The morning of my birthday, when I went to work, this is what I saw:
Needless to say, I was surprised! The streamers in the ceiling were particularly impressive. They literally formed a canopy over my desk and extended over towards the student worker desk. I had no idea who had done it, but I marveled at the amount of time it took, as evidenced by these other pictures:
As you can see, my chair was wrapped, the computer screen was wrapped, and there were small pieces of streamers everywhere. I had to take it all in for a few minutes!
One of my favorite touches! 26! Wooo!
I started piecing together who might have done all of this when I started thinking about who had connections with Safety and Security! My suspicions proved correct when I discovered that Stephanie, Meghan, Kristen, Andey and Kensie were the awesome decorators! Here they are in action:
Thanks again, ladies!!
The morning was made even better by my co-workers giving me a scone (the benefits of having my birthday fall on a Thursday!!!) with a birthday candle and singing happy birthday! It was so happy!
Austin dropped by later in the morning and brought me a monogrammed gift basket with lavender body wash, soap, bath salts, and lotion in it with a note giving me permission to relax. He also included an awesome invitation to a birthday dinner that night!
The day was made even more special through numerous calls, texts and facebook posts to wish me a happy birthday. I truly felt so blessed!
Austin took me out to lunch at Ruby Tuesdays, and that night we had a steak at Logan's (my favorite!!!) The day ended with him giving me beautiful pale pink roses and gorgeous drop earrings that have pressed dried flowers in them to match the necklace that he gave me for my birthday last year :-) It was a wonderful day!!!
The birthday festivities continued on into the weekend with a special trip to Patti's with Dustin and Jessie! It was our first road trip in the van! I was driving so I can't vouch for everything that happened on that trip, but some hilarious 90's VHS tapes might have been played in the VHS player! Old School!
We made it to Patti's (the place where Austin and I got engaged!) and had a lovely lunch. Dustin and Jessie had never been before and they enjoyed it! Here was the view from our table, just to provide a glimpse of the atmosphere:
After we ate, we walked around the grounds at Patti's, saw some bunnies and a huge black pig in the petting zoo, and showed them our chapel. The weather was absolutely beautiful!
Then, we got back in the van and headed to Paducah! Dustin spent a lot of time in Paducah with his previous job, so we all took a walk down memory lane, so to speak. Our first stop was the Ohio River. It is so peaceful just to sit and watch the water.
Of course, the boys decided to skip rocks! They were both very good at it. Jess and I were supportive and hope to improve our rock-skipping skills in the future. Here is Austin in action!
After skipping rocks, we walked around the downtown area for a little while. We found the Chocolate Factory, a quaint chocolate store, where we sampled delicious fudge and talked with the owners! Then, Dustin and Austin went to the Outdoors store while Jessie and I checked out my favorite shop in Paducah, The Victorian Parlor. Anything girly, vintage, feminine, beautiful, lacy- it's all in there!
We went from downtown to a mini-driving tour of Paducah, and we ended up at my grandparent's house! It was so good to see them! Grandmommy, ever the gracious hostess, had chocolate silk pie for us, which we all thoroughly enjoyed! The visit wasn't long enough, but it was so fun to fellowship together!
No trip to Paducah would be complete without stopping at Chick-fil-A (especially since Jackson's free standing unit is closed for the next month for renovations!!!), so we enjoyed a yummy dinner there before heading back to Jackson! I would say without a doubt that our road trip was a success!
On Sunday, we made an impromptu trip to Nashville! Austin's immediate family was gathering to celebrate Adam's birthday from earlier in the month, so we decided not to let the opportunity to hang out with everyone slip by! We were so glad we went!
We enjoyed a delicious lunch at Newk's and enjoyed chatting and spending time together. Arica and Dylan had to leave earlier to do stuff for the play that Arica is in later this month, but we got to spend a lot of time with Adam, Leslie, the kids, and Austin's parents! We didn't do anything particularly special, we went to TJ Maxx and shopped, then went to Whole Foods and shopped and hung out some more, then ate dinner together at Tazikis, but we enjoyed every minute! We weren't ready to return to Jackson so we didn't- haha! Instead we spent the night in Dickson at Austin's parents house (who were ironically staying in Smyrna with Arica). It was good to just have a change of scenery.
Such a wonderful weekend! 26 has already been great!!!
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