So, I keep forgetting to put up pics of the hats I make. Here's the turban I made for Shana. This isn't the actual one I made. Mine was tan, but you get the idea.

I am now onto starting Bobby and Lisa's baby blanket. It's pink and cream. I start work next Tuesday, so I'm hoping to get a lot done before then. I've loved looking at patterns for this and the new patterns Rebecca, Jer's sister, sent me. Thanks Rebecca!! Truly, I loved them and am looking forward to sharing them with my friend Callie here.

In other news, after I posted about my birthday, I had another party. It was a surprise. On Wednesday night, Jeremy had the young adult group do a birthday surprise for me before the lesson. He had bought me flowers. I got a beautiful white bouquet of star-gazer lillies, roses, and other fragrant stock flowers. It's so nice!! The smart man he is, even took our vase from home to the florist so he didn't have to buy another one!! I love him. He also bought a scarf to go around the vase, so I have a new scarf too when it's done on the vase. Everyone at the party had paper masques on and pulled poppers w/confetti when I came it the door. It was great! I loved it! Lael, our new intern girl, even made me an apple cake. We had lasagna with as well, along with my puddin' wiches that I had brought with me not knowing about the cake. While everyone else had paper masques, Jer had bought me a special plastic one that is purple and decorated nicely. Now, I have a cool masque for any other occasion.

I have had a good 28th birthday. I woke up to my job offer being delivered (along with other paperwork) to my door. Now, if that isn't a good start to a day, I don't know what is! I chatted with Eric for quite a while not long after that. Then after some church work stuff, I came home and didn't do much until Jer and I went out. I decided I wanted steak. We went to the Angus Steak House. They have a "buffet" of uncooked meat that you can choose from and get cooked how you like. Nothing was small. I think the smallest chunk was around 12-15 oz. It was really good though! When they found out we were from around Texas, they asked us how they did. Apparently, Texas is known even here for steak. :-) After that, we went to see The Ugly Truth.It is quite a crude movie. Just to warn you. I have gotten several cards and lots of birthday wishes on facebook. Corin even colored a page for me. :-)

Callie Marlar and Me at Muriwai the day before.

The end of my steak dinner. We were sitting by the orange neon sign.

Skytower at night. Right now it is blue. They change the color occasionally.

Let's see what else is going on....

James, Anne Darby's cousin, is staying with us. He's trying to get a landscape architecture job here. He's been here for 2 weeks now. We have a new intern at church from ACU. Her name is Lael. She'll be here until December, so that's cool. Generally, interns come during our winter, so it'll be nice to have one here for spring/summer to do things.

We went to a Japanese festival yesterday. That was fun. We had several new things we'd never had before. James and I painted a word/character. He did "friend" and I did "flower". Our work is on the frig. :-) Jeremy did origami, of course. We also watched some Japanese archery. After that, we took James to One Tree Hill. Too bad it was cloudy and rainy, but it was good none the less.

I've been making big plans for when mom comes to see me in a few weeks. We're planning a trip to Christchurch over Labour Day weekend. (notice the spelling?)

Leslie asked for the website for the library I'll be working for. http://www.manukau-libraries.govt.nz. This is for all the Manukau libraries. Mine is the Botany one. There's only a tiny pic of it. The site just changed, so I've been trying to look through it.

Corin has hit the "NO!" phase. Needless to say, it's fun in our house right now.

Here is the granola recipe I've been making for breakfast. It's yummy. It originally called for raisins, but i prefer cranberries. :-) The message at the bottom is from the program I use for my recipes on my computer.