you know how i recently mentioned that i was no longer in my barren desert of my early life, but instead i am abounding in the forrest of my adulthood? I mentioned that my present from Kelly, Plume's Desert Secrets ring, will eternally remind me that for everything i was NOT given as a child, I have been blessed ten-fold by something else...and this is what i mean.

My connection to Joel has been more than amazing - just him alone. But here this awe-inspiring man comes along with equally inspiring family. Most people cannot say this of their in-laws, but I adore these people...not just because they are family or because they have been kind of nice to me, but because they have completely changed my life...

There are parents you love because they are your parents. This is not why I adore the Morris's. I adore them because they first and foremost see their children as PEOPLE, not as converts or as a reflection of them. I am Candace to them, all parts, all combinations of moods, all my stages - and they embrace and adore it because it's ME...not because they are hoping I might finally turn out as they had planned. When we get together with them, we hang out as friends, they are genuinely interested in even the smallest happenings of our day, our friend's days, and our friends friend's day - seeing all of my life as important and worthy of hearing.

And they do all of this without any judgement or parenting - which is hard to do I imagine, watching your children get past the range of you being able to correct them, but they have done this with ease and graciousness.

I am convinced I can do no wrong in their eyes - and I am just an IN-LAW (though no one really even thinks of these terms) and this is remarkable b/c I can be one bratty girl.

In addition to the parents, my marriage has brought me two lovely sisters and their adorable and integrous husbands. I LOVE hanging out with these people - it was such a relief to see them after a long time not being all together because I realize that I am not in a social situation when it's just us...I am instead with family. I can be in ANY mood or state of introversion and despite perhaps baffling them sometimes, they always love and accept me. It's a relief to not ever really have to explain myself...

I was overwhelmed to share my bday with them on Monday night - here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

CRM=Aged 30 yrs : JLW=Aged 27 yrs

Yesterday evening, Erin and Adam's present came in the mail! Adam is Joel's cousin on the Morris side, and E is his better half. I am such great friends with both of these people, like really deeply bosom friends - and I am so glad I get to be their family b/c we get to be stuck together FOREVER. I love these earrings from Plume!

during yester-eve's late night steamy soak with new bubbles (thanks jenn!), i had an interesting encounter with a baby spider.

as a child, i hated and killed any creepy crawly in my path. growing up in the high desert of southern california, there were many roaches in my childhood. i remember turning the light on in the bathroom at night and hearing two or three scatter to the baseboards.

i was not fascinated by bugs. i was not one of those girls in dirt and overalls and contentment. instead i insisted on a daily wearing of my favorite pair of bumble-bee tights (see below) and pranced around in all my girlishness. (i did, however, freakisly love and persue rolly-pollys).

as i grew into the lady you see now, i found - as many of you know- that my child inside was not fully-developed. as i worked on allowing my innocence, naivety, dependence on others, and embracing of the not-so-serious-all-the-time, i found myself growing more and more fond of nature and living things. this was the most happy accident i have yet encountered in my brief 30 years.

for instance, in the last five years, my eyes have been glued to the sky in pursuit of my feathered friends - learning all about their habits, sounds, distinctions, and environments. In the natural wake of this hobby, I have also come to notice trees and all things green.

So when I was camping, Kelly shooed out a little shrew from the bathroom, and I was so relieved b/c I thought for a second that the little guy wouldn't make it. He was soo scared. Also when I was camping, I killed a mosquito, and I felt so strangely bad about the vehemence with which I slammed his body up against the bathroom wall. I realize that this insect sucks human blood, but still - I am all of a sudden MUCH TOO SENSITIVE to the living. I mean, who am I to end something else's life, especially if it presents no direct threat to me?

So last night, as my bathtub fills with hot water (did you know I must be IN the bath as it's filling? I have found this to be helpful in the acclamation (joel says scalding) of my skin to the heated water) I notice this sad little spider climbing for dear life out of the tub, but he keeps slipping in the water.

Before I know what I am doing, I put my finger out for the spider to perch on and assist it up the wall. As I was thinking later of that spider, which was still quite visibly freaked out, I wondered if there is anything in insect psychology about post traumatic stress disorder because if you were a creature 6mm in size and this huge fleshy branch thing was flying at you, lifted you out of the slippery abyss of porcelain and set you gently on the top of the abyss again, you would probably be BEYOND therapy.

Will this spider recover? Will it always fear the color of my flesh? Will it be strange and withdrawn from his spidey friends? Will they all talk about him and tisk in shame at the sad digression of his life, "Isn't it so sad what happened to Gaspard?....such a waste, he used to have so much potential...oh, his poor parents."

What's it like to be a spider?

i am one worn OUT owl.

i am dreaming this sleepy morning of escaping work without telling anyone, stealing joel in a similar fashion from his job and heading to the hoh rain forrest...where we would take naps in his parent's RV (which we would also steal) with the sound of the summer rain beating down on the tin roof.

i am officially ashamed of how spoiled i am.

but not ashamed enough to not list them shamelessly for the world wide web to see.

(but just so you know, my birthdays are usually not such an affair to remember!

lest you begin to love me less due to my ever-increasing popularity :) )