Birthday Redo

As has been documented on the blog, I was sick for my birthday. So yesterday, Brad and I took the opportunity to do what we would have done if I had been well.

We woke up early like the adult I have turned into should do on a Saturday and took the Honda in for an oil change. This wasn't necessarily part of the festivities. However, it did lead to the first part which was a Chick-fil-a breakfast. Brad and I were at breakfast before eight o'clock. It was good. I love Chick-fil-a biscuits but are up and available so rarely to get a chance to enjoy it.

From Chick - fil - a we stopped by Brad's parents' house to have his dad listen to a noise the truck was making. While there, I got my birthday present from his parents. I got some Warm Vanilla Sugar Bath and Body Works stuff and money. So birthday redo was in full gear with both a birthday breakfast and presents.

Then we went to another car place to have them listen to the truck. They decided it was the muffler. So we got the Honda from the Honda dealership and headed to the Chevy dealership. Once all the car stuff was taken care of, the birthday festivities resumed.

Brad and I got dressed and ready for an evening on the town in Athens. I wore a new Loft sweater and jeans that Mom got me for Christmas. He wore a new Banana Republic shirt Mom got him for Christmas.

We went to the Beechwood theater where we were pleasantly surprised to find the matinee tickets to be $6.50. The movie we saw was The Blind Side which was wonderful. We then ventured into downtown and ate at Five Star Day Cafe. I got the Garden of Eatin'. That is their veggie plate and as unbalanced as it was my selections were baked beans, mac and cheese and mashed potatoes. The plate came out with blackeyed peas instead of baked beans so they let me keep the fourth veggie for free. I now have enough leftovers for two days of lunch at work. Brad got the special which was a pasta with meat sauce and blackeyed peas. After dinner, we walked into Starbucks and walked through downtown with our hot beverages and back to the parking deck.

While we were back in Loganville before nine thirty, we certainly had a good time and it definitely put a more positive spin on the 29th birthday.

29 years and 2 weeks

Yes, two weeks ago I celebrated my birthday by going to the doctor. But more importantly, my husband celebrated my birthday despite my sickness, despite my pitiful-ness and did such a great job. I woke up saying that I didnt even want to do presents. THAT IS VERY UN-Meredith! So I came downstairs after getting dressed to go to the doctor and saw this... Now mind you, this picture was taken LATER. But at this point, you might be asking yourself - why is a 29 year old's present under a stuffed dog? Well that is not just any dog, it is a Pound Puppy. And while as a child I collected teddy bears for a hobby, my favorite toy was a Pound Puppy given to me as a birthday present for my third or fourth birthday by my mom's parents, my Nannie and Granddaddy. I can vividly remember the wrapping paper, the ripping off of a corner of it and seeing the word Tonka, the way my Grandfather told me that they got me a tonka truck for my birthday and my extreme happiness to see it was a dog and falling asleep on the couch watching Fraggle Rock, snuggling the dog - therefore naming him Snuggly. He was always my favorite after that, even went to college and has always gone where I have gone in terms of home.

At the beginning of Christmas break, we helped Dad move and he wanted me to move some things out of my room. I packed up recital videos, all items Tigger for possible future use in a nursery, my keyboard and all the pound puppies I had in addition to Snuggly. That included the poodle ( Fifi, real original huh?) And the four Pound Puppies newborns - Huggie, Chocolate, Sparky and Dandy. I did it so they wouldn't get lost or messed up as things are moved out. Who knew they would become accomplices in my birthday fun?

My favorite birthday that Brad and I had shared previously involved clues all around the house leading from one present to the other. This one, which we enjoyed once we got home from the dr visit and three hours of hunting for eye drops at five pharmacies, was very reminiscent of that. I was directed to start in the back guest room:

Huggie was positioned on top of my first present : The Glee Soundtrack Part Two In this picture, he is "telling" me where to go next. Yes, stuffed animals are talking. After five days of being sick, missing a family Christmas and spending the last birthday of your 20's at the dr, you do ANYTHING to have fun on your birthday and my husband would do anything to make me smile!

Huggie "directed" me to go to the front guest room where his brother Dandy was guarding the second present - a DVD of Wallace and Gromit. We then went down the hall to the bonus room where Sparky met us with the third present - a beautiful yellow sweater from American Eagle

Then Fifi and I met again on the couch in the living room. What I found under her watch was a beautiful houndstooth overcoat.....haha houndstooth....dog. Again, anything humorwise was appreciative at this point.

And finally, in the dining room was Chocolate guarding my card. It had two tickets to go see Mary Poppins the musical at the Fox in May. This is special because when my sister and I were little we used to listen to the record of the Mary Poppins music at Nannie and Granddaddy's. Particularly memorable is how we would dance around the room to "I Love to Laugh" acting like we were floating like the characters in the movie.

So 29, despite the sickness, was pretty awesome and it was all thanks to my fabulous husband and the help from a few stuffed dogs.

