A month in the year

So, apparently people want these things updated from time to time.

Wellll, OK.

I guess.

But no promises!

But's it's been busy. I have excuses. I have LOTS of excuses. But I'll spare you the pain.

Birthday season is nearly over. Yes, you read that right. Holiday season is but a blip in the screen of birthday season. We have a couple of grandparents, a couple of nieces and in-laws left and one 5 year old birthday left to celebrate. but the only one I have left to orchestrate is LK. Since my last post, DDD turned 23, BK turned 17, Big Sis celebrated a milestone (more on that later!) and I joined my husband again in age. We enjoy two months where he is a full year older than me. OK, well, maybe it's just me who enjoys it. Anyway - we managed to have three children in those two calendar months, so I am a year younger than him on all three birth certificates. Don't know why that amuses me, but it does.

DDD enjoyed a quiet birthday and requested ribs for dinner. Done. Bake and frost an angel food cake, buy ice cream and some cute napkins and we're done. We had to wait a little for some friends of her who were supposed to join us for dinner to come, but it all was fine.

BK (the day after DDD) wanted Zachary's pizza. Woo Hoo. Easy Schmeazy. Done. He wanted this cake his grandmother makes with cherry pie filling and pineapple in it. Unfortunately for me, his grandmother has no recollection of creating a cake with cherry pie filling and pineapple. Hooray for the internet! I google cherry pie filling, pineapple and yellow cake mix and come up with a concoction I was pretty sure he wasn't talking about, but I made it anyway. It was a really odd cake, but it was YUMMY! Surprisingly yummy! So hooray.

The fun of the whole month was big sis' milestone birthday! Not saying which one. The sisters, daughter, nieces, and sisters-in-law had a wonderful weekend on the beach in Aptos. Beautiful surroundings, good food, lots of good food and wine and fun. I mad my very first appletinis. And my very first chocolate-tini's too. They were yummy. It was just a very special time with some very special people. (See pictures above) Y'all should try it.

My birthday was quiet. I have the fortune of having a birthday that always fell in the middle of finals week when I was in school. No change this year. BK had finals, DDD had a rehearsal and M had school that day, so BK, LK joined us for dinner at our favorite little Mexican restaurant and then we had a quiet night waiting for DDD and M to come home to do gifts. LK was losing it a little - she was super tired, but she got to stay up anyway. DH bought me a bike, which is what I was hinting pretty pointedly for. He didn't keep it much of a secret, although he wanted to... He left a big old catalog of bikes out once, right where I'd see it. He was mad at himself for that, but I told him that if that was for my birthday, I was SUPER EXCITED!!! Then I tried being helpful and unloaded groceries from his car, which included a helmet. He wasn't happy about that either. But in the long run, none of that mattered and I LOVE my bike! And let me tell you - helmets these days are a whole lot more comfortable than they used to be!

We also said goodbye to DH's mom and dad, who had been visiting for a couple of months. Along with that, we got to see DH's home-schooling, bible-thumping little sis and family, as her husband's mother passed away the week before Grandma and Grandpa were set to leave. They didn't thump any bibles and our visit was very pleasant. We also celebrated Gma & Gpa's birthdays while they were here. (yes, more family birthdays.)

Somewhere in the midst of the family stuff, I finally stepped into my new position. They finally created an "EHR Coordinator" position, so the job that I'd been doing for a year or so is finally a real job. And there is a raise involved, which is very nice. Some day, I will need an office and perhaps even a door, but for now, I'm staying put. But holy smokes - the wheels have come off the wagon in how busy I've been. It's good, as I can't stand not being busy, but being double booked for meetings regularly is not something I'm familiar with. But the fact that we are moving along finally is quite nice.

Speaking of niece (we were, weren't we?), a happy birthday wish to her as well. Now I will ignore the rest of the extended family birthdays and concentrate on an almost 5 year old who is going to have a gymnastics party and is totally up for this whole birthday thing! Coincidentally, her party will be on our adoption day, so we'll have something else to celebrate as well.

But no eating caterpillars.