I promised I'd post about my birthday!

So, my birthday was last weekend, and it was GREAT!  Didn't turn out to be anything like I expected, but it was awesome and showed me how great life can be when you throw out "plans" and just make your own fun!

Finances didn't work out in our favor, so the things Mike had planned (like taking me out to my favorite restaurant or getting me a big gift) weren't going to happen.   But I still got gifts.  Mike and Noah got me candy, Nathan got me my favorite Angry Bird, a friend gave me the most unique and awesome bread knife I've ever seen, another friend gave me PERFECT socks, another a PRINCESS CUPPYCAKE SCENTSY WARMER (seriously, could you get more perfect?) and earrings from another. I even got a collection of books from a lady at our church.  Each of those gifts were meaningful and special, as were the birthday cards I received (including one from my grandma, which meant a lot to me, as she's not known for sending them, lol). Tons of well-wishes on facebook and a few text messages and phone calls made me smile, too.

On my actual birthday, after church my friend kidnapped me and took me to Starbucks. After that, we went to Goodwill and put on a hideously hilarious fashion show.  Because I value my life, I am not posting pictures from that here, but I will say we laughed A LOT and drew a bit of a crowd as we modeled the worst things we could find. While we were gone, Mike and the boys cleaned the house - BONUS!  Then we went back to her house and ate burgers and played a game and laughed all night.  It was AWESOME!

The next day (Labor Day), another friend took us out to The Crab Shack for lunch and then we went to the beach. A great time was had by all until the waves attempted to kill me (did you know that if there's a hurricane in the Atlantic that the waves and riptides on the East Coast get stronger and more dangerous? This is good information to have.  I still have "beach rash" down my back).  That evening we cooked out and some other friends came over for game night (I'm addicted to game nights).  As a side note, if you've never played Quelf, you need it.  It's hysterical.

So yeah, that was my birthday weekend.  It was amazing.  I am blessed with wonderful friends and family, and this weekend was just a reminder of that.  I don't need anything fancy or a lot of money spent on me, I just need love and laughter and fun.  Also, I'm not getting anywhere near my scale this week. ;-)