Okay, finally.

I think we're finally finished celebrating my birthday.  We finished it off yesterday with a girls trip to Ikea which is 2 1/2 hours away from here.   Me, my daughter-in-law and my daughter went and spent the day there.  Ikea had sent me a coupon for 15 dollars off and a coupon for a free meal on my birthday so I took advantage of both.  I went mostly to shop for an entertainment center but we had to take the smaller car, so I didn't actually come home with one.  I did get a good idea what I want and I can wait until the next time (I think) to go get it.  We mostly had a good time.  I had an asthma attack right in the middle of the store which made me feel bad for an hour or so and my legs got tired so I did a lot of sitting while they shopped.  I came home with some pillows and a few other things, not as much as I had planned on, but I'm full of ideas, so maybe that counts.

Today I am blessed to get to have lunch with some of my homeschool mom friends that I haven't gotten to see for a while (we need to work on that) and then it's back into the car to go take my daughter to the doctor this afternoon.  So, 2 busy days off work, then back to work tomorrow and then the weekend!!  I'll finally

get the house cleaned and something cooked.  Probably.  I knew this was going to be a busy week, but it really takes a toll on the housework when I'm doing stuff like this.  Oh well.  It waits.  It will be there when I get time.

Celebrating!

I'm celebrating my birthday a ton this year.   Lots of fun!  Friday night my brother took me out to eat.  We had a great time.  I tried a maple bacon burger at Cracker Barrel.  It was extremely good.   We got to sit and visit for a while and it was great.  Then on Saturday, my actual birthday, my husband cooked for me.  He made fried fish, fried onion rings and hush puppies.  All of these are something I can't really get gluten free unless we make it at home and I am not much of a fryer.  I don't really fry anything other than some chicken occasionally.  It was really, really good.  We finished it up yesterday.   Yesterday, I took a break from all the celebrating, went to church and visited my aunt in the nursing home and then today, my daughter-in-law is going to cook one of my favorite things that she makes, fettuccine alfredo and my daughter is going to bake my birthday cake.

Since all of these celebrations have involved very fattening food, I will be back on my diet on Tuesday!!!

So yesterday,

I had to get an eye exam in the town where my son is in college.  After school and the eye exam, we met up at the hair salon to get our hair cut.  As I am sitting there making small talk with my stylist, I hear my son over in the next chair, outlining all the merits of homeschooling for his stylist.  Later, I asked him how that conversation got started and he said she asked him where he goes to school.  He answered with his college name, but then she asked where he went to high school and she told him.  They had quite a long talk.  My haircut got finished and I went out to the waiting area to wait for him. When she brought him out, she apologized and said she was sorry it took so long, but that they were talking.  It turns out, she has a 1-year-old and is thinking of homeschooling in a few years.  :-)

I don't have a picture of this event so I thought I would share some of my recent art projects. :-)

Whew!

These 2 photos are taken on the same day.  Snow on the peach tree and then a cardinal that posed for me in the back yard.  

I survived my week of working 40 hours.  It wasn't as bad as I thought and it definitely wasn't as bad as that week I spent last week working at the Montessori school.  With that one, I hadn't worked there before so it was totally new and it was a much more active job, so I was tireder more tired.  The main problem I had this week is that my Sjogren's syndrome flared and my eyes were so dry that one night I couldn't sleep much.  I finally got some moisturizing eye ointment for my eyes and was able to sleep.  With this job, I've been there a while and it's pretty low pressure; I'm not dealing with any 3 or 4-year-olds, it's quiet, etc.    I did get to do some types of reports I had not done before and go into the cutting room and see some things that were interesting, but I can't go into details.  I also made some mistakes and had to redo a couple of things.  Overall, though, not too bad.  I'm looking forward to only working a few hours next week and getting some things done around the house.  :-)

The weather has been interesting here, up, down, rain, snow, etc.