Hapy birthmonth to me. Mama is now the big 2-9 (plus five)! Yes I celebrate the entire month. Doesn't everybody? It gives me the chance to use such lines as "I'd have done the laundry - but it's my birthmonth!" and "I figured we'd eat out tonight - it's my birthmonth!" for weeks on end. Next year I think I'm going to celebrate all through winter. I can picture it now - "I know I spend $4,563 on one shopping trip to Target - but it's my birthseason!".
So last Sunday Aunt Sue, Uncle Paul, Mima, Popo, Granny, Gramps, Jack and Mike had a birthday dinner for me. There was Heavenly Ham, Granny's potato salad, a cream chipotle jelly cheese dip that mima made that tasted WAY WAY better then it sounds. An amazingly beautiful cake that was big enough to feed the whole neighborhood. And I didn't have to lift a finger! Our guests brought dinner and dessert and Mike handled all the appetizers. That is what I call celebrating! :)
When I came downstairs after getting ready for dinner I was greeted by THE biggest balloon in the history of mankind:
Mike also had two dozen beautiful red roses adorning the kitchen counter and table which I KNOW I took a picture of but can't seem to find in the "MY BIRTHMONTH" file on my computer. (My other "important" computer files include such titles as "Shoes I love" as well as a "Things I want" which is actually broken down into subfolders entitled "long-term" (example:
HERE) and "short term" (example:
HERE). You gotta admire a girl with goals.) My red roses were also joined by a dozen pink roses which Aunt Sue and Uncle Paul brought over. I am so lucky!
The beautiful cake:
Getting a little help from the cutest candle-blower-outer-assitant in the world.
And then came PRESENTS!!!!
Opening my Dolce and Gabanna "Light Blue" perfume from Granny and Gramps. I can't tell you how many compliments I've already gotten when wearing ths scent. Um, has my nose ALWAYS looked like that??? Whoa.
Smelling the perfume with my newly discovered great big schnoz ..
Right after opening my cherry bracelet from my mom.
And the conversation that followed:
Me: Oh look it's a ... cherry bracelet! A bracelet of cherries!
Mom: Yes. Because they are your favorite!
Me: What?
Mom: You LOVE cherries.
Me: What?
Mom: You love cherries!! Remember when you told me that? At DSW? We saw those cherry shoes and you said that you loved cherries!
Me: (at a total loss) Oh yes - yes. Cheeries! Love 'em! I forgot!
It was just so sweet that she remembered that conversation (which I still have little recollection of) AND acted on it accordingly via themed jewlery. And it really is super cute:
Opening my beeee-utiful bracelet** from Uncle Mike, Aunt Steph and Evan. They also got me a Starbucks gift card! Espresso drinks and things that sparkle - do they know the key to my heart or what???
The depth perception on these pics is a bit skewed as I SWEAR that beer was not nearly as close to Jack as it appears.
Opening my cookie sheets from Sue and Paul. I have already baked around 20 batches of cookies on these things and they are the BEST! I never knew cookies could actually bake evenly. Thought that was an old wives tale or something.
What on Earth am I doing with my face?
Opening my beautiful card from Jack and checking out the scratch off lottery ticket that was inside which we were both apparently VERY excited about.
And that was before I scratched it to find that I had won $15!
This is the packaging of my birthday gift from Mima and Popo. Inside was a set of pre-lit trees for my porch that I've been wanting forever! I like to do my holiday decorating the day after Thanksgiving so Mima and Popo gave this one to me early. Jack helped wrap it and did ALL the decorating him self. It's a freaking masterpiece, no? I think this is clearly a sign of big things to come. No money in crayon art, you say? Don Marco (http://www.themastercrayonartist.biz) begs to differ.
After presents Jack found Aunt Sue's purse and proceeded to carry it all over the house. He LOVED it! The next morning upon waking up the very first thing he said to me was "HEY, where my Aunt Sue purse go?". And it's Coach - the boy has good taste.
There was one more VERY special birthday gift which is so special it deserves a post all it's own. That one is coming up next.
Is it me or did I just make the longest Jack's Place post of the year all about me?
**Okay so that was the 3rd time I typed the word bracelet and also the 3rd time I had to do a spell check on it. That is one of those words that I ALWAYS spell wrong. Another one of those words for me is inconvenience. I once typed that in an email to a customer who had an issue letting him know that I "apologize for the inconvenience". Spell check stopped on it and I mistakenly picked the wrong "suggested spelling" and hit send. I ended up apologizing for the incontienience. True story.
