Merry Christmas sweater!

Last night Gabe and I went to our church's ugly sweater Christmas party.  I had to force Gabe to wear his for the picture.  Most of the night he just wore a t-shirt.  My ensemble was a two-piece set.  Each sweater had its own shoulder pads, hence the football player look.  The sweater underneath very much resembled a sequins figure-skater's costume, and the outer cardigan was covered in beads. Note the zipper tassel---a separate beaded stocking that hung from the zipper.  No detail was forgotten on this little number.  I narrowly won a Starbuck's gift card for my sweaters.

Cassie had to borrow her sweater from a co-worker (elementary school teacher) while keeping the "cause" a secret so as not to offend.  Amanda's sweater was awful and this picture really doesn't do it justice.  Keri  has a gold sequined, white fur stocking sewn onto a fake red velvet shirt.  Need I say more?

24 weeks tomorrow...

There's also a new post after this one.

Gabe made me wet my pants.

Last night Gabe and I took ourselves on a date.  We splurged (not really a "splurge" for those of you not familiar with Qdoba) and went to Qdoba Mexican Grill for their fantastic grilled chicken quesadillas.  While there, Gabe was cracking me up.  He makes this face that I can't not laugh at hysterically.  Even thinking of it makes me laugh.  I don't know what it is, but it tickles my funny bone, like no other, every time.  Tears started coming out of my eyes and I lost control a little.  If you know what I mean.  And if you read the title, I think you do. The pregnancy surprises just keeeeep coming.

Favorite student quote of the week:

"She gave me an F?!!! That's so not fair! I didn't even do it (the work that was graded) !!!"
Ahhhh that precious sense of entitlement some of today's youth have.

And the runner up:

student 1: "Did you know Elvis died of constipation?"

student 2: "No he didn't!"

student 1: "Yeah, probably not. What is constipation, anyway?"

student 3: "Who's Elvis?"

student 1: (rushing over to me eagerly) "Mrs. Knipp, what's constipation and did Elvis die from it?"

Um, not in my job description?  And no, I'm pretty certain he did not.

It occurred to me around 4am that...

It's pretty amazing how much you can love a person you know nearly nothing about, when this person has been given to you.

Better pictures

Here are some better pictures taken in daylight.  This first one is a blockprint of M.C. Escher's done with iron-on copy transfer paper.  Do you remember the scene in Office Space when they take the copy machine out into a remote field and it shows in slow motion the group of guys brutally "killing" the machine.  This was almost me earlier today, but three different printers/copy machines later I was finally able to make it work. I think it's pretty cute.

This one is a butterfly applique cut out from an old sheet, along with black fabric paint:

This is a fabric applique from old fabric I had, along with black fabric paint:
I've got 3 blank onesies left, but I think I'm done for this weekend.  Hope you all had a nice weekend, too!

What I did today:

Today I woke up and decided to fix up some of the plain white onesies I had on hand.  I've had these old sheets for quite awhile (purchased from Unique Thrift Store months and months ago).  I really like how they turned out!

Step 1:  Have your apprentice cut out the part of the sheet you want to use as an applique.

Step 2: Iron pieces (unless they've never been washed, then you've got to wash and dry them first.)

Step 3: Cut iron-on fusable webbing to match your fabric shapes and iron onto the back.

Step 4: Iron onto onesie (or whatever it is your applique-ing).
I'll post some more pictures tomorrow.  Our champion camera can't take a decent picture without natural sunlight.  It's too dark out now.

Three things:

1. Yesterday it snowed here ALL day.  It was perhaps the fluffiest, most fake looking real snow I've ever seen--in my entire life.  It was beautiful.

2. It's kind of a long story, but a couple weeks ago I heard our school's band playing and recognized the music as  "you know, that song that goes: When we've been here ten thousand years..."  Gabe was quick to point out that I was in fact talking about Amazing Grace.  Maybe you've heard of it.  Still hoping this is caused by pregnancy.

3.  Today I hadn't felt much of our little miss moving around, so after lunch I began talking to her.  It occurred to me that it was probably too quiet to make her stir.  I really wanted her to stir.  So I rolled up some paper and put one end of the tube on my belly and spoke into the other end.  I urged her to wake up and move around for probably 5 minutes...and it worked! She moved all around for a good five minutes after that.  After that I felt a little guilty for waking her, but it was also a great feeling to --in a way-- interact with her. 

Merry Christmas!

