celebrating mama c :-)

yesterday chicken and i embarked on wishing mama c a happy birthday. technically, her birthday isn't until december 12th, but we took her on a shopping spree, and the weather this time of the year can be pretty unpredictable, and we didn't want to get caught in a snowstorm going to/coming home from pittsburgh. so, we packed ourselves up yesterday, and headed to the 'burgh for a day of shopping and joe's crab shack :-)

taking a play break before heading out...

here comes chicken!!!

our day started at 5:20 a.m., when chicken decided that it was time to arise. since it was my morning with him, i gave him a bottle and then we came downstairs. mama c shortly joined us, and exclaimed that i had better call the dr. again. for a few days, my right eye has been pink and when i wake up, it's pretty much glued shut. the school nurse already tried saline drops to see if it would clear up, and, when it didn't, exclaimed that i should go home, but our hr person never got her message, so i stayed at school. after work on friday, i called my pcp, but he was out of the office, so i asked the receptionist if someone could call me in a rx for pink eye. she informed me that he would want to see me, but i would have to wait until next week. well, it was really bad yesterday morning, so i called and left a message for the dr. on call. after an hour of not hearing back, c took matters into her own hands and called back... the dr. returned the call about 5 minutes later, i explained my symptoms, and she immediately called me in a rx for antibiotic drops. sweet salvation!!!

self explanatory

after breakfast and picking up my rx, we shuffled off to pittsburgh. we were using brigette (our gps), so c took a little siesta. when she woke up, she discovered that i apparently somehow went the wrong way- isnt' 279 the same thing as 79?!?! and we ended up shopping at trader joe's before going to the tanger outlets. we filled our shopping cart with glee, then finally headed to the outlets in search of slacks and shoes and whatever else tickled her fancy...

we visited our usual haunts- gap, baby gap, bass, tommy hilfiger, children's place, and a few others- found some really great items- then decided to grab a bite to eat (joe's crab shack!!!), then head for the grove city outlets. this, my friends, is where we found our greatest of gifts!!! c found some really nice slacks at columbia and the shoes that she has been searching for all her life at bass (lol). actually, she was really psyched... she has been looking for a pair of penny loafers and just could not find THE pair that she envisioned... until bass :-) so we wrapped her birthday shopping up, and headed home so that chicken could put his shoes outside his bedroom door for st. nick :-)

shopping wears a chicken out!!!

on our way home, we were greeted with snow. at first it was just a gentle snowfall, then, after much debate on whether the "light" spots on the road was snow or dry areas, realized that it was snow after we headed into blowing snow. visibility was low, so we took our time, and got home a bit later than anticipated. we fed the boy, put him to bed, covered our eyes when st. nick visited, went through our parcels, then went to bed :-)

st. nick was here!!!

on her actual birthday, we will have a different kind of celebration... but for now, we want to wish mama c a happy birthday... we hope that you enjoy these last few moments in your 20's ;-)

happy early birthday, mama c!!!