My birthday weekend

My birthday started on Friday afternoon. While I was covering the phones for lunch the FedEx guy showed up with a flower box. While I was signing he made comment about someone receiving flower. I just said "cool". he read the box and it was to me.. said it was my birthday Monday. He wished me happy birthday as he was leaving. Turned out to be a dozen red roses. She said I wouldn't tell her what I wanted for my birthday so she decided to send me flowers. Very pretty.

Saturday was just a normal morning, running errands then home to rest. I had taken Monday off for my birthday so I wasn't in any rush to do the laundry. We decided to go to Outback Steakhouse for dinner. We were getting ready to go when the mailman showed up at the door..of course Tootsie went nuts as usual. Turns out I got a package, card & letter from one friend in Ohio and another card and letter from my other friend in Washington. Couldn't wait so opened the package. It was the framed cross-stitched picture above. She does beautiful work. I had to save the letters for after dinner.

At dinner I had a 9oz sirloin steak with a baked potato. I also had a Wallaby Darned. It's a frosty combination of peaches, champagne, Boomerang® Vodka and DeKuyper® Peachtree™ Schnapps. Sort of a frozen Icee. If you're feeling really in the mood you can get one Downunder. It's got a shot of Schnapps on top....but not tonight. We also have cheese fries that are super. We always have a great time when we go out so it was a good night.

Sunday wasn't bad either. Ben, Cassie & Ethan went to a movie and left me home with the girls. I did laundry and had a nice quiet afternoon.

Now Monday we had talked about going to the beach for the day but then Sunday night I thought Ben should take Ethan golfing. School will be starting in a couple weeks and I thought they should do something special.. Well morning came around and it was on the cool side and thought the beach might be close to the same. We check and it was suppose to be around 61 and a little cloudy.. so the beach it was.

So Monday morning I got up, took a shower and started getting stuff together. When we take the girls to the beach we take a large Igloo cooler, and towels to clean the sand off, plus water for us....we took a few snacks to for us and the girls. We got shoes for the sand and away we went.

it's only an hour drive to Florence but we drive about 35 more minutes north to a beach with easy access. Because it was Monday Ben stopped at a quilt shop I like and I was able to roam around for about 30 min. I was in just after the new owners took over last summer and I had already liked the new layout. this year they had changed the doors for better access, put new windows in the front to give more light and sort of put in a loft area for a classroom. I just couldn't believe the difference in the atmosphere. they did a super job. What's nice is that he's a quilter too and has even designed a couple patterns. I bought his pattern he was working on when I was in last..beautiful...plus a few fat quarters.

When Ben was at the coast for a run earlier in the year he found a street that led right to the beach, which would be better than some of the parks along the way. Unlike California, Oregon has a ton of beaches that you can use during the day, some might cost a couple bucks but you still can get down to the beach and have a good time. Well this new place was great. We were ale to pull right up to the top and park. The beach access was an easy walk down and for the hour we were there the was only two other people. You can go to my Flicker link and check out the pictures from our day. http://www.flickr.com/photos/23113511@N07/ There are also a couple videos too.

We were only there for about an hour but it was long enough to give the girls a good run, Ethan time to play in the sand. I don't think it got up to the 65 they predicted but with the little breeze it was just an all around nice day. We decided to drive up to Newport and head back through Corvallis to home. It seemed sort of silly to backtrack if we didn't have to, besides they were working on the road and there would have been a short delay. Besides that we could go to Mo's for clam chowder... a great place to go. Well that was a bust because there was no place to park close with the girls and they had a waiting line outside.

We ended up going to the candy shop for fresh salt water taffy and karmel Corn for me.. a weakness of mine. Then it was to Article Circle for lunch and the drive home. After we got home and got everything put away Ben brought up 3 packages and a couple cards from him and Ethan. They gave me DVDs for John Wayne's Chisum, season 4 of Bones (one of my favorite shows) and season 1 of Warehouse 13, another favorite. I watch a lot of movies while I sew so this was good stuff.

gotta tell you about the card Ben gave me...not the normal traditional Husband to Wife B-day card. the front is two ladies chatting over lunch. One says "where's the pool part at?", the other says "don't end a sentence with a preposition.".. open the card and she says "Where's the pool party at, bitch?" Like I said not the normal card.... loved it though.

I guess that's about it for now. Oh, I did buy myself a gift. I really love Tom Selleck and his latest Jesse Stone movie came out so I bought it. There isn't a lot on TV to watch these days so I watch a lot of old series' and movies....our collection is rather extensive... Whenever I retire I'll have more than enough entertainment to get by with... and I don't mind watching them over again....usually some space in between.

Until later.

Garage finally done.

I've spend the last couple months on the weekends working in the garage. When we moved into the new house the end of Sept 2007 we basically set the house up and the rest sat in the garage. a lot of it was what had been in storage from years ago. I went through a lot but not all and of course didn't want to get rid of everything. This time I went through all the boxes and got rid of so much...8 boxes of books, mine and kids, games, cloths and just stuff. Asked my Cassandra if she wanted any of the old stuff and she said no so out it went. We piled it all up in the driveway with some old wood that burned really bad.and the guys from work came and picked it up and took it to the dump. they did take the kids books and games to one of our programs for the kids. As you can see the pile was pretty big.

My husband and son finished putting the table away I'd been using, used the blower and blew out the dust, cobwebs and dog hair. They put out the rug, vaccumed it and brought up the treadmill. Now it looks like a regular garage.

We've never used the garage for the cars but now we can put the Honda in during the winter if we want. I can use the treadmill and not bother anyone. It was down in Ethan's room and usually had cloths hanging on it. All I need now is a fan for the summer and a small heater for the winter.

I'll have to take a picture it finished.. just can't beliveve it's done.. Now I even have room to put my cutting table so I can pin my quilts together. If I have to leave it overnight, it won't be in anyones way. Just turn the music on and pin away. since I have the larger area now, I've thought about having Ben get a big piece of plywood to lay on top when I have a queen or king to pin. I wouldn't have to move it as much as I do now.

Now that the garage is all done, I won't feel guilty if I'm on the computer or sewing.