Mardi Gras!

This weekend there was a big Mardi Gras celebration in Jefferson, TX. Jefferson is an adorable, quaint little town here in East Texas. It's one of those places where you can walk the town for hours shopping at all the little shops and boutiques. I know because we have.

But this weekend we went for the Mardi Gras parade and for the yummy food. We ate at this great restaurant where all the sandwiches are made on cornbread. Yummo! We'd eaten there before and just had to go back. You know I love some food and eating at this place alone makes a trip to Jefferson all worth it to me. The boys said they thought grabbing beads at the parade was the best part of the day...I said eating at Kitt's was the best part of the day. Then again, eating is usually the best part of any of my days. :)

So, here's Phyllis, me, and KB after the parade. The weather was rainy at first, but turned out to just be chilly and nice after all.

Here are the boys with all their beads. People love to throw some beads at the kiddos. Who ever knew there were so many assortments of beads??

Some of my favorite floats. Look at those cute bug legs on the VW bug. Fun!

KB and her family went home and Phyllis and the boys and I stayed to walk around and we made it over to the carnival portion of the festivities. We went to ride this giant slide and ended up buying tickets and riding some good ole carnival rides.

While there, I convinced Jake to ride this spinning contraption of a ride with me. He agreed, maybe a little bit hesitantly, but he got on with me. We got on and the ride took us up a little ways and stopped for other people to get on and our car thing stopped going around but it continued to spin in place. I looked at Jake and he looked all pale and I asked him if he felt sick and he said that he wasn't sick, just scared. That is about when I knew this was a very bad idea. Then it started up again and we were off. That sucker was spinning so fast as it went around and Jake looked at me and said with wide eyes, "I want off!" Then as we kept going faster and faster he said a bit louder this time, "I WANT OFF!" and then he started saying, "IwantoffIwantoffIwantoff....!" So I started yelling at the carney guy that we need off, but the problem was that when we went by him we were spinning so fast that he couldn't hear me. So, I started screaming at Phyllis, who was below us taking pictures and smiling and waving. No clue that her son was now saying, "mommymommymommy" over and over in a soft voice, which alarmed me almost more than the screaming. I started telling him that we are okay and there is absolutely no way we can get hurt on this thing and that I am trying to get them to stop the ride. Then I said a quick prayer that God would not make a liar out of me and that he would keep this squeaky carnival ride in one piece until I can get this boy back on the ground. Finally I get the canival man's attention and let him know that WE NEED OFF and he stopped the ride and let us off. Whew. Crisis mostly averted.

I felt so bad for Jake! The good news is that he was laughing by the time we finally left and made it to the car. Now Jake and I have this special memory together of the horrible, awful octopus ride at the Mardi Gras festival.

Here we are on the ride. You can't see Jake, probably because he is crouched down in the seat, praying for his life. And I look like I am having a great time, but if it weren't so fuzzy, you could see that I am pleading for dear life for someone to stop the stupid ride!!

It was such a fun day...even with the little hiccup of a carnival ride gone bad. Good food, good friends, good times!

And 30 just got even better....

Have you ever been so surprised by something that it brought tears to your eyes instantly? I have. A few times actually since this year started...

One of those times was my birthday weekend when I opened my front door to find some of my dearest friends awaiting my arrival, arms wide open, yelling "Surprise!" at me as I walked through the front door.

SURPRISE!

I was so shocked to see Trisha's face (since I haven't seen her in a while and knowing that meant there were more of my friends inside) that I backed right back out of the door!!

See? Instant tears.
Still shocked that everyone was here!

Let me back up though to where it all started...where the tangled lies began...

My mom was coming to town last weekend to celebrate my birthday with me. Keysha told me she was going to try to make it for the weekend, then told me she couldn't because Michael had a work conference and couldn't keep the kids. So, KB, Phyllis, Mom, and I were going to get pedicures on Saturday. That was the plan. Well, KB said she had to work and so she was out. Saturday morning comes and Phyllis bails on me too saying that one of the kids was sick. So, Mom and I decide to go see a movie and get pedicures and eat lunch. A nice leisurely day. Courtney (supposedly) had gone with my dad to Arkansas and was golfing and hanging out with him for the weekend.

