Sew It Was My Birthday

Another anniversary of my 29th birthday came and went earlier this month.  It started off with flowers.

Then my favorite birthday dinner - crab legs!  I only get these once a year because I take SO LONG to eat them.  Todd gets tired during this special meal since I crack, pick and eat every morsel of every leg for at least an hour.  I know he also likes it because it's the most quiet I ever am during dinner!

Then the next day my present arrived!!!  No surprise since it's the only thing I asked for, but I was excited!

I fought with the bobbin and threading that first night, and the next night I produced my first project.  Todd said he's glad I picked the "ugly fabric" for practice.  When he was resting his head on that pillow, he wasn't calling the fabric ugly!  :)  We'll see how long it takes the dogs to murder it.  There are more where it came from though.

My actual birthday was my first day back at work after having my gall bladder removed on February 22, so I was pretty tired.  All in all, it was a nice day and I'm glad it's over.  Getting older sucks after you start getting old!

TIREd

My birthday weekend started off with me tutoring my little lovelies until 6:00 on Friday evening.  I was looking forward to heading home for some R&R after a week full of more misbehaving children than not.  Even the good kids were getting in trouble, so you know I was spent.

As I got in my car, I looked up to the reminder that I had a tire in need of some air.  I headed to the nearest gas station to buy some air.  (I won't get started on that!)  It was after paying $0.75 for some secretly-special tire air that I noticed my tire was LOW.  Dang.  Being my own (s)hero, I used my tire gauge and filled the tire for what seemed like forever.  I studied the tire and soon noticed not one, but TWO nails in my tire.  Since it was after 6:00, I knew that Discount Tire would be closed.  My plan was to carefully head home and go to Discount in the morning to get the tire repaired.  That's when I felt the wind blow . . . from my tire.  There was a puncture wound in the sidewall of my tire that was quickly spewing forth my special seventy-five cent air!  Crap.

RIP - Stupid Tire

So . . . here I was, fifteen miles from home and still WAY too close to school for my own comfort . . . and in need of a new tire.  Rather than simply change the tire and spare it home, I made the decision to be proactive and head to buy a new tire at the local Sam's Club.  It took over ten minutes to be acknowledged in the store.  After a quote of $180 for ONE tire and (instead) a commitment to put on my spare in 45 minutes, I left pissed.  I'll never contemplate buying tires from them again.  I then drove to another suck of the Sam Walton empire - WalMart.  With $140 for a tire with a 30-45 minute wait, I told the dude that I'd pay him to put on the spare so I could get home.  After about an hour, I finally left with a pissed-off attitude and my spare in place.

Thankfully, my awesome team bought pizza and salad for lunch and made brownies for dessert.  There was enough left for dinner, so I didn't even starve to death.  :)

Happy Birthday, Todd

41 years ago today, a precious little boy was born.

41 years later, I am married to a most amazing man.  I love him so much and can't imagine my life without him.  We've been through a lot as a couple so far (the good, bad, and ugly), and I'm looking forward to the many years ahead.

I get excited about birthdays while Todd does not get as excited. For those of you who know Todd personally, you know what I mean. :)  Happy Birthday, Todd!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY HERO

Today is my brother's birthday!!! Jeffrey and I are 3.5 years apart - of course I'm older. :)

The best thing about Jeff is that he is my hero. You see, Jeffrey took on a special job from God. When God asked him if he'd be willing to be born into a body and mind that wouldn't work well, Jeffrey graciously accepted with a smile. So my younger brother is living the life that God asked of him - a life of challenges, fears, pain, and suffering. Thankfully, God also gave Jeff a sense of humor, strength, the ability to give and receive love, a special form of communication, patience, kindness, and the ability to bring complete joy and a full heart to all of those around him.

I could go on and on about my brother, Jeff, but I just can't. I'll just say that there is a protected and untouchable part of my heart that is (and always will be) only Jeffrey's. Jeffrey brings out emotions in his big sister than nobody else can and ever will.

