Birthdays, & Zombies, & Britney Spears...Oh My

Happy Birthday to me,
Happy Birthday to me,
Happy Birthday dear me,
Happy Birthday to me!

In case you didn't figure it out, I had a Birthday this week! Friday was my 28th Birthday and my fabulous hubby & neighbors threw me a Birthday bash. Katie made a wonderful cake that, oh yes, had 28 burning candles on top. Clate got the son of another teacher to bring his entire set up to my party. We had lights, speakers, a fog machine, & Karaoke. Katie & I spent most of the night dancing & singing. We did let another teacher, Keisha, join us at the mic. Courtney even got up and sang! Katie & I did a wonderful job but Courtney was the one that got called for 2, count 'em, 2, encores.

I finally got a picture of our neighbor, Charles, that lived in Salina, KS in the 40's. He came down at the beginning of my party with his wife, Rose. Here's a great picture of the Marshes, Dills, and Riveras. That's Clate in the background...yeah, you could say I'm a little disappointed that he jumped back there to make a face but, what are you gonna do?!


















This is our principal, Aileen Rodriguez, with Benny & Lola. She was sitting there holding Benny and he was just loving it. I went to get my camera and Lola started jumping to get in on the action. She doesn't like it if other dogs are being held or loved...sound like Winston?!













This is Yvonne Rosa (2nd grade teacher), me, Angel Mendez (8th grade teacher), and Katie. Joel is Angel's son and he's the one that brought all of the equipment for the fiesta.














This was close to the end of the party. We actually got asked by the police at about 1:00 if we were done playing loud music. I think Lola & Benny had good time but they were worn out! Miller & Winston had fun, too. Miller spent most of the night laying underneath one of the speakers. We're not quite sure yet if there's any hearing loss...time will tell! I had a fabbulous birthday. My students spoiled me with gifts & love....including a Coach purse. Boys, you may not understand but the ladies will...A COACH PURSE...from a student!!! I was so excited! The party was great although I was a little disappointed in the teachers that did not come. I mean, if you say you're coming to someone's Birthday extravaganza then you should be there!!! Oh well...there will be many more Casa Benny parties to come. After getting to bed around 3:00 Saturday morning we had to get up and go to Ponce to get things for our car taken care of. In Puerto Rico the license plate stays with the car for it's lifetime. There is no sticker on the plate but there is on the windshield. Each year you pay what in the US would be your tags & taxes and you get a sticker. The cool thing about the sticker is that it doubles as liability insurance on your vehicle. You don't have to pay every month, you don't have to get a big policy, you just have your sticker and it's good for $3000.00 in liability. Well, we've been waiting to get our registration on our vehicle to go get the sticker because it expires on Tuesday. We were getting a little nervous last week so we called the dealership. When we bought the Rodeo we bought it from a kid that works at the dealership. The car dealer told us it wasn't in the kid's name yet that the dealership still owned it and they would send us our registration. Well, it never came. We spoke to some people and found out it was in the kid's name. Okay, so we called the dealer and he says he'll get it taken care of, bring the money for the sticker to him, he'll go get the sticker and mail us our registration. He said to come on Monday but we asked if we could do it Saturday. Sure, he says. We ask if everything will be taken care of on Saturday. Of course, he says. So, yesterday morning we drove the 45 minutes or so to Ponce with the Dill's in the lead because their car was supposed to have it's new sticker also. We get to the dealership and he says he can't get the sticker Saturday, he just thought we wanted to come down and give him the money and we'll have to come back on Monday. Yep, you guessed it, Kelly got mad! I let him have it. Why would we have driven all that way just to give him the money? I said that we wasted our day and our time and I didn't appreciate that he told us everything would be taken care of and it wasn't. Fine, whatever, we give him the money and on Monday we'll just come get the sticker. We're not stupid, people, we asked for a receipt to cover our behinds so we won't lose the money. No, sorry, can't give us a receipt. He'd get in trouble because the car doesn't belong to the dealership and he's just doing a favor. WHAT?! That's when I said, "Look, I just don't want to get down here Monday and find out that we got screwed by you!" I was a little hot. Anyway...we ended up leaving, minus our sticker, and meeting up with the Dill's to eat at Denny's, stopped at Super Wal-Mart, then came home and got ready for our big Halloween bash at J.R. Pub. We went all out!




















Here is Britney Spears & Kevin Federline, complete with their first baby. The newborn stayed home to take care of the dogs. We all thought little Sean P was old enough to begin bar hopping with mommy & daddy!


















Courtney couldn't protect us from Zombie attacks! As you can see they got to us at night when we were in our pj's. We had so much fun getting ready! Katie helped us do our make-up and she did my hair. Courtney took the dogs for a walk and went to the gas station dressed like that! Brent, Katie, & I sat in the car watching reactions from people when Courtney went inside. It was hillarious! Then we go to the party at Jorge's bar and the Karaoke began again. Joel was there to supply music, fog, etc. We were a little embarrassed because there weren't many people in costume. The party started at 8:00 but we decided to be like the Puerto Ricans and show up an hour late. We left at midnight and were really disappointed, again, in the teachers that didn't come. I suppose maybe they showed up after we left. Katie and I did lots of Karaoke and even had a Guamani Private School vs. San Antonio Academy "sing off". We won, by the way! Joel asked Courtney to go home to get his CD to sing his song that he sang Friday night. He was a hit...again. I always thought I was the singer in the family but I guess I was wrong!














Here's our first ever picture of the complete Casa Benny 5 (or CB5 if you'd prefer). We have the Zombie's, the vampire (we decided he's more of a Dracula Zorro mix which we are calling Zoracula), and the Spears-Federline clan. As you can see, my husband's practiced being a Zombie more than I have. I wasn't the best Zombie but I tried! Love the blood! And last, here's a sweet picture of little Chilee that Curtis took and sent to us. She apparently loves pumpkins!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE! If you come down to trick-or-treat we'll have candy for you!