Happy 40th Birthday, Doug!

I would like to wish my husband a very happy 40th birthday today. I hope you had a great weekend of birthday activities, friends and family for your 40th birthday. I wish you many many more wonderful birthdays. I love you very much and you mean the world to me.

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to write and post pictures, but my router decided to die on us and I'm too spoiled to type on our desktop in the computer room. I never knew how much a laptop could spoil a person until yesterday. Doug went to the store after work and got another one and I'm back in business. tehe!

Wow! What a weekend. As you may know, I spent most of Thursday working on posters, signs and other birthday decorations. I wanted to be prepared because I knew we had company coming some time on Friday and wanted to have time to enjoy our visit.

It was great seeing Wayne, Laura and Alise again. I was surprised Alise came right to me when she got out of the truck. I figured she wouldn't remember me and need some time to get to know me a little better before giving me a hug. Nope, she gave me a good hello hug. I can't really say the same for Katie. For days, all I've heard is "Alise going to see me?" Katie was so excited to finally see Alise again. She stood watch at the window pane most of the morning, looking for Alise. When they finally drove into the driveway, she began squealing and giggling that Alise was here. She couldn't hardly wait for me to open the door before she ran for their vehicle. The way she was acting in the house, you would have thought she would knock Alise down hugging her and giving her kisses. Nope, she had to be shy with Wayne, Laura and Alise. It took a little while to entice the girls to hug one another. You could tell they wanted to, but really didn't know if they should or not. It was too cute. It didn't take long before they were right back where they had left off, running, giggling and having a great time. Alise spotted the sandbox and off they went to play in the sand.

Later, Millard and Peggy came by to watch the girls for us, while we went out to eat. Aunt Sherry recommended a Mexican Restaurant not far from here called "Cantina Laredo." Oh, it was delicious! I never have liked Guacamole Dipping Sauce, but this they make right at your table, was delicious. It wasn't so soupy. I liked it! I had the Tampico. It's a grilled chicken breast topped with sauteed artichoke hearts, mushrooms, spinach, bell peppers and sour-poblano cream sauce and monterery jack cheese. Yummy! For dessert, I had their crepes with vanilla ice cream. I was stuffed, but I highly recommend this restaurant to everyone. We all thought about going to the movies, but there wasn't anything of any interest on that night. Laura and I were having so much fun SHOPPING! We found some good deals at our favorite store - J.Jill's. I bought a pair of brown capri pants, lounge pants and purple top that just so happens to look nice with the brown capris. We had to go to Target before going home. I wanted to get a couple of aluminum pans for the barbeque, just in case. While we were there, Laura and I spotted their swimsuits. Yuck! I hate swimsuit season. I don't have the body like I use to have and I feel it should be outlawed for an over weight woman to wear such a small fitting suit just to swim in. We knew that we have to get one sooner or later for the beach to play with the girls in the water. I vote the men watch the girls at the pool! Anyway, we both found some cute suits and tried them on. As brutal as it was for me, I had Laura give me the final vote. I told her to be upfront and honest with me. I hope she was being honest because I ended up buying the thing. Lord willing, I'll be able to loose lots of weight by beach time. Please pray for me.

Wayne, Laura and Alise stayed at our house. We thought it would be fun for the girls to have a slumber party in Katie's room. I made a big pallet on the floor with blankets and pillows. I read them a story and before I was finished, Alise and Katie were reading their own story out loud. Laura and I just looked at each other. Laura advised me to hang it up because they were not listening. We figured if they would look at books and calm down, they might drift off to sleep. As us Moms left the room, I left the light on and closed the door. We were so hoping they would stay in the room and go to sleep. Do you think it happened? You're right. It didn't! We tried our best, but once we turned out the light around midnight (I think), both girls went their separate ways. Alise went to the Living Room, where her parents were sleeping and Katie jumped in our bed. I asked Katie what the problem was and all she would say is . . . "I scared. I want to sleep with you." Ugh! Oh well, there's always the next day to try it out.


Saturday morning, we decided to have a small birthday party for the girls. Since the girls wouldn't be seeing each other on their birthdays, we thought they could go ahead and open each others gifts. They had a blast! Katie loves Barbie, so she wanted to give Alise a Barbie. I just didn't know it was her first Barbie. I hope she likes it. If not, Laura can just put it aside until later. I know Katie loves all the Tinkerbell stuff she got from Alise (towel, swimsuit, beach bag) and the "Kaitlyn" cup was really cool. Thank you again!

