Date Night Report

Started off date night this week by going to get a fresh pedi with my friend Ashly.  I picked a new design this time.  Cool huh?  Was a wee bit worried when she was putting the polish on. I picked La Pazitively Hot OPI polish which looked like a pretty pink color.  Well it was pink, but as it dried it was looking really matte.  I am not a fan of the matte finish.  Apparently that shade does come in matte... lesson learned.  But by the time she added the top coat  Nice and shiny!  Happy about that.  So now pretty pink toes with sparkly silver and white tips.  Loving a fresh pedicure!

We headed to the big city for Date Night.  We enjoyed our favorite stir fry at Crazy Buffet and then headed to the mall to do a little birthday gift shopping.  OK.. and here is a shocker.  Dillards was having a huge sale.  All their reduced shoes were another 40% off.. .yet I bought nothing.  Did you fall off your chair?  Are you OK?  Almost came home with a pair of Ugg Sandals for $40 but decided against it.  Only had one urge today to run back and get them.  We found the 2 gifts we needed, which sadly I cannot elaborate on since both people are blog readers..ha.  Decided to see a movie.  Cowboys & Aliens.  Yep.  That is what we saw.  Guess what?  It was good!  We liked it.  It's one of the better Alien movies we've seen in awhile.  My favorite quote from the movie was when the preacher says "Son, God doesn't care who you were, He cares who you are now!"  Excellent!  Loved the movie.  LOVED seeing Harrison Ford in action again.  Had a fabulous giant pretzel... and came home. 

Today has been somewhat uneventful.  It has included...

• going for a walk in the heat.  Only got in about 2.5 miles, but I managed not to pass out and I did get to go outside again.
• promptly fell asleep in my chair when I got home... that heat stuff wears a girl out!
• Wrapped 2 birthday gifts in recently obtained gift bags.... I got stocked up recently as you might imagine.  Is it tacky to recyle gift bags or does everyone do it?
• purused Dillards clearance online and found these shoes.  OK so I have 2 pairs in other colors but um they are $70 shoes.  How am I supposed to pass up a pretty purple for $17.99. I am totally wearing those with a jade shirt...
• spent a lot of the day in a chair with my left leg elevated.  I have troubles with my knee, hip, and heel on that leg.  Tends to be when one flares up, the other 2 are soon to follow.  Knee and heel are not good today. 
• caught up on some Project Runway episodes.  We are come lately fans and have been watching the older re-runs. 
• had baked ruffles and vanilla ice cream at the same time.... Is that weird?  It made me think of this ice cream I heard about on Martha Stewart.  I thought it sounded yucky.. but now I am rethinking that.  Anyone tried the Ben & Jerry's Late Night Snack?
• searched some more for the teddy bear hat on the Internet. No luck so far.  I might just try one of the similar patterns I did find. 
• drooled over this kit again and OK.. so I caved in and bought one... it will be great to take to the upcoming Doodlebug Retreat!
• checked out my new Avon Mark earrings.  Are those not fabulous?

I also read my cleaning devotional.  yep.  Can you believe it?  It's a cool book and I am actually liking it.  It's called 31 days to Clean, Having a Martha House the Mary Way.  I snagged it as a freebie for Kindle and am happy about that!  It talks about caring for your home as a way to love your family and to "give life to your home."  That concept speaks to me.  Each day has a devotional thought and then a Mary thing to do and then a Martha thing to do such as cleaning your oven or microwave and tips of how to do that with water and lemon.  Day 3 gave a list of 10 Ways to Give Life to Your Home.  I liked it and thought I would share that as I close today.  The 10 things are....

1. Retrain our tongues to give words that encourage, comfort and edify others.
2. Offer life-giving and grace-filled words to husband and children.
3. Make our homes a place of grace where mistakes and sins are not met with anger but with love and hope.
4. Decorate our homes to make home a place of beauty.  Beauty raises life above mere existence.
5. Develop necessary cleaning skills and habits; clutter causes stress (can I get an AMEN on that one?)
6. Face our anger, anxiety, fear and depression.  Our homes reflect our mental/spiritual/emotional health.  Ask the Lord to replace these emotions with faith and hope.
7. Plan regular times away from home to rejuvenate and gain perspective.
8. Persevere in planning fun activities for family on weekends or ordinary weekdays.
9. Play praise or worship music to lift everyone's spirits.  (Even King Saul in the Bible when the Holy Spirit had left him was refreshed and calmed by David's worship.)
10. Ask the Lord: What areas of my home are causing stress or bringing spiritual/emotional/mental "deadness?" What can I do to bring life to those places instead of make them a place of refuge?

Good stuff?  I think so.  It speaks to me.  As you know I have a bit of an OCD thing going on, but I must say cleanliness and even more so, order, in my home does bring me calm and peace.  As you also know, I've shared that I've been struggling with depression some these past months.  So when I read, #6 for instance, wow that spoke to me.  With all this remodeling work, and the depression feelings I haven't really cleaned like normal in months and months.  I feel like there is disarray all around me, and you know what?  When I am depressed and struggling I am that way on the inside too and I can totally see how one reflects the other and vice versa.  I really like this thinking on less clutter, and order bringing life and health to my home and my environment and me!  So speaks to me!  Reading these thoughts has brought new hope and makes me want to do better. 

Hope you are having a good weekend!  We are off to church and our niece's birthday party in the afternoon.  Wish it could be a beach day too!  Blessings!

Thankful Thursday

Is this not the sweetest little face? I just am already so in love with little Miss Sophie. She is a sweetheart. She runs out to see you when you come in and wants to be picked up. She is quite the purrer too.... is that a word?













Here is Miss Sydney. She is more independent and loves to play. She wants to be held and picked up when she wants to be held and picked up and she wants to play when she wants to play. She is definitely the mischievous one of the two of them. I am totally in love with both of them and am so glad they joined our family.

So how was your day? Mine was good I guess.. .somewhat eventful. Started off with a haircut. Still trying to get used to a new stylist, but I think she did a good job. Haven't really styled it on my own yet due to all the events after the haircut. It was like 10:45 when I was done and the heat index had not yet climbed over 100 so I decided I was going outside for my walk. I am about to go stir crazy on the treadmill... I needed my outside walk! I got my water, my ipod, my pretty pink pepper spray should any person or animal look menacing or get too close and I was off. I had a plan. I would walk to town and back so that should I get too over heated, I could stop at somewhere with A/C for a cool down and some more water. So, from home to CVS...at which point I definitely needed the air and water. From CVS to the main part of town where I found a bench in the shade... from shaded bench to Pamida where again.. sorely in need of the A/C. I walked to the back of the store and sat in a patio chair until I was sufficiently recovered to head home! It was HOT but it felt good to get in over 3.5 outdoor miles after being stuck inside for a couple weeks! Had myself some late breakfast, started some laundry and got myself ready to head to the beach.

