Happy Birthday, Becca!

Eleven years ago, my daughter was born. Amazingly, it never once had occurred to me that I might have a Valentine's Day baby. Her due date was February 13, and that was that! So she missed it by a few hours and got a really special day for her birthday- a good day for little girls, anyway! And she is a sweetheart. She was the most precious bald baby with great big gray eyes. John Mark named her Becca, since he couldn't manage "Rebecca". Even tempered and easy going, she seemed to take in the whole world with those luminous eyes. She could stare down anyone, then wrap it up with a smile.

Now she is a long-legged 11-year-old, still even-tempered and easy-going. She likes to do strange things with her hair and sometimes wears an unusual mix of clothing. She loves to write stories, draw pictures, and sing. Her brothers all adore her (even though John Mark would never admit it). She takes care of them all, even when they get on her nerves. Just recently she began shutting them out of her room when she finally had enough of them... can't say I blame her! This morning she gloated to her father that she is as tall as John Mark (John Mark is not happy about this.) She makes friends easily and is a champion of the underdog. She is a delight.
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It's been a while since I've been able to stop long enough to blog. We are in full frenzy now- I can't wait until this month is over! Here's a look at the past few days:

Friday

On Friday, we had the Progressive dinner. We ate appetizers at Wayne and Kelly's and then came to our house for dinner. Lynn & Tommy, Erik & Janice, Dallas & Crystal, Glen & Vicki, Steven & Katie and Tina all came over for Tacos. Afterward, we all met at the church building for desert. Imagine my surprise to see George from my yoga class there! He had come as a guest of Lisa and Ian. Wayne and Kelly had invited a new couple that they had met recently, Eric and Denise. They are very post modern thinkers and I was out of my league during the desert conversation- no light chit chat there! But we had a really good time, and we hope to get together with them again after this February madness is over.

Saturday

We spent a good deal of the afternoon on Saturday trying to undo the problems the new Norton Internet Security upgrades caused with our home network. It was very frustrating, and we really needed to finish Becca’s posters. Finally, after an hour or so chatting with a Norton tech in India, John was able to figure out what the problem was.

Saturday night was date night! This was our Valentine’s date, since Feb 14 is reserved for a birthday girl in our family. We dressed up and went downtown to eat and then to the Symphony Pops "Be My Valentine" concert which featured an old-time Jazz band from New Orleans. We saw Glen and Vicki there too! We stopped for Cheesecake on the way home, and the snow, which had begun Friday night, was still making flurries.

Sunday

Glen and Dan told the church about their trip to India and the UAE, and had lots of slides to share. It’s great to be a part of the work over there, and to witness the impact of real Christianity in that area of the world. Philip, the Indian missionary in charge of this work, is a modern day Paul- just incredible!

We stayed after church to help Wayne & Kelly help their kids work with the microphones. Their family is singing together at a school event soon, so I’ve been offering whatever assistance I can in helping them prepare. They’re singing a Weird Al Yankovick parody of a Backstreet Boys song about Ebay, and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”. The whole family is so talented- even little Michael-Ellen harmonizes with them.

After Sunday naps (a must in our home!) we finished Becca’s posters and went to CARE group at Ian and Lisa’s. John Mark went to youth CARE group at the Reynold’s. We came home and crashed.

Monday

Back to schoolwork. Becca put her presentation together and ran through it several times and John Mark began getting his speech together. Speaking with PowerPoint is a totally new experience for him, but he really likes fooling with his slides. Ben and Nathanael worked on their Valentines for the co-op Valentine Party.

Tuesday

Today we got the last schoolwork ready for co-op, I graded papers, and the 4-H club took homemade Valentine cards and baked goods downtown to City Hall. Unfortunately, the Mayor had someone in his office when we got there, but his staff was great with the kids. Our kids had AWANA tonight, so Becca decided we would do her “family” birthday tomorrow night. John bought me a beautiful bouquet of pastel roses for Valentines! I folded laundry tonight while John and I watched “American Idol”, “24” and the Olympics. We are tired.