Habakkuk 3: A Beautiful Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. :) The girls started a few weeks ago asking several times a day, "Mom, what do you want for your birthday?" Finally I got fed up and made a list of things I might enjoy receiving for my birthday - anything and everything from the impossible (a plane ticket and car rental to visit my dear friend) to the simple (hugs and kisses from sweet little girls). One of the things I put on the list and had thought to be in the impossible category, was a lesson in music mixing from a producer. Mike found out that the son of one of his co-workers had a degree in music production and he arranged for him to come over for a lesson on Monday night! It was wonderful and I learned so much. He also played a mini-concert on his guitar for our family. We're talking about lessons for one of our sons. (I'm hoping he will learn enough to teach me a bit too.) ;)

Yesterday morning, I asked Mike to let me come along with him when he went into town. There had been a rummage sale in the paper that had looked interesting and I figured we could kill two birds with one stone. It was pouring rain, so I figured if it was cancelled, we wouldn't have wasted a second trip, and if it wasn't cancelled, I just might have the pick of the crop with fewer sale-ers braving the rain. :) As we drove past, we saw a woman carrying some things back out of the driveway into the house, so we almost didn't stop, thinking they were closing up shop. After some discussion, we decided to go back and check it out anyway. Mike was going to wait in the van. He was the sane one, not wanting to go out in the pouring rain for nothing. LOL

I wound my way up the driveway and onto the porch where they had set some things out of the rain. There I found a sweet older lady who started chatting. I asked her about the fabric that I'd seen specifically mentioned in the paper. She said that her friend who was bringing the fabric was running late. She took down my name and number to call me when she got there and asked if I lived very far away. I said no, just outside of town, and I told her the street corner we lived on. Her eyes lit up. "You're the ones who bought our old house!" she exclaimed. She called her husband and introduced him and as we talked and talked, Mike realized it would be a long wait in the car and came up to join us. :) They invited us in and we had an incredibly lovely visit. Her husband told Mike many stories about our house's history. J and I talked about gardening and children and sewing. The fabric lady arrived and turned out to be another lovely new friend, who apparently lives just up the road from us. I bought tons of her fabric including some green velvet and a gorgeous pendleton wool that she'd picked up when they were in Scotland! All for $1 a yard! Plus she promised me her leftovers after the rummage sale was over. :) They were all believers and it was wonderful to hear their speech peppered with "Lord willing" - "He said he was praying about it" - "God did this in our lives" etc. What a wonderful time of fellowship! We were so glad we'd stopped!

Then we went out for lunch at a neat little diner nearby called Maggie Mae's Cafe. http://www.maggiemaecountry.com/bio.html

I had their spaghetti special which came with a piece of pie for dessert. I chose apple with a scoop of butter pecan icecream on top. :) Mike had a patty melt. Maggie was there but she wasn't singing. I finally asked our waitress as she brought my dessert if Maggie might be persuaded to sing. Mike piped up and told her it was my birthday. :) So Maggie and the whole diner sang happy birthday to me. LOL Another lady admitted it was her birthday too so we sang to her as well. And then Maggie gave a little concert of country songs which was really neat. :)

The first song was Louisiana Saturday Night and I had to laugh at some of the lyrics I'd never heard clearly before. :)

Well, you get down the fiddle and you get down the bow,

Kick off your shoes and you throw ‘em on the floor.

Dance in the kitchen 'til the morning light:

Louisiana Saturday night.

Waiting in the front yard, sitting on a log;

Single shot rifle and a one-eyed dog.

Yonder come my kin folk in the moonlight:

Louisiana Saturday night.

Well, you get down the fiddle and you get down the bow

Kick off your shoes and you throw ‘em on the floor

Dance in the kitchen 'til the morning light

Louisiana Saturday night

My brother Bill an' my other brother Jack,

Belly full o'beer and a possum in a sack.

Fifteen kids in the front porch light

Louisiana Saturday night!

When the kinfolk leave an' the kids get fed,

Me an' my woman gonna slip off to bed.

Have a little fun when we turn out the lights!

Louisiana Saturday night!

Well, you get down the fiddle and you get down the bow,

Kick off your shoes and you throw ‘em on the floor.

Dance in the kitchen 'til the morning light:

Louisiana Saturday night.

Yeah, you get down the fiddle and you get down the bow,

Kick off your shoes and you throw ‘em on the floor.

Dance in the kitchen 'til the morning light:

Louisiana Saturday night.

Yup. Most of that sounds like a really good day to me too. :)

We stopped on the way home at a couple of stores and we bought a new bird house. I love bird houses, and we've found that as long as we keep the feeder filled, we have TONS of birds here who are bold enough to come very close to the house. The new birdhouse looks like a huge pinecone with a pretty red cardinal sitting on top. So pretty!

So we came home and Terran made a pair of delicious carrot cakes. He even tried the candied carrot roses Jewels mentioned on her blog a long time ago. Unfortunately it wasn't the season for mint leaves, but it was wonderful even with just the roses. He was so funny. He said that one of the cakes had a corner that broke when he tipped it out of the pan - but you can cover a lot with frosting. Of course it can look like a perfect cake on the outside, but when you cut into it you find out the truth! LOL (Not that some of the kids minded!)