My Birthday

Wow, it was a GREAT birthday :) I just LOVE that I don't have to do anything fancy or out of the ordinary to have a great day - hehehehe. My hubby lucked out on that one. I'm not very high maintenance, and VERY easy to please - LOL!

So we went and did the tree job yesterday. I took a TON of video, but can't seem to figure out how to get it from my video camera to my laptop. It has a IEEE cord (or something like that), but I don't have a port for it in my laptop. For my old laptop, I had a removable one that I purchased, but I gave the old laptop to my hubby. Rrrrgh. I'll need to think of a solution for this one soon :)

Anyway, I did take a few pictures on the video camera. They're not such great quality, but you get the idea :) So, here's the tree. It was over 70 feet. Yeah, it was pretty big.


But first, we had to take out some sections of fencing. Right where my dad is now is where he was gonna drop the branches. So, we unscrewed the sections, and removed the fencing. My friend Maren came to help, and the little boys were there too (yeah, not so much help from them - LMBO).

See, no more fence - hehehe.

Then, Dad got his stuff together and was ready to go. Here he is getting his saw all ready.

And here he is putting on his ... um.. don't know what they're called. They're attachments for his work boots, with long spikes. When you walk up the tree, the spikes go into the bark, and keep you from falling. Quite handy :)

See the spikes?

So, he has a rope that he puts around the tree, and it attaches to his belt somehow, and he can walk up the tree. Really quite impressive. His chain saw is also attached to a rope to his belt. Then he can pull it up when he needs it.

He climbed up that tree, and as he got to a branch, he'd pull up his chain saw and cut off the branch. Some were small, and some were large. Some made a REALLY cool loud THUD when they hit the ground. And a few fell and planted in the ground. Those were really COOL to watch - LOL.

Look how high up there he was - OMGosh! I'm deathly afraid of heights, so you'd NEVER catch me up there - hehehe. I won't even go over 3 rungs on a ladder. But I digress. hehehe.

So when he got up near the top (so that it was starting to sway a little bit), he cut off the top, and it tumbled down. Then, he went down a few feet, and cut off another chunk. He did that most of the way down the tree. When it was only about 15 feet left, he got down and we started to clear the brush.

There was a MASSIVE pile at the bottom, and while Dad was sawing the branches into smaller chunks, Maren and I hauled them off to a branch pile up the driveway. Needless to say, I got REALLY dirty. Hehehe. While dad was up the tree, it started to lightly rain. When he started sawing at the bottom, it started to bring it. We got SUPER wet. The wet branches didn't help.

The kids and I had to stop at 11:40 to talk Joe to school. We were soaked to the bone (Maren and I), but Joe managed to stay dry in the truck. Jim had escaped for a few mintues and was a bit wet. I had to take Joe to school all nasty. Hehehe. My light blue running pants were HACKED, even my socks were wet, and I had saw dust chunks all over me - I must have looked really hot - LMBO! But it was a ton of fun. Thank, Dad, for letting me tag along.

My mom took me out to lunch at Taco Bell at 1:00, and I went over to Marens house to watch Season 2's season finale of Doctor Who. LOVE that one. Makes me teary every time. Back home before the kids got off the bus at 3:45. Tom had a Cub Scout pizza party at 4:30. My party was at 7:00 pm.

Check out the YUMMY desserts at my party! We had homemade cheesecake, chocolate raspberry cake, and sugar cookies with frosting. Let me see if I can remember the recipe for the cheesecake, because it was DIVINE!!! Ha! I found the cream cheese box in the recycle box, so this is the REAL recipe - hehehe.

Philadelphia New York Cheesecake

6 Gram Crackers, crushed
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp butter
5 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
3 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 Cup sour cream
4 eggs

Heat oven to 325. Line 13x9 inch pan with foil. Mix crumbs, 3 Tbsp sugar, and butter; press onto bottom of pan. Bake 10 minutes

Meanwhile, beat cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, flour, and vanilla with mixer until blended. Add sour cream. Mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Pour over crust.

Bake 40 mintues or until center is almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate 4 hours.

Top as desired (we didn't top it at all)

Serves 16 (and they're VERY generous slices)

Here's my b-day cake. It was NASTY. We had ice cream with it, and I still didn't eat it. Gross. But, others seemed to like it. I guess everyone has their own tastes, right? I'll just stick to the cheesecake - LOL. So family birthday parties consist of the kids playing in the living room/watching cartoon, and the grown ups sitting in the kitchen, eating dessert and chatting. That's about it. It's PERFECT - LOL!

And I even got a few gifts. Grandma Ida and Aunt Sue got me money, Tammy and Russ (my cousin and her hubby) got me an AWESOME candle (Berry and Brown Sugar scented - I LOVE candles), Aunt Toni and Uncle Harry got me lotions and bath gel (yes, I need a shower. no, really, I do - I had sawdust falling ALL OVER myself at the party - LMBO). Maren made me the COOLEST necklace and earing set. I'm wearing them today, so I'll take a picture of myself and post it tomorrow. Thanks, you guys! You're the best - you made my Birthday SO much fun (even without my hubby).

He did call and text me at the party. He was at a hockey game with his buddies. He said he wished he could be at my party, and be there with me. Awe, he's such a sweetie :) Miss you, honey!!!!

So, that was my day. It was fabulous! Just perfect for me!