At the beach the last few times, the temps have been so hot that the water is actually like almost warmer than bath water, especially in the shallow part where I sit my beach chair. This is not helpful to cooling off. So I had a plan. I would take my little fan misting bottle and a raft to float out in the deeper water. Good plan right? Well until the misting bottle is on the top shelf of the pantry behind a giant heavy jar candle. I managed to get it down without clobbering myself.. only to find the batteries were dead. Start looking for batteries which I think are in the tool basket. Bzzzz wrong answer. The only thing in the tool basket are light bulbs which I manage to drop on the floor. Things are just going so well. Find some batteries in a drawer.. they of course are dead. Give up on the misting bottle idea. Head to the garage for the raft. It of course is also placed for tall people... on top of an old aquarium which is on top of a refrigerator. I had to pull out the ladder and climb up people! I do not like ladders... its the height thing. Manage to get a raft down without crashing myself to the floor.. (had to pick the green one because um the pink one... not so good... ) and realize.. I do not know how to operate the compressor.. so now I need to blow this baby up on my own. I know.. sadly I am compressor impaired but hey, it gave me a beach activity. Everyone should sit on their beach chair in the water and occupy themselves by inflating a raft while making themselves lightheaded from deflating their lungs of all oxygen. However I am happy to report I did succeed and did have quite a relaxing time floating around the lake.













So please tell me this does not look like I'm trying to be 17 again or something... Gave myself a manicure this evening using the pretty pink polish Lori gave me for my birthday. Then.. over the top I used this new glitter top coat I got from Sephora. Wasn't sure about it at first but its growing on me. Thinking I like the gold glittery sparkle. Do you do your own manicure? I go and get my pedicures done, but usually do my own mani. I do like a 5-6 coat process on my natural nails and that will usually will last me so I only have to do my manicure once a week. I always start with a base coat. Been using a Sally Hansen strengthener for that, but read an article today that this is a great base coat because its rubberized? Supposed to help the polish bond. I'm going to give it a try. I then do 2 coats of polish always remembering to go across the tips with a horizontal stroke. Next I may do a coat of glittery polish like today or something sheer and sparkly. Then comes the top coat. I always always always use this Sally Hansen Mega Shine. Love it. Just ordered 2 more bottles of it. Walmart used to carry it, but its become hard to find there. Target carries it last time I checked. This can be put on when nails are still tacky. You apply a thick coat, and it dries quickly. Good stuff.

Was hoping to blog about a devotional cleaning book....yes.... I am enjoying and a Bible study I am hoping to start.. .but the hour is late so tune in for that next post! Before I leave you for now I want to share some of the many things I've been thankful for this past week...

• getting to walk outside today!
• Sophie & Sydney
• Darrel's patience with me
• God's grace
• new sparkly shoes! so fun!
• having fun at the fair, LaCarreta and shopping last date night
• the fact that Darrel doesn't mind taking me to LaCarreta twice in one week! ha!
• my pretty pink purse
• getting the church Newsletter done this week before the end of the week
• my Kindle
• perseverance in this weight loss stuff
• being a different person than I was 3 years ago, even when I am struggling
• a/c and a treadmill on 100 degree days
• friends
• a few unexpected hours with my husband on Sunday afternoon when I thought he had to work
• still loving summer shoes, shorts, skirts and dresses
• my birthday watch!
• continued healing for our friend Katrina
• making some progress on my cleaning plans
• being reminded of all Jesus has done for me and how many blessings I have
• accountability
• my boss
• my office with lots of pretty pink stuff around me
• turkey burgers with fresh corn on the cob and tomatoes for dinner
• a Sunday morning with no responsibilities
• 80's music... I shall always be an 80's girl I think
• our upcoming state fair date
• my new vintage chair
• date nights
• a finished bathroom ceiling... again.

Thanks so much for visiting. Hope to be back again this weekend. Blessings!

Ten On Tuesday

1) How do you like my model. He was quite cooperative.... This is my new vintage chair... Is that an oxymoron? New Vintage? Ha! A friend had this at her house and she said it was looking for a new home and it was the right price... Free. Sold! I love most things antique/vintage and I liked this chair because it sits low. I can sit in it with my um... rear all the way in the seat and my feet touch flat on the floor. This does not happen very often when you are a 5'2" person. I really have no clue what I am going to do with it.. but I like it. My friend thought it needed to be recovered, but actually I think a good cleaning might do the trick. Not in bad shape at all don't ya think?

2) So I was browsing on Pinterest. Are you on there?... My goodness you could just get lost for hours I think looking at all the fabulous images... Anyway I spotted this baby hat. Now how stinkin cute is that!! I was sad to see it links to a lady that sells them on Etsy. I mean happy for her, but sad for me since I was hoping for a pattern. I did find several free patterns on the web like this, this, and this....but so far none as cute as hers. Maybe I'll get lucky at Hobby Lobby or Michaels?

3) So while browsing all the crochet stuff on Pinterest I see that there are links to a site called Craftgawker. OK, why have I never head of this before? So much cute stuff to see and dream of making one day in my spare time...

4) Speaking of crocheting.. and knitting.... Remember my friend Lori got me one of these cases for my birthday? I started loading it up tonight with knitting needles. I still need to corral all of my many crochet hooks, but I am loving this thing. How cool to have everything organized in one spot. Totally right up my alley. Art bin just makes the coolest stuff!

5) Remembering that I am also a scrapbooker... which I tend to forget with the amount of scrapping I've done lately.. I do have some scrapping plans. First off I want to get going on a smashbook. I want to do one about all of our summer activities this year. I have this idea to draw some of my own lettering on the cover for my title. I used to do this on all my layouts when I first started scrapping, but haven't done it in years. Maybe now is a good time to get back to my art class roots. I used to love love art class... and the library... and music/band... gee not much has changed huh? I was also hoping to do a July challenge for TSS, but that would mean getting my rear in gear since July ends this Sunday!

6) I am beginning to forget what it's like to walk outdoors. It might as well be middle of winter with all the treadmill walking I am doing lately. But, sadly it does not seem the wisest choice to exert oneself for 4 miles or so when the heat index is over 100 degrees.... so.. until the weather cooperates.. I guess I'll be getting thru season 3 of Thirtysomething... assuming of course that the post office ever delivers it. According to Amazon it has been in their possession since um July 23rd... they are just down the street for goodness sakes.. what is the hold up in getting it delivered? Perhaps they are trying to watch them all first?

