Some catching up to do...

This past week was so busy that I never had a chance to post about my weekend. So, I have some catching up to do! Last Friday night, I went to one of my most favorite places on earth...

Baum Stadium!!!!!

The Hogs were playing a weekend series against Auburn. I went to the Friday night game with my friends Jeff and Joe.

It was so cold and rainy that day, so please excuse the curly mess that is my hair! Unfortunately, my beloved Diamond Hogs have been having a rough season and lost that night. BUT, they won the series against Florida this weekend so I'm hoping that is a good sign for things to come!

Saturday morning, I met Jeff and Joe at Bizys for breakfast and then we went to Razorback stadium to watch spring practice. I don't have any pictures to post because you are not allowed to take pictures of practice unless you are a member of the media. Appearantly being a blogger doesn't count! The practice was fun to watch and it was nice to see the new coaches in action. It made me ready for football season to get here!

My sister and two nephews came for a visit and I got to go hang out with them on Monday. When I arrived at my parents house, the two boys were outside playing and this is what I saw...

HA!!!!! Obviously, the poor cat was not amused and was very happy that I was there to rescue her! The 5 year old will not let my brother-in-law cut his hair in any way but the mohawk. He calls it his "j-hawk" since his name starts with the letter "j". I love it and hope he doesn't out grow that any time soon! Both boys had Life Savers chapsticks. They explained to me that it was called lip balm and not lip gloss because only girls wear lip gloss. Ha! They are too funny! I just hate that they are growing up so fast and that I don't get to see them very often. I have another nephew that is 8 months old and I will be making a trip to Texas this coming weekend to see him. I cannot wait to see that baby!!!! I'm sure I will have plenty of pictures to post when I get back!

A Series of Firsts

As Hillary's weekend post indicated, I experienced several "firsts" on Friday night. Well, that theme has actually continued into this week as well. Here is a quick glance at them all:

Friday night I met up with Hillary and Holly to have dinner at PF Changs. This was my first time to go to the Promenade and to eat at PF Changs! I loved this fountain that was outside the restaurant. It was a great night!

Saturday, I met Hillary and Holly for breakfast at Bizys. Now this was definitely not my first time to eat breakfast at Bizys, big surprise! Ha! But, it was the first time the three of us met for breakfast so I think that counts!

On Sunday, I made my first two loaves of friendship bread. They were really good and a big hit at my office! Oh, and if you'll notice I have the cutest recipe holder ever thanks to a Christmas present from Hillary!

Monday was the first day to workout at the new gym. It is really nice! I'm sure I'll enjoy it even more when I'm actually able to workout at a normal level again.
Today was my first day of physical therapy. I would have taken pictures, but I'm pretty sure my therapist was trying to kill me so I was a little distracted. At some point, I will definitely have to take a picture of the electric shock thing he hooked me up to!
And last but not least, tomorrow is the first day of the water aerobics class that Hillary and I are taking. Rest assured I will be taking NO pictures of that experience!!!! I still can't believe I will be in a swimsuit tomorrow...yikes!!

Happy Anniversary and Easter!

Having a family in the restaurant business means that any holiday that usually brings family gatherings for Sunday lunch has to be done on Saturdays! This year that worked out great because it was my grandparents 57th wedding anniversary!On Saturday night, my family went to my aunt's house to celebrate the anniversary and Easter.

It was a very low key celebration...we had pizza and salad! Ha! It was really good though and the time we saved cooking and doing dishes meant more time for playing 42!

This is the best picture I could get of my grandparents together. She was set on getting her plate filled and kept looking down before the picture took!

I should mention that these are my step-mom's parents and the family that I usually talk about are on her side as well. I am so blessed to have been raised in a Christian home with both my real mom and my dad's extended families being strong Christian role models as well. My parent's divorced when I was 9 years old and I could never have imagined the amazing people that God would put in my life as additional family in the years that followed. It was an absolute honor to be able to celebrate 57 years of a Godly marriage with my grandparents. I can only hope for the chance to follow in their footsteps someday!