Later, we headed to the park with the girls. Laura thought that Alise might like the same park Katie likes to go to with all the slides. The girls were excited to go to the park. We brought some snacks and drinks for them. When we drove into the place, there were baseball tournaments going on. This means there were quite a few people and children at the park that day. A few children had the water section going on and I told Laura that I forgot about the water being on. I guess I was thinking for a brief moment that we were still under a drought. Oops! I have to say the girls did real good refraining from the temptation of the water. I wouldn't have minded them getting in the water, but I was afraid Alise would get water in her ears and that would be a big no, no. Plus, I didn't have any towels in the car to dry them off. I just had to get on to Katie a few times for trying to sneak off to the water area. As a matter of fact, I think they had more fun without the water. It was getting pretty late and I needed to get back in time to get ready for the party. We stopped by McDonalds and grabbed some meals and headed home. We really wanted the girls to lay down for a little bit before the party. Well, we get home and the boys are no where to be found. I just knew they would be coming home any time because we told them the night before that I had to be at the lodge at 3:00 for the lady to let someone inside. We even told them it would be great, if they kept the girls while we decorated. I was more worried about Doug and Wayne getting home to watch the girls then about decorations. I called Doug and my call went straight to voice mail, so I called Wayne. He said they were not headed home like I thought they would be. Okay. I believe it was getting close to 2:45. I called Millard and Peggy's house, but no one was at home. Now, I started panic mode. What was I going to do? I called Peggy's cell phone and thankfully she answered. She was on her way to the lodge and Millard was already there. Uh Yes! I told her what was going on and she said she was coming over to keep the kids, while we went to the lodge. Okay. I could finally breathe. I still couldn't think straight because I left half the stuff I needed at home. Ugh! June, Sandy and Nicholas got to the lodge the same time I was parking the truck after unloading everything. I had Nicholas start a list of things we needed that I left at home. After a while, he left to go get the items and I continued to remember stuff that I accidentally left. Where was my brain? I asked Millard if my head was attached because it sure didn't seem that way. He just laughed.

Needless to say, I think the party was a hit. I looked like crap, but everyone went on about the location, food, entertainment, company and overall how nice it turned out. What was more important, Doug said he really liked the party and he appreciated it. Those few words meant more to me and made all of the pains and stress of it all well worth it. Later, Laura and I counted the people that attended and we counted between 48-50 people at the party. I counted again today and I got 49, so that's about right. We had barbeque pulled pork, chicken tenders, potato salad, cole slaw, baked beans, potato chips, birthday cake and vanilla ice cream with the fixings. I had a slideshow of miscellaneous picture of Doug's life growing up along with a mixture of music (country, rock, pop, and slow music). I was able to make the famous "Ode To Doug Mason" poster and three picture collage posters. I had six 8' tables lined up adjacent from the center of the fireplace, all had black table covers and a bouquet of beautifully arranged dead flowers and weeds. Tehe! In the foyer, I had a smaller table with Doug's baby picture and our most recent family portrait in frames. They were sitting on the table with a black cover and a signature book. The signature book, I thought would be a good thing for people sign and maybe write a little message in it. Normally, stores sell this huge poster for people to sign during someone's birthday, but I thought that was too big to have to keep up with. A small book would be better. The only thing is, getting people to sign it. I haven't looked at it, so I'm hoping at least half the people signed that attended the party. We'll see.



I would like to thank - Laura, Wayne, Millard, Peggy, Sandy, June, Nicholas, Maryann, Vonell, and all the others that helped decorate and clean up. You helped make this party a great success! THANK YOU!

We got home around 8:00p.m. Millard and Peggy helped us unload all the stuff. All three vehicles(Millard, Doug and mine)were filled to the brim. Doug had to drive the truck by himself because it was stuffed with decorations and gifts. Millard & Peggy were nice enough to help us unload a bunch of things before they headed back home. We were all exhausted! I had been running around every where (hot) that by the end of the night, my hair was stuck to my head. When I got home, I had to pull it back for awhile. I felt so much better. Laura and I got our laptops out. I made a copy of Alise's pictures that they had just got made, while Laura was checking her email. Laura wanted me to show her how to change her blogger layout without deleting all of her pictures & other information off to the side. Doug had to get a picture of us at work. We had a lot of fun finding a new layout for our blogger. We just love blogging! Below are some pictures of us hard at work with our laptops. You can find more photos of this past weekend on our photosite.

