Louisiana {p.1}

Tired.

Beat.

Exhausted.

Burnt out.

Fatigued.

I am all the above in my current state. I know time changes can really mess with you, but y'all...add vacation hangover and the impending doom of of illness and it's a recipe for absolute misery.

But all in all, we had a great trip. There were some highs (seeing family! the food! time alone with my husband! family pictures!) and there were some lows (puppy car sickness! broken fillings! remy puking on everyone!) but as always, the time away was just the little shot in the arm we needed. John even managed to pull off a little birthday surprise for me, the first time ever in nearly a decade together. (I'm not easily fooled. And he's a terrible, terrible liar.) He somehow smuggled a cake to my aunt's house and everyone sang me Happy Birthday. Y'all...I hadn't had that sung to me in years. My heart was so happy. :)

So as to not inundate everyone with vacation photos, I'm going to separate it up. This being part one and the rest coming when I'm not feeling so lousy. And to be honest, I didn't take that many photos. (GASP!) I was doing that whole living in the moment thing. 

...

My Liv opening her birthday presents from Nana. Note the ever looming presence of Suzy, the pink webkin. She's getting her own blog post soon.

Can we all agree that her cake was awesome? My sweet cousin Kelly made it for her. 

The Sunday after we arrived, we drove up to little ol' Abita Springs for a little family shindig to celebrate Olivia's birthday. 

My little brother is a Remy hogger.

And so is his Paw-Paw.

It was obviously a costume party.

This is my mom and her childhood best best friend. I could spend hours listening to them tell stories about the trouble they used to get into as kids. 

...

Story time!

Le husband and I aren't romantic people. I'm low maintenance. He's low maintenance. We don't do gifts or big gestures for birthdays usually. It's just not our thing. But I do ask for one thing, the same thing, every single year.

A card. 

That's it. So, he usually runs out ON my birthday and picks one out for me. (So incredibly romantic, right?)

And I usually complain. My birthday's on the same day every year dude! Why wait until the day of? Sometimes I can be pretty damn ungrateful. 

So this year, on my birthday, he walks into the kitchen with a Hallmark bag in hand. I immediately go into my "REALLY?! You couldn't go pick out a damn card before today?" shenanigans, flinging a wooden spoon full of sloppy joe mix around.

And bless my husband's heart, he says.."I knew you'd do this, so here." and hands me the receipt with this huge grin on his face. It was dated 9/14/2011. He bought it over a month in advance. And he saved the receipt. Because he knows me. He really, really knows me.

And that y'all is the best gift ever.