The latest

Exciting development (at least for hubby and I):  Gabe finally felt the babe move last night. Everyday for the last week or two I've called Gabe over to quickly put his hand  on my belly, only to have the little miss decide to stop moving at that exact moment.  Well last night we finally outsmarted her and Gabe was kicked by his little girl for the first time in his life.  So fun.

I've been noticing that photo coverage of day to day life on this blog has been dwindling.  Largely this is because of our sorry excuse for a camera.  Just know that money is being saved and sales are being watched, so with any luck we'll have a new wonderfully capable camera no later than April (but hopefully sooner).

Hope you all had a nice Turkey Day!

For the dog lovers, or snow lovers, or Harry Connick Jr. lovers, or anyone interested in clicking on the link below...

I hope you all enjoy your holidays with as much gusto as THIS.  

Pregnancy = TBI ?

(I took this picture with our computer.  It's 8:00 at night and I am back to being pretty tired most of the day, hence the overdone "AWAKE" expression on my face.  Surry.)

Not to make light of serious traumatic brain injury, but I'll be honest, I'm behaving more and more as if my brain has been permanently injured.  I may just update my blog with the multitude of things I do that I will forever insist are all due to pregnancy.  Should these types of things continue to happen after I'm done being pregnant, I will insist to the end that being pregnant permanently altered my abilities---mental and physical.

Today I reached my arm out to open a door and hit my head on the door frame simultaneously.  I wasn't even mobile.  My feet were firmly planted.  A person would almost have to intentionally move the top half of their body forward too quickly before even moving their legs in order to hit their head in the way I did.  I'm certain it's worth it, though.

It's a...

Girl!  Or, at least we're 90% sure it's a girl.  She was being a little modest during the ultrasound. The sonographer had me lie on my right side, "empty my bladder", lie on my left side, and finally walk around for a few minutes.  Apparently the walk helped enough for her to give us a 90% (the highest she's allowed to give).  So she could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's a girl.  

My favorite part was seeing her little mouth and cheeks move as if she was chewing.  It was so cute and babyish.  She had her right arm over her head for the majority of the ultrasound, which was also endearing somehow.  It was really comforting to see that she was moving even though I couldn't always feel her.

Anyhoo, it's time for dinner!  Later skaters.

I might need to start wearing one of those id bracelets for when i inevitably get lost and can't remember my name, let alone how to get home.

If the whole idea of pregnancy causing mild (and hopefully temporary) stupidity is a myth, than I could be in trouble.  This morning I put my cereal bowl in the dishwasher.  I then turned and began walking toward the trash can.  I stopped a couple of steps short of it, turned around, walked back to the dishwasher and put my spoon in it.  For some reason I was originally planning on throwing it away.  

Boy or Girl?

We have our ultrasound at 10:45 this morning.  We HOPE to find out if it's a boy or a girl, and of course that everything is coming along normally.  Since I can't use my overabundance of sick days for my maternity leave, I decided to take off the whole day today.  Yesterday I told my students why I wouldn't be there today.  My second period wanted to guess whether I was having a boy or girl, so I passed around a voting sheet.  They were split right down the middle, fifty-fifty.  The rest of my classes were all slanted to boy.  Or maybe all but one, I can't remember.  The winners get candy tomorrow.  So, I probably won't send out any candy to you reading, but if anyone would like to venture a guess, have at it.  Now is the time because hopefully it will no longer be a mystery by this afternoon...Stay tuned : )

style.

Don't you love it when you see a young child who's parent obviously allowed them to put their own outfit together that day?  It's almost always part costume.  The socks are generally a focal point.  And confidence just seems to waft all around the little fashionista/fashionisto.

Signs

Stevie Nicks is haunting me.  

For the last couple of weeks, I walk into a store or change the station on the radio and find Stevie singing in her uber-raspy voice---one day it happened three times, and it was the same song each time.  Today NPR was talking to a woman about her parrot.  I lost interest and switched the station.  Of course it was Stevie.  Sometimes when the same song, or comment from people I know, or the same book title-- or anything really-- keeps coming up in my life repeatedly I wonder, is God trying to tell me something ?   A lot of times I find some relevance or meaning.  But this...I'm having trouble connecting to anything in my life...

Did she make you cry?

Make you break down?

Shatter your illusions of love?

Is it over now?   

Do you know how...

To pick up the pieces and go hooome?

