Birthday Week

I had a fantastic Birthday week. I could not have asked for a more fun-filled, friend-filled week of events. I have great friends and family (both here and elsewhere) that made me feel so special and loved! Here is a breakdown of the weeks events by day.

Monday, July 11th- Stone Mountain Laser Show and Picnic.

This was an event that I haven't attended since I have lived here and have been wanting to go to. They do it every night during the summer and apparently this is the first summer they have "updated" the show since they started it in the 80's. It was really fun. We tried to play frisbee before it started, but it was crowded and I hit an old lady in the arm and she was non too happy about it, so we just sat and talked.

Tuesday, July 12th- Six Flags over Georgia.

I have also not been to Six Flags since I moved to Atlanta. It had been a few years since I had been to a theme park. Amy surprised me and took me on Tuesday. The only downside was that it happened to be the hottest day of the year to date and they were warning people to stay inside, but we thought we would to the opposite and ride roller coasters in the heat.

We were drenched (I was drenched) about an hour in and we were both a little nauseous probably due to the heat and roller coaster motion combo. 3 rides in they shut all the rides down due to thunder, lighting and drizzling rain. I do appreciate their caution because I don't really want to die on a coaster, but I found the bad weather a little unfortunate. We left the park for about an hour and rode around and then came back to see if the rides were back on. They were and so we lined up for the first coaster and after the sent one cart they shut it down again.....more "inclement weather." We stood there for about an hour until they finally decided there was no more thunder (which we never heard anyway, but oh well). All-in-all the bad weather worked in our favor because it cleared out the park and cooled things down. We road everything we wanted to ride and some things twice and then realized we had had enough and didn't want to push the nausea feeling any further. SO FUN!

Taking a break from the extreme heat.

Bumper cars.

Wednesday, July 13th and Thursday, July 14th - Chick-fil-a Grand Opening First 100 Event.

This was SOOO much fun. We (5 of us) arrived at Chick-fil-a in Dallas, Ga by 6am (which means we got up in the 3 o'clock hour) and stayed there, camping in the parking lot until 6am the following morning. Two of us won the raffle and Lauren got an alternate spot and ended up winning the drawing for 52 free meals. After 24 hours of eating free chicken, games, sweating buckets (this day beat the previous day out for hottest day of the year), and camping in a parking lot we each walked home utterly exhausted, but with 30ish free Chick-fil-a meals in hand. It was such a fun and different thing to do....if only it had been cooler. More details to come about this event in my next post.

The gang waiting to get raffle tickets.

Excited faces.

Winners!

Thursday, July 14th- Chick-fil-a, naps, nerts, La Madeleine and The Lincoln Lawyer

We woke up way too early on the concrete on Thursday morning to get in line and collect our prize. The original plan for Thursday was to leave from the Chick-fil-a event and go camping up at Jack's river in North Georgia. But it was so early and we were so tried that we came home and took a nap. The weather was rainy and non-cooperative for much outdoor activity so lunch and nerts it was for some of the afternoon. For dinner Amy took me to La Madeleine, which is one of my favorite places that I haven't been too since I moved from Texas. It is an amazing little french inspired cafe that I first discovered in Texas. I found out a while back that they have 2 in Atlanta, but neither are very close to my house. She knew I have been wanting to go so she took me and she fell in love with it too. It is so yummy!!!!! We then got The Lincoln Lawyer (a movie I have been wanting to see) from the Redbox and watched it at home. It was very good.

Friday, July 15th- The day of my birth!- Blueberry picking, blueberry pancakes, more nerts, birthday dinner and a dessert party.

Since we were supposed to be waking up on the 15th in the woods somewhere and weren't we had to come up with a plan B. We decided to go pick blueberries at a farm about 30 minutes away. It takes a long time to pick a gallon of blueberries....they are tiny...and a gallon is a lot....and we are very selective. They are delicious and we can officially make blueberry pancakes for the next year without running low. So, if push comes to shove and I can't find a job I will be living off of blueberry pancakes and Chick-fil-a.....and by 29 I will be as big as a house. The pancake breakfast (at lunch time) was awesome. We played some more nerts. Late that day Lauren cooked me a meal of my request, which was chicken poppyseed, "dirty" mac and cheese and green beans. It did not disappoint. We then drove over to my house where Amy had set-up a surprise dessert party with some of my favorite people. There was a Coke Cake (YUMMY) also made by my sister, an ice cream sundae bar, some glass bottled Cheerwine, games and presents. It was a FANTASTIC birthday (week)! I felt very loved!

My yummy birthday dinner.

Thank you Amy and Lauren for everything you did this week! I love both of you very, very much! Thank you friends and family that I didn't get to see who sent presents and cards and texts and phone calls. Thank you acquaintances and those I barely know for seeing it was my birthday on Facebook and taking a second to post on my wall....you flooded my inbox with emails....and also made me feel special....all 100 of you.... ;-)

To another year....here we go 29.