I originally meant to do Quick-Takes Friday, which I've seen lots of bloggers I admire doing lately. It's a great idea, but as usual, I am doing it all wrong, since it's Saturday, not Friday, and mine didn't turn out to be so quick after all. Oh well. Maybe they will still let me play. So here are seven quick takes for a Saturday morning (at least it was morning when I started writing):

1.This week, Dan and I went on our first overnight trip since Kate was born. Actually, I am not sure it really qualifies as a trip, since we went one exit up the Interstate from our house and stayed at the Hotel Albuquerque near Old Town. But it might as well have been a million miles it was so strange to be away from her for 24 hours. That said, we had a fabulous time, and are really thankful to Dan's mom, who stayed with Kate overnight. It was really wonderful to spend some uninterrupted time together. I drank all my coffee while it was still warm, people. I didn't do this while supervising 7 a.m. outdoor playtime in the 35 degree weather. It was decadence.

2. Since we're going to be apart on our upcoming sixth anniversary, we decided to treat this as our nice night out to celebrate that. We went to Seasons, which is in Old Town. We've meant to go there for a long time, and now I just wish we had gone sooner. Incredible wine list, excellent service, nice atmosphere and most of all, fantastic food. I highly recommend it, ABQ peeps.

3. While we were away, I broke down and bought a copy of Twilight. I expect that someone will be here to force me to relinquish my English degree shortly, so I hope it's worth it. I have been hearing about these books forever, like everyone else, but have had no interest in reading them because I just can't get past the fact that they are about vampires. I hear it, and my brain starts laughing. I mean, come on. But I also don't want to be a literary snob, and it's gotten to the point where so many people in my life can't shut up about the vampires already that I feel like I am going to have to read them just to see what the hooplah is about. I think I have Harry Potter to blame for this. I refused to read HP for years, and when I finally picked up the first book it was because I was in Clovis, New Mexico and my airman neighbor plunked it down on my dining room table and told me to shut up and start reading. And I did, and it was glorious, not only because of the story, but also because Harry Potter was my ticket back to the world of reading for pleasure. I'd graduated college so tired from four years of required reading that I hadn't read very much of anything in more than a year. So reading Harry Potter was a good lesson for me, to remember that sometimes you can read something just because it's fun and not because it says important and profound things about the human condition. So here we are with the vampires. I remain skeptical, but I'll let you know if I drink the Kool-Aid about these books any time soon.

4. Last week, our family observed my brother Aaron's fourth annual Survivor Day, March 18, the day his life was spared when an IED destroyed the Humvee he was driving in Iraq and his leg had to be amputated below the knee. (That whole story is here.) Because Aaron is busy being a first-year law student, I understand he didn't get to do anything that exciting for this year's anniversary, but I hear big things are planned for the five-year mark. Cheers to you, baby brother. I am glad you are alive. May we celebrate this day for many years to come. (I'll also take the opportunity to plug the blog of my lovely sister-in-law, Aaron's much better half, Kelly.)

5. I mentioned that Dan and I won't be together for our anniversary. This is because on the heels of March, the Month of Houseguests, we've managed to make April the Month of Travel. Kate and I will be leaving next Sunday, April 5, to go to Mississippi, where my family is thrilled to be planning a homecoming for my brother Ryan, who has been in Iraq since last summer. We're beside ourselves to see him of course, but we also sort of feel we have something to make up to Ryan this time around. A couple of years ago, Ryan spent 8 months in Africa with the Marines, and when he was coming home, we were given a particular date as his arrival day. Instead, the Marines decided to send him home ten days before that, which would have been great except that ... none of us were in the state at the time. My parents were at a wedding in Florida, my sisters were in college in Louisiana and Tennessee, Aaron and Kelly were in D.C., and I hadn't flown in yet. So Ryan had to call a friend to come and get him from the airport. True story. Ryan was a great sport about the whole thing, but we're hoping this time we can do something a little more, umm, special. Like showing up. Kate and I get back from that trip around the 14th of April, and then on our anniversary, the 19th, Dan leaves for a week-long business trip. Hopefully Kate will still recognize him when he gets home.

6. Megan over at Half Pint House is doing a really great series right now telling the story of how she and her husband, Craig have journeyed through the process of finding a church home, ultimately ending up in the PCA, which also happens to be our denomination. Megan has been very honest in writing about the struggle to find a church that can be a home, and reading it I have been amazed at how much of it rings true for me, too, even though I have only ever been a member of three churches in my life, all of them in the same denomination. I think this is because whether you move around or plant yourself in one spot, the trouble with the church is that it's here in the world, and the world is broken, and nothing works like it should, not even the church. There will be struggle. I think this causes a lot of people to just wash their hands of the entire church thing. So it's great to read a story of a family fighting through the messiness.

Some my favorite lines from the series so far, to get you started before you head on over and read the whole thing, which you should definitely do. You'll laugh. You'll cry. Maybe you'll cringe when something hits a little too close to home. But it's a great read.

"Two years later, our first daughter was born. When she was two weeks old, we took her to church, but when we walked toward the sanctuary, we were stopped and informed we couldn't bring the baby in so as not to be a distraction to the preaching of the Word. They said we could put her in the nursery (if you think I'd ever put my first two-week old baby in any nursery, think again), or there was a nursing room at the back of the sanctuary. I had this flash forward of spending the next many years in a nursing room while our kids were forced into a children's church program. We walked out and didn't go back."

"Church C was another of the mega-churches in town - large, suburban, and very white. We went on "name-tag" Sunday, which meant that that Sunday we were greeted by pretty much everybody, which was strange and a bit cheese-ball. We sang a U2 song in the service and our kids were served a helping of Brother Bob and Pastor Larry. This one wasn't the right one for us, either."

I'm looking forward to the final installment, Megan. Thank you for sharing.

7. Yesterday, this owl was in the tree in our backyard, just hanging out, like he was any old bird. Tell me that isn't freaky looking:

I don't have much else to say about that except that the spooky thing stayed and stared at us for almost a half hour before it flew away. I think it might have been trying to decide if it could kill one of us if no smaller birds showed up.