Birthday wishes

I have to give out some awards from the birthday wishes I received this weekend (thank you to everyone who sent wishes for a great day - I'll blog about how fun it was in a minute)...

Longest birthday song - Nikki and Aaron Petersen

Cutest: (in a tie with G's b-day song below) Nephew E singing Happy Birthday over the phone, then yelling P-U at the end of the song!

Most hilarious - Gale and Jeanne - Dave's parents (read below)


Most embarassing - Dad (read below)


Sweetest - Grandpa coming up the stairs and saying "Happy Birthday Rachel!" in a sing-song voice. If you know my grandpa, you can hear it in your head and know it sounds sweet :)


More funnies - Dave forgetting it was my birthday until I reminded him that morning; Dave and my dad planning out a birthday surprise (and me hearing every word of the conversation); and Melissa's Facebook Happy Birthday song to me (stating who was singing it)

So I woke up that morning, and Dave was downstairs watching the news. I went about getting ready, thinking it was strange that he wasn't coming upstairs to make a big deal about my birthday (we do entire birthday weekends for each other, we love birthdays that much). He came up about 15 minutes later and sat on the bed while I finished getting ready, talking to me about his day. I finally said, "Are you forgetting something?" And he yelled, "Omigosh, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I'm just spacing out this morning!" Made me laugh (a little).

Then, as I was walking into work I noticed that the receptionist smiled at me a little extra as I walked in and asked, "How is YOUR day going today????" I just smiled and said "Great!" As I rounded the corner into my office, people were coming out of our office area grinning at me. I walked through the doorway and saw this:
Ah the joys of working with your dad... At least the consensus was that everyone thinks I am 2.5 years younger than I actually am (yes, my dad made a spreadsheet with the results - crazy man). So yay that I still look young for my age!


We went out for lunch as a team to one of my fave restuarants - Bakers Square (what can I say? I love pie!). Dave "surprised" me by showing up at the restaurant. Here is how it went down - my dad was talking on the phone (we are two offices away from each other), and I heard him say my name. Of course my ears perked up (who's wouldn't?!). So I heard him say, "Rach will be so surprised... That's a great idea... How are we going to get a table big enough without her finding out?... Ooo, good idea... Okay, you call and tell her you can't come to lunch!... See you there..." I was nearly peeing my pants giggling. It took all I had not to laugh when Dave called to tell me he couldn't come to lunch, and I had to pretend to be sad. When Dave walked into the restaurant later, I fessed up and my dad said, "But I was in the corner of my office hunched over, I didn't think you could hear me!!" That made me laugh even harder!


Then for supper we (and a lot of my fam) went and tried a new restaurant in my hometown - Richards. It had AWESOME food, and great wine! A friend of mine from high school helped open it, so he was working that night and was excited to see us, which made it even more fun. The atmosphere was phenomenal, and we all had a great time.

After supper we played cards with my parents and grandparents (another one of my favorite things to do!), and then drove home. On the way home I listened to The Longest Birthday Song Ever (see above) by Aaron and Nik, and listened to this message from my in-laws:

FIL: (sings birthday song) ...Happy Birthday, sweetie! We love you! J, want to say happy birthday?
(long pause)
MIL: Is it still on? (shuffling noises)
FIL (mishearing her question in the background): Well no, I left it on for you. Aren't you going to leave a message?
MIL (confused by his answer): Well yeah, you already hung up!
(incoherent discussion over whether or not the phone got hung up)
MIL: Oh well, apparently... (click, then dial tone)

On Saturday I got a "Rachel Day"!! These are my fave - Dave leaves for a few hours and I just get the house to myself, and I get to relax, read, watch tv, etc. It was so nice. Then in the afternoon/evening we tried to get to a movie, but missed it by a few minutes, so we decided to go to IKEA. Dave was in the mood to start decorating the kids' room (yay!!), or at least get some ideas. We had lots of fun walking through there, taking measurements, and we even bought some bedding for our kiddos that was on crazy discount.

After IKEA, we thought we'd check to see what time the later movies started at the cheap theater. We got there with plenty of time, so we decided to go see Baby Mama. I thought it was HILARIOUS!! We both laughed so hard through the movie, and were surprised at how well written it was. After the movie we went home, and played more card games. Today was church, and then more relaxing. I'm currently procrastinating. I mean, it's my last week of class EVER (no MBA for me, thankyouverymuch), what better thing to do but procrastinate more than ever this week?!?

Happy Birthday, Uncle Rachel

Yep, today is my birthday!! I am the big 2-8 today. Last year at this time, we were getting ready for our home study on Friday the 13th. I can't believe it's been a year since then!!

