Another Year Older AND Wiser???

I think not, lol! Yesterday, on the 18th, I turned 41. I'm long past the desire for big celebrations ~ and to think of it, I never was one to want a big celebration. My husband and I went by the hair salon where my daughter works so she could fix my hair for my birthday. Afterwards, we drove about an hour to another town to spend the day mostly window shopping and to eat lunch. Among the stores were Goodwill, Tractor Supply, Lowes, and Wal-Mart. No biggies there, just the usual, but it was nice just spending time together. I didn't find a single thing at Goodwill. I'm trying to be very picky since I have all my craft supplies boxed up and no extra room whatsoever available in the house until we get my workroom finished. My husband found an item or two for Gypsy (our horse) at Tractor Supply and got a kick out of hearing them announce on the intercom that someone in the store needed help finding an invisible fence. Everyone in the store started laughing when that anouncement came through! At Lowes we looked at lighting choices for my workroom. I know the flourescent shop lights might be an obvious choice, but I want it to look like a room as far as most of the decor goes... not a workshop. I've narrowed down the choices to a few downlight chandeliers for the ceiling, and of course I love lamps so I'll have plenty of those as well, mostly vintage pieces.

After we were through shopping, we were going to eat lunch at Outback Steakhouse, since a friend had given us a gift card. Little did we know that Outback doesn't open till 4pm ~ we found that out when we pulled into the empty parking lot and read the HOURS sign on the door!!! How embarrassing! I felt so dumb.... it seems we've spent too many years going to McDonald's, Hardee's, Taco Bell, etc. with kids in tow. We drove around to all the other nice restaurants, but all the parking lots were full, and I mean FULL! We finally settled on Shoney's, only because the parking lot was 1/2 full. We went in, thinking we'd order the buffet and pick and choose all we wanted for lunch, only to be told "today is a holiday so we have breakfast on our buffet all day long" ~ my husband and I looked at each other and laughed. I asked our server if we could still order a steak dinner off the menu... "oh sure!" she said "but it will take a little longer than usual ~ my boss is cooking today and he doesn't usually cook" ~ we laughed even more then! Can you believe the luck we were having??? We ordered the ribeye dinner and it was good, but I told my husband that they were not as good as the steaks he grills at home. He has spoiled me with his grilling. We did order dessert, even though I was stuffed and shouldn't have. I got strawberry pie and he got apple crisp a la mode so we could share our desserts with each other. Yum!

I'll share a few Signs of Spring photos with you. I am still holding out hope for a big snow, but can't ignore the little crocuses and snowdrops that have popped in the last few days. Do you see the little honeybees in the crocuses and snowdrops?

There's also my flowering quince that I started from one of Mama's bushes several years ago, it's starting to bud out as well.

And yes, that silly turkey had to get in the photos as well. I didn't turn the chickens out of the pen that day and he followed me all over the yard playing peek-a-boo, silly boy!

A few friends of mine are having giveaways on their blogs.

Be sure to go by and visit sweet Lorraine and enter to win. She has the sweetest dolls!

And April is giving away a wonderful whimsical painting!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Take Care & God Bless,

Lana

of

Honeysuckle Lane

~*~