Now You Know What My Facebook Statuses Would Look Like If I Had No Self-Control

See here's the thing. Every time something fun or exciting or frustrating or anything worth telling people about happened, I wanted to write a really long Facebook status to tell the story. But here's the thing. People don't typically want to read an endlessly long status. A status is, for the most part, supposed to be just a few lines long. A little snippet of a story. But see, those little snippets were never enough for me. It was just too much work to take all the things I wanted to say and condense them into two or three sentences. In the end, I'd write nothing. And that, my dear friends, is why I started a blog. Because whether people read it or not, I get my stories and thoughts out so they can no longer run through my head like a never ending version of "It's A Small World."

One of the things about growing up in a different country than the one I'm technically "from" is that when America's Independence Day rolls around, I don't really know how to celebrate all that well. You see, in Indonesia, I knew the traditions of "Hari Kemerdekaan" (Independence Day): the greased poll that people tried to climb all day to reach the basket of goodies at the top; the krupuk (Indonesian fried...snacks? I don't know what to tell you...) eating contest where they hang the krupuk from a string and you have to eat it with your hands behind your back; tying a nail to a string and then tying the string around your waist and then trying to get the nail into an empty bottle of soda; and a myriad of other Independence Day activities. We even had a nasi goreng (fried rice) competition one year. I always knew to expect those. But here in the states, I just don't know what they do. I mean, I know they do fireworks and grill out burgers and hotdogs but... is that it? I just really, truly don't know. Anyway, because of my lack of American Independence Day knowledge (I also learned that they pretty consistently just refer to it as "the fourth of July" around here), we didn't do anything much to celebrate. We did, however, take the puppies to Baylor campus and they went for a swim in the river. And a fountain. And chased the balls around all the pretty green fields. And I thought they'd sleep the rest of the day. But I was wrong. What a shocker. They finished off the milk in my cereal bowl. I put the bowl on the little side table next to the couch (for some reason I thought it was safe there), and then realized that they were lapping up all the leftover milk. Sigh. What's a girl to do? They were out with us for two hours! How can they possibly still have energy?

We bought a circular saw, wood, wood stain, brushes, screws, and a bunch of other woodworking items so my husband can build the rest of our furniture. You see, I really want bedside tables for our bedroom and the guest room, a coffee table for the living room, a dresser, an entertainment center (once we get a TV), and I'm sure I could come up with other things. Because you see, after having bought all the supplies, I sincerely hope my husband loves building furniture as much as he's saying he does. He used to work at Habitat for Humanity helping to build houses and loved it, so I'm sure I have nothing to worry about! And my hope is that we'll end up with a lot of awesome furniture for way less money than if we'd bought it all pre-built. :) And maybe he'll even let me help do something. I worked in the Theatre Department in college (on and off, I'll admit) and learned a bit about using power tools and such. I remember during Intro to Theatre, my professor said we were going to head to the shop and start adding coffin locks to platforms. I very naively said, "Oh...I don't do power tools." He smiled at me and said, "You do now." And in the end, I really quite enjoyed myself! I had to learn not to jump every time I used a staple gun, but in the end, I felt pretty comfortable in the workshop. And after just a couple weeks, I was quite the expert at putting in coffin locks. I couldn't tell you how to though, because I'm really bad at remembering names of tools. I can show you exactly which tools I used, but I don't have a clue what they're called. I'm getting better at it though. My man is helping me out. Anyway, my point is, I know (somewhat) what I'm doing and think it'd be a blast to help build furniture for our house. (I sure do take a long time to say really simple things..)

My sisters are, as we speak, on an airplane to Taipei. Then they'll head on to LA for a pretty quick layover, and then on to Dallas. They will arrive late late tomorrow night. Just thought I'd mention this as a prayer request. Just pray that they'll have safe travels throughout, and that they'll make all their connecting flights. Short layovers can be a bit disconcerting.

I want to learn to sew. Hopefully I'll have an update for you on that topic next time. Until then, much love to you all. And just remember, if you're ever feeling down, play with a puppy. I'm pretty sure God created puppies specifically to bring silliness into the world. :)