Fill-in-the-Blank Friday!

This week's topic: Birthdays!! (Which I love!)

As always, if you want to play along, go visit Lauren at the little things we do.

1. Birthdays are:       not often enough! I love love love birthdays.

2.  My favorite birthday memory was      honestly, I think this year's. They're getting better as I get older. I got to see my family, I watched my sister play in a really awesome concert, I got a new set of china, and Elissa came to visit me after we came home from my parents' house. I'm not sure how a birthday can get much better than that :)   .

3.  A birthday tradition I (or my family) has is       well, I've sort of declared a birthday month, which is sort of vain and selfish, I guess... My mom always always bakes and decorates a cake for everybody's birthday. I've never in my life had a store-bought cake for my birthday, and I'd like to keep it that way (unless said cake was from Pastry Art Bake Shoppe. I'd take one of those.) I'm keeping with that tradition in my own family as well  .

4.  If I had to choose one birthday meal to eat for the rest of my birthdays hence forward, I would choose       Mmmm... that's a tough decision. I'm going to say one of the Surin restaurants around here - they're Thai, and AMAZING  .

5.  My birthday is on     March 23rd. I'm a spring baby :) .

6.  If I could take a birthday trip I would go       to Italy! And stay for my entire birthday month :)  .

7.  The best gift I've ever received for my birthday was       this is also tough, as I've received quite a few nice gifts. My china this last year was pretty amazing. I got a trip one year, when I was in high school. It was a school trip, but it was a pretty amazing school trip, so I still count it as a good present :) And Mark gave me a Tiffany necklace a couple years ago - that was pretty nice :)     .

 

 

And now an update on me ... this week has been crazy. I can't believe it's already Friday! My car should be fixed this morning. I miss it so. I love that little Jetta... 

Also, I was going to go to Nashville on an impromptu visit with Lissa, but since my car wasn't fixed, that plan changed. Back and forth and back and forth my week has been, it seems like.

I do get to see Kelly today - we're going to lunch somewhere before she goes home to Chattanooga.

And Mark, after he gets back from the library, is going to Griffin today to visit poor Thomas. I'll be by myself this weekend - wish I had some company :(

And then on Monday, my momma's coming to visit! I'm so excited - we will have such fun :)

And that's about it. 

Happy Friday!

Stolen from Chelsea:

I was going to do a bullet point post about all the random things I've done today. But instead, I'm going to copy one of sweet Chelsea's old posts and do... Reverse Letters!! (If you click on the link, it'll take you back to her original reverse letter post.) Hope you're okay with me being a total copy-cat, Chelsea!

Dear April,

Thanks for taking me to get fixed today.

It took you long enough.

However, I will dearly miss you while we're separated.

Your love on wheels,

The Jetta

Dear April,

I know you want to come and get me.

I am so full of sugary goodness.

But I am terrible for you. 

It's a good thing The Jetta's in the shop, and you're without a car.

Saving your blood sugar fifty points at a time,

the Doughnuts at Publix

Dear April,

WHY THE HECK DID IT TAKE YOU THREE DAYS

TO CLEAN ME?!?!

But hey, thanks for doing it anyway :)

Love,

The Shower

Dear April,

This obsession has got to stop.

Any more, and I'll ask CTU to prepare an interrogation room for you.

Seriously, stop it.

-Jack Bauer

Dear April, 

WASH US!!

Signed,

Your Laundry

 

 

Dear April,

Kindly send us back those Gettysburg DVDs.

You've had them for a month,

And you didn't even watch them!

Sincerely, 

Netflix

 

 

Dear April,

You make a terrible plant mother.

Better luck next time,

the dead basil in the backyard

 

 

Dear April,

It's high time we had a better relationship.

And by that, I mean it's time that we HAVE a relationship.

Love,

Your nonexistent workout routine

Hope everybody's having a great Hump Day!

Surprise!

Yesterday, I got a phone call from Kelly, and Surprise! I'm getting a visit from her today! She and her friend Kait are going with their boyfriends to the Arcade Fire concert in Georgia, but Colton and Bryce (the boyfriends) will be at the lake today. So Kelly and Kait are coming here to hang with me while they wait for the boys to get back. Yay!!

That also means that I really need to get out of my bed and clean my house. Because it's a disaster, and I've never met Kait before, and while Kelly can handle my messiness, I'm not sure if that's the kind of first impression I want to put out there to Kelly's friends. Motivation? I've got some.

Time to get a move on!

It is nice to remember (and see) that sometimes, miracles do indeed happen. Sometimes they are small and sometimes they are very very huge and sometimes they are short-lived and sometimes not, but the most important thing is that they happen.

Now, and update on me. And us:


The summer is winding to a close. It's been a great summer, and I can't believe how fast time has flown. How is it the 9th of August already?!? 
I'll have a full week this week - I'm working a bit extra this afternoon, and then lots of cleaning of the house, and I'm meeting some friends for lunch on Thursday and possibly doing lunch with another friend another day this week. Then next week, my mom is coming to visit!! I'm so excited - it'll be the first time that she's come to Birmingham for more than a day trip. I'm planning to take her to Chez LuLu, and we'll probably cook some, and do all sorts of fun stuff :) I love being friends with my mom!