7) The flower pots have been painted pink... remember the one I showed you? Not so happy with the pink. Yes.. that was me, not being happy with pink. I know. So, plan number two is to try Krylon Fusion paint in Watermelon. Let's hope it doesn't turn out looking mauve... hoping for a nice dark pink.

8) To prove that I have seriously gone to the dark side with the whole pink thing, I must admit I am now considering painting my porch rocker a dark fuchsia. I know.. sounds weird... I have a plan in my head. You will just have to trust me...

9) I wish I had a new picture to share of Sophie and Sydney. Did I tell you we got Sydney a pink camo collar? She is looking quite stylish and it fits her tomboy self. We thought we had one on hand that was plain pink for Sophie but um it was twice the size of her tiny little neck.... thinking this will not work so Sophie remains collarless till we hit walmart again. We were never successful in getting Jack or Gracie to wear a collar so we are trying to get these two used to it nice and early.

10) The bathroom ceiling is back up... hopefully to stay this time. However now it must be repainted. GRRR and... now we may have to do some wall repainting as well. NOT happy about this. While the ceiling was down, it was back to the original lath which was allowing some of the attic heat to get into the house. So you add attic heat to the air conditioned room and what do you get? A sweating ceiling. The sweating caused attic and lath dust and dirt to run. down. the. walls. Hoping it will possibly just clean off OK... but not feeling real confident about that. Some days I wonder if we will ever get done and stop this one step forward 2 steps back stuff because seriously... I am about to lose my mind.

Hope your week is going well. Blessings!

Date Night Report

We've lived in Southern Indiana now for almost 10 years and can you believe we had never attended the world renown Knox County Fair.... I know. Hard to believe. So this year, we decided for date night we were headed to the fair. I asked my Knox County friends on Facebook, what should we make sure to enjoy at the fair? I received much advice, but the consensus was that we needed to hit the pork chop (pork producers) pavilion, and we needed to have a cinnamon roll.













We were also informed that one must hit the pork chop booth early because apparently they run out. Well it was HOT outside, but date night time arrived and we headed on out to the fair. We saw the open class and 4H exhibits. We walked the fairgrounds. We found the pork chop pavilion, and yes, we sampled a butterfly pork chop sandwich and also a sausage sandwich. Good stuff. Pork chops are not generally my first choice, but these... they were good. It was a big 'ol butterfly boneless pork chop and it was quite yummy. Just down from the chops were the cinnamon rolls. We sampled those and yes, quite good! Maybe we should have brought a few of those home? So after one samples the chops, the rolls, and walks around the very HOT yet very small fairgrounds.. what does one do? Get back in the air conditioned car and head to La Carreta for some a/c and some nachos. Worked for us!














La Carreta was great. We love the waiters there. We sat down at our booth and our waiter brought our drinks without asking us what we wanted... Love it! When we went Sunday, one of the waiters, who was not our waiter that day still brought us queso and jalapenos. I love those guys.

So now it was still early... sort of... yet we were not in the big city. We were in "town." Much less selection of other things to do when you are in town. We decided we would hit Kohls. Why? Because I had a 20% off shopping pass. Well sort of. I left it in my other purse. Did you know the cashier would still scan one she has for you if you ask nicely? Happy to find that out because LOOK what I found.














Did I care that these were marked juniors? Um no.... They are 5" platform sparkly glitter heels with a sling back! they are a fabulous taupey color and I swear there is a little pink glitter mixed in there. Unless that is just my ability to see pink in all things... Ya think? I have needed a pair of glittery heels since seeing these on Liz Kartchner's blog... Or OK.. seriously, probably since that time at the company picnic back in the 90's when I saw this little girl with sparkly pink shoes. Doesn't every wanna be princess need sparkly shoes? Plus... did you notice Liz shares my philosophy that cool sparkly shoes, or any other heels for that matter are perfect for occasions like baking cookies... or even just sitting in one's recliner admiring her cute feet... See I don't have to already have places to wear them. You get the fabulous shoes and then you find places to wear them. Works for me.














As I am leaving the shoe department.. I just happened to spot these Vera Wang platform pumps. Oh my, they are fabulous too. I mean have you noticed fashion wise this year how popular it is to have a nude or blush pump? So see... just trying to stay fashionable. Another very good reason to buy a cute pair of shoes. I love the seam at the front of the toe and the stitching around the sole. I love tall shoes... Have you ever watched Body of Evidence? We've been watching it lately on Sunday nights. Did you notice Dana Delany wearing the platform heels while out walking thru crime scenes? Very realistic don't you think? Ha! Although she did get me even more on her side in a recent episode when I noticed she was wearing a pair of Jessica Simpson shoes that I own...

So we happily left Kohl's with 2 pairs of shoes and 2 shirts all on sale and then an additional 20% off... plus 2 new throw rugs for my kitchen. Happy about that. We came home and enjoyed some Eclair cake and declared date night a success!

Tune in tomorrow for 10 on Tuesday... I have to show you the cutest little crocheted bear hat I saw on pinterest... Totally need to make it for a baby gift. I also came across a site called craft gawker? Am I the last to know about this place?

Until then.. Blessings!

Thankful Thursday

Have you ever noticed on Facebook how you will start to see ads that kind of go along with things you have posted about.... I think they spy on us no? Well the other day this picture of this shoe from Nordstom popped up. Apparently I've posted about shoes a time or two.. imagine that. Now is that a fabulous shoe or what? I totally fell in love with it and believe it or not I do not own any red heels. So I wandered over to Nordstrom's site and took a look... very tempting. I talked myself out of it.... yet the picture kept appearing and calling my name. Then I got to thinking about the nice birthday gift I received from my parents and Darrel's parents and wouldn't you know... it just happened to pretty much cover the shoes.. tax, shipping the whole deal. Well by the time I think of this, well then they don't have my size in the red. Grrrr.. However I have learned when things are on clearance, check the web site often because availability tends to change! Suddenly yesterday they reappeared and ding ding ding... SOLD! So happy birthday to me and thank you both Mom's & Dads for the pretty red shoes. :)

Um I am thinking its a good thing we don't keep this stuff in the fridge on a daily basis cause YUM... and is it possible to just eat a small piece? Well if it is.... I haven't been capable of it so far. Let's just say my husband is an excellent eclair cake maker.

