Happy Birthday Week to me!

 
I kicked off my birthday week yesterday and shared the day with my daddy.  We had a huge dinner, then presents and cake and ice cream.

Here's the cake!  Red velvet with cream cheese icing.  My absolute favorite cake.  Ami made the little Happy Birthday flag for me.  She's so crafty.  She makes the most beautiful things!!  She made me a 45th Birthday badge, too, that I wore all day.  Mama put the lei on me.  I was a princess.  :)  A tie-dyed princess.  We couldn't get over how my shirt matched everything!

I got lots of cool things!!  A cute pair of 'jamas and a Chilly Pad towel (that will no doubt SAVE MY LIFE this summer in that hangar) from Ami and Brian, a double-insulated cup to keep my ice water in at work, some sunflower bath stuff and an adorable little toy hippie van from Ricky and Audra, Larry got me a beautiful electric glass kettle and the cutest little mice measuring cups.  He also did something pretty spooky.  I've been wanting this penguin humidifier (YES, the pediatric kind, shut up) but I never mentioned it to him.  I'd just look at it at Target and decide that I didn't need it.  Well, that's what he got me!  Not the dog, not the elephant, not the panda, the PENGUIN.  The one I wanted.  We do stuff like that all the time, read each other's minds and stuff.  It's pretty incredible.  I got a big roomy t-shirt (to wear to work and promptly destroy with hydraulic fluid) and Mary McDonough's book that I've been wanting to read forever, Lessons From The Mountain: What I Learned From Erin Walton from Mama and Daddy.  Y'all know I love me some Waltons.  When I was at home those seven weeks after I quit my job at Dr. Niebaum's office and before I started at the base, I watched The Waltons pretty much round the clock.  I saw the entire series (all nine seasons!) twice and some episodes three or four times.  I laughed and cried and was reminded of my childhood in every single episode.  I can't even SEE Grandpa or hear his voice without squalling.  I'm friends with Mary on Facebook and I have been dying to read her book.  Well, now I can.  Actually I started it today.  :)

Ever since I started my job at the base, Larry has called me his "gubmint mule".  So, for my birthday, he got me one.  A stuffed donkey that we have named Sammy, you know, for The Man.  

 

When I first opened the box, all I could see was legs and feet and I thought there was a dead cat in the box!  See my face right here??  Bwahahaha!!  This picture cracks me up.

Here's me and Sammy sharing gubmint secrets on Mama and Daddy's back porch.  I told him that everything is a conspiracy and he wholeheartedly agreed.  He is gonna SO love living with me!!  :)

 

After dinner, Ami and Brian 
and I went riding around out in the country.  We came up on a couple of old Georgia red clay roads and we had to get out and play (AKA take pictures!) and pick blackberries.  I love how this picture turned out (I think Brian took it).  The blackberry has red clay on it!!  Squeeee!  I'm pretty sure I ate this one, just like it was.  :)

 Happy feet!!

We came back and I raided Mama and Daddy's garden of the squash and cherry tomatoes that were ready.


We had a wonderful day!!  And it was the perfect kick-off for my birthday week!!  I'm celebrating all week long 'cause it's not every year a girl turns 45.

OLD friends are best!

An old friend of mine was passing through this weekend and we got together today for an eatin' meetin' and got all caught up!  I hadn't seen him in seven or eight years and he was in the area with his teenaged twin sons, Avery and Austin, for a baseball tournament.  They play FOUR games this weekend!

We went to Cheddar's and I got this amazing Roasted Pear Spring Mix salad with grilled chicken.  ZOMG.

Avery is second from left and Austin's at the end of the table.

Here are the cutie patootie ball players!  I took this pic of them when all four of them had their cell phones out.  I thought that was so funny!  I still don't have a smart phone and one reason is I'm afraid I will be so totally dependent on it that I won't ever put it down.  I know how I am.  Y'all think I'm on Facebook a lot NOW.  Ha!  

 

I've known Donnie since we were babies.  He moved away when we were in elementary school but we've tried to stay in touch over the years.  Here he is with his Chinese friend today.  I don't know who she is but she had my Cookie Monster shirt on.  :)

We had such a great time just sitting and talking and catching up.  But I just couldn't let the opportunity pass by to remind him of the time he pushed me off the porch into the rose bushes when we were five.  And how he got his tail tore up for it by his mama with his Hot Wheels race track.  And then he had to tease me about being so much older than he is.  I'll be 45 next Sunday, he'll be 45 a week later.  One week!!  He's done this as long as I can remember.  He should be so lucky to be this purty when he's as old as me.  Ha!