Rock on ancient queen

Follow those who pale in your shadow

Rulers make bad lovers

You better put your kingdom up for sale.

Hmmm...I got nothin'.

On a totally different note, I can feel the bun moving now!  This is a very exciting development. All of a sudden a couple of days ago I just started feeling these little patters on and off.  The signs all keep pointing to being pregnant. I guess it really is true.  Still hard to believe.

And one more thing:  I have found out about two other people (who shall remain nameless) being pregnant in the last 24 hours.  Anyone else have an announcement?...

Home sick

Well, I am home and I am sick.  I caught the cold that many of my students have been trying so hard to give me by coughing and sneezing in my face for the last two weeks.  I woke up at about 3:30 this morning coughing uncontrollably.  I called Gabe (he was downstairs on the couch where I had banished him for his own good) up and requested some tea.  The coughing finally let up after about a half and hour.  By that time I was wide awake, so I called the district substitute line and typed up some sub plans until about 6:15.  I "slept" for about 20 minutes, got up and dragged my sorry self to school.  This is not so big of a deal considering the drive to school takes all of three minutes.  Once there, of course two of the (closest) main copiers were down, and my computer decided to not let me print off an activity sheet for no good reason.  I managed, met my sub and left just as kids were coming in.

Gabe has taken out the trash, the recycling, loaded the dishwasher, done a couple loads of laundry, gotten me softer kleenex and gone to work for a meeting, promising to return with my favorite orange juice that I just happened to have a coupon for.   

Daly has slept.

I am now surrounded by a mountain of crumpled kleenex, my nose is far redder than normal, my hair is stringy, and could I smell at all, I'm sure I would notice my breath which has to smell awful by now after hours upon hours of breathing through my mouth.  And yes, I have brushed my teeth.   

One week from today hopefully we will find out if I'm having a boy or a girl.  I'll be sure to post what we find.  

In the meantime, stay healthy everybody!

YAHOO!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!!!

Prego update (there will probably be a lot of these...)

We had our second baby-doctor's appointment yesterday and met my doctor for the first time. We both really liked her.  After pushing on my belly a bit, looking over my blood tests, and asking and answering some questions, she congratulated us on the fact that I'm having a "very normal" pregnancy.  Very welcomed words.  We did not have an ultrasound, but we did get to listen to the bun's heartbeat.  This was a big relief, as I've felt so normal it's hard to believe I'm actually pregnant.  I've gotten used to telling people I'm "pregnant", and used to thinking of myself as a "pregnant" person...but actually believing there is in fact a person growing inside of me seems a little too strange to be real---and somehow different from saying I'm pregnant.  It's like pregnant is just my new state of being: I'm pregnant.  Like I'm 5'8" or have blue eyes.  These things don't have consequences, they are just facts of my life.  So it's hard to wrap my brain around the idea (and reality) that in just under 6 months I won't be pregnant, but --God willing-- I will have a person to show for it. Strange.  And completely wonderful and exciting, don't get me wrong, but also bizarre.  

I gained 8 pounds since my last doctor visit.  This proves to me that it can't just be bloating from gas.  

I watched about a dozen different 3-5 minute videos online this morning dealing with labor, delivery, what happens right after and so on.  I now know all about APGAR, antibiotic goop that goes into your baby's eyes right after birth, what exactly is happening when your water breaks, vitamin k shots, why baby's don't drown in water births, and that hippies appear to experience the least amount of pain during childbirth.   It's convinced me to look more into their hippie ways when it comes to childbirth. From what I can tell so far, these are some of the hippie recommendations: dim lights, have husband constantly massaging your back ---um, OKAY, keep your eyes closed a lot and listen to music you like, and maybe rock back and forth on your hands and knees. And keep telling yourself, and those around you that your body was designed for this.  None of that seems very extreme or out there.  I'll forego the incense burning next to my bed and the summoning Mother Earth of course, substituted with some serious praying I imagine. 

 And does anyone have any input regarding water births?  Because from where I'm sitting, that looks like the way to go.  The lady I watched for the water birth video barely grunted or frowned during the two pushes it took to deliver her baby.  My hospital has a jacuzzi in every room...I'm not against (at this point) delivering my first child by sea.

We met the king.

Last night I got a hankerin' for gyros.  It turns out that the "Gyro King" is located just three short miles from our house. So we got it together, and found the king.

