Old Woman

I adore birthdays.  Absolutely adore them.  I love the idea of having one special day of the year that belongs entirely to you.  Well...belongs mostly to you.  Some of us have to share our birthdays with our brother, our niece, and our future nephew-in-law.  But whatever.  It's still MY day to do anything I want and feel zero guilt.

My day started out wonderfully.  Kitty made me a touching card and a bracelet.  Mykey produced one of my favorite candy bars, and he lovingly set up a balloon arch all by himself.  I was awakened by the sound of many popping balloons early in the morning.  I'm not sure if that's better or worse than an alarm clock.  

When the afternoon arrived, I wanted to eat ramen at a Japanese restaurant with my husband.  You see, my husband works a lot, and I desired a little bit of his undivided attention on my birthday.  That's what I desired, and even though I subscribe to the I-get-anything-I-want-on-my-birthday mentality, I received the exact opposite.   

Just as our delicious bowls of ramen hit the table, Michael's phone rang.  He answered.  It was work, calling with some crisis.  He proceeded to yak on the phone while I ate my ramen alone.  On my birthday.  Alone with a bowl of ramen on my birthday.  There are so many things wrong with that sentence.  (But the ramen was divine.)

That faux pas set the tone for the rest of my day and I felt a bit glum.  However, the evening improved when I was able to open my gifts: money from my parents and mother-in-law, and some adorable earrings from my sissy and brother-in-law.  He made the earrings himself! Mykey gave me heated slippers, professional teeth bleaching, and a hair removal system - body maintenance at 43 takes real work.  I also received phone calls and texts from people who love me, and it was wonderful.

Then we ate a gigantic chocolate cake just before bedtime.  I felt like Bruce from Matilda.

The next day I awoke still a little irked about my birthday lunch.  Our doorbell rang mid-morning and I was met with a beautiful bouquet of flowers.  They were from Michael's office, complete with a note apologizing for ruining my birthday lunch.  Well, now I can't be mad anymore.  It was very thoughtful and it made everything all better.  It's funny how flowers can do that.

So now I'm 43.  I feel weird about that but also grateful for the life experiences I've had so far.  And I have a feeling 43 is going to be pretty special.

Happy birthday to me!                       

Anniversary with Dolly

When it's time to get outta town for a few days, Kitty and Michael will always choose Dollywood.  Always.  With the commemoration of our anniversary looming, the 2 nerds in my life immediately started planning our special anniversary trip to Dollywood.

I said I wanted to go someplace new, but no one seemed to hear me.  Odd.

Instead, I heard an entire speech from my kin about how Michael could only take one day off from work, and where else could we go in such a short amount of time, and what if we stayed at Dolly's swanky DreamMore Resort to make it feel like we hadn't already been to Dollywood 46 times this year, and he would plan an extra special activity for us, and we could eat at that restaurant we've never been able to get in to, and Kitty really needed to try her hand at Magiquest again, and why wouldn't I just go along with the crowd?

Sigh.  Do you see what I have to deal with?  You can guess that I was outvoted.

But, despite my lukewarm desire to patronize Pigeon Forge again, we actually ended up having a splendid time together.  I suppose this proves that it doesn't matter where we go, it's the being together that makes everything joyous.

And joyous it was. We began our adventures by seeing a show at Bays Mountain Planetarium and riding a carousel.  

And then the next day we hit the open road.  On that day, it was FREEZING cold outside.  It was so cold that after mere moments outside, we shuffled into the gift shop to purchase extra scarves, gloves, and sweatpants for Kitty.  The best part was that we paid gift shop prices.  But at least we were warm! 

At one point we were huddled around an outdoor heater with a few other people.  I must have looked ridiculously frozen because one of the guys asked if we were from Florida.  When I said I grew up in Idaho, he laughed and said I was a pretty wimpy Idahoan.

Yes, yes I am.

Dollywood was aglow with Christmas lights and displays that put us in the holiday spirit by the time we exited.  We drank hot chocolate and wassail, did the bumper cars, watched a Christmas play, and rode the coal-fired steam engine.  Since we were guests at the resort, we were even able to avoid the crowded parking lot and take a trolley back to our room instead.  Avoiding the walk in the cold was exquisite.

The DreamMore resort was beautiful.  They had live piano music in the lobby, an enormous Christmas tree, and an arcade in the basement.  Kitty even had her own bunk bed to sleep on with bedding that zipped her in like a cocoon.  Splendid!

The next day Kitty was able to defeat the Goblin King at Magiquest and we did our very special activity of a helicopter ride.  It was my first time in a helicopter.  I had a little motion sickness but overall I enjoyed it immensely. And Kitty was the co-pilot!

We ended our weekend at the place where we always end our Pigeon Forge weekends: at the Relic Room.  It's a rock and crystal heaven for Kitty.

