earth day birthday

yesterday was earth day, my father-in-law's birthday, and my birthday. :)

i had a wonderful day. nat surprised* me by taking me to breakfast at jim gould's. the pancakes there are gi-normous! i couldn't even finish all of my breakfast, so you must know that it's huge! :) nat also took me to a lovely dinner at timpone's. he tried to keep it a surprise*, but it's the only nice restaurant that i really like, so it was no surprise. :P other than that, i had a nice day with sean and go to run some errands. it was a nice day outside which lifted my spirits b/c it was forecasted to rain. :)

sean (via nat) got me some nice presents--a voucher for a family portrait, a pyrex glass pan (i broke on sunday, so this was a timely gift), and a pair of tongs. :)

* nat really wanted to surprise me on my birthday, but if you know me, i can be quite a pest about surprises. i want to be surprised, but i also like to play the game of "what are you going to surprise me with?". :) horrible, i know. :) a few weeks ago, i had made an off-hand remark that i'd like to go to jim gould's for breakfast with nat--he had gone with his breakfast group a couple of friday's b/c of a coupon. nat was discouraged b/c he thought i'd figured out that i was going there for my birthday. :P he also got discouraged when i guessed the day before we were going to timpone's. :P so, to keep the last surprise of the day, he wouldn't tell me who was coming to babysit sean while we went out. well, actually, it started out by him saying "sean might go with us, he might not. it's a surprise". eventually, he conceded and told me that sean was staying home. he kept referring to the sitter as "robot 2000" b/c he said he got a robot and not a person. i went along with the joke, and eventually "robot 2000" appeared. :) it wasn't a robot, but rather our friend susan. :) what a surprise! :)

cup stacking

when i was working out this morning, i saw that cup stacking made it onto espn's sport center's top 10 play of the day. after much searching, i couldn't find the exact video that i saw, but here are two that are pretty stinking amazing. don't blink, or you'll miss it:

you're such a meanie

i have to confess that i've been really mean lately to nat, and i'm not usually a mean person. it's been strange b/c i'm usually never mean just to be mean, but this past week i have been. i've been really sarcastic, spiteful, grumpy, crabby, and down right a b*&^h. :( nat knows i've been crabby, so he's been giving me space. and being the loving husband that he is, he has been so sweet in asking how i've been and trying to help me figure out what's been bothering me. the man has been a saint in just enduring my hurtful words and bad attitude.

well, i think i finally figured out what was bothering me after a week and a half of being a grouch. i'd been getting nat small little gifts here and there of things that i know he likes--good chocolate on valentine's, an Easter basket for Easter, wallet sized pictures of sean for his trip, etc. well, secretly, i wanted nat to be doing the same thing too. i thought it didn't really bother me until i turned grouchy (i think it was brought on by my period too). all my feelings just boiled up and i exploded. i told nat, and he didn't realize i felt that way b/c my main language of love is acts of service and quality time, not gifts. gifts have been more important to me b/c i think i want something a little bit more b/c i've been so busy taking care of sean and our house. i've just been so burned out that i wanted something a little bit more special. so nat, being the sweet husband that he is, tried really hard to get me little gifts. unfortunately, the gifts that nat gave me i wasn't really touched by. i felt more hurt b/c nat admitted that he wasn't really quite sure what i liked. we had to talk some more, and we both realized that it wasn't really "the thought" that mattered to me.

after our talk, i've been feeling better. nat came to the realization that he had been so caught up in work that he hadn't really thought about me too much. he realized, "if i want ramona to be nice to me, i need to be nice to her". well, nat's made a huge comeback this week. he's surprised me with filling up a picture frame with some of my favorite pictures of our family and this wonderful blog post.

throughout this ordeal, i've been really thankful for how God has been working in my heart. truly, without God, i think i would have just continued to suppress my hurt and anger and become even more passive aggressive. but God has reminded me over and over again, "in your anger do not sin". He's also reminded me how much i am hurting nat and our marriage by harboring these feelings. because of these things, i've been able to humble myself and be reconciled with nat. thank You Lord!