Birthday Bash

We are home from my Birthday Weekend of Fun! It has been an extraordinarily pleasant weekend, plus all the birthday stuff, so I'm feeling pretty good at the moment (if full on desserts.)

First on the agenda was a brief shopping trip to Macy's and lunch at a Mexican restaurant I wanted to go to in Lexington. We came out of there with four pairs of pants, yet another credit card account and two shirts for me for $62. It is the first time I have gone clothes shopping since I had the baby. Last summer, I was just post-partum and didn't want to buy anything for a body I didn't recognize yet, and then in the fall, I quit my job and really, my need for clothes all but vanished, and I was still losing weight and hated to buy anything, and I don't really have much time for shopping without a baby to cart around. So, I have been wearing jeans this winter that drive my mom crazy because they don't fit me. Anyway, I now weigh about 25 pounds less than when I got pregnant, and also, I have watched What Not To Wear a lot since my niece got me into it last summer. AND. This is a huge AND, and I can't believe I am writing this finally. I wear pants two sizes smaller than when last I shopped, and shirts one size smaller. I can now wear stuff that I don't necessarily need to buy in the Ugly Clothes plus-sized department. That's the first time for that since the PCOS arrived on the scene. Excellent. So, I bought smaller clothes that fit properly, and thanks to Stacy and Clinton, I bought flattering stuff. I really would have liked to spend a little more time there but we had to rush off to spend the weekend with my parents so we had no time to shop more. It's funny because last week we went shopping and it was not much fun at all. You always get your groove on right when you can't spend any more time, don't you?

So we arrived in Pseudonymous Hometown just in time for the birthday party cookout my parents had for me at a picnic shelter a mile or so from their house. It was really, really nice. There were swings (Evelyn LOVED the swings!) and a trail and my dad fried veggies and grilled hot dogs, and then we had cake and ice cream. We played cornhole (gads, I hate that name) and played with the baby on the playground, and ate a lot. The party adjourned to my parents house, where we had my Traditional Birthday Pie. A few years ago, my mom instituted the making of the strawberry pie for my birthday because it is possibly my favorite food of all time and I much prefer pie over cake. This year I got both. :) I also opened my presents from my parents, which included some lovely cashola, a stud maker thingie (last-minute yard sale purchase) and an antique cheese grater. I also got....this!

This is Mark. Mark belonged to my grandparents and lived in the closet of the back bedroom at their house. My cousins and I played a lot of imagination-type games when we were young, and Mark featured in a good deal of those games. None of us remember the full plotline of these ongoing sagas, but the general thing to know about him is that a) his name is Mark b) he will help you if you really need him by sending you messages and c) he will protect you from Vortex (our bad guy, who was manifested in the red eyes that you could see (if you squinted) in the design of the furniture in that room.) Also from the red sequins, which were DEADLY. :) We had such fun, and I so hope that Evelyn learns about how to play pretend. The kids don't seem to have it these days. Anyway, they cleaned out that back bedroom recently, and I made over Mark a little when I saw him sitting out because of his history, and also because you have to admit that it's a cool object. After we left, my mom asked my grandfather for it to give to me, so it was a surprise. He needs cleaned up, and of course he doesn't actually type anything now, but he is AWESOME and I am envisioning him sitting on a little table with a potted plant and a lamp in the sunroom. Mark weighs a ton, and I have to give my parents credit for actually WRAPPING that thing. ;)

Today, we sent Evie off with my parents while we finished getting ready, so I got to drive to my grandfather's house in the front seat, which is a luxury beyond description. Thirty minutes of extreme curvy roads and someone prone to carsickness does not make riding in the back seat attending to baby needs much fun. An afternoon of drama-free visiting that included peach cobbler (with a candle for me to blow out!) and some time outside in beautiful weather. It was all just so nice, and with limited stressfulness--it is often a pretty stressful weekend what with the baby and people and noise, but we had a really nice time.

It was a little less pleasant when she whined those thirty minutes home, and then fought and cried the entire time we were at my other grandfather's house. She was hopeless. We were afraid of, but then resigned to, to her falling asleep in the car for the drive (ninety minutes) home. She slept pretty much the whole way home. When we got home, she woke up and cried while we changed her and got her ready for bed, and then she fell back asleep right away during the normal bedtime routine. She is not a baby that transitions well from one place to another so we were shocked. She just now started crying and M spent fifteen tense minutes walking with her, but she went back down (without ever fully waking up) on the third attempt. Here's hoping she stays in bed the rest of the night. This could prove excellent, or I might be up at four in the morning. We'll see. She got ridiculously over-tired this weekend.

I should have been sewing but I wrote this instead. I had a sewing machine tension problem, and then my snap press was taking a vacation in the basement (it's actually M's drill press, but it can be set up for snaps) so I am really behind on something that should have gone out tomorrow. :/ I hope I can finish the present tomorrow and put it in the mail by Tuesday at least. I was intending to do that after I posted, but Iam beginning to think that if I want to sleep, I had better get going on that because it might not last too long. ;)