Birthday Surprises and Bread.....

So I'll start with the Birthday Surprises :) I would have updated sooner, but I've been busy playing catch up for being gone for a long weekend :)

I made the 14 hour trip (driving, of course) to throw my mom a surprise 60th birthday party! It came at a good time (besides being about a week after her actual birthday), because she was getting a little down on herself. She's still getting over the radiation and lumpectomy surgery and finds that she's really tired al the time. Apparently she's been sleeping almost 16-18 hours a day and it's bugging her that this is happening and ruining her summer. So the party was not only a huge surprise, but a great pick-me-up!

I managed to plan this without her even suspecting and had the many people who couldn't be there send cards to my aunt's address. I had a few moments of panic when I thought she might have some idea, but I think I was just being paranoid, because the look on her face when she walked into the room and a little over 70 people (from all parts of mom's life) yelled surprise was TRULY priceless :) I think she was most surprised to see me, since I had kinda lied and talked to her about how I had just "given" a midterm the day before in Atlanta...hehe...I TOTALLY had her fooled!

Anyways, the food was fabulous--my friend Alexis did most of it, and the whole party turned out to be a huge success :) The best part? I got to spend the rest of the weekend at home with mom! It was definitely a long drive, but oh so worth it! I even got to see my senior year roomie and her husband in my stopover in Cleveland as well as another friend in Nashville on the way back.

So all in all, a good little trip with a great party!

Onwards to the bread....

After reading a post on my friend Deedle's blog about making fresh bread, I was truly intrigued. I looked into buying a breadmaker at the local goodwill...except there wasn't one. And, after looking at Target, it was just a bit too expensive....

So then, on a whim, I mentioned my interest to the mother-in-law today, and was amazed to find out she owned one...and then she offered to let me borrow hers so I could try it out before buying my own. How cool is that? My mother-in-law is great :) On top of that, she started giving me a bunch of ingredients I would need to make the cinnamon raisin bread that I wanted to try, and I only had to stop and get a few things she didn't have. So when I wake up tomorrow I should have some yummy cinnamon raisin bread!...unless something goes terribly wrong, but I guess we'll find out tomorrow :)

I'll update you once I find out how the experiment goes! Wish me luck!!