Happy Birthday to me...

Yesterday could have been a downright rotten day, given the recent circumstances that I just blogged about in my prior post. It turned out great!

Started the day with a phone call from my mom just after I got up. I probably wasn't too coherent yet but it was still nice to hear from her.

Then on to work. Greeted by my 2 year old, who when prompted told me, "Happy Birthday Natalie!" (her name.) That is so typical of her and gave me a big smile. She also brought me a vase of flowers. Later my 4 month old came in with nice birthday greetings as well. Then at lunchtime, my 3 1/2 year old and 15 month old came in, also with flowers as well as a gift card to go out to eat (from all three families.) That was nice! I also had a card signed from all my co-workers and another from a member that I've gotten to know quite well over these last few years.

Checked my Facebook during lunch break. I couldn't believe the number of people who had posted birthday greetings. The final count, including the one just before midnight and the one just after midnight, was over a hundred. That was undescribably cool. A nice cross section, too, of all the different ways I know people. Family, co-workers, church friends, scouting friends, geocaching friends. And quite a few notes that were more than a simple "Happy Birthday." Didn't hear from my boys but know they are busy in Egypt. They called and left early birthday wishes on the answering machine last Friday night.

Our plans for my birthday were to go to the Melting Pot, a local fondue restaurant. It can be a bit pricey, so since it would just be Steve and I, I decided this would be the year. I raised the question, after Wednesday, whether we should still go. Steve was ok with still going. So we did.

We arrived and found a birthday card from the restaurant at the table, nice touch! First course was a traditional Swiss cheese fondue, made at the table. Especially nice since we never did end up having fondue in Switzerland! Dipping bread, apples, and veggies into the cheese tasted good. Second course - an assortment of main dish items with hot broth to cook them in, plus a variety of dipping sauces. We had chicken, shrimp, steak, potstickers, as well as potatoes, broccoli, & mushrooms to cook. Umm, good. But the best was yet to come. Yes, chocolate! Glad I forgoed a birthday cake as this was just as good if not better! Called Yin and Yang chocolate, it was dark chocolate swirled with white chocolate. They brought an assortment of goodies to dip into it, centered was a slice of cheesecake with a birthday candle in it. Also was brownies, rice krispy treats, marshmallows, bananas, strawberries, and pound cake. If I could have licked the pot I would have...end of the night brought two movie tickets, part of the package. We are saving them for another time.

After we got home, my sister Debbie called and we had a nice talk. I had talked to Judy via FB on Sunday so didn't expect a call from her. Then worked on some scouting stuff for our Wood Badge orientation meeting which is tonight, and went to bed. Too much diet coke didn't allow for a restful sleep, it definitely affects me more since I don't drink it all the time.

I started off my 51st year quite nicely, I think!

Worst Case Scenario

Yep. The worst case scenario happened. Last Wednesday, Steve lost his job. This was unexpected as he had been receiving excellent performance reviews and work was steadily coming in.

The part that is the worst is that they won't tell him why. They did say it was not his job performance or quality of work. But still no other reason. That's hard to take. Plus, at age 58, a job search will be even more challenging in this area.

We are luckier than most in this position. We own our home and our vehicles outright. No debts. Our only worry is health insurance. Looking into the options there - COBRA, trying somehow to get on Gilda's insurance even though I'm only part time and technically not eligible, or some other program. God IS in control and I have to keep reminding myself of that. He brought us to this, he will bring us through this. Wish Steve shared that same belief.

We're still going to be more careful with our finances for the time being. Unemployment will help. I'm glad that we have our trip done and in the memories already. Going ahead with it this fall (as was one of our original plans) would have been tough to justify. I'm also glad that I've paid my expenses for scout events this fall such as Wood Badge and Mackinac Rendezvous.

my traveling sons...

As I write this, my sons are together, enjoying Paris, France. I didn't get to see Paris until I was 48. Lucky them! Eric left for Germany on Friday, very early morning, flying to Dallas and then to Frankfurt on my saved up air miles.

He arrived in Frankfurt, and we received an email from Scott's iPhone: "He is here." Their plans were to drive directly to Paris from Frankfurt. Another email arrived later yesterday: "We in Paris." So I've heard exactly six words from my boys since Eric left.

But really, if you were in PARIS would you take the time to email your mom? Ok, we did because Mom was paying for the trip. So hmmm, maybe they SHOULD be emailing me, or at least posting on Facebook, since my air miles paid for Eric's ticket.

I'm glad for them to be able to spend the time together. From Paris, they head back to Germany and a few days to relax for Eric, and a training class for Scott. Next weekend, they head for Egypt!

on the way home from Bash...

Time to update my faithful few readers about my trip home from bash last Sunday. Got up, made scrambled eggs on my pocket rocket stove for breakfast. The only trouble was, I filled the pan too full (wanted to use up the egg beaters) and ended up tipping it when it was half cooked. Egg all over the camping table. Cleaned it up and thankfully was left with enough egg to have a decent breakfast. Next was time to pack up and head out. While packing up the table, discovered that egg had seeped down between the cracks and under the table. So even more of a mess, now partially dry....but got 'er done and everything packed.

Caching along the way was definitely on the agenda. Started out with a few cemetery caches in Fulton County, then a couple of bridge guard rail caches. Then went toward one called "Pebbles" and discovered an 11 cache series, Flintstones themed and all were hidden under rocks. They were pretty much a tenth of a mile apart on this little country road. Stop where you see the pull off (from so many people caching in the area over the weekend) and follow the geo-trail and make the quick find. Get back in the car and repeat. Once I was done with that, meandered my way back up to the Michigan border where there was a cache called "Welcome to Michigan?" hidden in the "Welcome to Ohio" sign! More cemetery caches and a few others along the way as I headed north on 127. Stopped at a McDonald's in Hudson to cool off for a while and use the wifi.

Had hoped to do a series in Mason (south of Lansing) that was fish themed - part of an event that happens every spring there. After two caches (and discovering that the park that many of the caches were in was being taken over by the upcoming county fair) I decided it was just too hot to go "fishing" and decided to just head for a cache in Ionia County that I'd been wanting to do. It was a historic caches challenge where I needed to find 5 out of 7 of the oldest caches in the county. I'd done six of them way back when I first started caching so easily qualified. Got that cache then decided to head north to Ionia and make another attempt at the failed FTF as it still hadn't been logged and the owners had given me info on its probable whereabouts.

Got there, started counting trees, got to the right tree and had to laugh as there was a wooden stake right in front of the right tree. And I found the cache pretty quickly. Someone had found the cache the day before but was giving me credit for the FTF still - so I gave him credit for a shared FTF.

Home about 7:00 - an 8 1/2 hour trip, 120 miles as the crow flies. Nobody home and all vehicles were there. Found out later that Steve and Eric had gone to a movie together.

So a nice weekend was had by all.