50, 50, 50!
Well, mom’s 50th birthday was yesterday. Dad was baling hay so my sister, mom and myself went to St. Cloud and had lunch at Red Lobster (somewhat disappointing, but still a treat) and did a bit of shopping. Then, the real fun was today,
Mom was kind of pissed at dad for yesterday as my uncle always takes days off for people’s birthday, but dad always thinks he is invaluable if any small thing is going on. But, he made up for it, LOL! My sister lied and said she had to work at the portrait studio today, which would normally be 9:30-5pm. I said I wasn’t feeling good after the long car ride and all the shopping yesterday and needed to go into g’ma B’s for a treatment on the nebulizer and soak in the tub but that I also needed to take a muscle relaxer so I couldn’t drive myself in. So, we planned with dad that he’d come in at 12:30pm and get me from g’ma and g’pa’s and we’d do lunch. So, g’ma fibbed and told mom she had a present she forgot to give her yesterday to get her to come into the house. Mom totally didn’t pick up on anything. We kept thinking she’d comment about the food smells - asking g’ma what she had made for lunch etc. But she didn’t so Amber said “Happy Birthday!” Then mom just about died, LOL!
We grilled chicken seasoned with lemon pepper and had all kinds of yumy garden vegetables with it - kolrobi, rutabaga, swiss chard, baked potatoes, coleslaw (cabbage, peppers, onions and cucumbers - a little twist, but really good), and fried zucchini. Yumm! I dished up all the veggies and didn’t even have room for chicken on my plate. I think I could have skipped it all together except that my sister is a seasoning master (I’m not bad myself, but it’s a treat to have her seasoning). Then grandma made Rhubarb dessert and our neighbor was going to show my sister how to make sour cream rasin bars (think the pie, but with a sort of oatmeal cookie crumble on top instead). However, her sister is just moving back to MN from Calafornia so she just went ahead and made a batch for us.
It was definitely easier to pull the wool over mom’s eyes since my sister and I could read each other’s lips and pass notes without mom being any the wiser. Though I have to give props to my aunt Renae who talked to her on the phone last night for nearly an hour making it even easier to plan and let dad in on his role.
We did have a few worrisome moments. For example, last night I supermanned in my bedroom. I have to keep my bedroom door open so the AC in my room can get to my sister’s room but I can’t let her cat in there so we have two baby gates set up in my door. Well, when I’m going back and forth (such as getting ready for bed) I leave the bottom one up. I was coming into my bedroom to put on my PJs before brushing my teeth and such and my foot caught on the baby gate that was in place and then caught the other baby gate that was leaning against my door and I totally went airborne. I caught my head on the corner of the bed, tried to catch myself with my arms so bruised both wrist and actually hit the floor first with my knees. So I’m pretty banged up and not feeling too well. Dad had taken some Tylenol PM about 30 minutes before this all happened so he came to see if I was okay. I couldn’t get up but I wasn’t bleeding so he went back to bed. Mom had to harness Gaston up and go to the barn to get ice packs (picture will be forthcoming from my sister’s camera - it was super funny). Well, mom luckily got the ice packs and was in the house just before my sister got home from picking up the bars from our neighbor which were to be stored in the freezer in the barn. Then this morning mom just about beat us out to the barn to put the ice packs away before we got the bars out. She totally would have found them if someone wasn’t smiling down on us.
What was funniest was my sister totally put on her drama queen hat and was complaining to mom about how there was no way I’d be ready to go in 45 minutes and that I had better not maker her late for work etc. etc. Then, 5 minutes before we’d need to leave for her to make work she bitched me out and told me I needed to get a move on because if I wasn’t ready she was going to leave me behind and I wouldn’t get a nebulizer treatment or a soak in the tub, LOL! Mom still randomly cracks up when she things about that great bit of acting she did. It really was too funny!
But, it all worked!
I travel most of the day on Monday. Mom and I will come into town on Monday morning and mail my box of stuff out and perhaps stop off here at Northern Grounds so I don’t come home to lots of work to do and then we’ll be off into the cities and to the airport. I’ll get to Ft. Collins about 10:30 pm that night. So, I might have a post on Monday morning or it might be later. I do have my first Flatiron Clog sock completed and a small start on #2 to show you when I return.
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