It's My Birthday!

Yup, another year has come and gone. I remember when I was 20 and my thirties seemed like a lifetime away. And here I am, right smack in the middle of them... already! Ben's famous line to me this morning: "Happy Birthday, you're 35 today. You're already halfway to 70, and 70 is really, really old." At what point does a husband think that it's actually okay to say something like this?  ::rolling eyes::

I started to celebrate my birthday last night with some wine (not sure how this is different than any other night, but whatever). My great friend, Joy, got me this awesome wine glass - it's ginormous, huh? Just my size! You can't see it in the picture, but the top of the glass says, "It's My Birthday, and I'll Wine If I Want To". Oh yeah, this thing was made especially for me.

Joy left this along with a few other things in a gift bag on the front porch. I was oblivious to this at the time, and when Ben went to check the mail last night, he came back in with the gift bag. He says to me, "Happy Birthday, I hope you like your presents I got you". Naturally, I was in shock that Ben stood before me bearing gifts, but even moreso shocked that he sprung for a nice gift bag. Of course, it took me a few minutes to realize the gifts were actually from Joy... but that still didn't stop Ben from continuing to pretend they were really gifts from him!

So all I really wanted for my birthday was a nice dinner out, sans the kids, for a few hours. Naturally, this dinner was in addition to the new, expensive purse I will be getting soon (No Ben, I didn't forget about my purse request!). So we got a babysitter and went to the Outback tonight.

It's such a rare occasion that we go anywhere without the kids in tow... so all night long I kept thinking that I was missing something or forgetting something. How sad is that? I took my camera with me in anticipation of getting a picture of our fabulous meals. But after the food arrived, I apparently was in such awe of being able to (1) eat a hot meal (before it got cold), and (2) eat without having a child tugging on my leg. Because I completely forgot all about taking a picture. But just know that dinner was delicious, and I stuffed in as much as I possibly could. =)~

My other big brag on my 35th birthday is that I have officially lost every, single ounce of baby weight that I gained with the boys. It's such a great feeling to know that it's all gone (not that my body shape went back to pre-baby, but hey, I'll take what I can get). And I'm only 5 pounds away from what I weighed on my wedding day. So even if nobody else cares, I'm patting myself on the back. Because It's My Birthday, And I'll Brag (and Wine) If I Want To!!

P.S. Thank you to all my wonderful friends and family for the birthday wishes today. I received them all day long, via text, cell phone, Facebook, and email. It really made my day to keep receiving these messages from all of you!