Happy 83rd Birthday!

Today is mommason's 83rd birthday. I was going to take her out to breakfast since I had to be out early this morning, but it was only 17˚ƒ. I don't want to risk her getting phnumonia. I did, however, pick up two birthday cakes for her while I was out. I was told about a new mom & pop bakery in Brentwood, so I headed over there and picked up this little vanilla number. It smells so good. Then I had second thoughts that it looked a little puny. (Don't want mamma to think I'm being stingy! hehe) So I ran down the
street to the big bakery, The Puffy Muffin, and picked up the strawberry one (the larger of the two). I think I have it all covered now. That along with my brother's February chocolate-of-the-month--heart shaped gelato truffles--should do the trick.

We went to Cracker Barrel for lunch. I was going to take her to Ihop, which is about 20 minutes away; but she started looking at her watch. This is a sign that she doesn't want to go far, in "mom language." The fireplace at CB was a welcome assett today. It only warmed up to a whopping 32˚!

I had placed a dozen helium baloons around her kitchen so when she woke up, she would have to walk through all the strings to get through. She seems to enjoy that. I never know what Frankie, her dog, thinks about it all. She received calls from my oldest brother and MJ. I now have a call into my middle brother, who will be calling me back when he can to talk to her. We're trying to get her to go out to dinner, but she doesn't really like getting out much at night. I'm hoping the hub gets home before dark so we can coaxe her out! If she doesn't go, we'll just have dessert first. No problems there!

Today, I also picked up a sample of my new kitchen cabinetry. I'm doing a two-tone color in simple off whites. I think it's going to look gorgeous. I'm still deciding on my farm-house sink. I had chosen to do it in soapstone (the large piece on the bottom--not oiled); but I may be going another direction after having to choose the countertops. I'm not sure if I'm going dark or light there. All I know is, I want the feel of soapstone, no gloss on the stone at all. I prefer the more natural warmth of the matte stone counters. Decisions decisions. But, we are a step closer. Now comes the price of the cabinets. Now that I have agreed I like this look, the pricing comes next. Ka-ching. I don't want to know. And I certainly don't want the hub to know. Hmmmm. Wonder how I could manage that?

Yesterday, I met up with Beth. It was her birthday; and we met at an art store half way between us. They have these gorgeous hand-made Italian papers that we have fallen in love with. And, since they knew Bethy so well, they gave us half off! Way to go, gf! We settled in at Buck's (as in Starbucks) and chatted for hours. It is so refreshing to have a new friend that seems like a persone I have known forever. We just talked about everything under the sun and felt so comfortable. That sure is a rarity, and I am counting my blessings that blogging brought us together.

The hub came in with these sweet valentine presents last night. I told him not to get me anything; but the sweet hub he is, he bought me a book on love poems and a journal. So sweet.

I have been really out of the blogging circuit. Haven't been reading a whole lot. I'm going to try and catch up this weekend and see what everyone is up to.