Year 3 - Day 192 - July 10

Happy Birthday to ME! I woke up in a lousy mood and really couldn't shake it for quite some time, but it wound up being a really good day. At work, my boss asked how old I was turning and then got all embarrassed for asking. I told her it was fine, I have no issues telling people I'm 33.

But holy cow. I'm 33. In some ways, I don't feel old at all. But in others, I feel downright geriatric. When I was 27 and at my yearly doctor appointment, I clearly remember the doctor saying "If you are going to have kids, you're going to want to get on that ASAP." I wasn't even dating Mike yet, so I remember thinking the lady was crazy. But now I'm 33 and feel ancient in that aspect, so maybe I should have listened. :)

So, photographic evidence of 3 great things that happened today.

#1 - I had to work today. I don't usually have to work on my birthday, and I didn't mention it to the girls I was working with. However, 2 of them are my facebook friend and saw it in the morning. To celebrate, one brought me Munchkins! It was a super sweet gesture, especially because I don't work with these ladies very often and have just gotten to know them better over the last 10 days of curriculum writing. They rock. :)

#2 - We went out for dinner! I wanted to do Bonefish Happy Hour and get Bang Bang Chicken before heading across the street to Outback for steak. But after we sat down, I got lazy so I just ate steak at Bonefish. I found out that I *can* eat an order of Bang Bang Chicken, a few of Mike's chips, some bread, a salad, my steak, and a mere 2 or 3 fries, but I *shouldn't.* I was sad to leave the fries on my plate, but decided they were probably the best choice to not finish. The steak was the best one I've had at Bonefish. Kudos to them for figuring out how to make great non-seafood. :) (Mike of course had seafood appetizer and dinner, so he was happy too.)

#3 - Mike got me an ice cream cake from Coldstone! It's layers of regular cake and cake batter flavored ice cream, with cookie dough on top. :)

And I don't have photographic proof of my present, but my awesome husband found out that there's an Orioles Hall of Fame luncheon with the inductees the day before the O's HOF game in August. I was depressed in the morning (I guess that started off my bad mood) because it's on a school day in the first week of school and we're not allowed to take those days off. I was so sad that he had found the perfect present and I wasn't going to be able to use it. But the girls at work convinced me to at least ask the principal because the kids would survive a day without me. I asked, and she said yes. So score one for the hubby and score another for my principal. :)

On top of all that, we're watching the All Star Game and waiting for White Collar to come on. What a day!

Year 2 - Day 340 - November 27

For many a year, Mike has wanted to put up Christmas lights. We had a few issues to overcome before it was a possibility. First, we needed a house. Then, a ladder. (Thank you, Amazon, for making that a reality!) (Holy cow look at all those bushes in that old picture!) Our last issue was the lack of outdoor power plugs. Luckily, on our trip to Christmas Tree Shops, I found an outdoor power strip with a long extension cord. I also got my hands on a bunch of lights for a really great price. Since I'm a weakling, Sarah and Bryan helped us get them up today after Mike's birthday Duclaw lunch. Bryan held the ladder while Sarah & I fed him lights. It was a little too bright when I took this picture today, so you can't see the colored ones on the bushes and around the door, but they're there! I'm not sure that Mike wanted to spend his birthday doing manual labor at the top of an extension ladder, but the lights are pretty so I think he believes it was worth it. :)

Year 2 - Day 339 - November 26

Even though Mike's birthday isn't until tomorrow, we had his family celebration today. First we went out for "Linner" at Bellissimo's in Bel Air. We had never tried it, but we'll definitely go back. They seem to be an Italian restaurant first, but they have quite the random variety of food. In our group of 6, we had lasagna, fish, a burger, ribs, and two seafood pasta dishes. After "Linner" we headed to the farm for ice cream. Who cares that it's cold?!? :) There was a beautiful sunset tonight! Of course my old iphone camera doesn't do it justice, but it was really pretty.

Year 2 - Day 246 - September 4

Oh my goodness, what a busy day!

