Backtracking

I need to backtrack a bit and mention that Will turned sixteen a week ago. SIXTEEN. I'm still not sure how that can be possible.

We celebrated his birthday by taking him to dinner at Chipotle (his choice)(which, thankfully kinda fit into my 7 fast) and then taking him to pick out his birthday gift from us before hitting up the mall so he could spend some birthday money. We did all of this on his birthday eve because he spent a huge chunk of his actual birthday down at the Young Life office doing a training for a summer work crew job. Will is a great kid and we are super proud of him. He's becoming quite a young man and growing up way too quickly. John and I commented later that night that our lives changed completely and for the better on that February day sixteen years ago...

Prior to the birthday celebrating, John and I attended a mini-marriage conference. It was a smallish affair led by some friends of ours and the setting was a beautiful home in downtown Colorado Springs (locals: it was in one of those big, gorgeous homes on Cascade). I will admit that I was a bit smug going into it. We've been married almost twenty-three years. What don't we know? 
It turned out to be a wonderful day that inspired me and challenged my thinking on some things and left me feeling extraordinarily grateful for my marriage. The friends who led it are working on a book and John is their editor so perhaps I can share more as that progresses.

Other random thoughts...

We missed Ash Wednesday last week because we were in the mountains. I was sad about that. I love Lent. I love that our 7 study is overlapping with this season and God is definitely using it to re-shape some big things in my heart and mind. I tried to download our pastor's podcast from Ash Wednesday but I don't find the podcast thing on iTunes to be very intuitive. Instead of one singular podcast, I ended up downloading 213. None of which are the Ash Wednesday one. I need to sit down when I have some extra time to figure that out and undo the mess I created.

Abbey's appointment with the allergist is today. She's not excited at all that I'm making her go on her "day off". She's also nervous! Her friend came over yesterday and her dad was telling us that she had some allergy testing done last year. Totally freaked Abbey out. I'm not entirely sure what to expect so I'm praying she will be brave and that it will be fairly quick and pain free.

I fell asleep during the season finale of Downton Abbey last night. I woke up when it was over and evidently I missed a LOT. I'm good for nothing after about 9:30pm (and often am in bed much earlier than that) so hopefully I can catch the episode later today. John told me a little of what happened but I need to see it with my own eyes!