"Welcome home. You don't have a room."

I was extremely confused by my step-brother's greeting. But after he explained, it all made sense. You see, my mother called me the day before I was to come home to ask my time of arrival because she was going to clean to my room for me--you know, make sure there was no cat hair or anything on my bed. Little did I know what she really meant by "clean" was "reassemble." Apparently my bedroom is now the home gym. And no one was going to tell me.

So this morning when I saw my mom for the first time since being home, I decided to freak her out. (They never know how moody or upset I'm going to be, so this was fun.) I was headed to the shower and said in passing, "Oh, by the way, you guys are totally busted. Carson didn't know that I didn't know that my bedroom is now the home gym." And then I just walked upstairs. All I heard was my mother's husband say, "Was it a secret?" But later my mom gave me this whole explanation of why it's a good thing that they're using my room that way. I laughed. I don't really care as long as I have a room when I'm home. And it gets cleaned for me this way.

But then, later today, my mom comes downstairs with this awesome jewelry catalog for a company called Silpada. It's very earthy and natural-looking sterling silver jewelry. She told me she ordered me several pieces for my birthday and Christmas but that she wasn't sure she knew my taste well enough so I could make her a list of things I liked and then she could give the ones she already ordered to my sisters. I was so impressed. My mom even talked about how there's a difference between jewelry that makes you feel dainty and jewelry, like this stuff, that makes you feel powerful. I was so proud of her. All of you: check it out: www.silpada.com