7 Quick Takes Friday Vol. 19

I haven't done one of these in quite a long time! I never felt I had anything note-worthy to write about. This week, however, I think I've dug up enough to come up with 7 Quick Takes!

1. I received a nice surprise yesterday! To understand it you need to know a little back story. The painting below of Jesus on the road to Emmaus used to belong to my Grandma and Grandpa. It hung above my Grandma's organ in their living room. It is one of my favorite paintings and I always told my dad and grandparents how much I admired it. They all told me that someday I would get it. Well after my grandfather passed away and my grandmother was put in a nursing home, my dad and uncles had a big estate sale. I didn't figure they would put the painting in the sale, so I never asked about it. It turns out they did NOT put it in the sale, but they donated it to the local Methodist Church. My dad had forgotten about my wishes to have the painting. He was really upset that he had forgotten, but I wasn't mad. I thought it was a slight bummer, but knowing it was in a church made me feel really good.

Well you can imagine my surprise when my dad came to visit yesterday and he had the painting with him!!! It turns out after all this time the church had not put the painting up and wasn't sure if they would be able to due to lack of space. My dad explained the situation and they happily gave it back to him!


As you can see it is a very large painting, so it will be a challenge to find a place to hang it up, but I WILL find a place for it! I'm so very happy!

2. Joe had his 6 month well-child check on Tuesday. He weighs 20 lbs. 5 oz and is in the 75-90th percentile. His length... well he's 25 inches (but Ryan and I are convinced the nurse measured wrong.) That puts him in the 5th percentile. The doctor said not to worry, that he should shoot up a couple inches in the upcoming months. A worry-wart like me should NOT be told percentiles!

3. Ryan spent part of yesterday pretending to be St. Patrick. We have TONS of garter snakes in our backyard and he ran around with a shovel trying to kill them. Even our elderly neighbor lady hollered across the alley and asked what in the world he was up to. He did end up decapitating one and decided on "leaving it in the yard as a warning to the rest of the snakes." They don't bother me, because they are itty bitty and harmless. Plus they might keep the mice and other gross bugs away. As long as they don't come in the house, they are fine to be slithering around in the yard!

4. You might be wondering how my Lenten sacrifice of giving up Facebook is going. It's actually going pretty well! Yeah, there are sometimes when I have a bit of downtime that I want to get on there to see what's going on in the world, but I have found other things to do in my spare time (like research cloth diapers and organize wedding photos for an actual wedding album!)

5. You might also be wondering how my exercise routine with Jillian is going. It's not. I have a list of excuses, of course, but my main one is that I just find it really hard to exercise to a DVD. It's so repetitive and boring. By day 4 I have Jillian's witty banter with her exercise buddies memorized. It's boring and not fun. Thankfully the weather is getting nicer so I might start walking or jogging more.

6. This weekend Joe gets to meet his great-grandpa Ed for the first time (One of Joe's middle names is Edward- after Ryan's grandpa!) I'm excited too because Ryan's aunts are coming as well and we haven't seen them since our wedding almost 2 years ago. They all live up in Minnesota so we don't get to see them very often. It should be a fun weekend!

7. I have spent the last couple of months organizing and putting into photo albums my pictures from junior high to college (that's years 1998-2007) They had all been dumped into 2 large totes for the past couple of years so it took a long time to organize and put into chronological order. Now I am working on getting my digital photos that are saved on my computer printed out through Walmart.com. Those started in Spring of 2007. So far I have printed off up until Fall of 2007... I still have a lot to go, especially with my wedding and birth of my son thrown in there! I wish I had enough motivation/time/money to do fancy scrapbooks, but regular photo albums will have to do for now! It is so much fun going through these photos and remembering all the good times I have had!

Have a great weekend, y'all!