a thoughtful gift

this little guy was a gift from a very dear friend who saw it in the store and was 'absolutely compelled' to buy it for me. [she told the friend that was with her about the significance of it and her friend said, "if you don't buy that for her, i'll be mad at you!"]. ironically, there were 3 of these little guys on the tree at the store and this was the only one that wasn't chipped.

this scuba diving bee [who would think to ever make such a thing?!] hangs in the kitchen, watching over our culinary practices. i love it... such a sweet reminder and a little 'guardian' in this Life After.

*if you are reading this and confused, read the post 'the significance of bees'.

birthdays galore

today we stayed at home and did a few things around the house. what we were really looking forward to was tonight -- Lorelei, Clara, the girls and i went out to BJ's for our annual birthday dinner. all of our birthdays are within a month of each other -- from September 22 to October 28. so we decided a few years ago to do an annual dinner, celebrating all of us at one of our favorite places with delectable food -- yum -- especially that pizookie!

if you don't know what that is, well it's a yummy cookie [choose chocolate chip, white chocolate macadamia nut, peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate chocolate chip, or cookies n cream] baked in a deep dish mini pizza pan served fresh from the oven with a big scoop of yummy vanilla ice cream on top. okay, my mouth is watering again....

it was a wonderful celebration with good friends. the girls love spending time with Clara and i always enjoy my time with Lorelei. we have always said our lives paralleled each other's in so many ways [both English teachers, married in the same year, bought homes in the same neighborhood in the same year, daughters born within days of each other, birthdays so close], but we laugh when we tell people because others don't necessarily think that's parallel. Brian always thought it a little funny of us to make that connection, too. oh well, we like it and have comraderie. that's all that matters, right?!

tomorrow is Lorelei's actual birthday, so i will say it here: happy birthday, dear friend!