Happy Belated Birthday, Gib!

Yesterday was my hubby's birthday! I wanted to post last night, but I was too tired. His best friend from high school, Stephen who lives in Vermont, is visiting with us until tomorrow. So far, praise the Lord, he hasn't gotten sick from Emma Grace and neither has anyone else!

Gib had to work yesterday, so Stephen and I went to see him. Some very nice ladies Gib works with gave him some balloons. They did this last year also.

I remember Gib's birthday so clearly last year. I still had a list of people bringing us meals after Grady went to heaven. I can't remember who brought dinner that night, but I had gotten Gib a Georgia Bulldog cookie cake. After we had cake, he got up and cut the string of a blue balloon. He got a Sharpie and started writing a message to Baby Grady on it as tears literally streamed down his cheeks. The girls (and I) have rarely seen Gib cry. Jessica was worried and said, "Daddy, you're crying". I was quick to tell her it was okay...he just missed Baby Grady. They were certainly used to seeing me cry over him. I can't remember if we all wrote a little message to Grady or not, but we went outside into the dark and cold to release the balloon. Here are a couple of pictures from his birthday last year. I'm not looking so great, but oh well. I was very much still in the throes of grief.







Yesterday, Stephen and I took the balloons home for Gib. On our way out, I went into another office to say hello to a very sweet woman who my kids call "Granny". My mom's name for them was Granny, and this lady's grandchildren must call her that too. As I was talking to Granny Wanda, I mentioned that we might release one of the balloons, probably the blue one, for Grady that evening. She kissed her fingers and placed the kiss on top of the balloon. SWEET, SWEET, SWEET!!!

We did release the balloon, and I loved that it was a dark balloon...we tracked it for a very long time once it was in the air.




I made Gib's favorite dinner of fried chicken and cornbread. We added some mashed potatoes, gravy (compliments of Stephen), roasted carrots and steamed broccoli to the meal. We finished it off with another cookie cake, this time with just the letter "G" on it.







Stephen gave him a couple of books and a cd. The girls and I gave him a new pair of Aasics running shoes. Did you know Gib works out every morning and leaves home at 4:45 to do it? Sometimes they play basketball, lift weights or just run. I wish I had that kind of motivation! That's why he's thin and I'm not!!! (But they do take Friday mornings off and have breakfast at the Waffle House...go figure!)

Gib doesn't make a big deal of his birthday, but it's important to me. I think he had a nice night. He built us a fire and was able to watch a little of his all-time favorite holiday movie, "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation".

Emma Grace decided she'd put some lipstick on for her Daddy's birthday. She might be singing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" because they're both loose!




And Buddy was passin' out some love, too! (By the way, Gib still isn't so sure about him!)




We went to the Christmas Parade here in our small town this afternoon. The weather was supposed to be terrible today but it turned out to be sunny and cold. I had my camera with me but this is the only picture I snapped...my fingers were numb, even with gloves. I'm NOT a cold weather person!



We went to Mexican for dinner and right now my girls are roasting marshmallows in the fire with Uncle Stephen.



Good times!

Love,
Tonya