Things I liked about the restaurant:

1.  Definitely qualifies as a "hole in the wall"---this means it has a gritty authenticity to it, where the message is, "Our food is so good, we don't have to care what decorates the walls or if all of the tables and chairs match, or if we get the floor swept everyday, or not.  In fact, it's so good, we can have two televisions, that's right, two, facing us behind the counter at all times so we can stay up to date with the Greek shows.  In fact, while we're taking your order and ringing it up, we'll probably keep right on watching our Greek television shows.  Don't worry, you'll get your food."   I like this very much.

2.  Because of the television watching during the order taking, they brought us two orders of baklava instead of the one we ordered.  And they were delicious.

3.  Real Greek people working (a family-including one very bored adolescent boy and one slightly less bored teenage boy) with accents so thick you can barely understand them.

4.  The patriarch of the family is the cook.  And don't expect him to smile at you, either.

5.  The food was very good.

Things I didn't like:

1. The small hair (that I chose to believe was a arm hair) I found on the edge of my hommos.

2.  The second small hair (another arm hair) I spotted on my lettuce once I was finished with my meal.  

I chose to believe Gabe when he told me not to worry because my stomach acid would destroy any hairs that I didn't see before eating.  This allowed me to eat my meal, but until I fell asleep last night I definitely felt like there was a hair stuck on the back of my throat.  There wasn't, it was all in my head, but I could have sworn it was real.  I woke up alive this morning, so it seems I'm no worse for the wear.

Did you think it would ever happen?

Helloooooooooo, everybody!!! Alrighty roo, I have about 30 minutes before going to Gabe's writing class.  What's that, you ask?  Be patient, it's all in this blog.  There's no reason you should know yet, because as you may have noticed, it's been ages since I last blogged anything very informative.

So I am currently in the very comfortable second trimester of my pregnancy.  Amen for that.  Literally overnight (a few weeks ago, now) I woke up back to (almost) my normal self.  Rather than becoming an incoherent blob around 3:00, I now make it all the way to 9 pm.  I no longer require 18 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period, and standing up from the sofa does not cause me to need an immediate nap.  This is much easier to live with.  PLUS, my constant state of being is queasy?  No sir, not anymore.  After three months of it, I actually got pretty used to always feeling like if I thought about it too much I could throw up at any given moment.  So when I woke up that glorious day feeling fine again, I have to say, I was not just a little worried that something was wrong.  I've now come to accept and embrace this not nauseous feeling.

We have our next dr's appointment on Tuesday.  Say a little (or big) prayer that everything is on track and developing normally.  If we have an ultrasound, we should be able to find out the gender---but I'm not sure we'll have another u.s. until November.  Yes.  We are finding out if Bobbie is a boy or girl.  And I'm very excited to find out. I don't know how people can wait.

Since my last respectable blog, Tim and Kristi have been back to visit twice and since moved to Vancouver.  We were very happy to spend time with them in Aurora, as well as on a trip to Indiana...more on that later.

Here are Maci and Kya at Sonya and Kendal's the night we had dinner over there during T and K's first visit.  
Chrissie and Krisit:

This was FOREVER ago! For whatever reason, since I've been prego, I have taken an interest in cooking!  Who would have though?!  This was one of my first big endeavors, a wild rice and wild mushroom soup with garlic butter.  It was delicious and I was quite proud of how similar my soup looked to the picture.  At the stage of cooking skill I am currently at, I generally prefer to cook recipes that show me what the outcome should look like.  Very helpful.
Magazine photo on left, my soup on right:

Gabe is teaching his final creative writing class tonight, a requirement for grad school.  I think it's been eight weeks.  I took this on the first Wednesday.  Notice how bright it was at 7 pm.  No longer.  It's pitch black out now, and I need to leave soon.  He does a fantastic job, and even someone like me (who isn't all that interested in creative writing) has enjoyed and benefitted from his creativity and ideas.  
Daly basking:
Some student projects:

This was Tate's first birthday party.  Notice the four heads facing away from the camera in the second photo (Dylan, Maci, Kya, Conner)---all related to each other, either sibling or cousin.  Anyway, don't they all have amazing hair?  I get a little jealous every time I see them :)

This was on the last day of our family trip to Plymouth, IN.  Gabe's grandparents, Vic and MaryLou celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary, and we all got to be there to share it with them.  It was a fantastic weekend.  I got to meet a lot of Gabe's relatives for the first time.   We had a really nice time.   Here is the family band, Gabe, Kristi and Janae---rocking that church youth building like it's never been rocked before.  On this last day, Gabe's cousin Kristi Kavicky put together a surprise baby shower for us, which was so thoughtful.  We felt very loved.



