CRAIGS 49th BIRTHDAY

the man of the hour

Craig and Daniel

a Guest, seems to always be at these family events...*sigh*

craig enjoying his standard celebratory dinner, STEAK, with a side of APPLES and a POTATO

daniels standard dinner, a BURGER with BACON on it, and "no stuff" with a side of fries.

paris bought his own dinner. a BURGER, with allot of ranch...

my dinner: SEASONED TALAPIA with a side of  SEASONED VEGGIES and Steamed BROCCOLI.

daniel and paris having a conversation...

craig chose NOT to have deseet, mainly because he was filled with dinner...so he let daniel have the dessert hed have gotten, an APPLE something, topped with a scoop of VANILLA ICE CREAM and drizzled in CARAMEL

of course that meant that paris also HAD to have his own dessert, he opted for a cheesecake.
folks, let me tell you, that was the LARGEST slice of cheesecake i had ever seen, period! hard to tell in the pic, but it looked like it was an 8oz piece, seriously.

GIFT GIVING TIME! sorry about the bag they were in, it was what was handy at the moment, lol

THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE..towel. this man LOVEs trains, so it was fitting for him to have this for a gift.

craig fancies himself a kind of HIPPIE, mostly just for the tie-died stuff, and the music...so when i found these towels, i HAD to get them for him..

MORE GIFTS!

PENS! the man NEVER goes WITHOUT making sure he has a pen in his pocket, a true nerd, except he DOESNT have the pocket protector...lol (im working on that one,,lol)

PURPLE (his fav color) NOT BOOKS the size of his pockets.
one of my pet peeves about my wonderful husband is, the fact he carries around a buch of loose papers torn to the size of his pocket to write notes on as he needs to. THATS not the pet peeve, its associated tho.
when craig bends over with that massive  bunch of papers in his pockets, they ALL fall out and...scatter, and it takes craig a minute or two to gather them all up...frustrates me.
so, this was a gift  out of frustration for watching the happles smess over and over and over again...
USE THEM HONEY! i dont want too see those silly loose papers falling and blowing and getting wet anymore...

mans an eagle scout, and he also, never goes without a flashlight in his pocket. PURPLE at that!

he also, can juggle! my hubby is versitaile, lol...
so, i found these  balls, thought, well he collects them, hers some more.
ENJOY HONEY!

MICHELLE

CRAIG, LITTLE GIRL & BEARDED DRAGONS

our dog, Little Girl LOVES these bearded dragons! she gets all excited  when craig messes with them, and actually upset when he doesnt. (messes with her daily routine, i guess)

so, the day these images were taken, i HAD to capture her and her enthusiasm for these "long Frogs". Little Girl has a thing for licking the toads in our back yard...she LIKES to do it, weird.

anyway, im guessing she likes these beared dragon lizards because they look ALLOT (in the haed area) like a toad. WITHOUT the foaming at the mouth from licking them.
now, the beardies DONT enjoy her as much as she enjoys them. lol

they, actually...HISS at her when shes too close to them..lol

i think she thinks thats a good thing..LOL

heres some pics.
ENJOY!
MICHELLE

craig holding little girl (note the tongue action there, lol) And the Bearded Dragon Lizard (on his shoulder.

Craig LOVES lizards, but he LOVES turtles MORE! lol

Little Girl wanting to visit with the lizard after she was put down, lol

look at craigs face, lol, the lizard was getting tensed up, craig knew he was about to hiss.

i was lucky enough to catch this picture. lizard hisses at Little Girl.

she is adamant about her lizards, lol, shell do anything to visit with them..lol after he was put back, shes still anxious to visit with them. lol hiss or not.

CHINESE FORTUNE COOKIES

Time is the Wisest 

CRAIG- Time is the wisest counselor
MICHELLE- you will conquer obstacles to achieve success
DANIEL - You will be awarded some great honor.

MY 44th BIRTHDAY DINNER -JANUARY 26th

i LOVe having birthdays! seriously, i do.

my mother, on the other hand never made a huge fuss about hers, and ive heard the same sentiment acrss the board with allot of other females.
i turned 44 this year!
yeah, one year away from hitting 45, which is 5 years away from 50. and 50 away from a hundred.
do i like the numbers like that? not so much.
so WHY would i want to celebrate the fact that i got closer to them?

because i enjoy celbretory events about me. call me  concieted, if you will, but i like having a birthday, or a day, thats just about ME! im not wrapped into a celebration about a 'family' or a 'holiday' i get to have 1 single day about me, and im worth it!
so, every year on january 26th i get all excited and cant wait to go celebrate MY day...

the timing of its kinda sucks tho, cause im just on the heals of Christmas by a month and 1 day..so i almost get all my gifts at one shot, broken up, of course by several weeks, but all in the same season, and the same area of the calendar...WINTER.
but fortunately i wanted too cook, just long enough that i actually DO have a celebration apart from each other.

so, it was, this january 26th craig took the family out to celebrate and i, of course had pictures taken to commemorate the event. ENJOY!

APPETIZER. i figured at some point i was gonna have gastric surgery, i might as well, go out with a bang, if this was gonna be one of my last meals id have. turned out i had a few other chances to indulge, i didnt have surgery until the following march of 2011

MY meal, im still very conscious during this time to try to get in as much protein as possible, i basically took leeway for regular foods usually when wed have a celebration, like my birthday. otherwise i stuck to a mainly protein based meals.

My son, Daniel Alan Williamson

My sons best friend, Paris Griffiths. trust me, id have rather celebrated without him, he was an added person to a small social event that i really dont want to have to share with.

craigs dinner, typical. STEAK n APPLES for a side.

My Husband, Craig Williamson. Hes prolly the best man i could have ever hoped to have been blessed with. hes really a very good man.

Dessert. i dont believe i actually ate this. i dont remember eating it, altho i may have done so. looking back as i write this, i was unaware of fat content as a way of thinking. if i did eat this, im sure it was seriously very good!

i ADORE anything Monkey related. This was a spur of the moment idea too try to find at the store when we took daniel to go get me a gift. i was lucky, they had just one left!

yes, folks those are real tears you see. i got really emotional reading that card. its was from daniel. he didnt even sign it, but the message was loud and clear. as much as i think he DOESNT pay attention to my role in his life, HE DOES! and i was really touched by this as a gesture. all-in-all, it was enough, IT could have nee the only gift i got , because IT meant the most.

more monkeys, lol

and even MORE monkey stuff, lol

LEMON FLAVORED LIP BALM.  got it for 2 reasons, the shape, and the color yellow! its really nice flavored lip balm.

My fav gum right now.

wonder what THIS monster of a beat is?

A BRAND NEW FOOD POCCESSOR! that wouldnt get used until 6 months later...lol

My mother-in-law sent me these awesome chopsticks, i have them in my purse anywhere i go so if the need arises to eat with them, i have them handy!

Look, mom! i can use CHOPSTICKS!

Daniel avoiding the camera. lol

as good a shot as i can ever get.

my birthday out was a wonderful event. i look forward to celebrating number 45!

MICHELLE