Was just about to throw in the towel on the Blogging For Books program because I just so much prefer reading on my Kindle these days. So how pleased was I when I got an email from them announcing that you can now get your books in electronic format! I downloaded my first one last night. Will be reading Indelible which it looks like involves some of the characters from Indivisible that I just put up the review for yesterday. Happy about that!

As you probably have guessed, there has been tons to be thankful for this past week! Such as:

• every minute of birthday week
• my husband who made me feel so special and I love how he just understands me so well
• the perfect pink roses
• a great birthday dinner at Bonefish Grill.  Definitely need to visit there again.  Maybe during our next vacation coming up in about a month.
• a fabulous Fossil watch to add to my collection!
• all the fun birthday wishes from friends on Facebook.  Love that.  It's like having a little birthday party on your walll! ha!
• The table full of gifts and pink stuff, many from my friend Lori.  She is toooo good to me. 
• A good report from my DR today. 
• I am thankful for my DR.  He is fabulous and I always leave there feeling better, supported and encouraged. 
• beach time today and yes.. it was HOT.
• my new pink purse!
• a great pizza/movie date night last week.
• Sophie and Sydney.  I am quite in love with them.
• Kindle books
• the fabulous pictures Lisa made for me.  Love them!
• Eclair Cake
• the beautiful pink sunset on my birthday
• the whole birthday week idea and how it began
• a treadmill and the a/c on 110 degree heat index days
• thirtysomething DVDs to watch while on that treadmill
• continued healing for our friend Katrina
• our church
• Jesus and His love for me
• singing at church on worship team this past week
• tall shoes.  You get quite a different view of the world when you go from 5'2" to 5'7"
• getting the porch cleaned up
• as overwhelmed as I am by life sometimes, the ability to keep moving and keep trying and not giving up
• my weight loss journey even though this past year has been different and a struggle.  It has still all been good for me.
• lunch at a friend's house on Monday
• heartfelt compliments
• the love and respect of friends and family
• the bathroom ceiling that is almost re-installed
• my happy birthday song phone call from my Dad
• hearing that I don't look my age. 
• pink notebooks
• an all around amazing week

I hope your week has been fabulous as well.  I must run now and try to fit in a manicure before bed!  For date night tomorrow we hope to hit the county fair!  Tune in (if you like...) late Friday or Sat. for details.  Blessings!

Blogging For Books - Indivisible

I finished reading this book a few weeks ago and I must say, of all the books I've read for the Blogging for Books program, this may have been may favorite.  Indivisible was a great read!  Here is a summary from the publisher:

Battling his own personal demons, Police Chief Jonah Westfall knows the dark side of life and has committed himself to eradicating it. When a pair of raccoons are found mutilated in Redford, Colorado, Jonah investigates the gruesome act, knowing the strange event could escalate and destroy the tranquility of his small mountain town. With a rising drug threat and never-ending conflict with Tia Manning, a formidable childhood friend with whom he has more than a passing history, Jonah fights for answers—and his fragile sobriety. But he can’t penetrate every wound or secret—especially one fueled by a love and guilt teetering on madness.

From best-selling author Kristen Heitzmann comes a spellbinding tale of severed connections and the consequences of life lived alone.

This book had it all for me.  An element of romance, suspense, faith and mystery. I found myself drawn to several characters and each for different reasons.  Tia and Jonah were my favorites both for the people they were and for the strongholds they were each battling in their own lives.  I also liked Miles.  At first you want to find him kind of creepy and scary but the more you get to know and understand him you come to love him just as Piper does in the story.   With this book I ended up with dog eared pages, notes and underlining because not only was it a good read, it had a good message and that is one of the reasons I most love Christian fiction.  It is entertaining but it also encourages and helps me in my faith by drawing me into the Christian walk of the characters. I found myself checking out the Internet to see what other Kristen Heitzmann titles I might like to read next!

**This book was provided to me for review by Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing.**

Ten On Wednesday...Birthday Tuesday Version

1) In typical fabulous husband fashion, Darrel started off the big day really well by first leaving me a very cute card and then arranging for these flowers to arrive at my office to make me smile even bigger. I mean is it not sooo fun to see that florist van pull up? How amazing are these roses. They are fuchsia pink. Oh my, they are the perfect, perfect color... I love them. I want to take them everywhere with me just so I can keep looking at them. He said when he asked for pink roses the lady said she only had dark pink... Darrel said good! Perfect!

2) My birthday work day also consisted of several cards from friends, a great devotional book from my friend Kay, a nice lunch with some of the seniors from our church, (with tables that just happened to be decorated in pink!) and my annual birthday phone call from my Dad which always includes him singing Happy Birthday to me. Love that. Some year's he has gotten my voice mail, and left a message with the singing of the song. I generally keep that message for months! Love it!














3) My friend Lisa came to visit me and brought me this fabulous gift. She made these. I opened the home one first and the second I saw it I knew it was going to go perfectly in the new bathroom. Apparently she had been in contact with my husband and was able to obtain a paint sample to match the blue color to! It could not be more perfect and do you not love love love the quote? She also made the joy picture by taking her own photos to create the J O Y alphabet letters. The O in the word is a picture of the stained glass window at our church! LOVE that. Can't wait to get the room done and put these in place. Hoping they will both sit on the new glass shelf. Look how good it matches!














I just love Lisa's style and she is creative and excellent in decorating so I am so pleased to have her touch in our new room!




















4) After work I met up with Darrel so that we could head to the big city for dinner. All day long I could not make up my mind where to go! Red Lobster? Olive Garden? La Carreta? And then Lisa suggested Bonefish Grill. We had never been there, but the more she told me about it... including the fact that her son is a head chef there... the more interested I was. It sounded like it had great atmosphere, was a "nice" place, and had good food. Oh my goodness.. did it ever. We had such a nice dinner! Have you been there? You so have to try the bang bang shrimp appetizer. SO good. We even managed to eat it using chopsticks... quite a feat since I am chopsticks challenged apparently. We also got all cracked up because there were a few ingredients in our salad or dinner that I was actually googling on my phone to see what exactly they were. Yes, we are very high class and refined. Bwa ha ha ha ha... The mystery ingredients were capers... which we passed on. Thank goodness... someone said they are like green olives? Ewwwww.. I also think there was a Leek on our salad. Never had a leek before. It wasn't bad.















5) Not only was the real food good... dessert was pretty amazing too. Is it OK to have 2 desserts on your birthday? Well I thought of course it was. I had this flourless macadamia nut brownie thing. YUM. Very fudgy. Darrel had bananas foster. He made his "wow this is really good stuff" face so I am thinking it was really good stuff. For me though, if you are offering dessert, I just wanna know what you have that is chocolate. I really liked that they brought me a candle too. I love birthdays. Have I mentioned that?