Here is Kristi's little boy, Jacob being rolled in a tire by his dad, Eric.  There were all sorts of giggles coming from the rolling tire.
I will post some belly progress pictures soon...

so, it's monday...

It's gonna happen. Today. I'd promise, but I did that this weekend, and I'm guessing it would sound kind of hollow now.

D. Linquent

Alright. I've been seriously delinquent. This weekend will be a blogging weekend. I promise. I have loads of pictures and a smaller load of stories. I've entered my second trimester and almost miraculously regained my energy, so I have not one legitimate excuse for not blogging. I wonder if any of you still check this blog, it's been so little for so long. I also have some major catching up to do reading-wise. I've just been absent from the blog world for too long. Check back soon...

quick update

Well September is certainly flying by, and I have yet to write a new post. Things are going well at school. I think having a year in a Middle School has helped make things very calm and orderly in my classroom. Classroom management, organization, curriculum, enjoying the kids, and on and on are all very much "clicking" so far. I flew through the first three weeks of school without a problem. I had energy. This week...not as much. I'll be starting 11 weeks on Friday (roughly--who knows for sure?) and it seems that maybe I didn't get off as easy as I thought over the last few weeks. The first trimester woes might be giving it their big final punch as I approach my second trimester---which everyone says will be a breeze.

I have Fall fever big time. I've made some soups and a roast (for the first time). I am loving the slow-cooker, and can't believe I didn't use it sooner.

Kids are going to be coming in for class any minute, so this slightly dull post will have to come to a close.

No good titles come to mind.

I started a blog for my classroom.  I started it on August 24th.  Until now, no one has been told about this secret blog.  This blog can be found  here.  Feel free to check it out and make nice comments for the kids to (eventually) read.  Right now it just has some stuff from last year, but hopefully I'll hold up my end of the deal (really the only person that has an "end" of the deal to hold up) and continue posting art from students this year.  

AHhhh...I can finally talk freely about being prego.  Never before has debilitating fatigue, constipation, moodiness,the almost constant feeling of a full bladder,  queasiness, and heartburn ever been so enjoyable. Honestly, these have been my happy reminders of the great things going on inside me.  In fact, this past week I started feeling fine, which equals the feeling of not being pregnant, so seeing another ultrasound picture of our baby that currently resembles a little frog, was very reassuring.

I'm 29 now.  I was thinking today that I'd love to try and do some memorable things in these last months of being a twenty-something.  Please give me suggestions.  So far I have:

-Make another person.

-Cook a good roast, or something that sounds equally impossible to me.

-Travel somewhere internationally that I've never been (in a sense this could be easy considering the international travel I've done includes: Mexico and Texas.)

And so far, that's what I've come up with.  Granted, I've not given it much thought.  Instead I thought I'd first ask for other people to think of things.  My doctor says I can't do any activity above 10,000 feet--so no mountain climbing suggestions.  Plus I did some of this in my 5th or 6th week not knowing I shouldn't.  Maybe completing your list will become my goal. Unless no one comments, then this will all be a failure.  If you're private (Sonya) and want to secretly tell me a suggestion, email me: brookemduffy@yahoo.com or send me a message on facebook--Brooke Knipp.  I'm serious.  Add some memories I wouldn't have thought of to my life this next year, please.

Alright, WE'RE back...

SURPRISE!!!  (to some of you...)  Meet Baby.  Baby is moving along at 8 weeks now.  We could not be any more excited than we already are.  8 weeks means a suggested due date of April 10th.  

When we were in Iowa for that week over the summer, I felt really queasy the whole time and blamed the Iowa humidity.  Once we got back to CO I kept feeling queasy and finally took a test (unbeknownst to Gabe) the day before my birthday.  I did so just to prove to myself that I wasn't pregnant--the month before we had had a disappointing negative test when all symptoms pointed to prego.  So I didn't want to get my hopes up, I strictly wanted to dash them before they grew at all.  But when I looked at the test, obviously it was positive.  I surprised Gabe that morning before he'd even gotten out of bed or put on his glasses.  The man really can't see without them, so he had no idea what I was holding in front of his face at first.

So now I've got a little babe the size of a kidney bean, with all of its organs already developed. This week and next we'll be working on fingers and toes (no more webbed pads for us), and I think eyelids.  So that's the huge news from our home!  

