Catching Up!!

Wow! I was on a regular blogging roll there for a while... clearly the last couple of weeks have been a bit crazy. Actually, one thing working against me is that my computer at home shuts down randomly every 5-10 minutes and I lose everything I'm working on. It's maddening but eventually I'll get my computer fixed.... So in the meantime, this is going to be a random post!

Anyway, Girls Weekend rocked! It is always soooo fun when Elizabeth, Missy, Becky and I get together! We usually do it in the summer at some point but since Elizabeth is welcoming baby #2 in July, we thought it would be best to do it before she can't travel anymore! And this year for the first time, I had the privilege of hosting the girls! I was so excited to be able to show them my new house and newfound cooking skills!! I work best under pressure in most arenas in life and thankfully I passed the test (my own) this time! I have to admit, I was a bit nervous because what if my meal sucked?!? But when the weekend was over, all of us were still too full from all the food we ate that we didn't want to eat again. I count that as a success! Of course I lso counted that a divine inspiration to go to the gym on Monday night after work!

Some of you might not be impressed but we had a rather full weekend. A full weekend to us is sitting around in our PJs just chatting or playing Nerts all weekend. But we left the house by noon on Saturday!! We went down to see the Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin. They were about 50% in bloom but still pretty enough for pictures and to be able to check it off the bucket list to see the cherry blossoms. (I actually hadn't seen them from outside my car in several years. The throngs of tourists are always a headache so this year instead of ignoring them, I joined them!) The Cherry Blossoms are always an opportunity to do some great people watching. I won't bore you with all the details but I will share two highlights. We saw a pretty good looking, yet rugged guy walking a cat. On a leash. And trying to take pictures of it. Actually the cat was walking him. I think the cat was much more embarrassed than the guy. Then we saw another guy who had dyed his bulldog pink. I guess he is very loyal to the Cherry Blossom Festival. Seriously. You can't make this stuff up. If we weren't laughing so hard, we might have taken some pictures!

But the trees were beautiful and I bought some cherry blossom potpourri so I can pretend it's peak bloom season all year round!

Then last weekend was of course Easter weekend. I haven't been with my family over Easter in a long time because I just LOVE being at my church on Easter Sunday. Despite missing my family, I had perhaps one of the greatest Easters ever. I started the morning by going to the Easter Sunrise Service at the Lincoln Memorial. I have lived in the DC area for 12 years and never have gone and I really wanted to cross this off my list of things to do one day. I figured I get up earlier than that for work on many days so I have no excuses. And when I read the weather report about it being in the 50s as opposed to the normal 30s, I thought this was the perfect year to go! So about eight or nine of us from church met up to go and I'm so glad I did. It was a beautiful service and I have never sat on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to watch the sun rise over the Washington Monument. It was beautiful!

Then I ran home and got ready to go to my church. I wouldn't have wanted to miss it! Easter Sunday is always one of my most favorite worship services and this year exceeded my expectations! At one point I had teared up because it was just a glimpse of what heaven will be like- God's people singing His praises! At my church, we have an Easter Cross outside that everyone comes and puts flowers in. In years past, I've been "in charge" of it which basically means taking a lot of people's pictures for them. And usually it is really cold! But this year I just got to enjoy it! And it helped that it was really warm outside!

I am sooo blessed by my church family! After church, I went over to my good friends, Joe and Katie (and Ella)'s house for lunch. In another new thing, I actually made two of the side dishes for lunch. Again, I ate so much food that I was just stuffed!! I made it home for a 15 minute nap before I headed out to my next meal! Don and Audrey (my pastor and his wife who are like second parents to me!) invited me over for dinner and to spend time with some of their friends from Danville (where they used to live.) Eating was the last thing I intended to do but the fellowship with these three wonderful families made me forget that I had already eaten my weight in food earlier in the day! After dinner, Don and I took one of the families on a night tour of DC. The weather could not have been more perfect and by the end of the night, I felt like I had known these folks for years! I went to bed that night completely exhausted but feeling incredibly blessed by God for all the wonderful people God has put in my life.

And I've also worked quite a bit in between all these other events. Remember work? Oh yes. For a second, I had forgotten everything I had done in the past two weeks! I'm still forgetting many things but I'll break it down to two highlights.

Last week (or maybe the week before that- I can't remember), I got to see my old buddy Sarkozy. He's the President of France. I like him because he's short. I've seen him many times like last fall in Pittsburgh. A couple of years ago with President Bush at Mount Vernon. I think he recognizes me now. Just kidding. He has NO idea who I am. But he makes me smile every time I see him. I think this time he had to have been wearing lifts in his shoes. He seemed much taller. He was here for a meeting with POTUS and they had a short press conference in the East Room of the White House. I was trying to brush up on my French skills before the presser but I still can only remember the words for bathing suit and potato. I am sooo sorry Madame Hosp if you are still alive!! I did have to rely on the translation headsets but just watching Sarkozy made me laugh! His facial expressions when he speaks crack me up! And for the record, my headset failed me for a few minutes and while I couldn't tell you what exactly he said, I did have a general idea about what the topic was. So I'll take it. Baby steps to becoming fluent! :)

Also, this past Monday was the annual White House Easter Egg Roll. I don't want to sound un-American but it is probably my least favorite WH tradition. It is just never that enjoyable! This year was the first time in the past several years that I wasn't out there when POTUS came out. I instead had to go out there later in the afternoon and try to find a specific lady that someone at my network was doing a documentary about. The phrase "needle in a haystack" doesn't come close to the difficulties of finding someone in that crowd. But by the grace of God, somehow I found her (even though I didn't know what she looked like!) I think it was a miracle! It was so hot this year that I was only out there for about 30 minutes. But that was enough time to see 5000 kids screaming because they were too hot and hungry. And 5000 parents trying to get their screaming kids to smile for a picture in front of the White House. And enough time to get completely sweaty myself. And enough time for me to get harassed by the Cat in the Hat character who insisted on hitting me with his tail. Good times. I think by the time Raygan and Nolan are old enough to go and appreciate it (and be a part of the screaming kids), I will have enough time to repress the memories of how crazy this event actually is!