It was great seeing you, Donnie!!  Hope y'all win tonight!!

Sunrise

One of the perks of getting to work at 6:00 in the morning is you get to watch the sun come up every day.

It's pretty awesome.

Before I started my job at the base, I could count on one hand how many times I actually saw the sun rise.  I didn't realize what I was missing!!  It's beautiful every single morning.  No buildings or trees to hide it, just miles of flight line serving as the canvas for God's early morning gift to us.  I'm honored to get to keep company with the sun as he wakes up for the day.  But his tail can wake up ON HIS OWN tomorrow 'cause I'll be sleeping in!!  :)

Oven-fried parmesan chicken

Larry found this recipe in a magazine and he wanted me to try it.  So that's what I cooked today, along with some red-skinned mashed potatoes, fresh field peas and fried okra.

Here's how!

6 Tbsp butter, melted
5 Tbsp dry bread crumbs
3 Tbsp grated parmesan cheese
3 Tbsp cornmeal
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 fryer chicken, cut up (3-4 pounds)

Place butter in a shallow bowl.  In another shallow bowl, combine the bread crumbs, cheese, cornmeal, salt, oregano and garlic powder.  Dip chicken in butter, then roll in crumb mixture.

Place on greased baking sheet and bake, uncovered, at 375 for 40-45 minutes or until juices run clear.

That recipe is super easy but being the lazy 21st-century girl that I am, I always look for short cuts.  :)  I used Kraft's Fresh Take Italian Parmesan bread crumb and parmesan cheese mix.  It has the garlic powder, I added my own oregano.

It tasted just like fried chicken with a little parmesan kick.  Yummy yummy!!

What I'm loving Wednesday!

Today I am loving these books!

I call 'em my "cowboy romances" and I've been reading them almost entirely at work.  During roll call, break, after lunch, when the sheet metal crew has to work on the verticals and we have to get off the plane, just any spare minute I have.  I LOVE them!!  I haven't read sappy paperback romances probably since I was in my 20's but something about these grabbed my attention (and, no, not just the covers!  Ha!).  

The story takes place in Bramble, Texas ("Mayberry on crack") and revolves around twin sisters, Faith and Hope Scroggs.  Their parents, 15 years old when they were born, kept Hope (hoping they'd be good parents) and gave Faith up for adoption, with the faith that she would return to them one day.  She does and Going Cowboy Crazy, the first in the trilogy, is her story.

 

I've raised a few eyebrows with them at work. Especially with this one.  My favorite of the two. Make Mine A Bad Boy.  Yes, please.  :)  Hope's story.

She meets her match in tattooed, motorcycle-ridin' bad boy, Colt.  Fire and gasoline, those two are.

I finished it today and literally ran to Books-A-Million after work to get the third book.  Catch Me A Cowboy.  

I have laughed out loud so many times reading these books!  They're hilarious, sexy and being from a small town, I can really relate to everybody being in their business all the time, plotting to "fix it" when all they're doing is making it worse.  Bless their hearts.  :)

If you're looking for a little guilty pleasure this summer, I highly recommend these books!

To comfort and keep you

I've been around pretty much the whole time, almost.  I used to tell people that Mama and Daddy got married on the 6th of June and I was born the 24th.  I assure you that my mama did not find one thing funny about that at all.  They did and I was, but two years later.

They were my first loves and I learned how to love from them.  

Having known these two for 45 years, I can tell you that when they said their vows on that sunny, late spring day in June of '65, they were serious.  See??  Look at their faces.  Serious.

They love, they honor, they comfort and keep.

There's a quote I saw somewhere online (probably Pinterest!) and when I read it, I just cried.  This is so true for me (and my sister). 

The greatest thing a daddy can do for his daughter is to love her mama.

So simple, yet so powerful.  I have no doubt that our daddy adores our mama and she him.  I am so blessed to have been born to these two beautiful people that I love with all of my heart.

Happy 47th, Mama and Daddy!!  Y'all still look just the same!! 

Welcome June

You are my most beloved month.

You are homegrown tomatoes and birthday cake.

You are the anniversary of a wedding that started me.  And my brother and sister.

You are flip flops and pool floats.

You are ocean waves and seashells.

You give my daddy his own day. 

You are lightning bugs and ice cold watermelon.

You are lazy summer days and season five of True Blood. :)

Welcome June!  Even though you are also hot as hell and you bring gnats.  I still love you.