We are planning on finding out if we're having a boy or a girl--we should know the middle of November.  And we won't be telling you the names we've picked--and they've been picked. Sorry, you'll just have to be surprised and act like you like it once the baby is born! :)

This is the most miraculous thing I've ever been a part of.  I can't believe it doesn't take 3 years for a couple of cells to grow into an actual human being.  When I look online and in the books at how much is happening with the bun (in the oven) every week --I am amazed every time.  I'm just sittin' on the couch watching Friends, eating more cheese and all the while our baby is busy becoming complete--growing a spleen, fingernails, ears, a BRAIN.  If you ever forget how amazing God is, think about that.  I know I do.  

Also, I started back to school with kids this past week.  It was actually fantastic.  I really felt peaceful about everything.  My classes seem to be great and I really feel like I've got a much better handle on the whole middle school thing now with one year under my belt.  

So that's all for now.  We've waited to make a public announcement until all family was told. So hopefully I'll be back to blogging more often now that the word is out.  School and babies have been holding a monopoly on most of my thoughts, so I haven't been able to blog in awhile.  But now you know!

Stray-ayyynge.

So yesterday I went to Banks'.  It's a teacher supply store in...not a great area of town.  I traveled up and down the many aisles turning my nose up at most of the young-kid-friendly merchandise to clutter a classroom.  Middle schoolers don't appreciate a sign telling them to have a sunshiny day and that they're special in every way.  Great for little kids, not for the grown up middle schoolers of today.  I still spent $130 when it was all said and done, however.

The strange part of this story happened once I stepped out of the store.  I could barely hear myself think as I walked to my car, due to the foul rap "song" that was BLARING out the windows of the mini-van parked two spots away from me.  I won't go into detail, let's just say that the lyrics were not what you would call "honoring" to women.  I began loading my $130 of goods into my car all the while snarling to myself about how horrific the lyrics were.  So of course I had to send an ever so slightly disapproving look to the young man in the passenger seat of the mini-van as I got into my car.  As I did this, I happened to notice two car seats in the middle and back row seats of the mini-van!  AND they had children in them!  I slam my car door mumbling to myself all sorts of indignant admonishments.  Then to top it all off, the frail grandmotherly school teacher that had been behind me in line exited the store.  I held the brake long enough to make sure some woman-hater didn't knock her over for kicks, when SHE GOT INTO THE DRIVER'S SEAT OF THE MINI-VAN!!!  

I don't even know what to say.

Happy Birthday, Kristi!

H A P P Y    B I R T H D A Y,   K R I S T I ! ! ! !  We hope you 

have a wonderful day and can't wait to celebrate with you in a 

couple days...

TOO MANY to choose from!

Over my birthday while we were down in the Springs, and then yesterday also, I got to take a zillion pictures of beautiful Janae for her senior pics.  We ended up with SO many great ones, these are just a fraction of my favorites.  The first one isn't for real, it was toward the end of our "session"  and Janae had to focus to look this 'over it'.  A split second after the camera snapped she lost her straight/attitude face and started laughing.  But I ended up liking it, so, without further ado...

Need to fix the color on this one a little:

birthday asparagus

Despite Chrissie's political objections regarding Ted Turner opening a Montana-themed restaurant, we chose to meet at Ted's Montana Grill (is that even the correct name?) last night for my belated birthday celebration.   Here is a picture of Chrissie, Amanda and I:

Here is a picture of Mark, Eric, and Gabe.  Eric made this face while the flash was going off and I didn't discover it until looking back through the pictures.  I think Gabe is chewing, that or he just looks funny in this picture.

Then Sean and Lexi arrived. We were team white shirt:

Gabe and I got to the restaurant about 45 minutes early to reserve a table and then went across the street where I ate a cheeseburger and onion rings.  I was too hungry to wait.  When we met up with everyone at Ted's, we ordered a couple of appetizers to share and later on I decided that a side of asparagus (on the menu) was just what I wanted.  This is exactly as it was when the waitress delivered it to our table:
These fancy restaurants are all about the presentation.

Thanks to those of you that were able to make it.  We had a great time and hope you did, too. Lots of laughing, as usual.  We missed those of you that couldn't make it, but there will be another birthday or something to celebrate soon, I'm sure.

It's 6:44 in the morning and I've been awake for over an hour.  Strange.