Sunday evening when my kiddos came home from their daddy's house, the 2 girls wanted me to hurry up & open their birthday gifts to mommy. B said he wanted to wait until today...

Tay had me open them in order. The first is a 4x6 picture frame with her & B in it all decked out from a wedding in August! This is for me to put on my desk at work (where it sits right now). The other one is a large frame with 6 different pics in it of them both to hang on the wall at home. Yes, I was very happy with these!!

Then Lulu brings me something to open. Yep, an 8x10 of her holding a #8 with a fall background. Beautiful!

Lulu is on the phone with her aunt last night talking about my b'day being today. I told her I'm 26. She says "you know if you put that backwards it's 62! I told her to bite her tongue!!

This morning before leaving for school, B hugs me & tells me Happy Birthday. He hands me a bag with a large Cinnamon Toast candle. I LOVE candles! Then in the bottom is an alumunim "ashtray" that HE MADE in machine shop. It has engraved red letters that says "Happy 43rd Birthday" on the top. In the bottom circle it has my name & 2007 engraved. awwwwww No, it will not be used!

This morning the phone rings at 5:15am. It's my sis...then Scott. He said he was afraid for his life to call any earlier. My alarm went off in a couple of minutes anyway.

I have ecards in my mailbox. My co-worker comes in with a card for me. Boss man treats us to Olive Garden together for lunch & I get a nice b'day bonus from him! I received my annual "serenade" b'day phone call - & am now 23 yrs old! I even have a wish on a prior post of mine from a blogger.

So, even tho I'm a year younger, this is a good day!!

Now I'm off to get Lulu, change in to WARM clothes & head off to be in our local Christmas parade. Will be freezing!!!
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Update:

It was freeeezing!! Lulu & I got home from the parade last night & I discovered 3 red roses w/baby's breath & a sweet card on my pillow from Scott... & I received a couple of other phone calls. It was a very good birthday day.

Thanksgiving at the Secret-house was very good! The whole house smelled for 2 days of different scents mixing as a variety of things were being cooked. mmmmmm

I got off at noon Wednesday & came home to find that Tay had already made our pumpkin pies! Seeing as how she ends up eating most of 'em, I guess it was appropriate for her to make 'em. I got my dressing mixed up & put in the 'fridge for the flavors to mix, & so it'd be ready to stuff/cook early the next morning...

...Then it was off to Tay's basketball Thanksgiving Tournament. They had a game Wednesday night & then last night (Friday). We have such a young team this year for our varsity girls & were going in only expecting to do our best. We have 1 junior, 4 sophomores & 6 freshmen on our team (Tay fitting in here). So, needless to say, we're young & some are inexperienced at playing in this level.

The team we played was VERY good & they literally wiped the floor with our butts! Considering they were much taller than us & were mostly juniors & seniors, we did really well. They've been playing together as a team for a few years - & it showed too. Tay came out with a black eye from one of their girl's elbows. OUCH! It looks like it hurts! We did well the 1st quarter, but then the beating began. Tay is a starter & the one who jumps at the beginning of the game. She also ends up playing most off of the game too.

Last night was a bit different. We played SO much better than before & it showed! Tay played the entire game & didn't even sit out to rest one time. Actually, there were only 2 that were swapped in & out. The girls were hanging tough tho! We were beat 28-33, but it was a close game the whole time & very exciting.

I put on a prior post that my dryer wasn't heating (again). I called about another heating element just to be sure. It was NOT fun replacing it last time. I had a VERY hard time, & was proud of myself, but was NOT looking forward to doing that again... When Randy got off work, he came over. I was praying that it was only something minor - like a loose wire. We took the front cover off & the first thing I found was the main wire to the heating element burned in two. Well, there's the problem. We decided that we could cut the end of the wire, strip the end & put it back on....

Are you ready for this?? Randy fixed my dryer (yes, you DID read that right)!! He had to go get a tiny piece that is squeezed over the wire & hooks on the bolt. Holding my breath, I turned it on & felt. Oh my! HEAT!!! Yep, he was proud of himself & said he felt very useful! He's learned so much since being at the job where he is now.

Then I took him to pick up his car from the shop. He's been driving one of mine for the last week. Luckily, the oil leak he had was only from his oil pan being VERY loose. He's lucky it didn't fall off completely! Now his is running good & mine is back parked in its bed.

Anyway, then it was off for some SHOPPING!! before I went to Tay's 2nd game. I only went to a sporting goods store, but I got out of there with what I needed - & for half price!

I think I'm going to attempt to do a bit more shopping today. I'd like to get finished so I don't have to worry about being able to find some things in a few weeks.

Anyway, hope you're all having a wonderful weekend!

Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!!!



We're closing at NOON today & will be off Thursday & Friday! YEAH!!

Well, we did a LOT of cleaning up Saturday & rearranging the living room/kitchen/dining area to make room for the Christmas tree. We finally got the tree & other stuff out of the building. That in itself took a long time & climbing/crawling around. Normally, my Christmas stuff is all together, but there were 'intentions' of taking everything out last year to sweep out & rearrange the whole outbuilding. So Randy just decided that the Christmas stuff could be just put in there wherever. We never got around to that so I had to hunt & dig for much of it. We finally got it in the house. The things I like to put up around the house are all out & it's starting to look like Christmas!

We didn't get a chance to do much other than that because we went to the hospital to see mother. She wasn't having a good day yesterday as she wasn't making much sense in what she was saying. Time is drawing closer for when she'll be transported to the new hospital. I'm not looking forward to that drive every weekend, but if they can help her, then I'm all for it!

Yesterday, we got the tree up & were all ready to start the decoration process. Um...where are my lights? We couldn't find them anywhere! So it was back out to the building to dig some more. I never could find them, but I did find 2 boxes of some other lights that had never been opened. Great! At least we have lights. Then I open them up & it appears that whomever put them in the box at the manufacturing plant decided it would be funny to tie them in knots. It took us f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get them untangled! Well, we never got any further...

Now tonight, after the kids get home from their basketball practices, we will put the lights & decorations on the tree. Then we can begin to enjoy it! I'll do the outside this weekend when the kids are gone. I usually do that myself anyway.

*sings* It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Every where we gooooooo