31 in ATL

So I turned 31 a few weeks ago, hard to believe, and it turned out to be a bit of a crazy weekend. It started off well — with waffles, as all birthdays should (FYI, this is our new favorite waffle recipe).

After breakfast, we headed to the botanical gardens to join some friends for an Easter egg hunt (I'll save that for another post because there was too much cuteness to do it justice in this one.) and then I skipped out for our monthly STLMQG meeting, which was a great one. That night, we went with several friends to see Ben Folds play with the St. Louis Symphony, which was awesome. I am a huge Ben fan and have seen him in concert several times, but this was the first time I'd seem him play with the symphony. And we had great seats (see the picture below, which, yes, is of an empty stage, but just imagine Ben sitting behind that piano. It was close — 5th row.). Afterwards, we went out for whiskey and desserts. Yum.

The next morning, I hopped in the car and headed to Atlanta by myself (about a 10-hour drive). Late the previous week, I'd gotten an email from my mom saying my grandmother really wasn't doing well and was back in the hospital with a bad infection. My grandmother has been battling cancer/a million problems for years really, but things have gotten pretty steadily worse since last summer. In fact, we headed to Atlanta for a visit last October and left thinking it might be the last time.

Thankfully, it wasn't, but with the bad news from my mom, I didn't want to miss another chance to see her. Because it was so last minute, we couldn't work it out for us all to go, so B stayed behind with Matt. The great news was that on Saturday, my grandmother was suddenly feeling much better and did a total 180°. She managed to fight off the infection, and the doctor gave his approval for her to return home for rehab instead of having to return to the (depressing) rehab center where she'd spent the last few weeks.

She was so happy to be back home at my aunt's house, and we had a wonderful visit there. It was also so nice to get to spend some time with my mom (who was in town to help with my grandmother), aunt, cousin, and other family. On Wednesday, I hopped back in the car and headed home to my two smiling boys.

And we'll even squeeze a little sewing into this post because when I was in Atlanta, I was able to give my grandmother the mini pillow I'd made her, along with this little tote, which I made to hold her, um, medical supplies.

My mom and aunt had requested it several weeks before I arrived, but it took some time to figure out how to make the gazillion modifications needed. This is no ordinary tote bag. It was also the first time I'd done an adjustable strap on a bag, which turned out to be super easy. And she loved it, so job done.

Matt sent me some pics of B while I was away to cheer me up. That kid's turning into quite a character.