Happy 41st birthday to my hubby. He's so cute, I just have to say. Joey gave him a cell phone and I gave him an ambient air cleaner for the garage for woodworking. How's that for a romantic gift? Joey and I also picked out a really kewl art deco-inspired tie and black dress belt. He'll be the spiffiest dressed guy at church tomorrow.

So, Kmusic. It was a whole different experience this week. Last week--crash and burn. Tears. Struggling. I didn't enjoy it at all. Begged Delyn to fire me. But instead of firing me, she spent several hours with me, giving me tips on how to control a wild class and had me observe her with a wild class and then was just a great cheerleader telling me how good I am at teaching and interacting with children and gave me all kinds of confidence so when I went to class this week, I owned the place. I was on top of things and the kids totally enjoyed themselves and didn't run all over the classroom and go crazy. They were engaged and interested. It was amazing. I was the Master. Master, I tell you. It was like night and day. I no longer wanted Delyn to fire me. It was such a transformation and it was only because I have such a good friend who would care enough about me to say "I don't care if we lose the whole outreach program--if Lisa isn't happy and comfortable, then something's wrong and we've got to fix it." What great friends I have.

It certainly was a different experience to struggle. I'm not accustomed to struggling--I either do something well or I don't do it at all (which is probably the reason I wanted to be fired at the first sign of trouble). It was painful.

Last night was our international dinner group. We hosted and the food was Yucatecan/Mayan. The chilled spiced turkey breast was very tasty; the lime soup was just so-so. The egg tamales were interesting but the chicken pibil was the best. It was flavored with spices and citrus and achiote paste and garlic and tasted very good. Mmmm. The fresh corn tamales were good, too. Now that I know how to make tamales, I'm excited to try making them with some kind of beef or pork filling like machaca or something like that. They weren't too hard to make at all. A little time consuming but not hard.

For Joey's birthday party, we decided to have a limo party. We've hired a limo and it will take the girls up to a mansion in the hills above Portland where we'll have a picnic and take some pictures and then the chauffeur will drive them around until our time's up. Joey will open her gifts in the car, too. And we'll have beverages in there and the TV, too. I bought sunglasses and glitter gel for the girls to help with their rock star look. It will be lots of fun. Then they'll come back to the house, have cake and play and do whatever preteen girls do until video and bed time. She's so excited she can hardly stand the wait.

We've been having trouble trying to figure out what to get her for her birthday because she's not really into anything at the moment but when we were shopping for Ed's birthday presents, she almost peed her pants over a black leather jacket at Nordy so I'm leaning toward that. And a stuffed animal because she's still wildly crazy about stuffed animals. And some sparkly jeans I got her at the G@p. She loves sparkles. I dunno what, if anything else, we'll get her. Perhaps a little cash to go along with it. She loves having cash. (Who doesn't?)

Now it's time for a little cereal action. Ciao!

--L