Lead up to birthday 25

If I had waited 6 more days I would have had to take my driving tests over again. And I would have failed, because I haven't driven since 2005. But I may drive again some day (first with some supervision, I think) and so I was anxious to finally renew my expired license.

Plus I haven't been able to buy alcohol from any place that cards, and takes card expiration seriously/doesn't trust my face, for the past 12 months.

Would you trust this face?

This is my new bad ass, rock star (the appropriate acronym for which is BARS) mug shot.

When it (finally) came time to get my picture taken the sniffley and tired-looking DMV woman told me, "Smile if you want to."

Well, I didn't want to. I never want to. So I took my mother's advice she once gave me as a small, toe-headed girl grimacing my way through a fancy-dress photo shoot: "Don't smile."

I remember being slightly insulted by those words, but ultimately she is right, my "smile", in such situations, is not a pretty sight.

To my credit, I do sometimes manage a real smile especially when in the presence of Tom or some other very loved one.

And especially on Valentine's night, or whenever this was when we went to the movies and Tom bought me popcorn at $5.25 for a small (yikes!).

In other pre-birthday news there is a high likelihood of it snowing this weekend. There is slush on the ground as I write! I would be really happy about this as it has been t-shirt weather for a large part of this "winter" and the term "Fun in the sun" has no meaning for me.

On a grimmer note I have 2 term papers to pretty much begin and complete in the days leading up to and including my birthday. But will be celebrating Sunday (my day of rest) and possibly enjoying a visit from my newly-patched-up dad (motorcycle incident).

Also, I've already had 3 packages (that I've opened) from my sisters who shopped off my blog and etsy wishlists to my great joy. And a check from my mother-in-law! ("Mama Thompson"... not to her face).

What shall I do with my $? Stay tuned for my top birthday-money picks and help me decide!

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By the way, everything worked out with my classes! Praise God! I should be graduating in the Spring and I'm pretty excited about the new term. In fact, I wish this term would end right now with grades as they stand and the other would begin after an appropriate interval (i.e. Spring Break).

Also, I will be seeing my wonderful friend Kim tonight who I haven't seen since shortly after my wedding as she returned to Africa with her family to continue their work as missionaries.

I don't know what it will be like to see her after all this time - probably crowded! The whole church is invited. I'll have more intimate time with her later this week and I'm so thankful!