6) When we got home, time for dessert #2 right? I mean how could I pass up the fabulous birthday Eclair Cake my husband made for me. He proceeded to put 45... yes... 45... pink candles on it, and then lit the thing using both hands. Isn't he talented? He didn't even catch the cake on fire. Neither did 45 candles! Also.. are you noticing he wore his fuchsia shirt to take me to dinner? That was all his own idea. He is just so smart.




















7) So I can't tell you what my wish was but um does it even count since as you can see I did not manage to blow out all 45 candles at once. My husband managed to blow out all 48 of his candles so what does that say about which of us is more windy? He even sang a solo chorus of Happy Birthday to me... Awwwww




















8) Here you have the official 45th birthday photo. We only had to take like oh.... 45 pictures until I was somewhat happy with one. It's a girl thing I guess huh? Are you noticing that the flowers are like the same color as my favorite pink shirt? I was liking that just a bit.















9) And here my friends is my birthday gift from my husband. A black ceramic Fossil watch with lots and lots of bling! I spotted this like a year ago I think when we were on vacation and had gone up to Indy to shop. They have a Fossil store there. I love that store. I've been visiting this watch online and in the store when we happen to see it, since then. Apparently I have quite a thing for Fossil watches because this is my 3rd one and the 3rd year in a row that I got one for my birthday! ha! They had it at Macy's at one point. But we hadn't seen it in months. We spotted one a Dillards a few week's ago but the sales lady said they sell out of them the minute they get any in and they only get a few at a time. So happy my husband found one at Fossil online. :)

10) Yesterday at the Seniors luncheon Kay asked each person there to share a favorite birthday memory, or best birthday or gift they've received. Several things went thru my mind. The first was that I think I have always loved birthdays because when I was a kid, the whole family, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, Great Grandmas, everyone would get together for a big family cookout on my birthday since it was in the middle of summer. So see.. .they trained me to think you should celebrate big on your day. Ha! Then I thought of how I had always wanted a boyfriend who would be romantic and send me flowers. I always thought that was so cool when a girl got flowers and I wanted it to be me! Well along comes Darrel and on our 2nd birthday together, 1985, he sent me the first dozen roses I ever received. I loved those flowers and I was already so in love with him. He hasn't missed sending birthday roses since that first time in 85 either. I also thought of my sister, and Jen, I hope you are reading this! One time probably 1985 or 1986, my sister totally decorated my bedroom for my birthday. When I got home from work she had made a big sign that said happy birthday and had streamers all over the room. It was fabulous and totally spoke my language. Loved it! Another time, I was giving a bridal shower for her, and it happened to be around my birthday. She surprised me with all the fixings for hot fudge brownie sundaes. Pretty cool huh?

When I asked Darrel the question about favorite birthdays he first mentioned the one a few days before we were married when I baked the doomed cake in our 110 degree mobile home and made him dinner too. He also mentioned one time when we were dating. My sister made him a cake and that was special to him. She wrote happy birthday in icing on the top, but had accidentally forgotten the h in birthday so for years we have joked about "happy birtday!" He said she probably thinks we just tease her about the misspelling, but it was actually a special memory for him because she made a cake for him and then really with the writing thing, it just made it an even more fun memory... So Jen.. you win the prize for being mentioned the most in favorite birthday memories! Love you!

Hope you've had fun sharing birthday week with me! It's been pretty fabulous and I have to tell you Eclair Birthday Cake still tastes pretty great the next day! Blessings!

Birthday Week Monday Edition

Remember I told you one can never have enough pink notebooks? Well here is the proof! I received another one from Darrel. This one is even cuter and smaller. There was also this cute little cross charm. I need to ask him where he finds this stuff.

OK and check this out. A pink longaberger pie plate. How cool is that?! This is from Lori. Last year she gave me the matching batter bowl! Love!! Then, to go with it, there is this fabulous pie server that looks like a shoe with a pink zebra heel!!! Who knew that pampered chef even made something like that? Um not me. Is this not the coolest? I am thinking now I need to fill that up with a chocolate pie or something quick huh? I'm sure chocolate pie would taste better in a pink plate, served with a zebra shoe server. :)

So currently it is 23 minutes until National Pink Day... um I mean my birthday. However I will of course find it necessary to wear pink on my birthday. It's required I think. It might have been stamped on my birth certificate. I also definitely need tall cute shoes tomorrow. I think one must feel cute on their birthday don't you? Darrel is currently in the kitchen making Eclair Cake topping. I offered to do it so he could get himself to bed. I wanted to do it.. but NO he would not hear of that. I am not allowed to make my own birthday cake or the topping.. I just love him. Not sure if I will be able to post tomorrow. We shall see. If not tune in Wednesday for the scoop on the festivities! Blessings! (I am headed to the kitchen to get those beaters with the left over eclair cake topping!)

Birthday Week... Sunday Edition

Oh I don't know... I'm thinking maybe today was a good addition to birthday week. What do you think? Let's see... Darrel had a fuchsia pink pencil/pen holder for my desk for me. Lori, well she made me a 3 ring notebook for knitting patterns, plus some patterns to go in it, plus a needle holder, stitch markers and yarn. I think she outdid herself which I didn't think was possible. Then I got birthday gifts from my friend Julia, which was Avon pedicure supplies, a cute silver bag and a cute little rainbow colored manicure set AND then from my friend Alice, this cool pink clock! I'd say that's a pretty good birthday week day wouldn't you? Very fun.

So yesterday Darrel spent the day pulling down the new, thought we were done with it, bathroom ceiling. It seems that the problem was that the nails we used pulled out of the ceiling when the heat from the attic caused the wood to swell? We think that is what happened... So now it will get put back, this time using glue and better nails and then also trying to leave a little space for the swelling issue, without leaving too much space to change the look of the wainscot. Let's hope its a quick process. This girl can't take too much more of this 1 step forward 2 steps back stuff!

Other randomness from the weekend includes...

