flashback

last weekend our sunday school class had an 80s & 90s party. we collected music from those decades to listen to at the party, and we all dressed up. i had a great time looking through my cds from the 90s. some highlights include early alanis morissette, ace of base, coolio, and the one-hit-wonder preconfigured-dance-move favorite: the macarena.
a few weeks ago, i was telling a (50-year-old) coworker about our party, and she let me borrow some great 80s songs she had on record (or lp, or whatever they used back then) from when she was my age! what i really love about the 80s style are the bright colors- purple and teal are some of my favorites. amazingly, i already had almost everything i needed in my closet for my outfit. i did buy a t-shirt and some cheap jewelry. but, i didn't buy anything i won't be wearing again. you can't really tell in the picture, but i wore the hot pink floret earrings. i really enjoy having these in so many colors!as much as i wanted us to go as an 80s couple, it is very difficult to create a boy's outfit from the 80s. props to brandon who was able to do this (two pictures below, second from the left). his wife lori (the one i mentioned in my previous post makes jewelry ) made him a clip on earring. for chris' 90s look, we found a nirvana t-shirt at target, and he wore an unbuttoned flannel shirt over that. when he paired it with his boots (which may actually be from the 90s!) and cargo shorts, he was ready with his grunge band look. most of the girls decided to dress 80s. i really love lori's walkman accessory (she's to the right of me below). she said she found it at home in her nightstand!the guys are a mix of the two decades. here is what we called their band "album cover" shot! it was a great night, and it got me wondering: what styles will we laugh at from the 2000s in ten years?

paperie

something i really enjoy doing in my spare time is making greeting cards. ever since i was in elementary school, i can remember making my own cards to give to family and friends for birthdays and other holidays. i recently bought some scrapbook paper and other fun crafty items to do a craft night with my bible study girls between studies, intending to use the leftover paper to make some cards. that night we made bookmarks to use with our study books. here's mine:i really admire (and maybe secretly envy!) people that have a unique hobby that they could potentially turn into a full (or part) time job. one of my friends, liz, is a talented photographer and started her own business, yellow umbrella photography. another friend, lori, makes beautiful jewelry and recently set up a shop online for simply idyllic. maybe one day i will sell my cards...i just imagine it being hard to earn a living on products that are essentially paper and glue! i think sometimes it's just fun to dream about doing something else when my real job is challenging or doesn't seem particularly fun.i think one reason i enjoy making cards is that it combines two things i truly love: creativity and encouragement (or words of affirmation, for you 5 love languages fans). i like having cards around because you never know when you might want to send someone a handwritten note.

adventures in house hunting

christopher & i spent the better part of saturday looking at seven more houses with our realtor, josephine. i was curious how long this was going to take us because last weekend, four houses took 3 hours! i guess we're getting faster because it didn't take double that. we saw some great houses, and i couldn't put my finger on why but a few just didn't pop for me. josephine says we have to love it, almost instinctively. i have enjoyed this process so far, and we have a couple houses we really do like a lot.

one really funny thing happened at one of the older houses: we were looking around downstairs, then i was the first one to go upstairs to look in the master bedroom. at first i gasped when i saw this hairy thing in the middle of the floor. then i thought, no- that couldn't be...must be a dog toy or something (keep in mind that the house was completely vacant). but it was, we discovered, a dead squirrel! just sprawled out, legs every which way in the middle of the floor. josephine thought it was really sad and wouldn't set foot in the room, i thought it was really disgusting and tip-toed past so i could look at the master closet, and christopher thought the whole thing was truly hilarious...and took pictures. i'll spare you and limit it to one:
we developed a scenario for what must have happened, based on the squirrel's positioning: christopher thought he got in through the roof. josephine & i thought he must have wandered around desperately, looking for water or a nut. then he dragged his body across the carpeted desert until his strength gave way and he collapsed dead. fortunately he had not been dead very long- so christopher tells me, with his ME experience (as in, medical examiner not mechanical engineer!) from watching law & order reruns.

as we were leaving that house, our realtor called the selling agent of the home to let her know there was a dead squirrel in the middle of her master bedroom. she said a what? after josephine clarified, the agent wanted to know - other than the dead squirrel - what we thought of the house! um, it's not at the top of our list.