Birthdays. I LOVE birthdays. Not sure why but I have a feeling it will always be that way until the very last one is squeezed out of me. (Oh, mine was Sunday.)
We have had a bit of a week long celebration. Mostly due to the "free" certificates that I get from different food establishments. To say the least the restrictions on my diet have been loosened a bit for the week which is nice. I am not even too upset that it will take about a weeks worth of work to reverse the effects but I am REALLY okay with that if it means I can have fries a couple of times this weekend.
Birthday celebrations all really began on Monday, March 10. I had a coupon for Dairy Queen and a free Blizzard. So, off we went on Monday needing to celebrate not only my birthday but the decision to stay put in our lovely home for the time being and cease our house search for a season. It was a good move and we continue to see how the Lord is confirming that in our lives all throughout the week. So, to toast my birthday and the decision I had a (Stacy could guess this) Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Blizzard minus the chocolate sauce and Husband had a Strawberry Cheese-Quake Blizzard. Blizzard's have sentimental value from college for me. Although, the DQ here in the 'Copa doesn't quite have the "atmosphere" that my quaint small college town DQ had. Oh well, I will take what I can get.
Wednesday, I had a free Sonic drink -- Cherry Limeade, delightfully refreshing.
Later in the week my friend from high school, Sarah, called and said, "So, how do you feel about surprise visitors?" In short, Sarah's husband had some time off and they were going to do some camping from California on into Arizona. She didn't know it was my birthday weekend but wanted to know if we could do a meal sometime. So, Friday evening, Sarah, Sam, and their two little ones, Rowan (3) and Miles (10-months) showed up on our front door! Fun times! We went to dinner and it was great to catch up with them even if it was entirely too short of a visit. They had a funny camping story to share with us and it was fun to see how much Rowan has changed (a delightful and beautiful little girl) and to finally meet Miles (who wasn't so sure of me!) They left soon after dinner because the kiddos were fading fast -- I think Sam and Sarah were too, especially after packing up their campsite in a record 30 minutes in the middle of the night because of a bear scare! The rest of the evening was quite as Matt and I watched a little TV, talked, and read.
Sidenote: Even our financial adviser called to wish me a happy birthday. It was very kind of them. They asked about plans. As I told them I had to stop and laugh, then blurted, "Basically we are eating our way through the weekend!" I'm fine with that... I like food.
Saturday, Husband greeted me with, "Happy Birthday Eve, Sweetie!" To which I laughed because he likes to do the "eve" thing for a variety of things. Our Saturday traditional breakfasts had been revamped due to diet, however, today I wanted Eggs Benedict in a bad way. I had planned ahead and purchased some things needed that would be a little more diet friendly and the splurge seemed a little more justified. I was bummed that "This Old House Hour" wasn't on but I was glad that it will resume next weekend. (They are working on a house in the 9th Ward which is where I was doing hurricane relief in 2006 -- maybe another post on that at a later date.) It was a delightful and very relaxing morning.
Saturday afternoon we met up with my in-laws at a fun little bowling alley where we really just stunk up the lanes! HA! That is with the exception of Husband. He did really well and the rest of us really had quite the laughable scores. It didn't matter because all had fun and we came away with three free games for another day. After that we grabbed some dinner at IN-N-OUT burger (which is actually fairly diet friendly if done right) and then off to a flour-less molten chocolate lava dessert at Roy's Hawaiian Fusion... not so diet friendly, but worth EVERY bite!
Sunday, Palm Sunday, and my official birthday! Woohoo! Husband and I got ready for church and I wanted Dunkin' Donuts. Much to my sad realization after visiting TWO Dunkin' Donuts in the valley we think they may have all shut down! Say it ain't so! I will do some investigating on that. We ended up having some McDonald's because we had to get to church to set up communion. Church was delightful with many well wishers and fun gifts from friends. We went to Red Robin for lunch (because they have endless baskets of fries AND I had a free burger coupon) and half way through my burger I found some paper from the cheese! AH! Well, because of that not only was my burger already free they comped us for another burger. That was very nice of them... they really are about the customer there. The rest of the afternoon was spent with family playing games and having fun... and more dessert. I loved all the gifts that my friends and family so generously showered upon me, things to use with the iPod, things for my crocheting adventures, supplies for my new venture in soap making, an Ansel Adams photo set, balloons, cards, and three lovely bouquets of flowers.
It was a grand weekend!
I didn't know you were going to try out soap making? I bought a book about it about 2 years ago b/c I was going to try to do it...but alas as I couldn't find a job at that time...had no money to do so. I still totally want to do it...so I am curious how your adventure goes!
ReplyDeleteActually my mother-in-law is going to teach me and I think I will be helping her with a batch on Thursday. Hopefully, I will be able to make my own batch here soon. I can borrow some of her equipment which will be nice and I think that Matt may make me my very own soap box which will be fun!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun-filled week! Awesome that you got to see Sarah and eat at Roy's (YUM)! I sure hope DDs hasn't left the area. That new donut place by Big Lots here is very good but very expensive, go figure. I'd only go back if the craving was super serious. Have you tried McDonald's iced coffee? Very good I tell ya!
ReplyDeleteBummer about the donut place. I still haven't figured out what the deal is with DD here. We have had McDonald's iced coffee. We like it alright it's just that it is really very sweet -- we looked up the nutritional value and it confirmed that even the original has almost 22 grams of sugar! WOW! But it is good in a pinch, it's been awhile since we had it and we won't get the flavored ones anymore as you can't even really taste the coffee.
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