I had talked to KB quite a few times during the day to try to arrange for her to meet mom and I after she got off work. She had quite a few convincing phone calls with me about driving to another bank to get more money, going home early to cook Lute dinner because he got back in town early, and the lies went on and on. Although she was quite convincing so I never thought another thing about it.

Then there was Phyllis who actually said she was calling me from the doctor's office and at one point said, "Oh hey, I gotta go, the doctor just came back in..." so we got off the phone.

Keysha sent me text after text telling me about how she was on her way to get food and rent a chick flick since Michael was out of town...then I called her house and Michael answered!!

I later find out all these phone calls were made from my living room!!

So, Mom and I walked in from being out all day and there was a huge group of friends waiting for me for my surprise party!! My husband, with the help of Keysha, with the help of KB and Phyllis set up a Fiesta party just for me! I was greeted by Keysha and some of best friends from high school-Trisha, Kari, April, Destiny, and Natalie-who had all driven in from quite long distances to celebrate with me as well as Phillip and Amy, KB and Lute, Phyllis and Brandon, and Brett. My mom brought tons of pictures of me from being a baby all the way through graduating high school. Courtney had gotten a karaoke machine and so the fun began. It was such a great night!

We ate great Mexican food, sang karaoke, had a LOT of laughs, and made many, many memories. One of the best moments was when Brandon and Phyllis were getting ready to leave and Brandon said, "Just one more song, Phyllis..." and he raced back to the karaoke machine to sing. He started the night out saying that singing karaoke was one of the worst things he's ever had to do in his whole life and ended up stealing the show with his karaoke skills! It was hilarious! We all pretty much made fools of ourselves!

the girls

my hs crew

I am so grateful to have such amazing friends who would come from so far to celebrate with me and such selfless friends who would work so hard to make this day special for me and for such a sweet husband who would make sure this happened.

I love you girls--all of you!!

At one point in the evening, I just sat back and looked around and thought about how lucky I am to have the people in my life that I do. Not just because they would throw me a surprise party, but because they are all such fantastic people who will see me through anything I have going on in my life. Anything. I am so blessed to have them in my life.


PS--Girls, I did not have my camera (not sure why since we were at my house) but once you all get pics uploaded, send them my way!! Thanks for these Nat!

30's not so bad...

Today is my 30th birthday and I had a fabulous day.

Started off at 7:15 with a sweet phone call from the Warren boys...nothing like hearing Happy Birthday sung to you by an 8 yr old, 5 yr old, and a 2 yr old. Except Phyllis told me later that Cade (the 2 yr old) just sat there smiling as the older boys sang to me. So sweet! Then more early morning birthday phone calls made my day! At lunch, my team had mexican food for me for lunch. That was a fantastic treat! Courtney sent me flowers, which was a nice surprise. My students were so excited about my birthday. You know that a birthday is the biggest thing ever to nine year olds, so they made it extra special for me. I wrapped up the evening with friends and Courtney at Olive Garden, my favorite place ever, and so it was just a really nice day.

Turning 30 really didn't bother me at all.

One of my co-workers brought up that I am no longer in the under 30 bracket anymore, but that's okay with me...

My kids played a guessing game for my age today. One of my girls really wanted to do this so she cut up little slips of paper and the kids all wrote down how old they thought I was. Then she drew it out of a bag and if they had the right age, she is bringing them a prize tomorrow. Too funny! The point of that story is that one of the kids said I was 36, which offened me much more than the kids who wrote that I was 86...niiiice.

And for an even funnier story...one of my kids sent me an e-card last night, so when I logged on this morning, it was waiting for me.
The card opens and there is a big ole hot dog standing there wearing a crown and it says, "Birthdays are a lot like wieners." (!)
And then it goes to the next screen and it says, "Well, not really, but there aren't nearly enough cards that say wiener."
Then on the next screen the crown wearing hot dog starts to dance with all these pelvic thrusts and repeats over and over, "Wiener, wiener, wiener."
Now that is pretty funny, but the best part is that I opened it with all my students around (I figured it was from a student, it's got to be appropriate) and so now all my students are cracking up and dancing the pelvic thrust dance around the room. It was so wrong!!

I could just see the dad of that student saying to his son last night, "Yes, son, send her that one...that's a funny one." wink wink.