#29

29.
How is that possible?
As of today, I am just one year away from 30!

I had a wonderful birthday weekend!

Friday:
The kids and I cleaned the house and did five loads of laundry so I wouldn't have much to do all weekend except maintain what was already done. Mama, Dad, and Lu came up after Lu got off work and got in after 9. Annabeth was SO excited and stayed up to welcome them!

Saturday:
We had a quick breakfast at home but took a while to get everyone ready so we ended up in Columbus at lunch time. We enjoyed lunch at Puccini's Smiling Teeth Pizza - so yummy! Then we went next door to let Annabeth play at the Commons playground. I thought this was a good plan because it is fairly empty after lunch during the week. However, on a very cold Saturday it was packed! She quickly was over it and so we left after a short while. Mama and Dad went on a secret mission to Hobby Lobby and Lu and I took the kids home. We all met back at the house and they spent the afternoon working on a secret project in the school room. Owen and I played in the living room while Mama made new curtains for our back doors.

**When we moved into our house we were very lucky in that nearly all of the windows had mini blinds that were in good shape. My parents had an extra set of curtains from their front room that worked for our school room and we moved the kitchen curtains from the old house to complete all of our windows here. We have a little curtain panel on the window next to the front door. It was left by the previous owner and looks nice. Then there were the back curtains. They were made of this very ugly, very thick fabric. I have always hated them but have never found any curtains in the stores that I liked better. However, Mama has always kept them in the back of her mind and found a creative solution for us! She bought two scarves (at a buy one, get one free sale) and made them into beautiful curtains! I love them so much!! Thank you Mama for thinking of this and for making them.**

 Since it was my birthday weekend I was allowed to pick dinner. I chose Tom's Pancake House which is a new place in town that both Annabeth and I love and I really wanted to take them to. We got to Tom's only to find out that they close at 3 pm. So, we ended up eating sushi next door. It was, as always, really good and was a great substitute for pancake dinner. We all headed to Walmart after dinner for Grandpa and Annabeth to look at some toys and for me to pick up a few grocery items that we truly needed. Back home for movie night.

Sunday:
Valentine's Day/My 29th Birthday!
We got all of us up and ready for church. I was so thankful we made it because our friends Chris and Cindy were in town and came with Cindy's mom Miss Teri to church. We always love to see them, especially now that they have sweet baby Abigail. After church we had lunch at FlapJack's in Greenwood (Tom's Pancake House with a different name) It was wonderful and just as I thought my family loved it. As we ate lunch, the snow began to come down. We went back to the house and opened Valentine's and birthday gifts. I was so excited to get lots of new items for the kitchen and also some new PJ pants and some new jeans.

I also opened the finished product of the secret Hobby Lobby trip and afternoon crafting. Annabeth painted me a special key hook with all of our names on it. This was a very special item for me because it's the first thing like this that I have received as a Mama AND I made one for my Dad as a child with the help of my grandparents. It was special to know that she had continued that tradition and made it for me with her grandparents.

Mama, Dad, and Lu left right after the gifts to get on the road to try to stay ahead of the snow. The 2.5 hour trip ended up taking them over 5 hours due to snowy roads. We are so thankful that they got home safely!

Mark had been gone all week at a class for work and arrived home late afternoon. We gave the kids their Valentines (new books) from us and we all gave Mark the Valentines that we painted for him.

What better Valentine gift than new books to read?

They gave me my birthday gift (a Mama Bear/Bear cub tshirt set for Owen and me to wear)! I was so excited for this gift as I have been eyeing them on Pinterest and without even telling Mark he knew I would like them! Apparently I have a gift coming from Annabeth as well! I look forward to having an extra gift to open in a few weeks! :) Our other birthday tradition is that we always make each other a special birthday dinner. This year I requested Mark's awesome biscuits and gravy! So good!

I am so thankful for another year of life and pray that I will use it for His glory.