My day started at 7:30 AM when I noticed a pink post it note on the bathroom mirror. James had left for work an hour earlier, so I knew it had to be his doing. The post it declared that I was now on a treasure hunt for my birthday present. There were 9 different stops along the hunt, each containing a clue and part of my present. I will admit that one of the clues had me stumped for a good 10 minutes. Anyway, my gift was a new airbrush that I (am scared to death of because I have no clue how to use it) get to learn how to use to decorate cakes with! I've been wanting one for some time but due to my nearly nonexistent cake decorating know-how, I have been hesitant to spend the money and buy one.
The next great part of my day was when James got home from work extraordinarily early; around noon. That was followed closely by my good friend, Mary, coming over to share some lunch with me. She also brought me a fun candy bar that she found from World Market. Speaking of candy, my friend Jocelyn also brought me a candy bar, one of her favorites, a Utah's Mint Truffle bar. I think that's what it's called. Doesn't matter, it was mmm mmmm good!
James did a good job of making sure I didn't take care of the kids too much during the day.
That night, my mom came over so that James could take me on a mysterious date. I had no idea what we were going to do. As we were driving to destination, "unknown", he handed me the phone and a phone number. He told me to call it and figure the rest out from there. I called and the person answered the phone in such a garbledy gook way that I panicked and hung up. James clarified for me that I had called The Golden Phoenix, my favorite Chinese food restaurant. I called them back and ordered some food for us. We picked up our food and then James found a random street to park on and ordered me into the back seat of our van. (Don't get any ideas!)
He had brought my favorite movie, Pride and Prejudice, to watch while we ate our dinner. It's the five hour version movie, so obviously we didn't watch the whole thing. After a while, we hopped back into the front seats and drove to the Clark Planetarium. We watched one of their light shows put to music.
As we were walking out of the show, I asked James if he had baked me a birthday cake. He sidestepped the question nicely and walked me to the car. He drove to the Olive Garden and I immediately knew what my "birthday cake" was. I love one of their desserts and James had planned to run in and buy me a piece. Unfortunately, they were ALL OUT! James came back to the car disheartened. I told him that I had always wanted to try the chocolate cake they have at P.F Changs, so we drove there. I ran in to order it. I waited and waited and waited some more for them to bring it out to me. After waiting a little bit longer I asked the girl what was up. She did some investigating before they came out with the cake. Because I waited for so long (really, it was only about 15 minutes) they gave it to me for FREE!
We drove home, put a candle in the cake and my mom and James sang happy birthday to me. My mom gave me a one pound box of See's chocolates before she left for the night. (Can you tell that people know I love chocolate/candy/cake/sugar?)
That piece of cake was massive!All of that fun was coupled with phone calls from loved ones. I received my first birthday phone call at 12:08 AM from my sister Andrea. I may have sounded a bit put off when I spoke with her, but in my defence, I had been asleep for almost 2 hours. I really did appreciate her fun antics and desire to be the first one to wish me a happy birthday, but maybe next year she will wait until 8:00AM.
I know a lot of people are sad with each birthday that makes them a year older, but I really have nothing to be sad about. I've done a lot of fun and good things the last 26 years. I've probably had a fuller life than most 26 year olds. I may not be as cheerful about turning 30, but at this point I don't see what there is to be afraid of. I'm excited to see what all I can accomplish in the next 4 years.
Thank you to everybody who made my day special. I had a genuinely great day.
