July 27, 2008

• Fun Message

  We’ve had a fun week-end.  It’s not even 4pm on Sunday and I’m ready for bed.  Too much of a “good thing” I guess!!!

  Saturday morning we had JanaLyn’s breakfast of 3 different kinds of coffee cakes or rolls (cinnamon rolls, cream cheese rolls, and cream cheese & raspberry coffee cake) served with turkey sausage links and scrambled eggs . . . and orange JUICE – one of JanaLyn’s favorite things to drink.

  We cleaned up the breakfast dishes (paper plates – Ha! Ha!) and then she opened her gifts.  It seemed an odd way to do things because we normally have an evening meal, THEN gifts, and THEN cake.  I’m such a creature of habit and it’s hard to change my ways; but, she was pleased and that’s what mattered the most.  Stephanie combined her gifts with ours and it made quite an impressive fireplace hearth display of gift boxes and gift bags.  Stephanie had to go to work in the afternoon.  JanaLyn stayed and the girls swam in the pool until a little after noon and then came in for lunch and to watch some children’s movies Jesse had rented.  It’s just been too hot to stay out all day, even if you are in a pool.

  I’ll share some of the best birthday pictures.

  There were just SO MANY gifts to choose from.  She wasn’t sure which to open first!
  

  Jesse had picked out that Barbie doll at the Disney Store, I think I had talked about that earlier in the week.  He picked Cinderella for her and she was tickled pink.  We are NOT big Barbie doll fans, but since these were storybook characters, we bent our rules a bit.   AND, she was so happy, she ran to Jesse to give him a hug and a big “thank you, PoPo!”
  

  Quickly, she quit trying so hard to pick the right “next one” and jumped into the gifts without much forethought!
  

  She was so excited to get a giant Play Doh set with every imaginable Play Doh toy (cutters, pressers, spaghetti makers . . . ) you could think of.  All the pieces stacked together to make one large tower.  Now we’ll see if she actually takes the time to restack those pieces each time! LOL
  

  One of the special gifts from us (PoPo and Granny) was a children’s Bible.  She was in awe of the inscription we had written and immediately put it up in a safe place!
  

  She enjoyed having her cards read to her.

  Rissy JanaLyn & Stephanie                                                      Annamarie, JanaLyn & Stephanie
  

  And of course, what’s a birthday without a cat or two playing in all the tissue paper???!!!  I think the adults and children had as much fun watching the cats as we did watching JanaLyn open her gifts.  At first, Chirper wasn’t sure about the paper and its rustling noises.  But Stormy took the plunge and showed him how it was done.   If you look closely, you can see Stormy’s white nose with black spot on her nostril peeking out from under the bend in the pink paper and her hind end above the green paper on the left.  Soon Chirper joined her on the other end of the paper stack!
  

  Stephanie had given JanaLyn a gun that squirts out blown bubbles.  It makes a grinding sound as you depress the “trigger” and it startled both cats whose playing came to a dead stop as their bodies froze and they stood at stone still attention!
  

  But, their playing quickly resumed.
  

  As did their play wrestling.  Stormy has finally decided Chirper is kind of fun and they both decided the paper was more fun than a barrel of monkeys!  The blur is Chirper being thrown down by Stormy.  *Gently* thrown down!
  

  All in all, it was a good birthday and more than JanaLyn were satisfied with how things turned out!
  

  We got up early this morning and watched Charles Stanley on TV, then quickly got dressed and headed to church.   Even though we are trying to not spend as much money, we went out to eat at Golden Corral (an all you can eat place) for lunch after church.  We got our electric bill yesterday and it was almost $500.00!!!!!  Jesse’s a/c friend came over and cleaned the two outside a/c units, which he said were covered with a thick layer of dust and debris.  He thinks it was making the unit work harder and continuously – thus the high bill. The electric company had warned that they were charging more and to expect a higher bill in July . . . but we never dreamed . . .   Hopefully, now, the two units will run more efficiently.  He also rehung Annamarie’s and Luci’s closet rod higher.  Their dresses were beginning to drag on the floor.  They gained a shelf that’s easier to use, but I’m not sure they are efficiently using it just yet!

  We came home and I took Luci back out (alone) to shop for her birthday decorations.  Her birthday is August 5th, ten days after JanaLyn’s birthday. 

  I think we’ll have popcorn for dinner tonight, as I doubt anyone will be hungry for a real meal.

  The girls and I wore some of our new dresses to church.  We’re still dressed and not too unkempt, so I’ll take pictures today and post those tomorrow.  My friend, Tina, is such an excellent seamstress.  She’s never met us but sews like we are standing there next to her sewing machine, trying things on as she goes.  She has been blessed with a talent I can only dream of possessing!

  I’m going to snap some pictures of our new clothing and the girls’ new closet.  Then, I’ll enjoy spending time with the family before the grind of the work week starts all over tomorrow!

  • 5:33 pm
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