10 November 2008

And it Just Got Better and Better

Wow. What a Birthday!

Thank you to all of you for your kind wishes and sweet remarks about my youthful looks. I guess it helps that I took that picture 15 years ago.

Just kidding!

Novel wise I am up to 10,748 words. That's behind target, but it's the best I can do without locking myself alone in a room and ignoring my family. I still like the story, but I am amazed how long it takes to get from point A to point B. I had to stop yesterday and remap my characters because more are jumping in and I need to know who they are. Otherwise, later on, they'll change from black to white (sans plastic surgery), or go from living in the country to in town without ever having moved. You know, those little inconsistancies that make a novel look like it was written by a drunk and her three invisible friends.

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Well, I need to get going. I've got a busy day planned, but I need to share a couple more awesome moments with you first.

On Friday, GrammaJ had some birthday plans for me too. We went out to lunch at one of my favorite local restaurants. Silly-Head was thrilled to take pictures. Fortunately, at least one of them came out fairly nice:



We had a wonderful meal with dessert (naturally) and she gave me dark chocolate; LOTS of dark chocolate. Does my mama know me, or what?

Then we betook ourselves to the Salvation Army Thriftstore and scored a brand new Britta pitcher for $3 and filters for $1 a piece!

Afterward, we decided to attend the grand opening of our local Goodwill Industries Thrift Store. They had just moved into a larger, nicer location and were throwing a big shindig to celebrate. We got there at 1:55 pm and the last doorprize drawing was at 2:00 pm.

There was a lady handing all the customers (and my gracious, there were ZILLIONS of them!) a ticket each to enter them in the drawing for the prizes. GrammaJ grabbed the lady's arm and leaned close, her voice insistent, "Today is my daughter's birthday, so you make sure you give her a winning ticket!"

5 minutes later they called out the winning ticket number. Guess who won?

Yep. Me. I got an awesome Happy Birthday Present from Goodwill!



Cool, eh?

The nifty backpack basket contained a laprobe/shawl and some very nice, brand new men's socks. They also threw in a cloth shopping bag.



The next day was extremely busy and culminated in driving down to Southern Maine to pick Scout up at the airport. Here he is with his little sisters...


A few minutes after we got back home, PrettyMom arrived with the grandkids. They had a wonderful time getting reacquainted with their daddy.

Here's Fireball, age 4.



And Ji-Ji (with a long I sound, please), who's 3.



And Cookie, at 18 months.



A couple of the pics are from a couple of weeks ago because my stupid camera from hell that I hate with all my heart was giving me ugly fits as I tried to capture the moment. I know I should be thankful that I even have a camera, but...well, I am only human! I so wanted some pics of Scout WITH them, but everyone was running and screaming maniacally and my camera was always .4 seconds too late.

Oh well...Suffice it to say we had a wonderful day.

In SPITE of my dumb, stupid, idiotic camera.

Scout has been out and about visiting old friends and hanging with his family. Next week, Funsocksgirl and J-Man will come dive into the confusion and we'll have a marathon of old memories and photo shoots (It's been a loooooong time since we've had all four kids together at once) and food.

Now, I'm off. I have school and cleaning and exercise and laundry and errands with GrammaJ and a late evening training session for 4-H in Augusta. I'd better stop blogging and start working!

11 comments:

Dawn said...

Whew! I'm exhausted! I would say you've been wonderfully celebrated - wow, if they do this for 45, imagine what it'll be like in 5 more years!!

Scout is very handsome and has beautiful kids! Sounds like things are looking up a bit in the grandkid department for you??

I don't know how you're going to get all of that done today, but the Lord bless you!

Tammy said...

Love the picture of you and your grandmother- your little girl took a great picture!
And how exciting to have Scout home!
I had nearly forgotten that you were a grandma...I think I must have missed out on what was going on there (because of Dawn's comment) but so glad you are all having this wonderful reunion!

anno said...

You have a beautiful family, and it sounds like you had a wonderful birthday weekend! Good luck corralling your characters into consistency!

Superwoman said...

What a great day! Cookie looks quite a bit like her grandma! How cute!

notcon4med said...

These pictures are making me soooooo happy...I don't even know what to say! How about this: I am so happy for you and yours. Please tell Scout and Pretty Mom that they and their children have been and will continue to be in my prayers. God is at work making all things possible!

Unknown said...

I LOVE that basket backpack! What a neat idea.
Have fun but don't overdo.

Karen said...

Well, it's pretty obvious you've been spying on me and my three invisible friends while we're writing. I wondered who kept falling out of the apple tree outside my office window. Here I thought it was just the apples.

Congrats on the winning ticket! And the Britta filters?! Yeowsa! Talk about SCORE!

Great pics of the grand kids, and I can totally understand about the lagtime with the digital cameras.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you had a pretty good birthday week. :-)
Scott's excited that Matt's back. More excited than when I got here Saturday. LoL.

Anonymous said...

A belated Happy Birthday!

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad you won the basket on your birthday! It was a really great opening--thanks for coming in. We have a new blog: www.goodwillnne.org/blog. Check us out!

groovyoldlady said...

I know this is a lame way to respond - but thanks to all of you!

I am truly honored to have michelle from Goodwill here. Thanks for stopping by!

Oh -and Ms. Karen. Sorry about falling out of the tree. I was having trouble typing on my novel and, you know, holding on and all.