The 37th Birthday

My 37th birthday was this past Saturday, February 1 and I'm happy to report that it was a really great day and, in fact, great weekend. Friday, Meri brought in a cake to work to celebrate. The cake was shaped like a giant cupcake and was strawberry with cream cheese icing. It was very good. Later in the day, my friend Alex brought me a box from Nothing Bundt Cakes which had 12 mini bundlettes in it. I then called my mom and told her to cancel the cookie cake because I had more cake than I knew what to do with and still had one more on the way. 

After work Friday I took myself to I Love Sushi. They open for dinner at 5:00 and I had a little time to kill beforehand so I went to Target and spent more money than I ever intended to; but, they had bath sheets on clearance and I could not pass that up. If you don't know, bath sheets are giant bath towels that will actually fit all the way around your body with ease. I had been looking at various white sales for bath sheets and even on sale, I wasn't willing to spend the money so when Target had some very plush ones for less than $9, I couldn't pass it up. 

After my trip through the Target clearance aisles, I headed to I Love Sushi and dined on a delicious dinner. I then stopped by Redbox to pick up the rentals I  had reserved. When I got home I did some laundry and watched Captain Phillips (very good) and to my surprise, the Pip was actually very well behaved that evening. She must have known it was my birthday and wanted to be nice to me. 

Saturday morning I did a wee bit of cleaning and some more laundry and watched my second rental, Rush, which was also very good. I took Pippa to be weighed (42.6 pounds now) and then picked up my brother (he lives close to the vet). After dropping Pippa back off at home, Justin and I met up with our parents and our granddad and grandmother at Red Lobster. Red Lobster has been my birthday dining choice for many, many years. We enjoyed a nice dinner and conversation. After we ate, everyone came back to my house for cake (the aforementioned mini bundlettes) and I opened gifts. My parents got me Downton Abbey Season 4, a new gym bag and a book of maps from Bible times. I got an Alabama shirt from my granddad and my brother got me a Michael Buble CD. My grandmother paid for my lunch at Red Lobster. 

Everyone left a few minutes before 4:00 p.m. and I laid down on the couch for about an hour before kicking off the evening festivities. Jackie was gracious enough to host a birthday party for me. The festivities kicked off at 6:00 p.m. and we had about 15 or so of our friends from church come. Jackie cooked Crock-Pot Chicken and Erika brought a salad and fruit tea and Candy provided rolls and Kendra brought sweet tea. Jackie also commissioned Meri to make a birthday cake which was probably the cutest cake I have ever seen. I absolutely loved it and it was also very yummy. 

We spent the evening talking and laughing and eating (of course). Some people left early, others came late, all had a good time. Jackie had told everyone not to bring gifts, but some people did anyway, which was very nice. By the end of the evening, there were about eight of us left and we ended up playing a game called Boxers or Briefs which was so much fun and provided some interesting insight into the people in the room. We wrapped things up around 11:00 p.m. and I headed home about 11:30.

It was a really great day and a very fun night! I'm thankful for all the wonderful people in my life and feel blessed to be surrounded by so much love. Big thanks to all my family and friends who made birthday #37 a blast!