The fourth seven days.

I'm continuing sharing my posts for the #100happydays thing that's going on, even though hashtags don't really work on blogger. : )

June 7: My aunt's birthday was yesterday, so our family got together for cake and ice cream this evening. I got there a little early, in time to watch the Belmont race (no Triple Crown winner again this year...I think it's cursed, like the Defense Against the Dark Arts position in Harry Potter.) My Mammaw made a homemade chocolate cake and Dia (that's what I call my aunt) brought over homemade vanilla ice cream. It's really amazing with mini chocolate chips! I'm glad I got to see my family and celebrate my aunt's birthday!

June 8: Church this morning was really great. We're in the middle of a series about "dirty religion", basically how we take the Bible and what God wants us to do and basically mess it up. This week's sermon was about how we don't all worship the same God, even though some people may believe that we do. Toward the end of the message, our associate pastor made a really good point. He mentioned the verse where Paul says it doesn't really matter if you eat meat that was originally intended as a sacrifice for another god, because there is only one God. And how God doesn't need us to fight his battles for him- the strategy for "winning people for Jesus" shouldn't be to wipe out non-believers with weapons, or to knock them down with sarcasm and insults, but to love them and share Jesus with them without being a jerk. I love that. I love messages like that. I wish that I had a better way of conveying that to some people I know, because I think I don't do a good enough job of it sometimes. Anyway. The sermon made me happy. The message of love made me happy. The fact that I know that my pastor thinks it's wrong to be a jerk to people makes me happy. It may seem like a small thing, but really, that's kind of the opposite of what some churches teach!

June 9: Today has been a bad day. I had to go to the dentist this morning (I'm having issues and will continue to go there pretty frequently over the next month or so) and I couldn't get an appointment until later in the morning- I usually try to go first thing, so I can just roll out of bed, brush my teeth, and go. Going later gives me more time to stress. When I got home, I was feeling really sick and shaky, and my mouth hurt so bad. I grabbed the mail on the way inside, and I had three pieces of mail from Compassion- two amazing letters from Mary and Victor, and Reine's info packet! These things made me feel so much better after my dumb morning! God gave me a gift via the mailman today.

June 10: I took some of my books over to Half Price Books to sell today, and was able to get a pretty decent amount for them- that always makes me happy! Pretty much everything extra I make these days goes toward repaying my Tanzania trip so I can go on my next trip, but money was really, really tight this week, and doing well at the used book store definitely helped us make it to the end of the week!

June 11: I had another dentist trip on this day. And it was not happy. It was panicky and stressful and I didn't do as well as I have been. I have the nail marks on my arm to prove it. And I was really worried about going to work tonight, because I have been hearing horror stories all week, from my own coworkers and people at other branches, about how busy and stressful things have been. Tonight was busy, and stressful at times, but there were a few moments throughout the evening where I was able to catch my breath, have a cup of coffee (and a donut from the surprise box on the kitchen table- the same bakery that did my wedding cake!) and I was so, so thankful. The five minutes here and there of peace was just so unlike what the rest of the week had been for everyone else- and looking back on that, I'm thankful for the interruptions in the chaos!

June 12: This may sound kind of dumb, but today, price-matching made me happy. I never know what to get my dad or my husband's dad for their birthdays or Christmas- well, I don't know what to get them that would fit in my budget. But thanks to a certain big box chain, I was able to find a really great price on something for my dad, show it to them on my phone, and actually get him something that I feel pretty good about. That doesn't happen very often! I came pretty close to high-fiving the check out lady when she took off the discount.

June 13: We went to see a movie today! I think I've written about my love for superhero movies on here before- today, I was very happy that we finally got to go see X-Men: Days of Future Past. I think that the X-Men are my favorite superhero collective. I absolutely loved seeing the first three films (fun fact: Brandon and I saw X-Men: The Last Stand on our first "group" date) and enjoyed the first episode of the reboot, but it just wasn't the same without Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, and more Hugh Jackman! It was so nice to see them all back on the big screen. We had a good time- we even got free popcorn, which was a little burnt, but what we did eat was still a nice treat!

June 14: I kind of forgot that two days ago, we took Brandon's car to the mechanic's and left it. I remembered late last night. I had to wake up soooooo early and drive him over to get his car so he could go to work. I came back home and slept for a few hours before I had to go to work. I'm happy that I got the chance to do that- I actually woke up a little easier than I usually do (the second time, I mean.) Maybe the key to feeling rested in the morning is getting up early and driving around for a bit before going back to bed?