• discovering that Zumba has new DVD's out! I am allll over that one.
• pressure washed the porch and got the rocker ready for paint, and can now get my cushions out tomorrow and now paint my flower pots pink! Gotta decide what color to paint the rocker... thinking of white, but then distressing it? Also considered black, and taupe.
• went to the beach twice! Napped at the beach too.
• finished this book and started this book.
• got to try out my new waterproof Kindle case at the beach. Love it! Feel much better having my Kindle protected.
• did a little browsing...um shopping at Sephora online.. for things like this, this and this.
• played with the kittens... Sophie is becoming much more affectionate and social. She starts purring when you come in the room and wants to be held and petted. Sydney loves to play and is probably twice as big as Sophie at this point.
• Had church this morning and lead worship.
• looked at this cool new kit at noel mignon... did not buy it.
• looked for some new shorts at Old Navy online. Having a serious shorts crisis...
• loaded up my new pink purse....remember the one from Zulily? It's very cool.
• the new duvet cover came. I haven't tried it on the bed yet.

Well, tomorrow is one day closer to the big day! Guess I better figure out where I want to go eat huh? I miss some of the restaurants we enjoyed in IL. There were about 3 "nice" places we'd go to for romantic dinners out or celebrating. This was one of them. Used to love getting dressed up and going out for those evenings. Miss having places like that around here. Currently I am debating between Red Lobster and Olive Garden. Do not be surprised if I totally change my mind and go to LaCarreta again! ha!

Goodnight for now. Tune in tomorrow for day 7. :) Blessings!

Birthday Week Day 4 & 5

Did I tell you that when we got the kittens there was a short discussion about naming them Hoops & Yoyo? Bwa ha ha ha... OK so I wasn't serious... but it would have been at least slightly cute don't you think. Especially since we like Hoops & Yoyo... their talking cards and E-cards crack me up! So, I should not have been surprised to find that my gift from my husband yesterday was a little booklet full of Hoops & Yoyo post it notes. Now how fun is that. They are probably way too fun to write on or use! ha! Today, he left me this little heart pocket charm (which says to keep God in your heart) and a pretty pink notebook. I have a serious affection for little pink notebooks. I have one next to my chair, and another in my purse. Actually now that I'm thinking about it, birthday week, the very first time a few years ago, began with a sparkly pink notebook, and a box of pink bandaids! ha!!! I just asked him if he knew that... and of course he did. He is good.

Here is what Lori had for me yesterday and today. Yesterday was a cool magnetic pink weekly calendar note pad, and a cool "K" notepad, plus pink paperclips with little flowers on them, a pink pencil and a pink zebra... very cool... pampered chef coupon keeper. Have I mentioned I love office supplies? See... it goes with the whole pink notebook thing. Today, I got cool scrapbook stuff including a chipboard book, and 2 kinds of chipboard stickers, one has beach stickers. Hmm... wonder what I could use those on? Feeling very blessed this week by my sweet husband and my good friend.

Last night was date night! We watched 2 videos..... is that the proper term now? Or should I say "2 blu-ray discs" Don't want to sound like a nerd or anything. ha... We watched Unknown, and The Adjustment Bureau. Both were good! Both PG-13 and no language or other stuff we didn't want to see or hear.. always a pleasant surprise. We had pizza... we had popcorn... OK there might have been a little chocolate.. and during intermission we had to go and play with the kittens. I was having withdrawal... they are just too stinkin cute. :)

Had a good walk today. It was HUMID and quite warm. It was not as bad as some of the other days I've walked this summer though. Headed for the beach for a couple hours afterwards. It was so calling my name. It's been a week since I've been in the water... I was starting to feel like a fish out of water... couldn't breath without my beach fix. :)

It's been kind of "one of those days" for the past 2 days... Let's see... I had to take a cold.. very cold shower.. because one of the water heater elements is acting up and there was no hot water. I tripped on my flip flops.. yes.. again. I went to walk and forgot my water. I went to the beach and forgot my sunglasses. I got my beach towel stuck on the car seat and when I bent over to untangle it, I hit my eye.. yes... on the edge of the car.. OUCH. I was chased by a spider. When I got the ortho spray to drown the spider (yes I nuked him...) I was then attacked by a wasp.... I drowned him in spray too before he was able to sting me. I got bitten by a fly while walking today. OUCH. I found a huge bruise on my leg and I have no idea what from. And I have a question... WHY when you bump your leg or hurt yourself and think man I'm gonna have a bruise from that, you get no bruise. On the other hand when I get this huge awful looking bruise, then of course, I can't remember hurting my leg. How does that work... So see... it's been an eventful couple of days. I thought birthday week was supposed to be stress free... someone didn't get the memo apparently...

Was going to share some finds on Sephora.. but it got late so I'll save that for next post. Gotta be at church early tomorrow. My turn to lead worship and 8 AM will be here quick! Hope you are having a great weekend. Blessings!

Thankful Thursday...Birthday Week Edition

Would you believe I took like 19 pictures of the kittens and this is the best one I could get. Did you ever try to get like a good picture of a squirming playful kitten? Not an easy task. Either they were attacking the camera or squinting their eyes from the flash, or attacking my toes or suddenly doing a flying tackle ...one of their best moves... one on top of the other. I thought I could get a good shot when I first went in by them. But nope. Soon as Sophie saw me, she had to climb down to see me purring the whole time... and no, I didn't like that one bit. :) She is so sweet. I just want to hug her the whole time. Sydney likes affection too, but on her timetable and terms. Apparently she must be completely done with playing and trust me, she takes a long time to wear out. I love the both of them. They do comfort my aching heart over Jack. Still miss him so much. Can't talk about him much without getting choked up. Especially if I think too much about those last 2 days. Hardest days ever...
















Well here is my almost completed album from class today. Lisa and I went and took a class from Jen Starr. The album was very technique heavy, which was lots of fun. We played with paint, gesso, cardboard, distress inks, Tim Holtz stains, stamping and heat embossing with a double resist, using bleach and a template to make a design on denim, and we made a rolled flower with a torn strip of fabric that we stained with the Tim Holtz stains. All very fun. I think I mostly just need to do assembly at this point, and a little personalization. Not sure which photos I want to use it for, whether random ones, or a specific subject. They told us to wear old clothes or bring an apron to class. I decided I'd bring my Making Memories Slice apron I received as a giveaway at CHA several years ago. The funny thing was my neatness tendencies had me not wanting to mess up my apron either! HA! I also decided it was a very good thing that Thurs. is usually manicure night... because um my fingers... full of glue, stain, more glue, paint, and um blue ink. I've scrubbed my hands, used nail polish remover, and still... blue finger tips. I look like I'm part smurf. :)














Birthday week day 3! Today my husband left me a fuchsia pink clip on cup holder. How cool is this thing? I love it. I took it to class with me today and it very nicely held my Diet Pepsi while I scrapped. I am thinking this will be prefect on my beach chair too. I never have a good place to put my water bottle. Problem... my beach chair does not have arms. However, I am thinking it will easily clip to the seat. Lets hope! Just checked on bing and found it at Current. However I know Darrel got mine at Gordman's and it was only $5.00.














