Happy Birthday to Me!

I turned 31 on October 19th:)  I'm glad I did when I consider the alternative (which is NOT turning 31).  That would be sad.  But I was sharing with my oldest sister (and birthday sharer) that 31, though it doesn't feel different, means I'm IN my 30's.  When I was 30 everyone knew that I was in my 20's last year but now I'm not as close.  In the grand scheme of things I now understand that you always, whether 21 or 31, feel like you were just 18 a bit ago so in that way it's all the same to me.  Am I the only one who thinks this way?
I have to say that I do believe this was one of my favorite birthdays.  I mean it's hard to compete with the beach (last year) but this year was really, really good.  I started the weekend on Friday morning by driving to my alma mater, Carson Newman, to participate in an A Cappella Choir alumni Christmas recording.  It was magical.  We sung through once, he fixed a bit, we sang through again, we recorded, we recorded once more, we moved on to the next piece.  Repeat 10 times.  Amazing.  Every marking was observed, every vowel was pure, every rhythm was accurate--and that was the FIRST time through!  Then Doc would tweak a few things and it'd sound even better, because he's Doc.  It totally filled my music tank way UP!
(P.S. I hijacked these pics from Talia's facebook.)

First Baptist Jeff City, where we recorded (as always) and directly across from my first dorm

I'm the one to the right of Doc in the gray dress and brown boots:)  There were about 180 singers there.

And on top of singing with a room full of musicians, I got to see so many wonderful friends from the music building.  Here are just a few from another hijacked picture:):

I'm not a homecoming goer normally (this was my first time back ON homecoming) but it just was lovely and made me yearn for college days again.  I drove back that evening and got home on my birthday, 12:45ish AM.

The next morning Molly came in to whisper sweet birthday wishes in my ear.  She said, "since it's your birthday you can pick WHEREVER you want to go for breakfast!!!  And I think you should pick Waffle House!"  So, I picked Waffle House:) and we had a lovely birthday breakfast as a family.

 After that, Ryan informed me that we were on our way to Karma's to drop the kids off.  "Until when?"  "Well, they're going to church with them tomorrow."  WHAT?  "And we get to do whatever you want from now til then."  AMAZING!  We dropped them off at 9:30 or something like that and then we were on our own.  It was like one giant 36 hour date.  And it. was. FUN!  (Well, if you call thrift shop hopping, etc. fun...and I DO!)  We started by going back to the house and leisurely getting ready without keeping little hands busy or worrying about the curling iron cord getting caught on little feet and falling off to burn someone's forehead.  It was great.  Then we went to an early movie.  Which only cost $9.50 cause it was a matinee!  (Please tell me you sense the sarcasm there.)

I mean, what does a regular movie cost then?  $15?  Can you tell it's been awhile since we've been to the picture show?  We decided to treat our selves to popcorn and a coke icee because it would count as lunch and we used gift cards for the tickets.  Do you know what that costs???  I know I'm going off topic but it's just so outrageous.  Um, well you can get a small (that is actually small sized) popcorn/drink for $13 or you can get a size freaking-ridiculous for $14 and unlimited refills.  Well, I guess I'll take the ginormous size that I'll never even make a dent in for the extra dollar.  I mean it is my birthday.  Why not pay the amount I would normally spend on a meal at a "fancy" restaurant on a movie snack?  If you were wondering, I believe we ate about 57 actual cents worth of  14 dollar popcorn between the two of us.  Ryan stopped my rant and reminded me to just have fun and enjoy the movie theater experience.  He's chill like that which makes things more fun than if I were in charge:).  The good news is the movie was awesome.  I recommend Captain Phillips.

We left there and stopped by Garden Ridge (don't laugh, I love that place) to check out a few things.  Ryan was such a good sport and we had so much fun just sauntering around.  We left Kennesaw and drove to Decatur which is one of my most favorite places to walk around.  It's always my go to section of the city whenever we have an unplanned Saturday.  We didn't visit the farmer's market like usual but we did go to my other most favorite classy-flea-on-steroids joint:

We took our time walking around every square inch not worrying about snack bribes, dirty diapers, or potty breaks.  It was glorious.  Plus I made it out of there with this happy little poppy painting to remember my 31st birthday by.  Sylvia, if you're reading this, you gotta come so we can go here.  You'll LOVE it!  

We drove down the street to Farm Burger for dinner.  It was yummy.  Especially the onion rings.  Then we walked around in and out of shops for the remainder of the evening until some frozen custard at Rita's to round out the evening.

We went home and didn't have to get cranky kids out of the car or brush any teeth (but our own) or suffer through multiple stalling tactics by a certain 4 year old darling.  Although, we did find ourselves missing the little buggers an awful lot and Ryan ended up closing both bedroom doors so we wouldn't wake up and see Molly's open door and go around frantically looking for her in a sleepy stupor.

The next morning we slept in (a bit anyway) and had a quaint breakfast at La Madeleine before embarking on several errands and tasks before we picked up our tired kids after lunch.

Mark and Karma had worn them out enough for a long Sunday afternoon family nap.  It was a pretty epic weekend and I'm so glad it all went down like it did.  I'm 31 y'all!