Gratitude

I have much to be thankful for. Today is my 31st birthday. My brother told me that I'm an ol' bag, to which I responded, if I am an ol' bag, what does that make you, my older brother...He replied a really ol' fart.  To me, 31 is just another year that I get to enjoy, learn, and experience, not old, just moving on in life!  Age has never bothered me though.

Today was an amazing day!  Yesterday was great too! Justin's schedule was questionable today. He was added in to 3 different surgeries, and was on call from 5-9 tonight. So he wasn't sure if he would even be home today to share a birthday cake. We decided to celebrate my birthday yesterday as a family. Justin made me this MAGNIFICENT dessert last night. It is a dessert he created on his own a couple years ago. It is a Crepe stuffed with a mixture of cream cheese, ricotta cheese, powdered sugar and chocolate chips. Feast your eyes on this and you can enjoy...or maybe not, but trust me, it was amazing!  Yummy! 

I expected that to be the end of my birthday festivities with the family...more to come on that!

I woke up this morning to Jusitn's alarm clock sometime around 5am. Luckily after Justin wished me a happy birthday and kissed me goodbye, I was able to go back to sleep for a couple hours. I woke up at 7 and went about my day. My first adventure for the day was a workout. I am still working on loosing weight, and have been trying to improve my running time (if you can call it running when you use an elliptical). So as my own birthday present to myself, I cut nearly 30 seconds off my time for 2 miles. I managed to 'run' 2 miles in 28:14. Last Wednesday, my time for two miles was 28:53. On Friday it was 28:44. So in less than a week, I have cut nearly 45 seconds off my time. I am still not at a magnificent running time, but it is so much better than the 16 minutes miles I did earlier this year. At some point, I would like to try running outside some more. I am not great with my knees and for some reasons running affects me differently when I am on an elliptical versus a treadmill or outside. I can breathe easier on the elliptical, So right now, I am sticking with it. So Happy Birthday To Me! I cut off 30 seconds of running time. YAY!

After the gym I got cleaned up and was able to enjoy a wonderful lunch with a good friend. She took me to the Cheesecake Factory and we had lunch and ordered dessert to go. After lunch we went to the park with our boys, and then back to her house where we enjoyed our cheesecake!  It was wonderful and more than I should have eaten! At 2:30, I got a test from Justin saying he was on his way home! YAY!  I was so surprised and came home. When the girls got home at 4, he surprised me again with a box full of these beauties, cupcakes from GiGi's Cupcakes. He lit a toothpick, as we were out of candles, and the kids sang happy birthday to me and then Collin beat me to blowing out the toothpick in my cake. Everything was wonderful!

To top it all off, Justin never got called in and got to stay home all night and keep me company. What a wonderful birthday! 

On top it all off again!!!  I always knew that I had good friends. But tonight on my Facebook wall, I have a notification that tells me 75 people posted on my wall to say Happy Birthday. Can I tell you how loved that made me feel?  I am so blessed to have so many people in my life who are genuine friends. I even got a surprise phone call from some I haven't talked to in years. It was wonderful. I loved everything about my birthday. So even if I am an ol' bag as my brother claims, I am a blessed, happy and grateful ol' bag! 

Thank you to everyone that took the time to send me a birthday wish. I really appreciated it immensely. It touched my heart and soul! And now for everyone to enjoy here is a fun little video of my favorite 3 year old singing me happy birthday! BOOM! BOOM!