've shared with him the biblical story of creation.  He has been faced for years with the story of evolution from what he sees on t.v.  The book, "Evidence Demands a Verdict," by Josh Mcdowell has been recommended to me for help in what I teach, and I have also been researching "Answers in Genesis."  As a teacher, and hopefully one day a parent, this is definitely an issue I am realizing how much I need to be further educated on.

2.  New baby!  We were so blessed to get to meet my adorable nephew Trace last week!  He is so precious, and his mom seems to be doing well.  Speaking of the fascination of Creation, whenever a new baby is born I am ridiculously amazed at how anyone could even want to believe that we could come from nothing.  I am so thankful I was planned with much more purpose than that!  And yes, I did love holding that baby! :)

3.  Special friends.  Friday night I enjoyed a very sweet evening with some wonderful friends and partners in ministry from church.  Thanks to my friend Marcie, who planned the whole evening, we enjoyed a fabulous evening at "Sisters' Tea Parlor," where they served us each a pot of tea, and both cheese and chocolate fondue.  Yum!  It was beautiful, and delicious!  I ordered the "Paris in a Teacup" tea, which was sweet with a taste of caramel to it.  So fun!

4.  Fun night out.  A couple weekends ago Kevin and I were invited to attend an event for the Police Foundation called "Boots, Badges and Bids."  That was the event I mentioned last Monday that I needed the western "duds" for, which required the dreaded 'Saturday shopping.'  My sister-in-law let me borrow her adorable boots, I found the brown dress in the Macy's junior section for $10, and the belt there for about $16.  I completed the outfit with some cute turquoise jewelry from Claire's.  It was so fun to get the opportunity to get dressed up and go to a fun event!  We had a great time.

5. Sweet student.  Finally for today, it was such a special treat for me to go see a couple of my students from last year run in their cross-country race!  I used to run, so I always love CC meets.  Claire was the sweet one who asked me to come.  I sure miss seeing her in class every day, but I'm thankful for opportunities to celebrate my former students in other ways this year!

That's all for me...can't wait to hear what's going on with all of you this week!  Happy Monday!