Birthday Bashing

Did you know that it was my birthday on Saturday? I'm 24 now.

Guess who did know it was my birthday? My visiting teacher! Look at these big, beautiful flowers she brought me!

See that flower right above the rose, but below the carnation? Anybody know what that's called? I adore it!

Notice the vase is a pitcher. I have a vase. I do. Just not one that would hold the bounty properly.

The birthday celebrating began Thursday night, when my visiting teacher came over and brought with her these gorgeous flowers. I was so thrilled! I promptly displayed them on my kitchen table and enjoyed them all week long. I LOVED having fresh flowers in my house, and I plan to have them around more often. I plan to have a garden full of lots of flowers that I can cut and put in my house weekly. I can't wait until that happens!

Now on to the birthday festivities. I started the morning by teaching my violin lessons (and only one student showed up - again - and she was 45 minutes late). After lessons, and after Josh got home from golfing, (and really, after I got over Josh going golfing on my birthday), Josh's parents came over to bring me a card and birthday wishes. Then, my Mom came over and brought some presents and an awesome lemon bundt cake, with awesome lemon icing/frosting. I have never had icing that delicious in my life!!! Of course, the cake was star shaped, because my Mom knows how much I love stars. She decided she was going to give me the cake pan as well as the cake so when I picked it up, I had to ask her why on Earth she bought a Star of David cake pan, you know, since we're not Jewish. We had a good laugh at the fact that the label covered the indents on the bottom of the bundt cake pan, and she just thought it was a really cool star-shaped bundt cake pan. I was given the option to keep it, or exchange it for something else. I decided to keep the pan. I also decided to celebrate Hannukah this year. As well as Christmas. She gave me a few more gifts, including a gift certificate to go to Ikea and buy curtains/shades for my bedroom windows. After a few (large) bites of cake, we headed out to Ikea. We picked out my birthday present, and then my Mom treated us to Swedish Meatballs (or in Josh's case - Alfredo Pasta) before heading home. We got home, I plopped on the couch, and proceeded to harrass Josh into telling me what my present was. As soon as he said I had to go pick it out, I was off the couch and ready to go.


Some of you may know, when Josh and I got married my in-laws graciously provided us with their bed so we wouldn't have to buy one when we got married. They were replacing it, and we accepted the offer. Josh has had some back trouble the last little while, and I've been convinced it's from sleeping on a 35 year old, king size bed. I have wanted a bed of my own for quite some time now, and Josh decided now would be a good time to fulfill my wish. For my birthday, we went to R.C. Willey and plunked ourselves down on probably 15 different mattresses before choosing the one we wanted. We wiggled and bounced and collapsed on the beds, trying to see if the other person could feel it. I took great care not to put my head on the pillows. I have this thing about germs, and I wasn't really interested in sharing a pillow with hundreds of strangers. We were wandering around helping ourselves for about 30 minutes before anyone approached us. Normally, this is how I like to shop. I don't really like it when Salesmen approach me. It only took us about 15 minutes to narrow it down to 2 beds. So we just sat, and waited. The salesmen was not my favorite. I didn't care for him very much, if at all. Neither of us could really tell a difference among the beds, so we chose one that was suitable, and fairly inexpensive. We decided to buy a Queen because we felt we didn't need all the extra room the King provides. I was thoroughly convinced I would survive on a Queen, and after Josh's elbow ended up in my throat twice, and my eyeball once, I'm not so thoroughly convinced. That's before I even mention all the times I've had to kick his bony knees back to his side of the Queen; which I realized this morning, is actually much closer to my side of the bed than it ever has been before. Talk about a rude awakening. :) I still love my new bed, and really am glad we got the Queen size. It makes my room feel bigger, and a heckuva lot easier to navigate the dressers now. Did I mention we saved the $70 delivery fee by hauling it home ourselves? That was interesting. That is its own story I'll share another time.


After we got home and got the bed set up, we decided to go to dinner. We invited Trent and Heidi to come to dinner with us, because it really wouldn't have been as much of a party without them. Wanting to try something new, I decided to go to Trio Cafe near Westminster. We ordered an appetizer that I really liked. Rosemary focaccia bread with sun-dried tomatoes, balsamic reduction, and goat cheese. It was pretty tasty. For my meal, I ordered the three cheese ravioli with butternut squash sauce. It tasted just fine, but it wasn't anything special. It was a bit bland, but I guess that's what you're asking for when you order squash and cheese and pasta, right? I'd like to go back and try something else. It was good food, it just wasn't anything that stood out from other restaurants. Heidi liked the guys in their muscle shirts. They did all look like they were male models, or training for UFC (sans tattoos).

Look, here we are!

We tried about 9,845,782,349,348 times to get a good picture, but it wasn't easy. Cheese!

We made our way down to the "French Bakery" for dessert. I got a piece of heaven marzipan cake, and enjoyed every single bite!! Trent didn't order dessert, but he should have. Then maybe he wouldn't have eaten 70% of my birthday cake (kidding Trent!) He liked it so much, my Mom made a second birthday cake on Sunday so he could have more when they came over for dinner. 

Thanks to everyone for birthday wishes!! I had a great day! Hugs and Kisses!!!