27th Wedding Anniversary, Cinco De Mayo And Mother's Day

 

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 May is always a busy month for our family and it is filled with occasions - Doug's and my wedding anniversary, Mother's Day, end of the school year festivities, Memorial Day. This year is no different - except we are now adding in the hoopla of a high school graduation! 

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On May 3rd, Doug and I celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary. Doug had to work that day, so we had a quiet night out to dinner with just the two of us.

27 years...

My FB post..."Happy 27th Anniversary to my best friend and soulmate. Things have been kind of rough for me lately, and he has been my rock throughout all of it. I am so incredibly grateful to have him as my partner in crime as we navigate this crazy roller coaster of a life together. Cheers to 27 years!"

Gifts...

 

My gift to Doug...

 

 

I have been really wanting a recumbent stationary bike because with my heel issues right now, it is hard for me to walk on a treadmill. So, Doug got me a stationary bike for our anniversary (I haven't taken a picture of it yet, but here is an idea)...

Us heading to our anniversary dinner that evening...

We had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants...

 

We dined on filets, crab cakes and two desserts - berry cobbler and chocolate mousse...

Us...

We always know around our anniversary that the Kentucky Derby will be on. On that Saturday night, we watched the last race...

It was very cool to see a photo finish this year. Just crazy!

 

(Swiped this shot off the internet)...

 

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And for Cinco de Mayo, my friend Amy and her daughter Mary invited Doug, Bri and me to join them for a very yummy Mexican meal...

A perfect afternoon of food and friends!!

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Then Mother's Day rolled around. I met my mom and sister for an early ladies lunch on Friday to celebrate and exchange gifts...

And on actual Mother's Day, I just wanted to take it easy. Doug and Bri gave me breakfast in bed and some lovely gifts including these Lego flowers...

Briana obliged me with a quick photo opp...

 

For dinner, we went to one of my favorite Italian restaurants...

We dined on wedding soup, corn chowder (not pictured), chicken marsala, roasted duck, shrimp risotto, tiramisu and chocolate lava cake...

 

It was a very nice Mother's Day.

 

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Scattered amongst all the celebrations of May (including graduation related events that I haven't blogged about yet), I am still dealing with a lot of health related things. Doctors visits, tests, procedures - it's all very overwhelming. I turned 50 and fell apart - that's how I feel. I am very blessed that I have been still able to enjoy all these nice moments in my life, but there are other moments that I feel really down, tired, sick and anxious. I am trying desperately to fix myself and find answers, but it's taking a long time. And I'm not sure I can ever get back to what I was - which wasn't close to perfect in the first place.

So continue to keep me in your thoughts and prayers if you don't mind. I'm still on the struggle bus and I'm ready to get off of it very soon - if I can.

Briana graduates on Thursday evening - and I pray it doesn't rain because it is an outside graduation (don't get me started on that - talk about added stress). I will be back soon to blog all about the end of school and Briana's graduation.

April - NYC, SCAD Event, Solar Eclipse, Passover And Senior Week

 

 Above...Briana at the Accepted Student Event at SCAD Atlanta!

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We ended our March in NYC and began our April in NYC. Here are just a few pictures of April in NY (until I blog about it)...

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We were home for a couple of days from our trip and then we attended the SCAD Accepted Student Event on that Saturday afternoon...

School bookstore...

 

 There was an orientation to kick it all off...

Briana picked up her student badge...

There were different rooms and stations set up around the school where we could ask all sorts of questions.

 

And then they had a nice spread of food set up for everyone...

 

 

 

 I cannot believe Briana will be living here in just a few months.

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On April 8th, Georgia experienced a partial solar eclipse. I bought some solar eclipse glasses just in case  we wanted to see it. Briana got home from school before the eclipse started, so we went outside to look. We saw a total eclipse years ago (which was absolutely amazing), but this one was really cool to see too!

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We celebrated Passover at my parents' house this year with my sister, BIL and my nephews...

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Briana was on a crocheting kick during April (she still is), and she really enjoys it. She has made some really cute animals (she made me the hummingbird)...

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The very end of April was the start of senior week at school for Briana. There is a tradition where the parents go to the school and chalk/decorate the parking spaces that belong to their kids. So early on a Sunday morning, Doug and I went and decorated Briana's space...

She thought it was really fun!

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And spring definitely arrived in April, so it was time to have mulch and pine straw put in our yard. It makes everything look so nice and manicured...

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And finally, Briana had some red highlights put in her hair. It looked pretty in the sunlight, but her hair is so dark, it was hard to see otherwise. And now it has faded since then. We may try it again a little more aggressively soon - maybe this summer...

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So that was April. We are in the middle of May now and I am still so behind on blogging. I really want to blog about our NYC trip, but I also want to stay on top of all the excitement of May and Briana graduating. So, I might have to backtrack to our trip to NYC when life calms down a bit. I'm thinking I will go back to it in June. So I will keep marching forward and put the trip blogging on pause for now.

I got lots to cover about May - stay tuned!!!

March - St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Culinary And NYC

 

Well, since it is May now, I guess I should try to talk about what we were up to in March. 

Briana snapped the above picture one morning when she got to school. The sky looked like it was on fire. Just beautiful.

 

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We celebrated St. Patrick's Day in March...

A fun little sn@pchat photo of me...

  I made corned beef and cabbage - it turned out delish if I do say so myself...

 

 

 

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Speaking of food, Briana had a kind of intense March putting together a several course meal with her culinary group (Bri had 4 girls in her group). There were four groups in the class and each group chose a country to represent (Briana's group chose Greece/Greek food). Over several weeks, the groups had to choose recipes, list ingredients for purchase, create cooking directions, practice the recipes at home, and then had to manage the classmates as they prepared the dishes. The week of March 18th was the week that Briana's group had to instruct and guide the rest of the class in making/preparing/cooking their Greek vision.

 

Their menu consisted of chicken gyros, feta dip with pitas, zucchini fritters, Greek roasted vegetables and honey puffs with vanilla lemon curd ice cream. It was ambitious, but they did an amazing job putting it all together. Bri said of all the groups in her class, her group seemed to be the most prepared. But Briana is a bit of a perfectionist, so I am not surprised it all turned out so well...

When Briana practiced at home, Doug and I got to try all the yummy food. And she brought home some of it from school. It was all really, really good! They got an awesome grade on it and Bri was so happy when it was all over!

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In March, Briana received her cap and gown...

It still doesn't seem real.

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She attended a school film fest one evening with some of her creative writing friends (she is in a creative writing class this semester)...

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Of course, Briana attended her senior prom in March...

 

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Easter came a bit early this year. I'm so used to it coming in April. We were going to be out of town on Easter Day because it was also the beginning of our spring break.

I did decorate the house a little even though we were heading out of town...

 

We dyed Easter eggs early...

And Briana did get an Easter basket early as well. Yes...at 17 years old she still got a basket - LOL! Next year she most likely will be at college for Easter, so this was a last hurrah!

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And as I mentioned earlier, we headed out for spring break at the end of March to New York City. I didn't know if I would make it, but I did. I am glad I did.

On actual Easter Day, we had an Easter brunch at Nobu Fifty Seven...

We then attended "Little Shop Of Horrors" off Broadway...

And that evening, we went to "The Edge" to see the sites of NY from above...

It was a wonderful yet unconventional Easter Day!

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So that was a quick recap of March. I plan to blog all about NYC very soon. We squeezed a LOT into just a few days there. I might actually do a quick recap of April first because it was mostly filled with doctor's appointments for me - though a few fun things did happen throughout the month.

 

Stay tuned...