Isn't niece G just about the cutest thing you've ever seen? I love her little pursed lips :)

Storms

I'm working from home today, so I usually have the television on in the background and mostly pay attention to the news when the weather comes on (my favorite part!). Today I heard them saying that storms were heading toward Carver County. I looked out the window and noticed that it was a cloudy, but not scary cloudy. Then I stepped out onto the deck and turned around to look northwest. Holy cowsers!! It was super dark, greenish-purple. I took pictures of the difference between the views from my house, but it doesn't do the storm much justice.

The air felt calm, but about 2 minutes later, the wind came up so fast that all of the garbage cans from the neighborhood flew out onto the county road, and I couldn't even see the dealership across the street with the sheets of rain coming down. The wind sounded pretty scary, so I headed downstairs with Gus (who is definitely NOT afraid of storms, he wanted to play fetch). The hail started in, and the lightning was bright and close with loud thunder cracks and rumbles following immediately behind. Dave called and the weather sirens were going off where he was working, so he and his brother headed over to the gas station. As I was talking to him the power went in and out there. I told him there were straight-line winds, and that's why the sirens were going off (that's what the news lady said). I LOVE watching stormy weather come in. I think that if I loved school more, I would love to go back to become a meteorologist. Oh well, maybe they'll need stormchasers out our way and I can do training for that :) Fun fun!

The Weekend (part 2)

On Saturday I studied for a little while in the morning (not successfully, though), while Dave vegged out on the couch in front of my parents' television. They get cable, and we decided we didn't want to pay for cable, so Dave LOVES watching his HGTV, History Channel and Discovery down there. We headed into the theater to watch a matinee showing of Wall-e. It was sooooo cute! I really liked the storyline. We both give it two thumbs up to any kid or adult that wants to see it.


After the movie, we headed over to meet an old high school friend of mine for supper. That way our husbands would both know someone else at the reunion, and we wouldn't have to show up at the reunion alone. It was nice sitting and chatting with them, and catching up on life since high school. We headed over to the park where the reunion was being held, and I felt super awkward. I suddenly felt like I didn't recognize anyone, and couldn't conjure up names when I would see someone I should have known. Then 2 people asked me, "And who are you?" And I felt much better :) I guess I've changed a lot more than I thought since high school. I'll let y'all compare: Here is my 7th grade picture and my 11th grade picture (and you can scroll down to see my current day pictures).

Yep, I had a shaved head and a comb on my head for my 11th grade pictures. Boy I made my parents proud...

(photos courtesy of Lifetouch)

At the reunion I talked with a few people, and there were probably about 40-50 of our classmates there. I was most looking forward to the people I hadn't seen since high school, and there were a few of those people there. It was fun catching up with people, and every single person we told about the adoption was excited for us and had lots of questions. That was lots of fun :)

After the reunion there was a street dance downtown, so we headed down there and saw even more people from different graduating years from both my high school AND Dave's high school. We laid low and sat to the side with Jonny, and various people would walk by and sit to chat with us. It was fun to people watch and try to remember the names of people with Jonny. I ended up talking for a long time with a guy I hadn't seen since high school, but had known since 1st grade. It was so nice to sit and talk with him, and he was so encouraging about the adoption and how much fun parenting is. It was a good night, and although there were more people I would have loved to see at the reunion, I enjoyed catching up with those who were there.

Today we drove home mid-morning and napped almost all day. We were so tired out from the weekend. Tonight my parents drove up and we went to a bbq for a friend of my sister, Elyssia. We walked in and saw some other good friends from our old church with their new baby whom we hadn't met yet. It was a fun evening filled with good food, more catching up with people, and lots of laughter.

I should head off to study now. As the days get closer and closer to the end of this class, I find less and less motivation to actually DO the homework. I'll just keep repeating to myself - "Cs get degrees. Cs get degrees..."

The Weekend (part 1)

Wow, I'm pooped out, and I'm only halfway through our weekend o' fun. Here is how the weekend has gone so far:

Thursday night we played card games with my grandparents and aunt and uncle until Carissa called to see if Dave and I wanted to go to a dance in town. This weekend is an all-school reunion weekend in town (along with my 10-year reunion). Dave and I got there and it was a bit surreal to see all of these people I remember from high school - some older, some younger, and quite a few from my class. I laid low and talked with just a few people. I was told by one girl that if her mom hadn't pointed me out, she never would have recoginized me because I look so different. That's the second time I've been told that in 6 months, so I asked her what it was that was different. She told me I finally don't look like a baby anymore. I had laugh, because she's right, even when I was shopping for my wedding 6 years ago, there was a woman asking me if I was shopping for prom. hee hee. I don't get asked that anymore :)

