Happy 31st Birthday To Me

Today was a great way to celebrate my 31st birthday (notice part of my cute new watch & Scentsy wax that Lexie got me...THANKS, Lexie). The only bad thing was that I woke up at 8:53 and church starts at 9:00, so I had to rush to get myself and Autumn ready. We made it to church just in time to hear my class get up and do their part of the Primary Program. I can’t believe that Autumn will be up there next year giving her little line from the podium and singing all the Primary songs. She knew most of the songs from this year’s program b/c we’ve been listening to a CD of the songs in the car on the way to and from church. She sang along quietly w/ the kids while she colored in her coloring book. I always enjoy the Primary program b/c the kids are so sweet and innocent and share basic yet powerful gospel truths.

It was great to see all my kids in my class again b/c I haven’t seen them in 3 weeks (1 week was General Conference and then I was in Slovenija for the other 2 weeks). I told them that if they were good, then I had a special treat for them. They were good today and earned their treat so I gave them all a Kinder egg, which they thought was super cool.

After church, we went over to Mom & Dad’s where I let Autumn have a Kinder egg. She was so excited, and what’s not to love about a little toy enclosed in chocolate? That’s every kid’s dream!

We had left over enchiladas for lunch and just watched some football for a while. Dad came home and Autumn wanted to go outside so he had her help take out the recycling. I asked her if she was Santa Claus w/ a bag full of toys and she gave me this look like, “Uh, no! Hello!?” I’m in so much trouble when she’s a teenager!

Dad & Autumn didn’t stay outside in the yard long, b/c all of a sudden the heavens opened up and it started POURING! And it wasn’t just rain, we started getting hailed on! It was pinging off the side of the house and landing on Autumn’s little picnic table.

Then the hail let up for a little while and we got TONS of water. This is the gutter that comes off the house and into the flowerbeds by the pool. The flowerbeds were completely flooded in just a matter of minutes.

It was cool to watch all of the raindrops & hail hitting the surface of the pool. It was coming down big time! Later on the news, we heard that a tornado had touched down south of Dallas and had caused some damage! Scary!

Luckily we were able to stand under the protection of the covered patio to watch all of the beauty of this storm. When the lightning started flashing and the thunder started rumbling Autumn looked at me and said, “Oh my gosh,” with such awe and wonder. It thrills me that she enjoys nature as much as I do.

As fast as the storm had appeared (it lasted for about 20 minutes), it stopped and the sun came out! Seriously, it quit raining and this is what the skies looked like 1 minute later. Like they always say…if you don’t like the weather in Texas, just wait around for a little bit and it will change.

After all the excitement was over, I went to go back in the house but Autumn asked me to sit outside w/ her so she could sweep up the leaves (we don’t allow her to be outside by herself b/c of the pool). I was more than happy to oblige and enjoyed the cool breeze while watching her sweep up leaves. She did that for a good 45 minutes!

I finally went in the house when Mom said she was going to start making the rouladen (a German dish I had requested for my birthday dinner). I wanted to watch her like a hawk to see how she makes it. She wouldn’t let me help b/c it’s my birthday, but I got to see how she does it. She put that in the oven to cook and then their home teachers came over. Lexie called in the middle of them being there, so I took the phone and went in the other room to talk to her. Andrew sang me happy birthday, which was so cute. We called Melitta (our neighbor that we used to live by in Germany) to tell her hi and that we were having rouladen for dinner tonight. It was so good to talk to her and we just love her and her family so much. Finally at 7:00, dinner was ready and we sat down to eat. We had rouladen, spetzla, gravy, and cabbage. YUM!

It was getting late and I needed to get Autumn home to bed, so we packed up our stuff and headed home. I got THE ABSOLUTE BEST birthday present on the drive home. The skies to the south were lit up w/ the most magnificent lightning show I’ve ever seen. Autumn & I stopped at a pharmacy parking lot and went and sat in the middle of the sidewalk to watch the show.

I know these pictures are blurry, but they’re the best I could get w/out having a tripod. I like this one b/c you can see the beginning of a lighting bolt in the middle of the picture. What made the lightning show so pretty was how it lit up the big rain clouds.

We sat there and watched for a good 20 minutes and just kept saying, “Oooh! Aaah!” when a new lighting bolt would illuminate the clouds. I tried to get a good self portrait of us, but this was the best I could get. Autumn kept closing her eyes. I told Autumn, ‘Heavenly Father must love us a lot to give us such a pretty gift on my birthday.” She agreed. It was THE BEST ending to a wonderful birthday.

I wanted to thank all my dear family and friends that wished me a happy birthday. I had over 60 people send me a note on Facebook! I feel so loved and blessed to have such incredible family and friends. I am a very lucky girl!