We gave the girls a bath, in hopes they would get tired and fall right to sleep. Well, while Laura and I were working on our blog, it came up a thunderstorm. Laura just knew Alise wasn't going to sleep in Katie's room while it is thundering and lightning outside. Sure enough, it wasn't long before here they came down the hallway. Wayne tried his best to get Alise to sleep on the pallet in Katie's floor, but it was a loosing battle. Katie, of course, went to bed with her Daddy. Laura and I were getting really tired and Wayne was wanting to go to bed because they had a long drive home the next day. I got ready for bed and snuggled up to Katiebug in our bed. By that time, Doug decided he had better turn on the news because it was really lightning and thundering outside. Sure enough, there were tornado warnings for the counties west of us. It wasn't long before the warning made their way to our county. It was around midnight when I told Doug to be prepared to hit snooze on our weather radio. He was turning it off when I heard the warning sirens going off in the back yard. As I was getting my clothes back on, I told Doug that I would go out and explain to Wayne and Laura what was going on. I no sooner got to the middle of the hallway, when Laura was meeting me and asking what was going on? I explained that there were several circulating storm cells headed our way. According to the weatherman, we had 30 minutes before the storms hit our county. I asked Doug if that would give us plenty of time to get to Millard and Peggy's house. I felt that it should, so here we go. We got to Millard and Peggy's just in time to head for the storm shelter. Millard was already down there getting things ready for us. He had the TV on along with the lights. Alise and Katie were having a ball down there playing with a popcorn popper toy and push car. We left the back room for them to play, being oblivious as to the bad weather soon approaching us. Millard and Peggy told Laura the old stories about the storm shelter, while Doug tried to figure out on the TV which gray spot represented the storm because the TV was in black and white. I believe most of the damage was south of us. We got back home around 2:00 a.m. After all the puttin' and gigglin' stopped, I guess we fell asleep around 2:30-3:00 a.m. I had to get up at 8:00 because it was my Sunday to watch the 2 year olds at church. Ugh! I was so tired. Once I got up and sturd around, I woke up. Boy, when 3:00 p.m. got here, I was exhausted.

Wayne, Laura and Alise got ready and was on the road around 10:00, I believe. While I was getting my makeup on, Doug and Katie gave me my Mother's Day gift. They gave me "27 Dresses" movie and a card. Isn't that sweet? I really liked that movie, by the way. After church, we went to the hospital to visit Mom during the 1:00 visitation. We were running a little late, but we made it. Most everyone in my family was there visiting her. We took her some of Doug's birthday cake, potato salad and cole slaw. She ate a few bites and went on how good it tasted. With her food collecting on her tongue, like it has, it's been hard for her to really taste any food at all. The doctor told her today, she needs to drink plenty of water in order to flush that food on down in her stomach. Anyway, Doug and I stayed until about 2:30 before we had to go home. For 30 minutes, we were all outside talking and visiting. I think Mom had a good visit because she was more awake and aware as to what was going on. She probably stayed awake 40-45 minutes out of the full hour, we were there. She would actually turn to you and ask questions and participate in the conversation. We read her Mother's Day cards and taped them on the wall. Maryann and Sandy both bought her flowered corsages to pin on the pillows on her bed. I could tell her swelling had come down and she was actually moving her arms around. I saw lots of good changes. While I was telling Mom all these good changes I was seeing, she told me to keep telling her that for encouragement.

Later, we took Millard and Peggy out to eat for Mother's Day. We got her a patio umbrella, to replace the old one. She was hungry for some O'Charley's. I got the Prime Rib and it was so good, but I think it upset my stomach this morning. I woke up at 5:00 this morning with a terrible stomachache. By noon, I was wore out. I didn't feel like doing anything but sipping on a Coke and laying on the couch. Ugh! I didn't feel good. I can tell I've got quite a bit of sinus drainage as well, so I'm sure that didn't help either.

Today, Sandy called me and said Mom had another good day. I guess this is the way it's going to be from now on. She told me later that Dad met with an attorney about his rights and preparation for the whole Nursing Home thing. He feels comfortable now because he knows they are not going to take his pension. He was afraid, he would have to go back to work if they got his pension. He's relieved now. I went by there tonight to drop off some food, we had left over from Saturday. Dad didn't come to the party because he wanted to go to his High School Alumni Banquet. So I thought I would take him some of what he missed at the party. He told me that he and Sandy are going to start going to the hospital in the afternoon hours because Mom's so sleepy first thing in the morning. I think he'll feel better waiting until the afternoon hours because he's so easy to get discouraged about Mom's condition. When he goes into her room, he wants her awake and alert. If he doesn't get that, he gets very sad very quick.

Tomorrow, I've got to stay home and clean. I'm still behind on laundry and I need to start on Thank You cards for Doug. I hope y'all had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend and have a great week.