well, tomorrow is the dreaded day (valentine's day) and as much as i've tried to put it out of my mind, i can't. everything around me draws attention to it - even the text on yahoo is pink and surrounded by hearts. my choice of music today - norah jones and john mayer - is probably not helping the situation very much. they are both just oozing with comments on love.

but, that is all ok because i have a date tomorrow night. i know it is shocking. ok, it isn't actually a date - it's more like plans. i'll be hanging out with some of my girls tomorrow night. we'll be going to dinner and a movie. it was a difficult choice between matthew mcconaughey and ben affleck, but it looks like ben is going to win and we'll be going to see daredevil. i'll let you know how it was. i'm sure we'll have a blast.

all this valentine stuff has gotten to some of my girls, too and this week some of them have been talking to me about it and the fact that they don't have dates and aren't very happy about that. i love these girls. they are some of my most favorite people in the world and they are all so unique, fun, funny, talented, creative, and beautiful. it is beyond me how guys continue to miss that. unfortunately, they miss that about themselves. i can understand the struggle because i remember being their age and frustrated with guys, but i've slowly learned that who i am is not dependent on any guy and what he thinks of me. affirming my girls was a part of my ministry before, but it has jumped close to the top of my priorities this week.

another exciting thing about tomorrow is the arrival of the voss baby. i can't wait to see him or her. it is kind of crazy to think that tomorrow the baby will be here.

my weekend in st. peters with brennan manning was more than i expected. i resonate so much with the language he uses to communicate the love of God and the freedom that his love guides us into. the weekend really tied together a lot of the things that have been running through mind for the last 6 months or so. anyway, i highly recommend brennan's books, tapes, anything of his you can get a hold of.

the road time was also great. the trip was about 12 hours round trip, which was more time than i spent listening to brennan... but that's ok. it had snowed and missouri was absolutely beautiful. so, i enjoyed great scenery and was able to spend some quality time with a few cds. as always there was a lot of dave matthews playing: dave & tim reynolds, crash, and one of my new favorites, busted stuff. it's a great cd and it is full of some great questions and ideas. i highly recommend it. i also listened to coldplay's new one, a rush of blood to the head. the dixie chicks, caedmon's call, john mayer (btw i got his new release yesterday - i've really enjoyed it so far and as an added bonus it was recorded in birmingham! b-ham rocks!!), sandra mccracken, u2, and norah jones kept me company, too. all of them proved to be great road trip tunage.

i've spent a lot of time lately making travel plans for the year. i'm planning to go to a renewal retreat in spain in october. i'll be staying in the incredible benedictine monastery of montserrat. it is located in catalonia, about 45 km northwest of barcelona. my time there will be spent mainly in prayer, rest, reflection. but there are also different times that we will be able to go to different places of cultural and religious significance. i can't wait to go!

brad and shannon voss' new baby should be here valentine's morning - if not sooner! everyone is very excited about the new arrival. i spent some time with phoebe last night and had a blast. we went to chick-fil-a. they have a great playground there and phoebe is a pretty impressive climber. i'm sure she gets it from brad. for some reason while we are at the playground all the kids kept coming up to me and talking to me. there were other adults there, but they were only talking to me. anyway, it was a little bizarre. so, after chick-fil-a, phoebe and i went back to my apartment, made some cookies, and watched the princess diaries. it was a lot of fun!