Weekend Snippets

Because we were so busy this past weekend, I thought I would just share snippets from it.

• Bryan spent the day Friday taking the Professional Engineering Exam. He should get the results sometime in January. So we wait. But, he thinks that he did well on the first half and not as well on the second half. We are just praying that he passed.
• I got to meet several authors at the KRA Conference during some of the time that I wasn't working. Some highlights were meeting Jackie French Koller, author of Peter Spit a Seed at Sue and sharing lunch with Fred Gross, author of One Step Ahead of Hitler. I also got to hear Nell K. Duke speak. It was probably one of the best research presentations I have ever heard.
• My mom and Seth had lots of fun while Bryan and I were gone and it was a great blessing to have her here.
  
• When I returned home Saturday afternoon, Bryan was sick as a dog. I guess all that stress caught up to him. :(
  
• On Sunday I turned 28.
• We enjoyed an afternoon feeding the ducks and geese at the park.

• We played on the playground and counted wood chips.

• After my mom left Sunday afternoon and as Bryan was starting to feel better, we headed to Nashville to enjoy an evening as a family.
• My birthday present was my first pair of TOMS shoes. I will be sporting Pomegranate Corduroy TOMS now. Bryan and I usually try to stay away from giving each other gifts on birthdays or other gift-giving holidays, but at least this present gave a child in need a new pair of shoes, too.
• The three of us had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory! Yum, and a super special treat!
• About thirty minutes after we arrived home the firetrucks came rolling into the neighborhood. The house diagonally across the street caught on fire and after watching and conversing with the neighbors for a while we decided to call it a night. (We aren't sure what exactly happened, but the young guy that lived there hopped into an ambulance and left right after all the trucks arrived. The fire department had the fire out after a few minutes but they work all night investigating and at about 4:30 a.m. this morning they boarded up the front door and left. *I only know this because I got up to see what was happening because of all the loud banging.)