Jamey's Birthday!!! :~)

Well, with all this buzz about the election I totally forgot to post something about Jamey's birthday on here! :~o Since his birthday was Sunday and he had to work, we celebrated on Saturday! It worked out well, cause he was able to sleep in and relax. We got up about 10 am and started with the lemonade cake with candles! :~) Then it was present open time!! He helped me pick out a few of the presents, but I got one that he didn't know about... I went to Wal-mart and picked up the new Three Stooges DVD that's out now. I knew he wanted it, I wanted to have at least one present that he didn't know about! :~P There was one present that didn't come until about 3pm that day... It was the one that I had got from sniping a guy on e-Bay. I was hoping to wrap it, but it did come on Saturday so Jamey could play with it! :~D After that we just chilled. I made fried chicken, potatoes, peas, and biscuits for dinner. :~P We went to Wal-mart for a while then came home and watched a movie. :~)

There aren't as many pics as there might have been had I not had the video camera in my hand! I decided this was a good opportunity to use my birthday present... Yeah, I taped his birthday presents with my birthday present! :~} Oh, I posted some pics if you want to see pics from my birthday... There's not enough room on here for all these pics! :~)

Sunday was Jamey's actual birthday, but we had a lot going on and barely had any time to sit down... First there was service, then we went out to eat at Ryan's. After that we went home to relax a little before we had a wedding shower to go to and Jamey had a business meeting after that. And after all that was over there was evening service... So we were kinda busy that day and too busy to have done anything for Jamey's birthday! :~)

Ode to Frank Mills

If there was one album that took me back through the years of my life it would be Frank Mills Sunday Morning Suite. I have very scattered memories... From doing chores to the music when I was little, to listening to it constantly when I was a young teenager on a Walkman. Most times the cassette tape would get lost and wouldn't be found for awhile... I'm sure it was just it's defense against being played to death! :~) But whenever we could find it, it generally got played at least once... Mostly by me, cause I loved it! I've been looking for that album for the last year and a half... Hoping to find it so I can listen and be taken back every now and then, also so I can share it with my kids. Yesterday Jamey went to a new thrift store and found it! :~D It's a record, so I can play it on Jamey's new record player (which I'm doing right now!). Someday soon hopefully Jamey will be able to put it on a CD so I won't wear out the record! :~}

Well, last time I wrote it was before my birthday! I had a really great birthday... Jamey got me balloons and he made me do a scavenger hunt for my presents! :~) That had to be the most fun. Other than the shopping of course! ;~) He made me a chocolate cake and gave me some candy... But the biggest present came in the form of a video camera! I love it! It's a small one and it's so cute, if such things can be called cute! I've used it a couple times, but the most it will get used is when we go and see family! After the presents were opened I got to go shopping and couldn't find a pair of trouser jeans anywhere until I went to Target. Those ones are nice... Then I went to Kohl's and found some. So now I have a couple pair... They're nice cause they look like straight leg jeans on me. After all my shopping we had a lovely dinner at Olive Garden. We had a gift card and decided to use it on my birthday.

I also got some fabric at Hancock's. It's a beautiful purple plaid and I made it into a jumper... However, when I wore it I stressed the seams! :~o So before I wear it again I'll have to take out the seams and add a strip of fabric to it so it won't rip on me! :~) I don't have a pic of it right now, but when I get done fixing it I'll be sure to take one.

Oh, if you want to see some of the cutest pics of the most adorable nephew... (I know, I'm bad) Just go to my sister's blog. There are too many now to be able to copy and paste onto my blog! :~) Not that I'm complaining about all the pics! :~)

Last Saturday we had a yard sale... Not a normal yard sale, it was in front of one of the local Wal-marts! Yep, Wal-mart and the Children's Health Network were selling spots in front of Wal-mart for whatever you wanted to put out there... We did a yard sale. There were a few spots that were just selling things they made and there was also a Pampered Chef table. They had food there too, the proceeds from that also went to the charity. It was pretty neat cause we had so many people stop and look around... I mean who doesn't go to Wal-mart? Sure it was kinda cloudy and drizzly, but we had quite a few people buy our stuff. Jamey sold all his stuff and I sold some of mine... Mine was all clothes anyway. What we didn't sell we took over to Goodwill. It was fun, we had to take Shorty with us and he got most of the attention!

