The other day, Annalie and I went to a Chinese place for lunch. Annalie usually likes Chinese food, but she was stubbornly insisting on this day that she wanted nothing to do with rice or broccoli or water chestnuts. So I ordered her a bowl of egg drop soup.

When our food was brought to us, Annalie cautiously sniffed the soup. “It smells good, but it looks kinda gross. Hmm, maybe if I can’t see it then I’ll like it.” She slapped her hand over her eyes and brought a spoonful of soup to her mouth and took a tiny sip.

“Hey, I do like it! This is pretty good, as long as I’m not looking at it!”

“Mom, I have an idea! You should take a picture for Daddy, since he always eats egg drop soup. He would be so proud of me that I tried it and liked it.”

And then I got a great fortune in my fortune cookie. It’s really more of a truism than a fortune, but I liked it so much I didn’t care. I brought it home and taped it up in my kitchen so I can read it often and think about it.

Only you can change your life. No one can do it for you.

Troy’s ship was originally scheduled to deploy on the 15th for a six-month WestPac cruise. Because of a schedule change, he’ll be home a little longer. We have been thankful for the grace period.

I took my Day 6 photo hurriedly as Troy and Annalie were leaving for their movie date. I had showered but not done my hair or put on any make-up, and our matchy-matchy shirts, a total coincidence, are something I’d normally not want documented because I’m weird like that. But as my Aunt Julie says, it is what it is. It was an un-airbrushed, unstaged moment in my life. And you know, it was pretty darn good.

This was a good moment too. While Troy and Annalie went to see Ice Age 3 in 3-D, I went grocery shopping, bought myself a latte, hauled all the groceries inside, cleaned all the leftovers out of the fridge, put all the groceries away, and did the dishes. Then I had strawberries and sea-salt French bread with garlic & herb goat cheese for dinner and sipped my latte. Ahhh.