Top Ten Moments of the Weekend

10.)…we are moving in a few days and closing on this house…it feels like elation and terror…debt and freedom…owning and being owned…but I just remembered last night at midnight how super F-U-N moving is! Right? Moving is fun, right? (C’mon, help me convince myself)

9.)....I decided on the 6 hr. drive home last night that I need to read my vows everyday- marriage isn't for wimps!- so I have a new craft project: I am going to adhere pictures of each other from the wedding to the canvases we brought a few days ago (so we could learn to paint) and paint our vows over the top of the picture. Then frame them both and hang them over the bedside tables in our new house...shhh! Shawn doesn't know- its going to be a secret

8.)...Shawn said , when we got married, that one of his goals was teach me how to sleep in. I laughed, but maybe he is succeeding. I woke up at 11:36 this "morning"- that's a record.

7.)…Shawn and I are reading the Chronicles of Narnia out loud together at night. Its kind of fun to read aloud, especially when you have a giant hardback storybook like me! So last night I dreamed about Lucy, (Is she everyone’s favorite, or just mine?) I dreamed once that I was her and then in the next dream that I was auditioning for her part in the movie. I remember hearing somewhere that Barbara Streisand stuck her gum under the table in an audition once so the directors would remember her among all the other talented women. I must’ve been thinking about that in my dream, because when I signed my name up I didn’t just want to write “Kate McDonald” so this is what I did: I got a newspaper and painted these words on it: “Lucy was brave, loyal, and innocent. Am I those things? Perhaps not, but I can sure pretend to be!- Kate McDonald” AND, (dramatic pause), in my dream that was so super clever…aren’t dreams funny like that?

6.)…I have a new favorite game. Its called “Apples to Apples” In fact its so great the sticker on the box says it won for “best new party game of the year!”. I didn’t even know such competition existed, but bravo! Shawn is board game freak and apparently its contagious, because I used to hate them and now I love them! In this game everyone gets 6 cards with words/names on them such as “Star Wars” “George W Bush” “flirty” “the beach”- you know, just completely random cards. One person is the judge and they lay down a definition card with another random word, only this card also has the Websters definition of the word too. Everyone else quickly throws down their card that most relates to the definition card- the last card put down (its also a speed game) gets thrown out, but the judge looks at all the others and then picks one card as the one he/she best likes. Whoever put that card, gets a point. Then the judging rotates to the next person. 7 points makes you a winner. You can take it serious, but fun is better. The word was “cheesy” Shawn commented he wished he had a Bethany Dillon card (this was his best joke of the night: silly? “oh, I need a Matt card” mouthy. “Where the wife card when I need it?" And so on.) So when the judge looked at the cards, Beth had placed “Gravity” Way to go girlie!

5.)…Shawn’s uncle was with us all weekend. The one who is gay and everyone either pretends they don’t know is gay or completely ignores him. What a tender hearted man. He came up and hugged us as we were leaving with tears in his eyes. My only thought: Help me be Jesus.

4.)...So I spent last night (the 4th) in Seattle. Shawn took his skateboard (yes, skateboard- my 27-almost 28 year old husband still skates as means to transportation...and yes, sometimes he still does tricks on it when he feels the need to show off for his new little brothers, Ben and Matt...case closed.) So Shawn and the skateboard hunted out the best spot to see them from and then myself, my parents and my two afore mentioned brothers went down to meet him. We were right on the water of Lake Union, literally with the view of thousands upon thousands of boats ready to watch the fireworks presentation. We had to get there quite early, so the boys/men played a serious game of Uno which my husband won although Matt won in his own mind since he had the highest score (no one had the heart to tell him the goal is to get the lowest one) and Mom and I played Scrabble. I won but only because I had the word "exam" placed so that the "x" was a triple letters score and the word was on a "double word score"- yeah that just sent me early on into the "you cannot catch me" realm. It was fun..we were the loudest, most uncool group for sure, but we still had fun. Mom pointed out that one family near us let their kids run around in the underwear, so maybe we actually tied for the uncoolest group. Anyway...the fireworks were UNREAL. So beautiful over the water. I have to admit thought it was kind of ironic at the finale..Seattle has never been so patriotic! "God bless America" started playing in the distance, the sound bouncing off the buildings around us and Shawn said, somewhat amazed, "huh. God and America both made it? wow" The irony of living in this city...

3.)...went to Shawn's Mom/Grandma's family reunion (The Arnett Family Renion). They are the most competitive people on earth! There was an actual 3-day tournament for croquet and bocce ball with brackets and winners and losers circles...very interesting. Over one hundred people participated in assigned teams. My mom got second place. My Mom- as in Tina Adelsberger who hates sports and competition- she got second place. The partner assigned to her was last years winner and his competitive spirit leapt out onto her or something. He came up to me and said "your mom is awesome! I told her 'hey everyone takes this serious, let's just have fun' and she responded with 'fun? let's win! winning is fun!'" Who? My Mom? They called themselves "the dominators" it became the strangest moment of my weekend.

2.)....We had a second reception in OR at the family reunion and we got (drumroll, please) among other great things, a torilla maker. Shawn and I looked at each other and said, "go make yourself a dang casadilla" Thanks for the laughs, Napolean Dynamite! *grin*

1.)…all silliness aside, felt the desperate need for Jesus to talk to me this weekend. When He really does speak, I am reminded how little I listen for it. I was lying in the spare bedroom of my new in-laws, tears running down my face, thinking “if you don’t answer me, I seriously have no idea what to do”…thinking it and then I said it. And that beautiful, mysterious calm came like a blanket over my shivering heart and He spoke. Nothing tops that.