A Birthday and A Portrait

First of all it's my Grandma Jones' birthday and I wanted to wish her a fabulous b-day.
She's 82 today, and I have so many fond memories of her while growing up. I often was allowed to stay up at our cabin with her and she always took care of me, if you ever needed anything, Grandma would search the cabin to find it, whether it was coloring books, crafts or rice crispy treats. She was the best! I love you Grandma! Happy Birthday, wish I could be there to celebrate!



Now on another note, I took the portrait challenge that so many bloggers have been doing. I haven't done it previously because I haven't felt fully apart of the blogging circle that participates, but Amy informed me that I should. So here it is, my self-portrait and the challenge given for it:

"take a picture of yourself in the mirror. any mirror will do. now, take a really good look at yourself. try to see your image as others around you see it. bring to mind something kind or unusual that a friend has noticed about you recently. can you see what they see? will you tell us about it??"
When I look at this picture I try to push away all the negative thoughts, like I just woke up thirty minutes ago, didn't want to get out of bed, spent the majority of the night listening to Collin cough, and dread the oncoming day where I'll be taking care of a sickie. But let me push those thoughts aside. Looking at this I know that people have been seeing me differently lately, or maybe just seeing me for the first time. I have been changing my spirit in a sense and striving for perfection through Christ. I think others have started to notice, my exterior has started to thaw with my interior. I've always come across as stuck up or snobby, when I've really just been insecure. Now I want others to see right into me and I want to shake off the shield I've been wearing my whole life. I want to be an open book in a sense and not turn away friendships and outreaching hands the way I have in the past, in fact I now want to be that outreaching hand to others and to invite them to look inside themselves and see what needs to change for true happiness to come about. This picture might not show it, but the one thing that has been kindly said about me lately is my appearance of happiness. I've been smiling more than I ever have. Thomas said to me the other day that he loves to come home to see me because of the smile I'm wearing all the time. That was the sweetest thing I've been told in a long time, and it made me realize that I don't want to waste another day not being happy.