Parents of a Teenager

On the first Sunday of the New Year, we came home from church as parents. Parents of a teenager. Our associate pastor and his wife have guardianship of their fourteen year old granddaughter and she attends the high school less than a mile from our house. Since they were going on a trip for their anniversary, we stepped up to take care of her this week. It has been extremely fun and a nice window into what we might be like as parents. I am happy to report on today, our last day of parenting we have stuck together and been united in all of our decisions about Madison and what to do. I have enjoyed having a "daughter' which is nice because I have always thought I would probably prefer at least one son. Here is a summary of what we have done with our daughter and some pictures of our adventures last night during Madison's first time making cookies:

Sunday - We went from church to eat lunch with a lot of the youth and Brian and Michelle. Then we came home and played Wii. After, Brad and Madison went to a youth gettogether while I went grocery shopping.

Monday - Brad and I had to work so Madison went to hangout with her boyfriend and his family. They came home around 5pm and we had spaghetti for dinner. We played Scrabble and Loaded Questions as a "family". She always sends herself to bed at 10pm.

Tuesday - Madison didn't wake up to her alarm but still managed to get ready on time to not make Brad late to work. Brad had practice that night so I picked Madison up at her house and we went to eat a Mexican dinner, picked up a pint of Ben and Jerry's. We watched a Sandra Bullock double feature since that is her favorite actress. In between movies, we had our ice cream.

Wednesday - We went to school and work. We went to church . We came home and she shared her essay with us she wrote for school. We made plans to do something special for Thursday since it was her last night with us.

Thursday - We went to school and work. I picked her up as it was snowing and we were so excited, maybe me more than her. We picked up the basic needs of cheese, chocolate chips and baking soda in case we were snowed in ( j/k). We were making chocolate chip cookies from scratch and having one of her favorite dinners - cheeseburgers. Madison had told us that she only cooks cereal and ramen noodles. This was a fun experience as a family where I just read the directions and let her do everything. Brad took pictures and played 80's music and we all danced in the kitchen. We watched the Proposal, another Sandra Bullock picture. And we went to bed hoping the snow that had fallen would keep us here.

Friday - It is 11:27am and our "daughter" is still in the bed. We visited her room at 5:40 am to tell her we had no school. Whenever she gets up, we might venture out in the snow some. Then she is headed to her friend Brittany's house to spend the next two nights before Deb and Denny come home Sunday. Update - We did play in the snow ( for less than five minutes....this was totally a dusting....we should be at school) and now we are computering and watching her favorite show CSI

This has been fun. I would like to make cookies with my daughter one day if we should be so blessed as to have a girl. We have inside jokes me and her. She and Brad have had some laughs together. We have done things together as a "family." She has been respectful and responsible, which is not surprising because we know her but it has been fun to watch and be proud of.

Some of our inside jokes: "oh...ok" "give me three choices and I will decide" "termites"

Some pics of the cookie making experience:

Shortened Summary of the Rest of the Sickness

Since it is a new year, I should just get on with mylife and not look back and dwell on the fact that I was sick on my birthday but here is a brief synopsis of the rest of what happened:

Dec 29th - My mom came over and we celebrated Christmas by having time for me to open my presents. I was wearing my glasses because the "sty" was still bothering me but I took them off for what turned out to be a nice photo opp. We went out to Chinese food for lunch with my sister where I only got soup and hot tea for lunch. We then went to Kohl's and Belk where I showed little interest in shopping ( I should have known something was wrong) and returned back to the house to play Wii and open birthday presents ( had to separate Christmas and birthday somehow). Overall, for both occasions I got a lot of beautiful clothes , mostly from my favorite store the Loft and a UGA Early Childhood Education Graduation dog statue. When my company left, I was "barking" pretty badly.

Dec 30th - The 29th birthday. I woke up late. I felt bad still and finally caved and went to the doc in the box. While they pulled me into a room quickly and did the normal weighing ( 104 lbs!) andblood pressure check, it took forever for a doctor to come in. I have been here before for a complaint of a sore throat and left being harassed for possibly having an eating disorder so I was hoping one particular Dr.would not walk in. He didn't and the man who did was very nice but he told me " You just have to look at you to tell you don't feel good. " He diagnosed me with a sinus infection and told me that the bacteria that had caused that had led to my conjunctivitis in BOTH eyes. Wow! So we left and headed to the pharmacy and another and another. It took forever for us ( Brad was alone on the last leg of the journey) to find the eyedrops that were prescribed and some pharmacies did a really poor job of working with us, not understanding why I didn't want to wait two days to get them. Once we got home, I opened my presents from Brad. He had had them set up all day and did such a great job. I will write an entry about that later because it deserves it. Dad and Jan came over and we had take out Sonny's BBQ and played Wii Sports Resort before calling it an early night. I got a dustbuster for my birthday and a lot of bath and body works stuff the house and the car.

Dec 31st - Brad went and helped his parents put away Christmas decor and I slept a lot on the couch. Still , some of the meds I was on were strong and ended up making me run for the bathroom to heave and throw up a couple of times. Our New Years was small. Brad had left overs from Sonny's and I had some chicken brunswick stew he brought from his parents' house. It was good but I was a little timid on the eating due to the earlier problems. We took all the ornaments off the tree. We watched The Ugly Truth and then we tuned in to Rockin New Years Eve and cheered in the New Year with sparkling apple cider. We then went to bed.

The Rest of the Break - We enjoyed each other's company so much. We took it easy, watching Four Christmases and gradually putting away Christmas stuff. Work started back up the first Monday of the year.