It’s a Pirate Party!!

I’ve finally gotten around to uploading some pictures from my birthday that was on Tuesday.  I complained this year that my mom always bought boring birthday plates–solid colors or just balloons–so my sister told me to pick out some plates at Target.  I picked some pirate plates just for the fun of it!

Opening presents first thing in the morning.  My wonderful and smart friend, Sarah, sent a dog toy along with the presents she sent me…it kept Riley occupied while I opened the rest of my presents!  No wonder Sarah has her PhD!

I got a dog book from my parents that I had been wanting–“How to Behave So Your Dog Behaves!”

My sister got some cardboard pirate hats from Dollar Tree that we all wore!

My sister also got the decorations to put on the cake at Dollar Tree.

Arrrrgh!  These plates were on sale at Target!  Yay!

My mom and dad (Riley’s grandma and grandpa).

The only thing about having black icing on your cake is that it turns your tongue and teeth black.  Jimmy (my brother-in-law) also says that it turns something else black as well, but I haven’t experienced that.

 Opening presents!

Riley wants in on the pirate fun too!

Art of Recovery Exhibit

So last night was the big night!  The “Art of Recovery” art show’s opening night.  Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Baddy (who is not always bad), and I headed up to Fredericksburg (VA, of course!) to the gallery to attend the opening.  It was about a 2 hour, 10 minute drive, so it wasn’t too bad.  We got there in plenty of time, so we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then walked around the mall for a little while before heading to quaint little downtown Fredericksburg to the PONSHOP art gallery.

I mentioned in a previous post that they had incorporated my painting into their promotional materials advertising for the art show.  It was cool to actually see the posters in person!  The owners of the art gallery, Gabe and Scarlett, were two of the nicest (and coolest) people I’ve ever met.

Here are some pictures:

One side of their chalkboard sign.

The outside of the PONSHOP.

The other side of the chalkboard sign–the cool posters they made.

Me standing by said “cool posters.”

My painting made it in the newspaper!  Pretty cool!

Me with the two gallery owners.  They are husband and wife.  My painting is up above my head on the left side of this picture.

What was really cool was that the organizers framed one of their posters of the advertising materials with my painting incorporated into it and gave it to me!  Pretty neat.

The art show coincides with Mental Health Month (which is May), and featured artwork by people that are living with a mental health diagnosis.  Everyone at the show was very accepting and we all got treated like normal human beings, so that was a definite positive!  The gallery owners didn’t treat me any different because I have a mental illness, so I was very impressed with that.

Anyway, it was a fun little trip and I felt like a million bucks while I was there!  I got the royal treatment!  And of course, I got even more royal treatment when I got back home to Riley!  Uncle Jimmy came by while we were gone and fed her and Chloe and let them out–so of course, she had to love on her “boyfriend.”

Riley’s Two New Tricks

Here’s a very short video of Riley’s two new tricks…  “Peekaboo” and “Roll Over.”  She learned Peekaboo in about 10 minutes and she learned Roll Over Saturday afternoon and was able to do it Sunday morning for Aunt Baddy and Uncle Jimmy.  Smart cookie.  Well, maybe not so smart…I tried teaching her to Roll Over before, and she didn’t get it so I gave up on it.  She caught on quickly this time though, so I guess she was ready.  She won’t attempt to do it if she feels like she doesn’t have enough room to roll over…crazy girl!

And how crazy is this…it was 73 degrees yesterday and today it was 35 and flurried for about 30 minutes!!  We can’t wait until the return of warmer weather!

This is the last week of my nutrition class and I have all of my assignments done…except my paper!  Eeek!  I have to turn that in by Saturday night, so my blog visiting time will be limited for a few days.