So, happy birthday Jeffman. I love you more than you can ever, ever, ever imagine. You are the light of our lives and we all celebrate you today. Thank you for being my hero.

3Bathtime, circa 1978 - Jeff has always loved anything water. My family and I could write novels about lifetime of escapades related to all things water -pool, hose, washtub, bathtub, anything & everything water escapades!)


3 Hugs from my brother.

The first photo shown of us (very top) is from several years ago. Jeff, Mom, and I went to Fly Day, an event sponsored by Challenge Air, and Jeff was laughing and screaming because he knew he was going to fly in a plane. Yeah, he covers HIS ears, but not ours - lol!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODD!! (and Will, too!)

Happy Birthday to my most amazing, wonderful, loving, handsome, imtelligent, funny, sincere, kind, (and did I say wonderful? incredible?) husband! Although our blog is titled, "Todd and Kristin", Todd never posts and doesn't really even read our blog. However, he finds out about it through me making him listen to me or from others. Todd told me the other day that he didn't know I posted in our blog about the broken oven. He said his Dad asked him about it because his Dad's wife reads our blog (Hi Linda!).

Anyway . . . here is a photo of my amazing husband on our wedding day. It is one of my favorites.

I just love that man. Told you he was handsome! :)

So far the Birthday Boy and I have enjoyed a fun day hanging out. We had a quick breakfast and some shopping at Ikea, then furniture shopping, lunch, shopped/layed around on some sleep number beds, more furniture shopping, and finally came home to cool off and relax. He's now catching up on birthday calls from his many adoring fans.

Todd shares a birthday with our nephew, Will, so we will go grab a quick beer with the baby on later this evening at Hooters. (For the faithful blog readers, Will is my brother's son, Aeva's little brother. He was in utero when Todd & I married.) Only our cool nephew would have an informal birthday gathering at Hooters for his first birthday!

Here's a picture of Will eating watermelon yesterday. He's such a big boy, and such a cutie! Happy 1st Birthday, William!

After hanging out at Hooters, we'll do dinner wherever Todd would like and then meet a few friends Saturday night to continue the festivities. Happy birthday to Todd and Will! We're over halfway through June now!

Happy Birthday, Aeva Claire!

My little niece, Aeva, turns FIVE today! It truly seems like yesterday that she was born.

Her baby shower was planned for Sunday, June 1, 2003. Aeva had other plans - she was born two weeks early that morning! So . . . mommy, daddy, and baby weren't able to attend their own shower. We all had a good time for them, though.

Aeva Claire (initials A.C. after her great grandfather "Papa") is such a neat little girl. She is extremely bright and creative, funny, sensitive, kind, silly, serious, talented, and imaginative. Aeva LOVES dinosaurs and can tell you about the different kinds of dinosaurs, whether theys were omnivorous, carnivorous or herbivorous. She likes her plastic bugs and laughs when her Mimi gets scared of them. (Note: scaring Mimi is a family trait enjoyed by all!)

It has been fun watching MY baby brother, Michael, raising his baby. I helped raise Michael and consider him partly my own, so the pride I feel in Mike having a wonderful wife and children has been a neat reward. Aeva looks like her Daddy's side of the family, and we (obviously) have the kinship of blonde, curly hair.

Here is tiny little Aeva the first time I saw her (less than 12 hours old). She was SO tiny - not even five pounds.

The first time I got to hold her (10 days old). No, I wasn't proud!

Aeva's first birthday party with her Papa, Daddy, Mommy & Mimi:

Aeva's first trip to Mexico around her 3rd birthday. She is beautiful!

Xmas 2006 with Aunt Kristin:

Aeva's debut as a flower girl on my wedding day:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AEVA! You are a precious little girl and we all love you!

Happy Birthday Whitney!

HAPPY 15th BIRTHDAY, WHIT!

I can't believe it, but my niece Whitney is 15 today! It seems like just yesterday that she was born and I was trying to get her bathed & to bed without too much struggle.

Our family is blessed to have such a pretty, smart, together, loving, and talented young lady. Happy Birthday to my Sweetie Girl!