Here is birthday week day 3 from Lori. Is she good or what? She has me wondering if she has been collecting stuff all year? Look how cool! Beachy theme emery boards. Love it! Then she finds a pink beachy/pink camo bandanna. Love it. 2 things from Bath & Body Works, my fav! And where did she find anti-bac that says "I love shoes!" I have never seen those before and thought I was a BBW expert. She also gave me my fav. OPI polish in a color I do not have, which I think is not an easy thing to achieve.. Lets just say I have lots. :) Thank you Lori. Once again you made me smile. I think there was even a giggle. ;)















Have you seen the new Vera patterns in person? Well look what I got in the mail this week. :) See... QVC had a Vera TSV on the day the new patterns were launched. When was that like last week on the 7th I think? So I tune in, just to see what they have you know? Well, the TSV is a new style, supposedly exclusive to QVC until Sept. Then they show it in the Mocha Rouge which is my pink fav. of course. I pretty much had myself talked out of it. Said I didn't need another tote... until the Vera lady said.... "we designed this one so it could also be used as a craft bag..." Well then of course I realized how perfectly the pink and brown Vera would match my pink and brown tool tote... which as you can see it does. And yes, it did work well as a craft bag with 6 pockets. 3 on the front, and 3 inside. I took it to class today. The fun thing? The teacher Jen spotted it as I was leaving and said she liked it. She said "is that one of the new patterns? They just came out." See... I knew I liked her. :) She knows her Vera, she's a scrapper, and she liked my shoes...I was wearing the new sparkly silver flip flops.

Speaking of flip flops.. perhaps its just me but I am thinking I am in need of flip flop walking lessons. I haven't worn rubber soled flip flops much until this year. Unless when I was like in Jr High counts. Since I've started wearing these new sparkly ones I've gotten the side of the flip flop caught on the floor which stops me like I just hit a speed bump and almost successfully threw myself to the ground. This happened today... its happened several times... I may not be the most graceful person in the world but I can usually manage walking. So are there remedial flip flop walking classes out there before I cause myself an injury? I suppose I could stop wearing the shoes.. but what fun would that be. They're cute.

Lots to be thankful for this week!

• um not falling on my head when tripping on my flip flops. :)
• Sophie & Sydney
• Darrel and all he does for me for my birthday.
• Lori once again doing birthday week stuff for me.
• getting to take a scrap class with my buddy Lisa!
• my new pink dangly ring
• beach time
• a nice dinner at Logan's last date night
• roses from Darrel
• finally finding the perfect shower curtain
• chocolate chip skillet cookies with vanilla ice cream
• vanilla birthday cake philosophy shower gel from Sephora
• having my husband home with me this year and NOT so far away in Haiti
• upcoming Eclair Cake
• my husband's support and patience
• really good friends
• a great youth choir concert at church Sunday night
• answered prayer for our friend Katrina
• air conditioning and a treadmill when the heat index is 115!
• Mexican food... LOVE
• books
• my Bible and clinging cross
• God never giving up on me
• birthdays
• an easy detour to work and not having to drive 15 min. out of my way
• my Kindle!
• having a working toilet paper holder on the wall...seems like such a small thing doesn't it until you've had to chase the tp around the bathroom for months...

Better hit the bed. Work in the AM and then date night! Yay. We are thinking it will be a pizza and movie night. We were going to hit the Knox Co. fair until we found out it doesn't start till Monday. Perhaps next week. Hope you have a great weekend planned. Will try to post for birthday week tomorrow if I have time between work and date night. Otherwise, tune in Saturday for an update! Blessings!

Birthday Week Day 2

Yes, we have more pink stuff for birthday week day 2! I think my current goal is to cover my dining room table with pink stuff by the end of the week. Ha! I succeeded last year. :) Today's gift from my husband was this cute little pink and fuzzy glasses case for my desk and also a bookmark with little dangly pink beads and a heart on it. How cute is that? See I had to have it nicely arranged on the table with my pretty pink frame from yesterday. But... he didn't stop there. He brought these home from work too.















3 beautiful roses. I had kind of a blah day and he said I needed something to brighten my day. He is so sweet to even think of such things. I also got to open gift number 2 from my friend Lori today. Check it out!















Today's gift was the pink metallic chipboard letter stickers... very cool... a "queen for the day" sticker and some tiny pink roses. Very cute! She said she thought since Darrel calls me princess she would promote me to queen for the day for my birthday. I told her I was liking this idea as long as the promotion didn't come with more responsibility. :) Bwa ha ha ha... I love the sticker and definitely think it needs to go on my birthday layout. Yesterday's gift from Lori was the note cards, luggage tag and sparkly pink D sticker. Apparently I really have a thing for stuff that is not only pink... but also sparkly. I think its that girl.. .princess... kind of thing. :)

We spent some time this evening playing with the kittens. They are SO cute. Little Miss Sophie seems to be feeling much better now that her eyes are looking better. It's amazing how quickly the drops made a difference! The 2 of them learned how to get out of their pen yesterday, and since this puts them outside of the area where their food and litter box is, we had to go ahead and give them the run of the garage now. They are having a blast exploring all the nooks and crannies and finding things to climb on. They also love to run and chase each other, ending quite gracefully with a flying tackle, one on top of the other. Sophie is really becoming quite social with us and will come to see us when we come in and then purrs immediately upon being picked up. She is so sweet. We also discovered why she may be the smaller of the two. Apparently Miss Sydney is a food dish hog... we've seen her put her paw out to block Sophie from getting too close to the food and today I saw her slap her away... We are going to have to teach Miss Sophie to push back and get her little nose in there! ha. No seriously, we have just learned to add another dish of food so there is plenty to eat, and plenty of room for both girls. So glad we adopted them. They have been a comfort and I find it quite a stress reliever to go and spend some time playing with them and laughing at them playing with each other. I am still missing Jack a lot. The sadness about that hits me just when I think I am past it. Once Darrel dismantled the pen last night, he moved their food dishes, blankets etc. in the area where Jack used to like to lay. He did the right thing, because its the best spot for them, but seeing it for the first time this morning got me all weepy because it was Jack's dish and Jack's spot and sweet Jack isn't there anymore. I miss him.

