Where to Start???

First, we had a wonderful Easter, despite the snow. This is our fifth Easter in Colorado, and this is the fifth time it has snowed on Easter weekend. I loved that we sang "Nothing But the Blood of Jesus" in church yesterday morning, especially about the blood washing us white as snow. It was quite fitting. Thankfully, the snow had melted by the afternoon and today we're supposed to reach about 60 degrees!

Our day yesterday was lovely. One of my favorite things about Easter Sunday at our church is the bells. During the somber Lenten season, we refrain from using the celebratory word, Alleluia, in our services. On Easter Sunday, however, we say and sing lots of Alleluias! Everyone brings bells to church and each time we say or sing the word, everyone rings their bells wildly. It is a beautiful, beautiful sound to hear! I love it so much, and yesterday was no exception.

We came home from church and had a nice lunch together--just the five of us. I think this is the first Easter we've lived here that we haven't joined friends for Easter lunch. It was different, but good. Also good was the two-hour nap I got to take! I love naps.

John and Abbey had a fun birthday on Saturday. We talked her out of McDonald's for lunch and went to Noodles & Company instead. And then next door to Coldstone Creamery. Did I mention it was 30 degrees and snowing? Who eats ice cream when it's snowing? I'm pretty sure they picked Noodles and Coldstone for their birthday meal last year too...what can I say, we're creatures of habit!

Abbey is having her birthday party later this week. I tried to have it before Easter and we couldn't work it out, and I didn't want to schedule it during Easter weekend, so we're going to do some celebrating with her little friends one day this week, which should be extra fun because her grandparents will be here! John's parents should arrive this evening to spend the week with us. YAY!

I'm usually running around like mad before company comes trying to clean. I *thought* about cleaning over the weekend, but honestly, I was just too wiped from last week's busy-ness. My house is actually in pretty good shape (thanks to having Bunco last week!) so all I have left to do today is a couple loads of laundry and vacuum! SUCH a good feeling!

As I was cleaning bathrooms this morning, I asked Will to go take a couple of boxes out to the trash. When he opened the front door, Jack-the-Beagle somehow escaped, and when Will ran after him, Jack bolted. Poor Will had on his socks and was chasing Jack down the street. Jack took off for an open field behind our house and Will came home bawling and extremely worried that we'd lost Jack forever. Oh yeah, Jack wasn't wearing his collar--Yikes!, so I was more than a little worried too. I loaded everyone into the van and drove off in search of Jack. We drove to a nearby park that connects to the big field where he'd last been, and couldn't find any sign of him. The kids were all crying (broke my heart) and asking Jesus to help us find him. They cried even harder when they saw a guy walking his beagle. After about 30 minutes of searching, we came home and drove around our neighborhood. As we were nearing home, I pulled over and told the kids to go look behind some houses (they back up to a field). They spotted Jack right away and we got his collar on and made it home...much to everyone's relief. Whew! I hope we don't have to live through that again. That was crazy. The kids were thankful that Jesus answered their prayers, and they've been lovin' on Jack all morning.

We're leaving in a few minutes to go run some errands...library, Blockbuster, carwash, and we're stopping at Petsmart. I think Jack needs a special treat, don't you??