Happy Birthday to ME!!!!

What a wonderful birthday this has turned out to be! When I got to work there was a beautiful bouquet of flowers on my desk (from my momma) and Brandon and Kim (we call him our son .... he is our other Master Electrician and lives up here during the week and goes home to Sullivan, MO on the weekends) went to town to get birthday cards and stopped by my Starbuck's to get my favorite drink (since I don't drink coffee) which is a Venti whole milk 5-pump of vanilla hot chocolate and a piece of pumpkin loaf! The girls at the window know me and didn't even charge Brandon for my drink! Now that's pretty cool! Wayne & Frank Washburn took me to Olive Garden for lunch which was really good! When I got back to the office I had a second bouquet of flowers from Greg, Jill & Kinly Greening! What a nice surprise! I also had 2 more cards and one of them had a really nice gift card to Riversong Spa in it! Sa-weet! I got a yummy bag of Cocktail Classic Jelly Belly's and a couple of more really nice cards. So far I have had about 150 facebook birthday wishes which really made my day! It's the little things in life ya know! I am so thankful for a wonderful husband as well as my amazing family and friends.... You guys know how to make a girl smile! :)

Friends that share the same birthday: Chuck Everitt, Heather Dimitt, Hiromi McCumber, Shirley Bogart, Jenn Bloss (my hairdresser), Glenn Mertens, Richard Quiroz (Andrea Jira's dad), Jack Stubbs..... AND only one person that I have met in my 34 years that shares a birthday EXACTLY (same day and year) is Kara Barker!

Famous people that share my birthday: Wes Craven (Nightmare on Elm Street), Judge Lance Ito (OJ Simpson Judge), Butch Patrick (Eddie Munster), Carroll O'Connor (Archie Bunker), Brian France (Chairman and CEO of NASCAR), Max Wright (Willie Tanner, dad on ALF), Jack Warner (co-founder of Warner Bros), Victoria Jackson (Saturday Night Live) and Hulk Hogan (wrestling)

My Birthday eve

Today is the eve of my birthday! Brandon and I went to my mom and dad's for dinner. My sister, Ashley, and her hubby Greg came out to celebrate and eat dinner with us. There isn't anything better than momma's home cookin'! She had grilled burgers, fresh corn on the cob, mashed taters, roasted corn salsa, fresh tomatoes, and sweet tea! Ash and Greg brought out the Ediable Arrangment (which was so good) and momma  got me a little cake (it was good too but not as good as her cookin'). It was so nice to celebrate with the ones you love and I couldn't be happier.... age is mearly the number of years you have been on this earth.... make the most of it and enjoy each day! Thanks mom, dad, Ash, Greg and Brandon for everything! I love you guys :)

Missouri State Penitentiary Tour

On Saturday July 31, 2010 Brandon and I took a tour of the Missouri State Penitentiary. This penitentiary housed prisoners from Feb 29, 1836 to Sept 15, 2004. They started offering tours of this facility in 2009 and was a huge hit that they contiuned them this year. Our tour guide, Mark, was the last warden of this prison and the first warden of the new prison, the Jefferson City Correctional Center. It was really interesting to see the history in these old buildings and to see how and where these criminals lived. They are planning to tear down some of these buildings and have already torn down the main enterance, sally port and hospital to make room for the Federal Courthouse that is being constructed (the MSP donated 7.5 acres for them to build here since a lot of their cases go to Federal Court). Brandon and I took the 4-hour in deepth tour (which I recommend) and enjoyed hearing about the history, criminals and land. If you are interested in a tour go to www.missouripentours.com

Beetle Bailey

Last night Brandon and I attended the Chamber of Commerce Ambassador Century Club Dinner at the University Club on the MU campus. Ambassadors that earn 100 ribbon cutting points within the Chamber year they receive special recognition and a dinner. Midway Electric, Inc. was a gold sponsor. This marked the 3rd year that the Century Club has been around and I have been there all 3 years (the first year I was a sponsor but the past 2 years I have earned my 100 points needed to attend as well as being a sponsor). What a great time we had. I also arranged a surprise 50th birthday party for one of the Century Club Ambassadors, Tom Trabue, who thought he would just slide by without anyone knowing it was his 50th. Little did he know that someone had told Michele this news! We had a lot of fun and I think Tom was surprised! On our way leaving we decided to stop and take a couple pictures with Beetle Bailey which is just outside of the Reynolds Alumni Center (this is the same building that Brandon and I had our prom back in 1994). Beetle Bailey is Mizzou's famous comic-strip character created by Mort Walker.

Professional picture

So I went today to have a "professional" picture taken. I have put this off as long as I could because I like the "posed" shots of me. Women's Network and the Chamber Ambassadors directory is requesting updated photos and information so I thought this was the best time to do this. I went over and saw Nancy Fay with Mary Kay Cosmetics and Yolanda Ciolli this morning and they fixed me up! We took about 30 shots and these 2 are my favorite (if you can have a favorite of yourself). Thank you ladies for helping me out and having some fun with the shoot!

My Quilts

I love my quilts! Grandma Ruby had a quilt collection of about 130 quilts. She didn't make them she just collected them and always showed anyone who came to her house all of them. When she passed away I got about 24 or so of her quilts and proudly display them as you can see in the first picture. This past Saturday my mom, dad and I went to Wentsville, MO to an outdoor flea market and I picked up these 3 old quilts to add to my collection! I was so excited when I found these and paid $30 each for them! What a good deal! (Old quilts usually sell for anywhere from $200-$500+ depending on the size and shape). I know Grandma Ruby would have loved these quilts as much as I do!

Snow Cones!

Well many of you know how I get on a "kick" about something and that's all you hear.... well my new found place is the snow cone place at Lake of the Woods exit (in the parking lot of George's) and man-o-man am I in heaven! This place has like 50 flavors to choose from!!! After reading their list like 5 times I settled on the Homemade Ice-cream (vanilla and evaporated milk) and boy is it good! I got a small and because it had the milk in it the thing cost $2.50 but normally a small is $2.00! I think I am going to try the Red Velvet Cake tomorrow night.... yep I might be addicted! You should go try it..... it is so good!