Week of Birthdays

Yes, Stephanie's birthday was on Monday, and my birthday is today.





Stephanie is now officially 16! Yikes! For her birthday she wanted to go shopping, which we did. She got a cute new top and THREE new unmentionables! Then we went to Jamba and got a smoothie for her, which she says she hasn't had in 3 years. Sounds like someone besides me is keeping track of things they miss out on.



I told Robert that I was going to buy Stephanie a clarinet for her 16th birthday, which provided enough motivation for him to go digging around to find his old clarinet. He DID find it, and Stephanie is thrilled! It needs new pads, but she is thrilled anyway.


For dinner, Steph wanted to go to the Olive Garden, which was very yummy!

We are hoping to have a birthday party for her sometime in January, but she doesn't seem very motivated to do any planning, not even motivated enough to make an invite list. Am I supposed to do the whole thing?


After the little kids went to bed, I gave Stephanie a foot and hand massage. She really enjoyed it and just kept giggling with delight. It was so funny! I learned that my hand muscles are not as strong as they would like to be for foot and hand massages.

Robert and I made fudge for her instead of a birthday cake. Fudge with NO nuts! She was a very happy camper. She really wanted to do the birthday candle thing and blow them out, so we did. It is kind of hard to push candles down through fudge. We had to 'pre-drill' some candle holes with a skewer. I thought that it was very sweet that she was willing to share her special stash of birthday fudge with her Uncle Hal on new year's eve. (She is quite fond of that guy!)




Anyway, I think she had a good day. It wasn't a "super sweet 16", but I think she had a lovely day.


~My birthday is today. It was a great day.

I was able to get away this morning to do some birthday drooling at my favorite haunts. On the way out of the driveway I noticed that there was a huge kitchen aid box on our front door mat. At first, I thought that it was Robert, being a dork, teasing me with a new kitchen aid, because he has been known to tease. Well, it turned out that it was not Robert being a dork, it was actually Robert being THE BEST EVER!! It is an actual, new, six quart cayenne red kitchen aid!!! The bowl is HUGE! I called Robert at work to thank him and he was just as bewildered as I was, because it wasn't supposed to be here for another three weeks.

Thanks hunny!

So then I went to Home Again where I saw 2 things that I would love to have. They have been marked down twice and are still just out of the range I am willing to pay. If they weren't so weathered, I would say they are worth the price, but they are just a little too weathered. But it was very lovely just to look and browse.

Then I went to the fabric stores to look at stuff to make a cute apron with. I found what I was looking for and the fabric was ONLY $4.00 A YARD!! ON CLEARANCE!! It was wonderful!

The lady said to me, "Do you want all four yards?"
and I said to her, "Heck yes I do!"

Then my dear friend Anne dropped by after I had returned home and brought me the loveliest gift! Anne and Dave (her hubby) hand made a new journal, just for me!!!! I am soo in awe. Thank you, you two sweet and thoughtful and handy friends!

While I was out on my drool-fest, my neighbor brought by a lovely gift too. Gayle brought by some walnuts, which she knows that I love! It was such a sincere heartfelt gift and very thoughtful. They shelled them all themselves as a family project. If you remember that talk by Henry B. Erying where he received a bottle of cherries, that is kind of how I feel upon receiving these walnuts. I really admire the way Gayle thinks and makes herself handy to everyone that she possibly can. I have never met anyone more sincerely willing to give of themselves. Thanks Gayle.

I was also able to work on some of the machine quilting on "the quilt". (The one that I started back in 2005, most of you know the one I am talking about. Especially you, Megan.) While I was working on "the quilt", Elizabeth wanted to make some finger puppets for her friend's birthday, which is ALSO this week. So I set up the other sewing machine and together we watched Napoleon Dynamite and sewed for a couple of hours. It was exactly what I wanted to do for my birthday! I think I may have at least one willingly domestic daughter. She is still down there right now, sewing away in her pajamas. What a hoot!

We went to Famous Dave's for my birthday dinner because that is somewhere that we haven't been for a really long time. I was in the mood for bbq. It was yummy, except for my mashed potatoes!!! They seriously tasted like wax!!! Eww. I was glad that the waiter was willing to take them back and bring me fries instead!

I ate too much.

Then, home for the Ute game at the Sugar Bowl and German chocolate cake.

Both of these items had a delicious ending.

A lot of people ask me if I hate having my birthday so close to Christmas and right at the beginning of the new year. I don't. It wouldn't be my birthday if it were any other time of year. I grew up with it that way. I like it. I am always the first birthday in my family and second birthday in the ward (Carole Burnett is first). I am okay with second, but only because it is Carole.

It was a wonderful day.