Surgery Update

I am happy to say that my surgery yesterday was a success! I was pretty nervous on Tuesday night, but since I have had this procedure done before, I have developed some traditions in surgery preparation. My mom actually started this one! She would always make me mac and cheese at 11:00 pm right before the no food/drink cut off time. I decided that even though my mom wasn't here, I might as well carry on the tradition!

Everything on surgery day went well. It only took about 30 minutes and the doctor was able to fix me up! I had to have someone stay with me for 24 hours, so my parents took me to their house and I spent the night there propped up in a recliner! I had to show off my funny new tatoo...

They wrote "No" on my left knee and "Yes" on the right one! I've always thought about getting a real tatoo, but I don't think this is the look I'm going for so thank goodness it's washable! Not long after we got home, there was a knock at the front door.

The sweet ladies that I work with sent me "get well soon" flowers! The arrangement is so pretty and they smell fabulous!

Today is my last day of house arrest as the doctor calls it, and then hopefully tomorrow I can get up and moving a little more. I am definitely ready for that!

Saturday Brunch

Today, my aunt Annetta and I went to The Crumpet Tea Room for a belated birthday brunch. I had never been there, but it is one of Annetta's favorite places to go. I had heard so many good things about it, that I was looking forward to it all week!

I ordered the Quiche Lorraine and it came with fruit salad and their famous orange roll. Oh my, it was so good! The orange rolls are definitely as good as I had been told! After we ate, we looked around the art/furniture gallery that the restaurant is connected to. There were some beautiful paintings. It made me want to paint again!

MRI Results

I went back to the doctor today to get the results from the MRI I had done last Friday. The MRI wasn't as conclusive as we had hoped, but it showed enough for the doctor and I to decide that surgery is the best option. So, I will go in on Wednesday morning for the knee scope. He tells me this surgery will be much easier than my first two and that I should be good as new in a couple of days. I hope he's right, because we are in the middle of an audit at work and I can't take more than one day off! My grandmother has a wheelchair that she said I can use at work. Ha! That's actually not a bad idea. I will definitely post some pictures of that if I end up needing it!

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

I had a wonderful day today, despite the weather! The ladies that I work with gave me a cute card and a great cake. We actually dove into the cake before I even had time to take a picture of it! Then this afternoon I got this wonderful surprise.

One of my sweet friends and roommates from college sent me these. They are so pretty and the ribbon ended up much matching my card from the work ladies perfectly!

After work, I changed clothes and headed to Bizys where I was supposed to be meeting Hillary and some other friends for dinner. Well, when I got there my family and some other people from my church were there for a semi-surprise party for me!

The group on the left is my friend from church Liz, my grandmother, aunt, uncle and grandpa.

The group on the right is Sarah, Holly, Hillary, me, Jeff, Joe.

While we were waiting on the food, I went ahead and opened gifts and I got some great ones!

**WARNING** The boys had my camera and were taking pictures of the gift opening. These are certainly NOT some of the most flattering pictures of me, but it's the thought that counts and they make me laugh!

Hillary gave me the CUTEST travel coffee mug EVER!!!! She knows me well and , as you can tell, I was really excited about it!

Ok, you can't say I didn't warn you about the pictures! I have no idea what I was saying or why in the world I was making that face!!!! But the gift is a portable radio to take to the baseball games so that I can listen to Chuck call the games. Woohoo! If only the weather hadn't made the game tomorrow get canceled I would be ready to go!

I had the cutest cards given to me! One of them had a gift card to Bath and Body Works in it which I cannot wait to go shopping with!

After we ate dinner and some yummy cobbler, we decided to take some group photos. Sarah, Me, Holly and Hillary

John, Me, Jeff, and Joe

Sarah, John, Me, Jeff, Holly, Joe and Hillary

After the photos and some more laughs, we looked out the windows and decided it was time to call it a night! It was snowing gigantic snowflakes!!! It was really pretty and I'm glad that it held off until the end of the party. I had such a great time! All I can say about today is that I have the BEST friends and family in the world!!! There is no better birthday present than that!