Little Happies -- One Joyful Easter

I hope you all had a wonderfully joyful Easter Sunday! Alleluia, Christ is risen!

John and I had special visitors with us throughout the Easter Triduum: his parents AKA my awesome in-laws! We had a lovely time relaxing with each other, exploring downtown Memphis, attending various Masses/services, and even doing a little baby shopping! It was just SO great that I have SO many Happies to share with all of you!

 --one--

Playing a new favorite game with two of my favorite fellas -- husband and father-in-law. Don't you just love their goofy faces? Also, you know I stood on a chair to get this picture for you. You're welcome.

Btw, this game is called Bohnanza, and it's a GREAT party game! There's not too much to it -- you basically just plant, grow, and sell bean fields for coins. But then there's also a lot of wheeling and dealing and luck of the draw. And the illustrations on the cards are a hoot! Stop by sometime and we'll play it with ya!

 --two--

When we told John's mom & dad that we could possibly be adopting in mid-May, they were SO excited and then insisted on taking us to Target to stock up on the essentials! Car seat, diapers, wipes, binkies, diaper pail, crib sheets, formula, travel changing pad, an outfit for baby to come home from the hospital in -- they were just SO generous! And my mom & dad bought us a beautiful crib!! I can't believe we own so much baby stuff! If you'd told me just a month ago that I'd be buying baby gear, I would have told you you were ruh-diculously crazy. And I would have been totally wrong. Mea culpa.

I think we're ready for baby now! And all thanks to excited future-grandparents. :) 

So now we just wait and see! The birthmom I mentioned in my last Little Happies post will probably be shown 3 profiles (including ours) on Wednesday. Ahh! Praying for patience, patience, and more patience! 

 --three--

The Rock n Soul Museum in downton Memphis is super cool! We took Mom & Dad Saturday afternoon and they loved it! I obviously had to force John to pose in front of this ridiculous costume, once worn by Elvis himself. We bee-bopped our way through the whole museum, learning about the history of rock and soul music in Memphis while listening to some great classic tunes. We highly recommend it if you ever visit Memphis!

 --four--

After the Rock n Soul Museum, Mom wanted to grab a drink on the rooftop of The Peabody Hotel, a hotel famous for the ducks they let swim around in their lobby fountains. We were 13 floors up! And the weather was perfect! Check out the view! 

  --five--

The Easter Vigil is always beautiful. I especially love when the church is lit only by candlelight. I wasn't able to get a great picture, but I can still feel the inner-happies I experienced surrounded by the warmth of the glowing candles. 

 --six--

This little creature was randomly formed by the dripping wax from my Vigil candle. What do you see?

I see a t-rex!! See the little arms and the long tail? Wait, did t-rexes have long tails? Oh well! I think it's super accurate and cute!

 --seven--

John, Stephanie, Mom-in-law, and Dad-in-law after the Easter Vigil. So lovely!

 --eight--

I made my Sriracha deviled eggs for the Easter party we attended yesterday. They were a huge hit, gobbled up very quickly! I may have gobbled 4 myself. Mmmm! 

 --nine--

Our friends have a hilarious birthday gift tradition. Since they're all at the point in their lives where they really don't want/need gifts, they instead just give (or re-gift) gag gifts to each other. Above you see Mr. D showing off this silly Italian chef with fish statue, re-gifted from some friends that are moving and don't want to bring it to their new home. We all had a good chuckle out of it.

There are some gifts in this circle of friends that have been re-gifted at least ten times. They're all so familiar with these re-gifted gag gifts that the birthday boy or girl will try to guess which gag gift is in the bag before they open it. Ha! I think this tradition is great because it takes the focus completely off gifts (AKA material possessions) and puts it on the truly important stuff: quality time and good laughs with family and friends.

 --ten--

Speaking of traditions, here you see us showing off our Easter baskets! Growing up, my parents would hide Easter baskets for each of us and we'd have a basket hunt around the house early on Easter morning. We didn't hide our baskets this year, but we still get a little something for each other to celebrate this great Holiday. This year was blu-ray themed (since Target had a sale)! Nothing says Easter like Despicable Me 2 and The Little Mermaid, right? :P

Happy Monday, friends! Can't wait to see your Happies!! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Your Lenten Word

Back in college, the church on our campus would have a basket full of pebbles chilling in the entraceway during the first week of Lent. Each pebble had a word written on it, much like the words you see above. It was a tradition in this church for all passersby to pick out a random wordified pebble, this word becoming your focus for the upcoming 40-day spiritual journey. I always liked this tradition and enjoyed having this physical reminder (i.e. the pebble), this call to focus, sitting and staring at me for all the days leading up to wonderful Easter.

I decided to take this tradition and youth-ify it a little so I could introduce it to my teens at youth group this Sunday. Seems like a great way to kick off Lent to me!

The teens have all been told to bring a palm-sized pebble to youth group this weekend, but they're not sure what it's for yet. I like to keep 'em in the dark sometimes. Makes it more fun.

After a guided meditation, in which the teens will imagine themselves in conversation in Jesus, they'll take a look at this word splash I created and pick out the word they feel Jesus calling them to the most. Whether it's something they need more of (wisdom, strength, joy), something they need to work on (chastity, forgiveness, patience), or something they just feeling calling out to them (blessed, nourish, justice), the hope is that they'll hone in on one word and just know it was specifically chosen for them by Jesus as their Lenten focus.

Once they choose the word that is really speaking to them, they'll write the word on their pebble and take it with them as a reminder of the word they've been called to pray and meditate on for the next 40 days.

After creating the word splash, I found myself excited to share it with all of you, and for a few reasons...

1.) Isn't it pretty??

2.) Ok, more importantly, isn't this a great little Lenten tradition? If you're feeling called, I encourage you to say a quick prayer, take a look at the word splash above, and pick out the word that Jesus is calling you to most this Lent. It may take a minute or two, maybe even just a millisecond, but I'm sure you'll connect with one special word, and that word will lead you somewhere special this Lent.

3.) Sometimes I feel like the options for Lent can be overwhelming. Give up this, take on that, be a perfect angel, pray every second of every day or else you're DOING IT WRONG. The truth is, that's not the truth at all. But it's all too easy to take on too much and lose focus in the middle of all this Lenten hubbub. So if you're like me and you just need an overall unifying theme (i.e. word) to keep your focus this time around, hopefully praying for and discovering the perfect word meant for your Lenten journey will be helpful. And fruitful. And God-ful. Amen.

And if you do pick out that perfect word, I encourage you to write it on a pebble or in your journal or on your mirror or just somewhere good. Pick a place that will continue to remind you to stay focused on your God-given word during this Lenten season.

I'll be praying for all of you, for a peaceful, prayerful, and fruitful Lent.

+:o)