Hello Monday - Birthday Weekend 2.0

 

I truly did not expect such a spectacular encore to my birthday this year, but I got it!  Look at the weather Saturday. . .the smiles. . .all.the.kids :)

Sharing my weekend with the Hello Monday link-up hosted by Sarah and Holly - thank you ladies!

I got a singular picture on my birthday - Stephen took me out to lunch.  We both love Abridged so it was an easy choice.

I worked from home that afternoon and this guy was following the sunlight - not sure why he wasn't just laying in his bed. . .thought this pic of him with his head hanging in the sun was sweet :)

The rest of the week was a full work-week, with a two-day training on-site, a double-header of my leadership series on Wednesday, and lots of new curriculum to discuss with my team and plan.

Our "weekends" usually start on Thursday nights, when we allow ourselves our first drink of the week.  We tried a recipe we got from the James E Pepper distillery, using their 1776 rye whiskey and LEMON to make the "original" Old Fashioned made popular by Mr. Pepper himself.  Delicious alternative to bourbon and orange and cherry.  This still uses a form of simple syrup and bitters.  Drastically different taste - much less sweet.

Friday was nothing exciting - we met a financial planner (locals who manage our bank's 401(k) who offer to meet with us individually if we want).  We had sent our information into him and he put some thoughts together for us.  I think the one thing we came away with was, "when do you want to retire?"  Basically, when do you think you'll need what you've saved/invested as your "salary". We've never really thought about that. . .it was a good place to start.  We've read the book Die with Zero and I like so much of it, I thought it was time to take the next step and see what that looks like for us practically.  I think we both walked away feeling like it's time to start naming "what's next".  It was a good day.  

We stopped for Happy Hour at a local place and watched the opening innings of Opening Day at the University of Tennessee.  It was a great day to launch the season!

Saturday was about as close to a perfect day that there could be.  I got to play pickleball with some of my favorite players from 7-9 a.m. Some of us were wearing pink shoes to honor our cancer-fighting friend.  

She played in the ladder Sunday - such a fighting spirit and NOT allowing Satan to take away her joy. 

When I got home I saw Laura for the first time - she came in late the night before, after we had gone to bed.  She is taking some students to Brooklyn in March for a missions trip and wanted to shop for some "goodie bags" for them.  I did this for her friend last year - it's so much fun doing these little things for these students and their leaders!  We hit up Homesense and Marshall's - 

We did zipper pouches for the girls and a toiletry bag for the singular male going.  Laura wanted them to all have journals and I have these great pens that someone (Tanya?) recently blogged about. I just got them and have only used them for a week, so I passed them on to them (no time to get a new set before she had to go back to Clarksville).  We found some candy and gum, chapstick and handcream (airplanes can be so dry!).  Laura decided to pass on some of her favorite books so each bag contains a book she thought they might like.  This was so much fun to do with her!

While we were shopping, Stephen and Tom were getting lunch ready.  It was such a surprise!!!  Generally at Christmas we do beef tenderloin but this year the cost was prohibitive so we went another direction.  I asked for it for my birthday, but given that Saturday was also Valentine's Day, again the meat was a popular choice for many people this weekend.  I was o.k. with our "normal" marinated flank steak.  Much to my delight and SURPRISE, Stephen and Tom had purchased beef tenderloin for Barbara's and my birthdays.  I was soooooo delighted!!!  It was amazing.

And, yes, I got to eat outside!!!  You don't see the shrimp they made too. . .I was the last to go through the line and there wasn't much of anything left :)

Erin bought me a Nothing Bundt Cake (!!!) and Barbara made delicious pavlova.  

So, so much good food!  Barbara's birthday is before mine and we generally celebrate together - 

Hey, I gotta say, too, that is a new top and sweater from Amazon!  I was liked both and was happy they came in time for our birthday party.  The kids decided they would pose for a picture with Nana and Grandpa too - I was so glad they did :)

It was GREAT having Robert & Ellie here for the day also.  We ended up playing games in the afternoon, Nana & Grandpa came back and we ran out for Costco pizza.  The dishwasher ran THREE times - such a fun, fun day with the family.  When we took the dogs out later I told Tom that it was just as good as Christmas Day.  Truly.  My heart was full.

Sunday started with a tennis match that had been rescheduled from one of our "we might have bad weather" Fridays recently.  Unfortunately we didn't walk away with a "W" but starting any day with tennis is bound to be a good day :). Just as I was getting off the court the rest of my people were getting out of church so we headed out to eat together.  I had 1 p.m. pickleball - I think today is the first (and only) time this month I've been able to play in the ladder.  We had some TOUGH competition and, again, not a day to rack up "W's". . .I don't care as much about winning in PB as I do having a good time and good points - which we did.  Stephen came over to do some cooking and we watched Darkest Hour, which Tom and I had never seen.  It was pretty good.  I read a lot of WWII historical fiction and always enjoy learning different perspectives from that time period.  I just finished The Secret Book of Flora Lea which takes place two years after this movie - it was interesting seeing the English government making decisions early in the war knowing what was going to happen.

My mantle is FULL - I'm blessed by the many cards this past week :)

I don't know that I'll have any more time to blog this week than I did last - although I'm only working two days this week, I'll be busy otherwise!  Today is a bank holiday and Tom is off too so we hope to tackle some more of our cabinets (finally).  Thursday morning I leave for South Carolina with a friend for Racquet Wars - it's been many years since I've participated in one and the friend that I am going with never has.  I'll look forward to reading about everyone else's Valentine's Day weekends.  If you are someone interested in habits and/or learning more about building spiritual habits, I listened to this podcast today while I was in the car and doing laundry.  I'm not sure who recommended it, but it was in my queue so someone must have told me about it at some point :). I have a couple of Acquired podcasts I'd like to listen to and am reading a bit of John Mark Comer's book Practicing the Way each day.  

Have a great week bloggers!

Love,

Jenni