1/4 Of 2012 Comes To An End

Here we are at the end of March already.  Doesn't seem possible that the first 1/4 of 2012 is coming to an end.  I am happy to say that March was a much better month than the previous two.  Here's how we spent the 3rd month of the year.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, March 1 would have been my Dad's 82nd birthday.  It was so strange not calling him that day to tell him Happy Birthday.  It was a rather busy day, thankfully, or I might have spent it in tears.  As usual, the kids kept me happily occupied though.  Don't know what I'd do without Hunter and Katelyn.  Life is so much more fun with them.

Katelyn decided to enter the Beauty Walk at her school, so on the 3rd we set out on a shopping trip to find the perfect dress.  After trying on 10 or so dresses, she found the one.  Then she found some high heels that she just had to have.  I was skeptical and made her try them on and walk around the store a little just to be sure she could walk in them.  She's a natural.  Or she's too stubborn for her own good.  I think she might have willed her ankles not to roll because she wanted the shoes with the bling.  Either way, we walked out with the dress and the shoes in hand.  The pageant was on the 9th.  A friend of ours did her hair and I did her makeup.  She looked so beautiful.  It was a proud Mama moment when she walked out on that stage.  She won 1st runner up in her age group.  She loved getting a sash, a trophy and a rose even though she wanted the tiara.  Maybe next year. 

On the 12th Hunter was invited to play a little paintball at a friend's birthday party.  I have to admit that looked like a lot of fun.  I may have to try that myself at some point.  I wound up getting tickets to watch the Alabama gymnastics meet on the 16th.  I had never been to one and I thought Katelyn would get a kick out of it.  We took a friend and had a mini girls night.  It was great!  We will definitely be going to more gymnastics meets in the future. 

The weather was so beautiful on the 18th that I took Hunter and Katelyn out to a local park and played some football.  They played at first until Hunter decided it would be fun (meaning he thought he could make fun of me) if I played a little too.  So I had to show them that Mom can still throw a spiral and catch some too.  Even chased them both down a few times.  Spring had officially sprung in Alabama and we thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon outside. 

A crazy conversation at work led to a trip to Birmingham to go roller skating with some friends on the 24th.  Yes, you read that right, roller skating.  3 grown women.  We had lunch at a great little Mexican place in Pelham and then hit the rink.  I had fooled myself into thinking that my recent time in the gym would have my legs in perfect skating shape.  Boy was I wrong.  I looked a bit like Bambi when I first put my skates on but I went out on to the rink in spite of my awkwardness.  It took me a little while but I eventually got my legs back under me.  Mostly anyway.  Still can't skate like I once could, but I didn't do too badly for someone who hadn't skated in about 20 years.  I only fell twice, much to my surprise, and out-skated most of the adults who were there and even a few of the kids.  I laughed a lot that day and had a great time with my friends.  We decided that we must do that again, after we forget how badly it hurt to fall. 

The end of the month brought something I had been looking forward to for quite a while.  The Blue Angels came back to town for an airshow.  They had been here twice before, in 2009 and 2010, and I went to their shows both times.  They started flying around town on Thursday the 29th.  I had lunch outside and watched them fly over the office downtown.  It was great. 

On Friday the 30th, I started the day by having breakfast with friends from work.  We had a great time laughing over breakfast.  When we got to work, there was a buzz about the big lottery.  The jackpot was the highest ever and our co-workers in Chicago asked if we wanted to join their lottery pool.  Most of us did just for the fun of it.  Then we spent most of the rest of the day planning how we were going to spend our winnings.  $700 million split between us would have been a pretty nice payout.  The ideas that came out were fantastic.  I laughed until I cried.  I can't share all of the ideas here (there were too many and some might offend a few people), but some of my favorites were buying a decommissioned aircraft carrier (aka party boat) and hitting the open seas, buying each bar we visit for celebration drinks instead of just opening a tab, buying McFarland Mall and turning it into an indoor version of Bourbon Street, and buying a helicopter so you can just land on a friend's house when you want to visit. The Blue Angels also practiced some more so a few of us went up to the roof that afternoon and watched them fly by again.  Even though none of our lottery tickets had the winning numbers, I definitely got my $10 worth of entertainment that day.

The kids and I loaded up this morning, the 31st, and headed out to the airport to watch the airshow.  We got there around 10:30 (when it all started) and stayed until about 4:30 (when it ended).  We saw some exciting aerial acrobatics and, of course, the Blue Angels.  The weather turned out to be perfect and I got some much needed sun.  Now I'm ready for summer.

We are going back to watch the Blue Angels again tomorrow then we have a very important birthday to celebrate.  The next few weeks are going to be really busy, but I wouldn't have it any other way.  I'll try not to get too busy to post about it all, but I'm not making any promises.