I'm 26!

What a weekend!

I can't believe I'm now 26 years old!

Funny how it still feels like 25 lol.

Friday was my actual birthday and my hubby stayed home with me!

Well, he was home because he was sick, but still!

I got a whole extra day with him!  That was a wonderful birthday present!

Another wonderful present was all of the many happy birthday wishes on Facebook from

so many of my friends and family!

And no, those weren't the only presents I received!

My wonderful hubby bought me the fancy cover for my Kindle!

And he even WRAPPED IT in a Sock Monkey gift bag with matching tissue paper!

I ripped into it to find my lovely new toy!

This cover has a built-in reading light and the whole thing hooks up to my Kindle

so that the LED reading light is POWERED by the Kindle!

Also, as I proved Friday night, with this light I can stay up reading late into the night

without the light keeping Bryan awake!

I am SO EXCITED!

During the day on Friday Bryan and I worked on the game room upstairs!

After some touch ups on Saturday, four of the six and a half walls are now completely painted and dry!

And it looks AWESOME if I do say so myself!

The night of my birthday we were going to go out to eat at BJs Brewery

with some friends, but the wait for the 6 of us was over an hour!

So Lindsay's boyfriend Ben had the brilliant idea to go to Outback Steakhouse!

He called, and by the time we walked over our table was ready!

We had so much fun with Lindsay and Ben and Ethan and Julie!

It was too dark to get a picture of all of us, so here' a picture of my birthday dessert instead!

And no, this didn't get tracked lol.

On Saturday, my Nannie and Papa drove down and took Bryan and me out to

BJs Brewery for lunch!

Lol I was going to eat there for my birthday one way or another!

It was wonderful, and Nannie gave me a beautiful keepsake music box 

which was promptly put in my china cabinet.

That night Bryan's Papa and Mimi took us to Cheddar's for dinner!

Little Raleigh was with us and I enjoyed her fascination with the water fountain at the restaurant!

I also taught her how to say plant!

Ok, not really--she isn't even two yet--but I DID teach her the inflection for plant and she kept 

returning to the foliage and touching the plant and making the sound!

Lol it was so much fun!

Saturday afternoon Bryan, our friend Jake, and I went a ways down the road

to a used appliances store and Bryan bought an old refrigerator for the garage!

The plan is to turn it into a kegerator for when we start brewing our own beer and making our own wine!

Bryan's birthday present was most of the tools needed to start brewing, and once the fridge is 

set up, we're good to go!

Or rather, Bryan and Jake are good to go--by the time we actually have something

ready to put in the kegerator I will most definitely not be drinking!

Speaking of which, I'm officially off of ALL of my meds, except for the vitamins and such!

Which means we get to start trying to have a kiddo very soon!

Now, if only this weather will cut me some slack and stop throwing fronts my way,

I will be a very happy girl!

Anyway, today we got up and went to church for the third Sunday in a row!

And as is quickly becoming tradition, Bryan and I went for a one-on-one lunch after the service.

I really enjoy the church we've been visiting and the blended service at 9:45,

and Bryan likes it as well.

Today's message was about serving the next generation either as parents (soon enough!)

or as volunteering with younger people.

I'm seriously thinking about seeing how I can volunteer with the youth group

along with any other serving group or Bible study I might join.

I miss working with high schoolers--a feeling emphasized today when, after we returned home,

I logged in to the teacher Facebook account I set up at the beginning of this school year.

I had so many messages from former students wishing me a happy birthday, saying they missed me, 

and updating me on their lives!

It made my birthday even more special and wonderful!

 I know that I will never be able to replace the kiddos I had to leave when I was put on disability--

thank goodness for Facebook which lets me keep in touch--

but I'm thinking that by volunteering with the youth group at the church, I would still 

get to work with and help kiddos of the same age group.

All in all, this was a wonderful birthday and a fantastic weekend!

Bryan and I have been running errands all day, so now I'm going to go

relax with him while he reads his new beer brewing book and I read my new

Kindle books.  While we watch the X-Games!

Sounds like fun to me!