Birthday Recap

Yesterday, I blew it a little bit. It was Brett's birthday, and we had a HUGE See's Candy delivery for a school fundraiser delivered to our house in the afternoon. I've organized this fundraiser for the past couple of years to help raise some money for the AP Art Trip to New York that Brett has gone on for the past few years. I probably spend at least 15 hours on the fundraiser and I do it to help Brett out. But I still felt a little guilty that part of his birthday was taken over by sorting the candy out and having the students pick it up. He was very gracious about it and knew that we'd be doing it ahead of time. However, I didn't count on incapacitating myself in the process. Although I didn't lift any heavy boxes, being on my feet for several hours and the sorting candy took a toll on my body. After everyone had left, I realized that my body was in significant pain and I was having several contractions. I had to lay down on the couch for awhile until I normalized a bit. I wasn't too concerned as I've felt like this before when I've overdone it physically, but I was bummed that I physcially couldn't get up and get his bday dinner going. Wonderful man that he is, Brett started up the grill to cook the ribs (a job he agreed on beforehand) and prepared some small slices of toasted baguette with goat cheese as an appetizer. After a bit, I was able to make it into the kitchen to finish up our sides. Eventually, we did have a fantastic dinner of ribs, salad, baked potato and asparagus. It was better than what we could have had out, I think. Ella even enjoyed the ribs!

After dinner, we cleaned up and got Ella ready for bed. Then it was time to open presents. Ella apparently is still learning how to keep a secret. She told Daddy several times that we bought him a movie for his birthday! Fortunately, she can't read and didn't remember the title so that was at least a little bit of a surprise for him. Other than the movie from Ella, we got him a sweater, a history book and the Planet Earth DVD collection made by the BBC. Then, it was time for Ella to go to bed (without cake because she didn't finish her dinner) and we finished up with small portions of birthday cake and ice cream. I will have you know that Ella did ask where the cake was first thing this morning -- she is definitely a Piersma!