First we went to the Hanover Chili Cook Off. It was a ton of fun, but it was HOT! Actually, the temperature wasn't really the issue, it was the humidity. The poor boys were dripping. I tasted a zillion chilis and definitely had some favorites and some dislikes. (Things that win with me: multiple meats, lots of meat, some spice but not so much my mouth hurts. Things that I take points off for: lack of meat, lots of vegetables and beans, too watery, lack of spice to the point where it is more in the spaghetti sauce family, too much spice and makes my face hurt.)

After that, we headed towards my in-laws for my sister-in-law's birthday cookout. We stopped at the cupcake place in Reisterstown to grab a few and were thrilled to find out that it's their birthday! That means a free birthday cake cupcake! With a candle! Mike also got a pumpkin & I got chocolate peanut butter oreo chip. Yes. All those things in one cupcake. It was the best cupcake I've ever eaten.

Finally we came home and I can attempt to get some homework done because tomorrow's another fun day!

Year 2 - Day 168 - June 18

To celebrate our friend's 33rd birthday today, we had a kid birthday party! We played mini-golf and then went to Pizza Hut. As she said, the only way it could be more kid-ish is if she was using "Book It" points for her pizza. We had a fun relaxing evening ... and with her 33 stroke birthday handicap, she won! :)

Day 331 - November 27

Today is my husband's birthday.  We headed to Duclaw for his free lunch with friends, and then home for birthday cake and football and house decorating.  (Well, the guys did a little more football watching and the girls did a little more house decorating, but you know.)  I always mock the watching of college football because we're watching kids up to 14 years younger than us who go to completely random schools - but both games they watched this afternoon at least featured the alma mater of the two boys watching.

The local ice cream place made an out of season "key lime pie" ice cream cake for him which came out really tasty.  I didn't realize they made ice cream pies until a recent facebook posting, so I was glad to find out at the right time of year!  :)

I dug into the bag of video games we've accumulated through recent sales and gave him one of those with his Ravens tickets for January.

It seems as though he enjoyed his day.  I think tomorrow is going to be more of the same.

Day 191 - July 10

Today, I turned 31.  It has been a LONG 365 days since I last had a birthday.  Between the housing situation, my health scare, my husband's injuries that kept him from running which is his favorite thing to do, and a general feeling of loneliness for a long stretch, I would not put this past year on my "I'll relive THAT one!" list.  I am anxious for this coming year to be better! 

For my birthday present, we're taking the VIP Warner Brothers Studio Tour and going to Disneyland for a day.  (WHEE!!!)  However, my husband wanted something that he could wrap.  He was in Hallmark last night and realized the Christmas Ornament Unveiling Party was in the morning.  (Seriously? On July 10?) So he went back today and picked me up a "New Home" ornament.  It was pretty much the best thing that happened in the last 12 months, so it is fitting. :)

To round out my day, we headed to the Melting Pot for dinner.  I always enjoy it, but the men in my life have tended to roll their eyes in the restaurant's general direction.  (Father, Brother, now Husband) :)  But he said he was on board so off we went!  They do have a fun, different summer menu with a lot of "island flair."  He had these crazy lettuce wraps instead of a salad and we had a Caribbean flavor broth for cooking instead of the regular stuff.  For dessert, we picked Smores because we hadn't had that before.  YUMMY.  I picked up a library movie called "Post Grad" with the girl who played Rory in Gilmore Girls and the boy who is Matt in FNL.  It was not that good, but it probably wasn't the worst movie I've ever seen.  It made me laugh in parts.  Carol Burnett was the grandma and Jane Lynch was the mom, so that made it worth it.  It was probably a fun movie to make. :)

Day 83 - March 24

I read this book last weekend.  Some of his books I really enjoy, others make my head hurt.  This one was kind of a blend of the two emotions.  At the beginning, a New England pastor is telling the story of how a woman in his church was abused by her husband which eventually escalated to the husband killing his wife and then himself.  The rest of the story unfolds from there - the aftermath and it's implications.  Some of it was weird, I thought some of the characters were a little kooky.  But hey, at least it wasn't half set in the town of a fictional novel like the Great Gatsby one.  (That one definitely fell into the "made my head hurt" realm!)

In other news, I counted and now I'm up to 10 people I know who have a birthday on March 24 now!