You Say it's Your Birthday

This past Sunday I had my birthday. I am not posting this for added birthday wishes. I just need to explain to put it all in context. With Trent gone and all of that, I didn't expect an awful day, but I certainly didn't expect it to be anything special. That being said, it was a pretty great day, which was completely unexpected and made it all the better. I talked to so many adults on Saturday and Sunday that by the end of Sunday, I was hoarse. A special thanks goes to everyone who helped make that day so great for me. My dad sent me the prettiest most stylish top and jacket. It is really pretty and is aqua in color which I love. My mom bought me the Fitzwilliam Darcy trilogy books, which is so great. I love all things Pride and Prejudice. I was so surprised that she had heard of these books. Fun! I received cards with money to go spoil myself. :) I received lots and lots of birthday wishes on facebook. That is one great thing about facebook; you become aware of even more birthdays! My friend Chrissy made me two different cakes and brought them to church so that I wouldn't have to make my own birthday cake. They were, of course, soooooo good. She made me some lemon cake, because I love lemon just about anything, and she made a chocolate cake as well. The kids loved the chocolate. I have to say with the lemon and the chocolate it reminded me a bit of the movie Made of Honor. Anyhow, I digress. When I got home from church and got my Sunday call from Trent, I opened the gift he sent. It is a beautiful cartouche necklace with my name in hieroglyphics on one side and in Arabic on the other.

Finally, our friends the Carrolls, invited us for dinner. Dinner was so yummy, and my kids love their kids anyhow, so that was great to let them play. Mandy, who I have bragged about before, put together a little birthday present for me. She is an amazingly talented photographer. She was watching Sammy for me earlier that week and took just a few minutes and took a few shots of her and then made me an accordion style book with about 8 shots of Sammy. It is so great. Sammy is the child I struggle with the most right now, and though Mandy swears that it took no time to put this together, I love the pictures. They show her abundant personality. It helps remind me how much I love her and love about her even when she is driving me certifiably insane. :) I wanted to post a few of my favorites:

A Goofy Tradition

Later this week, some of my girlfriends through the JAG community and I went to lunch for my birthday. We went to Thai 99. Yummy. I think of my dad whenever I go for Thai. I usually order my stuff medium or occasionally hot. He gets his Thai hot/native Thai. Again, I digress. When we went to lunch a month ago for my friend Lisa's birthday, Sherri started something that has become a goofy tradition with us, and I love it, so I am passing it on. It probably sounds so dumb, but somehow, it is so fun. Someone brings a small gift bag or paper bag. We all go through our purses and find something to put in the bag and then give it to the birthday girl. Lisa got half packages of gum and a Wall-E band-aid (yes that was from my purse) hand lotion etc. I got half a container of tic-tacs, a coupon, a whole sheet of coupons to Circuit City as a bit of a joke, gum, hand sanitizer. It is just funny more than anything. Chrissie cheats a bit, because she bought new stuff particularly for the bag, but it was sweet too, because she brought a pack of Mike and Ikes for Sammy. I love this tradition and hope to find friends wacky enough wherever I go to continue it. It really is just a whole lot of fun.