This Sunday is Jamey's birthday. However, we will be doing stuff on Saturday so he can just chill. I tried hard to find the lemon cake mix for his cake... I don't know why stores don't have at least some sugar-free cake mixes! I was able to find it last year at a drug store, but this year I couldn't find it anywhere. I called every place I could think of that might have it, but no luck. Ordering it on-line would have cost a lot! Finally, I remembered one of the members at church makes the greatest cakes and sugar-free stuff you've ever had! So I called and asked if she had a sugar-free lemon cake recipe. She did and she gave it to me on Wednesday! YAY!!!! :~) I was so afraid that I wouldn't be able to make Jamey his Lemonade cake. Now I don't have to worry about finding a lemon cake mix ever again! Oh, and for those of you who have tried to make a cake sugar-free from a cake recipe that has sugar in it... Add 1/2 cup dry milk and 1/2 tsp baking soda for every cup of Splenda used and the cake will turn out fluffy. If you want anymore tips you can visit the Splenda site.

One week later...

I know, Friday was a little busy so I couldn't get to the computer long enough to write. I'm not sure about what I'm going to write about now... It hasn't been the most eventful week.

Let's see... This past week I've been out of sorts... Being a little home sick since being back from the wedding. By the way, I have no way right now to get the pics up on this blog, so you'll just have to bear with me. I hate to have to say it but I was a little bored with being indoors and had to get out for a few days last week. Oh, I wouldn't have allowed myself to go out just to go out, I had to have a reason... I needed some stuff for Jamey's birthday. I really enjoy being out on my own sometimes, I have that sense of independence but at the same time I know that I will never have to take on life by myself... That's a really good feeling! :~)

Anyway, I did have to get a few things for Friday. I looked at the cake mixes at the store and realized that I needed another box of the Sweet N' Low mix... Luckily, I had come across that very same cake mix in a drugstore a few days before, so I just stopped by there before I went home one day.

Friday was a bit hectic... I had to make powdered sugar substitute and lemonade concentrate substitute for the lemonade cake he wanted. It wasn't easy, but it turned out alright. The powdered sugar did better than I thought, it had a few clumps in it but thickened the glaze real well. Too bad I didn't have that recipe for the frosting for my reception cake! :~) The cake mix turned out really well too. Very moist and fluffier than any sugar-free cake I could ever make. After I made the cake I cleaned the house cause it needed it. That, however, didn't take that long. I was almost done when Jamey called to say he was on his way home. He wanted fried chicken for supper... Now, I'm from the north where you aren't required to fry chicken so I didn't know how to do it! I had watched his mother do it one time and did my best to imitate her, it worked quite well. It wasn't done when he came home, but it wasn't far from it.

After the food was eaten, it was cake time! :~) He knew I made a cake but didn't know what kind it was. I had also decorated it, not much just had happy birthday on it and a few candles. When I told what kind of cake it was his eyes lit up. Yep, that was the response I wanted. On a side note, southerners do things backwards... Jamey and his family sing the birthday song after the candles are blown out rather than before. This was just interesting to me... I guess I thought that everyone sang before the candles went out. There weren't that many candles so it didn't take long to get them out of the cake. Jamey took the first bite and claimed that it tasted as close as it possibly could without sugar in it! :~) Success!!!

Saturday we went to Memphis to spend some money Jamey got for his birthday. We spent a good bit of the morning out and then relaxed at home for the rest of the day.

Sunday we went back to Memphis for Friends and Family day at our old church. It was fun to see everyone again, not to mention they had barbecue after service... How can you say no to that? :~) Well, the dinner was good and the two hour nap that followed was even better! We got plenty of rest this weekend... That's what a weekend is supposed to be, right?

Today I haven't done anything other than laundry and finish a good book. I love to read when I can have a book that I truly can get lost in... This book is set in the time I love to dream about, the 1850s. I could honestly almost see it in my brain like I was watching a movie, not reading a book. Lucky for me there is another book in the series so I'm not done yet! :~)