Alright, I'll go ahead and say it: being at Dollywood for our 20th anniversary was fun.  It wasn't no Caribbean island, but it was still a good time.

Here's to 20 years!  

China Anniversary

Would you believe me if I said that Michael and I celebrated 20 years of marriage recently?  20 years! 

I can barely believe it myself and I've lived those 20 years. 

To celebrate such an admirable achievement in our relationship together, Michael and I celebrated in the most spectacular fashion: he went to work and I entertained Kitty on her day off from school.

The romance is still alive, people.  The romance is still alive.

It actually was a very pleasant day, and we celebrated for realsies the following weekend. 

But! On the Tuesday that was our China Anniversary - which, by the way, I didn't get no China - I quietly reflected on my life with Michael and came to the conclusion that I'm awfully glad I have him around.

And then I made tie-dyed shirts with Kitty.

And then we went to lunch at Jersey Mike's.

And then we voted like good citizens.

And then we went to swim lessons.

And then we ate steak for dinner.

See?  That's a mighty fine day indeed.

As I consider 20 years of marriage to Michael, it comes down to a life of "sometimes."

Sometimes it's happy.  Sometimes it's angry.  Sometimes it's dull.  Sometimes it's exciting.  Sometimes there's silence.  Sometimes it's endless conversation.  Sometimes I'm fat.  Sometimes I'm not. Sometimes it's stressful.  Sometimes it's passionate.  Sometimes it's laughter.  Sometimes it's tears.  

But it is always worth it.  

I'm incredibly grateful that Michael is my always.  I love him.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Birfday Partay

Poor Kitty had to wait until 10 days AFTER her birthday to have a proper celebration with her friends.  It was a long wait.

But the day finally arrived and we were excited! Since the party was in the late afternoon, we had plenty of time to accomplish really important things in the morning, like going to Sam's Club.  Kitty was not happy about that until I agreed to buy her a hot dog.  And an Icee.  She'll do anything for a hot dog and an Icee.

I tasked Michael with being the photographer for the day.  I am sorry to report that he didn't accomplish his task very well.  I was busy chatting with my cousin's wife, and therefore, I couldn't be bothered to take pictures.  He was busy thinking about nerd things.  Such is life.

Kitty and I lovingly made Chewbacca goody bags for each friend, complete with a 3D printed BB-8.  They were pretty awesome. 

And I lovingly made an enormous Darth Vader mint chocolate brownie cake.  Remember that picture thing?  Well, we didn't get any good pictures of the cake...hence the weird background on the finished cake.

 

The cake weighed approximately 57 pounds and tasted delicious.  Mykey 3D printed the Vader and the sign.  We were all about the 3D printing this time around.

We held the party at the gym where Kitty takes gymnastics.  They went wild playing on the equipment and diving into the foam pit. It was wonderful because the space was so enormous, you couldn't hear much of their hootin' and hollerin'.  They were in heaven.

Later, we had pizza, opened presents, then turned out the lights for the amazing light-up balloons.  Well...they looked amazing for the first 30 seconds and then they all started coming apart.  Thanks for nothin, China.

It was another successful birthday party.  Happy number 10 to Kitty!

Backpack Treasures

Kitty doesn't tell me much about what's going on at school or what assignments she's worked on.  Every so often I'll stumble upon something crinkled up in her backpack.  Sometimes it boring old math, and sometimes it's a treasure that makes me giggle.  

I found a few treasures recently:

Kitty cracks me up!  I'm sure glad she's around.

Halloweener

I love Halloween.  You know this about me.  I was sad that I couldn't decorate this year since all of my Halloween decorations are in the depths of our storage unit somewhere.  That, and the condo ain't big enough to accommodate my stash of goodies.  There are some definite downsides to this condo life.

 

But!  We had a great Halloween nonetheless.  We began our celebrations a few days early at our ward's trunk-or-treat and carnival.  Michael stole the show with his 3D printed Mandalorian costume.  It was a labor of love that took hours and hours of painting and sewing and gluing and spending money.  

Did I mention that most of those hours were performed by Booney?  Well, they were.  But it was cool to see it come together.  We have a few kinks to solve - things like attachment problems - but overall the effect was amazing. I was the Lucky Cat and Kitty was Rey from Star Wars.

Wow! What a good-looking family!

Then, a few days later on Halloween, we went trick-or-treating for realsies.  We met up with Kitty's friends and traipsed around the neighborhood gathering our loot.  The weather was PERFECT and we had a nice time wandering around.  The neat part was that most people were out on their driveways sitting in lawn chairs or with big tables set up waiting for the kids.  It felt inviting and very much like a community.  I loved it. 

Kitty scored a big haul, and I immediately started pilfering from her pile of treasure.  It's what I do best.

It was a very happy Halloween indeed!