Friday morning we woke up bright and early for the 5k walk/run. We got to the park to register and pick up our super cool teeshirts. We all lined up at the starting line with the 8Kers in front of the 5Kers. They explained a couple of things, then shot the gun to signal the race had begun. I ran for a good portion of the beginning of the race, then walked for a while until my mom caught up to me. Then we alternated walking and running for the rest of the race. As we passed our friend Rick's house, Jon, Suze and Rick all came out to cheer us on :) That was so much fun. Then as we finished the race, the people who had already finished the 8k (crazy fast runners) were lined up along the road cheering the rest of us on. It gave me a huge boost to run really fast to the end. I came in at 41.10 minutes. My mom came in right after me, and we were the 4th and 5th persons to finish the 5k (because most of the people walked it). My dad and Dave walked the course, and came in at 48 minutes.

Dave and I being dorks with our matching outfitsAt 10 am we headed into the parade. Now I've been keeping a secret for almost a month about what was going to happen at this parade, and here is some video about that secret:

(sorry for the turning of the camera in the middle of the filming - oops)

Congratulations, Rich and Carissa!!!! We're so excited for you guys, and thrilled that you have found such a great match in one another.

After the parade, we had a bbq lunch with my family, decorated cupcakes with the girlies, and then I finally crashed and took a 2-hour nap. I was exhausted from the day, and didn't even wake up with people coming in and out of my room. Then we headed out to the lake to meet up with our friends, Jon and Suze, and Rick. Rick taught Gus to swim (thank you, Rick!!!), and it was so fun/ny watching Gus play in the water with Rick. He would bounce through the water at times like a deer, and we would all laugh at him. It was such a nice, mellow, relaxing evening. These are the days and evenings I dream about all winter long.

At 10 pm, we headed in to Carissa's house and watched the fireworks with my grandparents, my parents, Carissa, Rich and Madelyn. Madelyn kept her ears plugged the whole time, and Bampa (my dad) would follow her wherever she wanted to go to get a better view of the fireworks. When we got home we played more cards with my dad and my aunt and uncle, then headed off to bed.

The rest of the weekend promises to be fun. Today we are going to Wall-e with Madelyn, Carissa and Rich, and then my 10-year reunion is tonight. We're meeting up with a friend who I haven't seen since high school and her husband beforehand so our husbands will know at least one other person at the reunion. I'm excited to see people and catch up with them! Then tomorrow night we are going to a bbq back up in Waconia to see my sister Elyssia's good good friend Heather. Fun stuff!!

Owie

So I'm set to do a walk/run 5k on Friday morning. I'm looking forward to checking out what a 5k is all about so I'll be ready for the real run in September. But then I went and did something stupid tonight - I went on a walk in flip flops. My shins are killing me now, and I'm kind of nervous that they are going to really hurt on Friday. If that's the case, I'll need a wheelchair to get to the parade. Dave the Kind Husband is getting me some frozen veggies to ice my legs now :) He's so nice. At least we had a grand old time on the walk, though. We went with our neighbor BFFs to get coffee, and the store was closed. So we went to the ice cream shop, and the store was closed. So we called our awesome friends from church - Jane and Larry - and stopped by their house to chat with them and get our fill of hugs. I love our town and our neighbors and our friends. So I guess it's a good thing I locked in to a refinance today...

Insightful Dave

The other day I was talking with Dave about how hard the wait has been in the past couple of weeks. He had some great insight. At nine months, a normal pregnant woman is either giving birth, or has her bags packed and ready to go to the hospital. Dave told me that my heart has been "pregnant" for 9 months, ever since we got our approval. Now it's trying to figure out why in the heck I don't have a baby yet. I thought that was pretty interesting, and thinking about it more, I think he's probably right. Karin calling us with the news of our approval was like getting a positive pregnancy test for us, and now 9 months later my heart is wondering where my child(ren) are at. I thought that was pretty insightful of Dave.

On a funny note, this weekend Gus followed his big cousin-dog, Roger all weekend long. He only laid down if Roger was laying down, sat if Roger was sitting, etc. We decided to go to breakfast with everyone in my parents' van on Sunday morning, and Gus needed to come along so he wouldn't get into all kinds of trouble at my brother's house. Dave put Gus on his lap since the van was full, and I looked over and saw this at one point:

He opened his eyes when I took the picture, but he was laying his head on Dave's shoulder and sleeping. Totally cracked me up. What a crazy dog :)

I wish I had taken before and after pictures at my brother and sister-in-law's house this weekend. We got soooo much done. I kept leaving my camera in the hotel room, so I didn't get any pictures. You can take my word for it... We cleaned, packed, primed, painted and put studs/walls/doors up like it was going out of style. It was a lot more fun doing all of the work together, and hopefully we gave them some motivation to finish up.