It's a Valpalooza Weekend

It was a Valpalooza kind of weekend!  Yes... I turned half a century old on Sunday...  yikes.

Twice as old as my son...

I guess that all explains my body falling apart.

But I'm ready for the second half of my life now.  The first half definitely prepared me.  

Well, I hope it has.

On Saturday, after being told by Leon that he didn't want to go to the Superhero party in the next town after all, Meri and I hit a few garage sales and she took me out to lunch!  It was a really nice time and I'm going to miss her this next couple weeks when she heads off to camp with Maddy.

After lunch and after Meri headed to work, I got to sew.  SEW SEW SEW!  Got the two skirts for Maddy mostly done.  Just needs a little ironing and some hand work.  That's a car trip somewhere... And if I don't go on a car trip somewhere, I'll hole myself up in my room and just do it while watching a movie or something.

Saturday night, Robb made my birthday supper.  He'd asked what I wanted and all I said was, "Something that doesn't require me to do the dishes." 

So he made sour cream marinaded pork chops, baked potatoes and lots of sides!  YUMMO!!!  Then Meri did the handy-maiding and Robb did the dishes. 

I need to sew them matching aprons... ;)

I had a stunt double for the neck photo.

and a photo bomb, I just noticed.

On my actual birthday, Sunday, Robb made a big biscuits, gravy and scrambled eggs breakfast before we left for church and did the dishes again.  A huge deluge of rain occurred towards the end of the service and I ran into the stores for the few things we needed while he drove right up to the doors for me.  I felt like it was monsoon season...  in Iowa...

Meri had asked that we pick up a doggy bed for Ellie.  Ellie, the golden retriever, has been going through a massive depression lately.  Well, since the first batch of her pups were born...  but it's been getting worse.  So Meri took her early to the dog wash on Sunday and Ellie has been sleeping in her room for the past two nights.  I guess that may have been what prompted the dog wash actually...

I priced the dog beds and the $20 one we saw online wasn't in stock, and the other $20 one was the poofiest cheap pillow you'd ever seen.  No WAY was she going to climb on top of that thing.  $36-40 was out of the question.  So I checked out the sewing department and bought a $15 foam roll.  Then spent an hour or sew sewing up a dog bed out of some fur type fabric and some burlap, both from my stash.  It has a zipper back so we can wash it easily.  Also from my stash. 

Meri got home from work last night and said, Thanks so much for picking up a dog bed!!  She was shocked when she heard that I'd made it.  I just hope Ellie slept on it and not on Meri's bed again.  Ells is getting so big, she'll break some bones (of Meri's) if she continues that trend. 

I plan to make a couple more for the dining room for the other dogs but that will be after the fair.

Then another deluge...  Facebook deluged me with birthday greetings from a good percentage of my friends list!  Wow!  It was really nice and I felt loved.  So I spent 4 hours replying to everyone... ;)  Not really, but I did reply to all.

A few people I know have taken their birthdates off Facebook to see who their real friends are and who actually remembers their birthdays on their own instead of being reminded that it's so-an-so's birthday today.  I don't think I want to take that chance... :)  My birthday usually fell during the same time as our churches annual convention and my family was always caught up in that.  There was one time when my birthday fell by the wayside and no one remembered until a few days later.  And that year, I could really relate to the movie Sixteen Candles...  But it was really no big deal as I understood and really it's just another day, but after seeing it with a young relative lately, I realized that some think it might be.  So it is nice to be remembered.

So an afternoon of sewing, Skyping with Maddy, taking Leon to the pool, a wedding dress fitting, a visit to Ada and then an evening of taking Leon to his mom's, Robb took me out to the Outback for supper.  It was nice having a date! 

My birthday-tide lasts until October.  Even though I'm back on dish duty, I'm going to make it pay for me this year!  bwa-ha-ha-...

Valpalooza is SO going to be great!!!