Happy Birthday to ME!

Although first I should say happy BELATED birthday to my wonderful husband. He's 38 hours and 11 minutes older than I am. His birthday was yesterday. He had to work, but came home early and his favorite meal of sauerbraten and mashed potatoes greeted him. I had also decorated the bar with some crepe streamers and a paper balloon, and hung another paper balloon from the light fixture over the dining table. It wasn't much, but I was busy cooking dinner!

I also made a yummy, allergen-free (i.e. no dairy or eggs) chocolate cake. I got the recipe from allrecipes.com - if you search for depression cakes, you'll find it. Apparently these cakes were very popular back in the Depression when eggs were in short supply and high demand. No one would ever be able to tell this cake wasn't a "normal" cake full of eggs and milk and butter.

Here are some photos from yesterday.

I should have taken a photo before I lit the candles. Those letters melted SUPER fast!



Number candles are just safer after a certain age.


See what I mean about the fast-melting candles?! Thank goodness they weren't relighting candles!


They're kind of creepy-looking now!


More creepiness.



Ok, so back to the title...MY birthday!

I have the greatest husband.

He left me a love note on the wall this morning that I found when I went to the kitchen to fix breakfast for Nyssa.



Inside the love note was another message.



And later that afternoon, he sent me flowers!



And then he came home with "something small" he said he thought I'd like.



What is that? Look more closely...



WOO HOO! He had led me to believe we needed to wait until February to get the D300, sneaky man! Now the battery needs to hurry up and charge so I can go play! It doesn't take the same batteries that my other Nikons take. BOO!

Nyssa let me sleep until 9:30, which was nice. And Grandma Coni babysat this evening so Brad and I could go to dinner at Cheesecake Factory. I didn't get any cheesecake since you know, it's made with DAIRY and all...but dinner was quite yummy even without dessert. Then we drove through Starbucks and I ordered my usual "tall soy chai" (chai tea latte made with soy milk). I don't know what the barista did, but YUCK! It was horrific. First of all, the cup wasn't a tall cup, it was much larger. Secondly, I swear they used regular milk in it. At any rate, I didn't drink it. We went to Coni's to pick up Nyssa and were greeted with more birthday gifts! On our way back home we drove back through Starbucks and Brad got them to fix my drink. The drink we left with that time was MUCH better than the first. They were very apologetic and fixed the new drink quickly. Gotta love good customer service!

I've had lots of virtual birthday wishes from friends and phone calls from family members. It's been a really nice birthday.

And now I leave you with photos from my birthdays from the last three years.

2004:
Opening my birthday gifts (Four years later and I still have that same PDA!)


Dinner that evening at Blue Mesa with a couple of my BFFs and their hubbies - we've been friends since forever (Jr. High and High School).


2005:
Surprise party at Maggiano's - my sneaky hubby at work again!


My birthday cake - apparently I've had a pink & brown addiction for quite some time. Do you see HIS birthday cake in the background? Not sure why we thought we needed two cakes! And no, I did not turn 26 this year...I was actually 30 but Brad likes to pretend he forgets how old I am each year. You'll see what I mean with the next photo.


2006:
I think my birthday snuck up on us with regard to the cake this year...or else I had a major E cake obsession! And apparently I aged 2 years in one, since I am now 28 (really 31).


2007:
There are no festive birthday photos of me this year. Shoot, I was 9 days postpartum and not thinking clearly. That's the only excuse I have. We DID go out and celebrate - my mom babysat little newborn Nyssa while we went first to Carter's to get some winter clothing for her and then to On the Border for dinner. I made the mistake of calling Mom on our way back home and could hear Nyssa crying in the background. I felt horrible and cried on the way home! How could I have left my brand new baby?! Looking back I am glad we went and laugh at how distraught I was. This photo has nothing to do with my birthday other than the fact that it was taken on my birthday. Isn't it so sweet, though?


2008: - see above!