Got a slight bit of work done in the bathroom this evening. Perhaps there is hope we will finish in this century? We finished most of the wainscot paint. Just a few small areas to touch up now where we had to putty some knot holes. We replaced the damaged tile. We added a new flush handle to the toilet. Love it.. the old one looked plastic and cheap and I did not like that... Saturday I guess we will be taking down the ceiling.. so that it can be reinstalled, hopefully for good this time. Praying it stays put until Saturday... its looking a little scary.

Tomorrow is the Jen Stark Distressed Denim Mini Album Class at The Doodlebug! Looks like we will be playing with some fun supplies and learning some cool techniques! Looking forward to it. Tune in tomorrow for a peek at the album, Birthday week day 3 and yes, Thankful Thursday! Blessings!

Ten On Tuesday...Birthday Week Edition

1) We interrupt the happiness of this blog post with breaking news... breaking bad news..... the NEWLY installed, freshly painted, thought we were done with it bathroom ceiling is falling down. We do not know why. We thought it could be put back in place easily and secured. It of course cannot. We are going to have to pull the whole stinking thing down. We aren't sure if the wainscot swelled from bathroom moisture? We aren't sure if we didn't have it secure enough?...All we are sure of is that we aren't sure and at this point I'd like to declare... home improvement stinks. I am thinking if you come visit me when I'm a little Ol' Deanna sitting in my rocker with gray hair and no teeth... I'll still be telling you "we're just about done with the bathroom project..." I swear it is unending and I still might just lose my mind completely...















2) OK.. now that I have that off my chest... lets move on to happier things like birthday week! Here is today's gift from my husband. A cute little pink bejeweled frame. Love, love, love it. He is good cause he pays attention. See, I almost bought this like a month ago. You might remember I bought the 4x6 size a few months back because I fell in love with all the pink sparkly stuff! Well on a subsequent trip to Kohl's I spotted the smaller size. However I was a good girl and did not purchase it which has now been rewarded by receiving it as a gift for day 1 of birthday week! There was also a very sweet note. As you can see I have already filled it with our anniversary photo and will be carrying it to work tomorrow to place directly on my desk.















3) My antique locker baskets have arrived. How cool are these? Well OK, some of you, whom also like antiques hopefully find them cool. I am sure there are others that are thinking.. um what was she thinking? She wants to put that in her pretty new (although unfinished...grrrrr) bathroom? Yes. Yes she does. She is quite pleased with her vintage locker baskets. So much so that she promptly filled it up and put it in place!














4) While in the big city on date night this past week, we made a stop at Lowes to see if we could find a glass shelf for the bathroom. We did locate a shelf that will serve the purpose, and it was much much less than the $109 that Restoration Hardware wanted for theirs. Happy about that! While we were walking back to the bathroom hardware area I spotted this welcome mat. I think it just called my name as I walked by. I mean look. It's adorable. It has green and black (the current colors on my back porch) and it has pink! However, Friday night, when we saw it, I for some reason did not buy it. By Sunday though, we had to make a stop at the Lowes in town (not to be confused with the big city... ) and pick one up. I decided that our poor porch and yard have been neglected for far too long. Guess why? Um the bathroom project... So I decided I was getting the mat, I was buying a can of pink spray paint, I am going to paint 2 of my flower pots PINK, and I am going to clean up my porch and make it a happy place again that makes me smile because um here lately I am in need of lots of happy places.














5) In more birthday week news, this is what Lori sent me home with on Sunday. Now what is not to love about that? 7 pink gift bags full of pink tissue and most likely knowing Lori.. pink stuff inside. I have opened the first one and it has the coolest little Mary Englebright note cards, luggage tag and a sparkly D, all in yes, you guessed it.. PINK. Love it. I forgot to take a picture. I'll have to show you tomorrow with whatever tomorrow brings :)

6) Lets go back to pretending the bathroom ceiling is perfect and done and that here we have a picture of the nearly finished room. Are you there with me? Good. So what we have here is the new shower curtain. After 3 different curtains.. I am so happy to be settled on this one, and to love it! The fabric like totally reminds me of grandpa's pajamas. I was worried the blue would be wrong and clash, but instead it is doing just what I wanted, which was to tie together the blues, the whites, and then start pulling in the browns and taupes I want to add, and which are the colors of our new towels. Love it!! It must be popular too because the first time I spotted it at Kohls, they only had the sample, none on the shelf. This time, I was sad at first because the shelf appeared to be empty but than Viola! I found one little lonely one on the shelf and brought it home with me. Here is a closer look.



















7) You might remember I had ordered the Pottery Barn ticking stripe shower curtain? And perhaps you can tell... this ain't it. It did arrive. I was excited... until I realized the background was not white. It was very cream/ivory colored. I'm thinking cream/ivory in my very white bathroom... um not thinking I will like that. And I must know myself well because I was right! Did not look good... did not fit the picture I have in my head of what the finished product will look look so of course.. this meant we quickly discarded that idea and went another way.

8) How cute is this? The kitten is pretty cute too. Ha! This is Miss Sydney with my husband. Miss Sydney is definitely a live wire so this was a rare moment of calm... I am sure she likely reached out and swiped a paw at his nose or something right after the picture was snapped.















9) Miss Sophie and Miss Syndey had their first vet visit this past weekend. They were both found to have eye infections and ear mites.. They are on meds for both. It is amazing the difference in their eyes in just a few days! Vet thinks they are in good health and will be fine after the treatment. Very happy about that. We discovered that Sophie is a whopping 1.3 lbs and Sydney is 1.6! They are the tiniest cutest little things and as I've mentioned, we are quickly falling in love.

10) Currently I am supposed to be deciding what I want to do on my birthday. I know I want to eat lots of Eclair cake... and that is as far as I have figured out. I am thinking about where to eat dinner. My fav. of course is Mexican...so perhaps we should just hit LaCarreta 2 times that week huh? I mean between Sunday and yesterday I had Mexican 3 times... nothing wrong there right? We've also discussed Cheesecake Factory but this would require heading to Indy on the weekend. Not sure we want to do that. Perhaps we should head to the big city, yes, even mid week and hit a restaurant there like Red Lobster, Outback or maybe Olive Garden? I cannot decide. If we do something on the weekend well my favorite thing would be like shopping or going to the beach... Perhaps we should combine all of those things and go shopping on our way to the beach where we will then sit in the water and eat lots of Mexican food and eclair cake while opening gifts and blowing out candles while surrounded by pink stuff.... Works for me.

How's your week going... soon as I calm down about the bathroom ceiling.. I plan on getting a grip and enjoying the rest of the week. Hope yours is good! Tune in tomorrow for birthday week day 2! Blessings!