  
What I also can't believe is that Mark starts school next week as well. It's crazy to think that we have less than a year before another major life change. I love it here in Birmingham, but I am ready to settle. I'd love to stay here, or go somewhere else, or whatever we need to do, but wherever we end up, I want to plan on being there for a while. 

Kelly also starts back to school very soon, and I'm excited, because it'll be easier (I think) for me to come and visit her! She and the girls are moving into these apartment-style dorms that are new on her campus, so she'll get to be in sort of a suite-type-room for her senior year! (Oh my gosh, my sister is a senior. When did I get so old??) So I'm planning to visit, and cook for the girls, and all of that fun stuff. 

I'm excited about the potential for fall, but I feel like we won't be having any fall weather anytime soon. Hopefully it'll cool off enough so that Mark and I can go camping, at least. We've never even used our tent! 

I need to get up and get moving, but I hope everybody has a lovely day. It's sunny where I am :)  

Life on the Farm

We're at home in Birmingham again - we got back on Wednesday night. Yesterday I basically did nothing - just a quick run to the grocery store.

First of all ... we just found out that Mark's 15-year-old brother, Thomas, has mono. He's been sick for like 2 weeks, and they've gone through a frustrating amount of possible diagnoses - mastoiditis, viral meningitis, Rocky Mtn. Spotted Fever (along with all those other awful tick-related coinfections...) We're thankful that he has a diagnosis, and that it isn't as serious as any of those other diagnoses, but it will unfortunately knock him off his feet for at least a month, probably more. This is the first year that he's talked about getting serious about school too - I'm praying he doesn't get behind. Pray for him, will you guys? He's miserable, he sounds awful, he's lost 9 pounds (and he's not got a whole lot more to lose ... in his words, "I worked HARD for those 9 pounds!"), he won't eat, and he's just generally pitiful. Pray that he gets better as fast as possible. And pray for Mark's parents too, that they can be empathetic and handle things well and help him with school while he's at home.

Anyway, while we were in Chattanooga, I did get pictures developed from my time at Hannah's farm. And cause you're all so great, I'll share them with you! (All shot on film.)

looking out over the Gordon farm (or part of it...)

They had 2 gorgeous zinnia gardens - the butterflies absolutely loved those flowers.

According to my sister, this is an Eastern swallowtail. (not an African swallowtail like I called it, in error, before.)

Zinnias! I went home and asked Mark if we could plant some RIGHT NOW. They also look really beautiful in a vase - Hannah let me cut some and take them home for my kitchen table. We had fresh flowers for 4 days!

The lone eggplant. They weren't doing so well this summer.

Concord grapes. They tasted WONDERFUL. And because Hannah's parents farm organically, you can literally pick everything right off the plant and eat it. No pesticides to worry about - only a little dirt sometimes :)

The best raspberries I've ever eaten. They're called Caroline raspberries, and they're an heirloom variety, and they are so, so sweet. And not too many seeds, either!

Apples in Mr. Gordon's orchard

I really love this shot of the barn. My photog skills are getting better!

Swing

Some of the animals - sheep and chickens. The cows were already out in the field - their animals are all quite friendly :)

The friendly-looking tree with a face :)

This is my favorite picture of the bunch - I call it "These boots are made for workin'" I'm so witty, har har :)

Back inside, we wash the fruits of the Gordons' labor. These are Hannah's mom's squash tomatoes.

Beets, beans, and onions - I helped pick all of these!

Squash and some more of Hannah's mom's tomatoes

Beautiful heirloom tomatoes (which I also helped pick) - some of them are sitting in my freezer right now, waiting to be put into tomato sauce and soup!

The view from the kitchen window.

Visiting that farm and seeing all those pretty veggies and happy animals made me so, so delighted :) Hopefully I can have a vegetable garden one day - maybe not quite of those epic proportions, and I'm not sure I want cows, but it was so fun to visit!

P.S. Remember to keep poor Thomas in your prayers! He's pretty pitiful at the moment.

Update from Ooltewah

I'm at my parents' house, about to go take pictures with Kelly after she showers, and I thought I'd post a quick update.

It's been a fun trip so far - after dinner last night, we watched some old home movies (and I never cease to be embarrassed ... I had about a 10-year awkward stage. Thank God that's over.) I've cooked a bit, and tonight we're going to Big River Grill with Sarah and Thomas. Hopefully afterward, we're going to reprise Kelly's performance in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (she was a senior in high school at the time), and we'll probably play a round or two of Baulderdash. Tomorrow, per Mark's request, we're eating lunch at our favorite BBQ joint :)

Good times.

I love coming home. You can't beat my family :)

Going home

We're going to Chattanooga today to visit my family!

AND we get to see our couple-friends who we haven't seen in like a year, and not since Thomas came back from Iraq. We're pretty excited to see them :)

On their wedding day :)

me and Sarah last summer when we were double-dating!

I worked with Sarah in Chattanooga, and she was my best friend at work. They were really great when I was commuting, and let me sleep at their apartment one day when I wasn't going to be able to sleep at home. They're great people all around, and I really can't wait to see them tomorrow evening!

Hooray!