Happy Birthday to ME!

Ah, another birthday has come and gone. It's not quite as exciting as it was when I was younger!!! Being the oldest of all your friends was cool when you were turning 16 or 21....but NOW? Not so much fun being the oldest!!! :P

I actually spent the majority of the week sick. I had the stomach flu AND a head cold.....yay me! Monday I worked from home, not trusting myself to be 100 yards from the bathroom.....Tuesday I went in to the office and all day long had coworkers tell me to go back home and quit spreading my germs! Wednesday I stayed home again and Thursday/Friday are my regular days at home. Most of those evenings were a blur as well, as I felt SO ROTTEN I was just a vegetable on the couch. I'm assuming the kids got fed since they're not crying at the moment, but other than that, I don't remember much. I skipped their activities because I didn't feel like leaving the house for them. Ah well.....

Friday, I was feeling slightly better, so we ventured into town for the boys to all get haircuts...then we went to Pizza Hut for dinner. Uhm. Yeah. My first real meal in almost a week was PIZZA? Yeah. 'nuff said!

Saturday was my actual birthday. Happy day to me! I slept as late as possible as I could hear the kids and Karl downstairs baking me a birthday cake and I didn't want to interrupt! They made me a cup of tea and then we were off to their swimming lessons. Then we headed home and I left to go to the clinic and get some meds. I knew I needed antibiotics, and going to the walk-in clinic at Walgreens was way less time-consuming than waiting to get an appt. with my actual doctor. Ya can't beat those clinics.....for my $10 copay, I was in and out in 15 minutes with drugs in hand. YAY! So I headed home after a quick stop at the grocery store to get some supplies for a small project I felt compelled to do....

Friday night, while we were out, our sitter, Chandra, left a message on the machine asking us if we knew any details about Dylan dying. We were stunned, because we didn't know Dylan had even died! Dylan's 7. He was taken in as a foster child by our neighbors down the street and had a lot of neurological problems after being shaken as an infant. I knew that something had happened about a month ago because one day when I was home early I saw the school bus drop him off and he was in a wheelchair. He started having all kinds of neurological problems the last few months and on Tuesday he went into a seizure around noon and never came out of it. Such a sad, sad story. He used to attend the same daycare as our kids, but he became too violent to be around other kids, so his parents moved him somewhere else. So we had the unpleasant task of explaining to our kids that Dylan had passed away. Alaina's taking it a lot harder than Matthew; since they were the same age she had a slight freak-out wanting to know if she was going to die too. *sigh*.....what parent likes discussing death with their kids? ugh. If anyone has some brilliant insight as for something I could tell her, please share!!! So we just explained that Dylan was very sick and that's why he died.....and for now they're accepting that explanation. As for us, the loss of any child is just a lot to comprehend. So I did what my mother would have done......I cooked the family a meal.

We had dinner reservations in Alton for my birthday dinner, so we dropped off the lasagna/bread/salad at Dylan's house on our way. We ended up staying and talking to them a lot longer than we had planned on (and missed our rezzie time, but oh well...some things are more important).....but I think they felt better having talked to us. The visitation is tomorrow night and I think I'll go pay my respects, but Karl's still iffy, as he doesn't think he can handle seeing a kid the same age as Alaina in a casket........it's just so so sad. So rest in peace, Dylan. I'd like to think he's an angel now.

So we had my birthday dinner at Tony's, and the kids were fairly well-behaved. It's one of those restaurants where while kids are TECHNICALLY welcome....you get the vibe that they're NOT. kwim? The food was amazing, as always, and after my antibiotics kicked in, I actually felt like eating the meal, so woohoo! After leaving dinner, we drove through the light display in Alton's park and then we headed home where we had my birthday cake. Yummy!

So that was my birthday. I got a couple beautiful hand-drawn cards from Alaina/Matthew....lots of hugs and kisses from Zach.....didn't have to cook all day....and now I get to get my presnt out and play with it (a digital picture frame I got on Black Friday). So it was a good birthday. Also got lots of bday wishes on my Facebook page, so thanks everybody! :P

Sunday, Karl was preaching, so we couldn't skip church!

After the service, we went out to lunch with Barry and Jeanne to Steak n Shake and then we went to the mall to get "the Santa picture". Karl and I always argue over this picture. I consider it a yearly rite of passage....a "must-do" for the season....and today was our last chance, as this coming weekend we'll be in Fairfield at my mother's family's get-together and the next weekend we'll be on the cruise for Christmas! So we were officially out of time! So off we went....Karl's gripe is that we pay $20 for a crummy picture. And I agree.....so this year I thought I'd try to negotiate......we got there and of course the sign said no personal photography, but I thought I'd play dumb and when we got up to Santa, the kids ran up to him and I just asked the photog if I was allowed to use my own camera and I was expecting a lecture and a "no", but all she said was, "if you take your own pictures, you only get two shots".......well heck, fine by me! So for FREE.....vs. the $20 we usually end up spending.....Here's the official Herman kids Santa picture:

Not too bad for an ameteur huh? :P I'm just thrilled I didn't have to pay for it! :P hehehehehe! They can keep their crummy printout picture and I'll take my high-res digital version any day....woohooo!

And this afternoon was the big surprise....after we left the mall, we headed home so Alaina and I could get going for our girls' afternoon out! We went to see the Cheetah Girls! I didn't tell her until we were there........Oh the insanity! I can only imagine the squealing and excitement being exceeded by Hannah Montana or the Jonas Brothers. We had SUCH a fun time though:

Alaina knew EVERY song they sang.....I think we watch the Disney Channel a bit too much around our house, huh? :P She made some fast friends with the girls in our row:

And they all were dancing and singing the entire time, having an absolute blast. I was thrilled when we got to our seats (on the floor, but in the very last row) and I saw a "mini stage" next to our seats in the back of the floor section. I figured there'd be a point where the Cheetah Girls would be on that little stage and we'd be up close and personal....woohoooo!!! And after some sweet-talking by the other moms and myself to the security guys we found out when that particular part was coming up....woohooo! score!

That's Sabrina Bryan looking RIGHT AT Alaina (she was so excited that she was singing TO HER! But so mad that the security dudes wouldn't let her go up to the gate and touch her!)......So the concert was a TON of fun.....Alaina had so much fun! I'm glad we went!

So now for the scrappin' I've done.....considering how lousy I've felt, it's a wonder I got anything done:

First up, some Dis-board challenges.....last week's (which I don't think I posted, but I might have....I dunno!) was supposed to be about food, and so I came up with this:

This week you had to use a mini-kit given to you, and as I'm really out of pictures to scrap, I just found some oddball random shots from our trip to Disneyland and threw them together just so I could participate:

This one is of Matthew's thanksgiving program last week at school....using one of Sya's Templates (it's called 'revived', but I changed it up a lot, as usual)

This is one I did using another of Sya's templates (Dynamic Duo-set 3). I realized the other day that I never scrapped Zach's 2-year pictures. Oops! So here they are! What a cutie he is!

This one is with Vicki's new kit, Country Life......at first I thought these colors were going to be hard to work with, then it dawned onto me that it matched my dress from our Christmas pictures! Yay! (too bad ya can't tell...that dress is blue I swear!), but I also used Sya's new template, 'Diane-spiration':

And I haven't gotten around to doing my blessing yet for the week.....oops. I've got it started, but just am too darned tired to finish it tonight. So I'll post it tomorrow, as I'm sure you're all just itching to see what it could possibly be! :P So that's it for me.....off to bed to get started on another exciting workweek tomorrow! oh YAY! Have a good one....stay warm and stay healthy! I've had enough sickies to last awhile! BAH!