The day I turned 38

Last year (2016), when I turned 37, my birthday was on Labor Day.  No work.  The year before (2015), when I turned 36, it was on a Saturday.  We were in San Diego and spent the day at the beach.  No work.  In 2014, when I turned 35,  my birthday was on a Friday.  I would have worked, but that was the day Spencer had a three hour dermatology appointment to get into an eczema medication trial.  So, no work.  In 2013, when I turned 34, my birthday was on a Thursday and guess what.  I went to work!  So, you have to go back to 2013 to find the last time I worked on my birthday.   And just because I was curious: I didn't work in 2012 (it was a Wednesday), 2011 was Labor Day again (no work), 2010 was on a Sunday, 2009 was a Saturday, 2008 was a Friday and I didn't work, and 2007 (Wednesday) I went to work but left to go home at noon in terrible pain because I was in labor and didn't know it. 

Anyway.  My birthday was the day after Labor Day this year.  Michael left for work hours before I got up, but he left this really heartfelt and sentimental note on the kitchen island. 

I worked a pretty regular day.  I had therapy sessions the whole day.  A kindergarten class did sing to me though. 

The kids were itching to do presents when I got home.  Luckily I got to leave work early because of my really long 11 hour work day the previous week.  

Elliott took my picture with my presents.  Nice job, Elliott. 

My first gift was a pint of Halo Top.  Apparently Michael had been hiding it in the freezer for a week. 

White Musk oil from the Body Shop.  I've been using that perfume since I was 15. 

Michael picked these tops all on his own!

I mentioned about nine months ago I wanted a butter crock.  He actually remembered! 

Family pictures

Then it was time for dinner.  We bought a Groupon for the American Poutine Company.  So yes, we ate about 18 pounds of fries for dinner.  

This one was Bacon Cheeseburger.

BBQ pulled pork with gravy and cheese curds.

The original.  Fries with gravy and cheese curds. 

Philly Cheesesteak 

We did not even come close to finishing all of them.

The sunset, mostly because of the sun, was amazing that night.  I just couldn't ever get the sun because of too many trees. You can kind of see the flaming ball behind the trees here. 

After dinner we stopped at a bakery and picked up some treats to bring home.  

This was a chocolate chocolate-dipped cupcake with peanut butter mousse. 

Fruit filled eclair

Strawberry tart

Banoffee Pie (banana toffee)

The dessert crew.  We all shared all of them.   And honestly there was one other thing.  Some kind of delicious bar, but we forgot it was in the box (it was wrapped up) and then we ate it before we could get a picture. 

Individual pictures with my dessert crew.

After dessert the kids went to bed.  Then I took a picture of the countdown board as it was the night before Spencer's birthday. 

And finally, we decorated Spencer's door so he would be surprised when he got up the next day. 

And that, friends, is what happened the day I turned 38.  Riveting stuff, people. 

Pre-birthday

I realized today that I'm going to have to write about 15,000 posts to cover the double birthdays (me= 38 and Spencer= 10) this week, so I should probably get caught up on blogging so I can jump into the fun posts. 

So last week.  Lame.  Boring.  That about covers it.  We're just going to power through from Monday to Monday so that I can start fresh with birthday stuff in the next post. 

I worked on Monday the 28th because I took Thursday the 31st off.  I brought four new pretty file folders with me to work to add to the collection. I'm slowly converting all of them and I love it. 

I also worked on Tuesday the 29th.  I took no pictures that day, at all, but I did have a bunch of screen shots of mountain goats.  I was looking for a funny meme I had seen and in searching came across some amazing pictures.  I never did find the funny one though. 

I worked on Wednesday the 30th.  I asked a 2nd grader if he wanted to play a game for five minutes before going back to class.  He said no, but he did want to stack all of my dinosaurs into towers. 

I actually worked until almost 7:00 pm that day because of an IEP meeting.  The sun was almost set when I walked out to my car.  It was dark by the time I got to the freeway. 

This was a photo that the gremlins in my phone got to.

This was a more true color. 

On Thursday the 31st the kids had early release from school.  I took Spencer in to the allergy doctor for his first dose of Xolair.  We had to wait for two hours after the shot to make sure he didn't have an allergic reaction.  I brought ALL of the electronics with us. 

Parent/Teacher conferences were that night.  We got 100% great comments from both kids' teachers so we went out to dinner to celebrate. 

Good

Silly

Good

Silly

Good again.  Also, I did not know that poor woman was sitting behind us being forced to be a photo bomber.  I feel so bad now. 

I was home on Friday the 1st.  I think I watched TV all day.  We're getting new DVRs and have to clear everything off of the old ones before they take them, because we can't transfer anything.  I'm down to just needing to watch the new show about the unabomber and I don't want to start until after the last show airs next week. 

On Saturday the 2nd Spencer and I went shopping to start getting ready for his birthday party.  We bought all of the Pokemon supplies. 

While we were in the party aisle of Walmart we saw they had an entire line of Harry Potter party supplies.  We decided then and there to do a Harry Potter party for Spencer's 11th.  And after deciding that, we remembered that Harry gets his Hogwarts letter on his 11th birthday.  So, it's all just too perfect and I can't wait.  Plus, we're 100% ready for the party.   12 months early.

On Saturday afternoon Michael and I were craving cappuccino.  We pulled out the beans, 

ground and tamped them, 

and then realized that the cappuccino maker is broken.

So we improvised. We heated up cold brew in the microwave, frothed some nut milk with a frother from IKEA and it was delicious. 

On Sunday the 3rd my parents flew in to Phoenix after a two week trip to Europe and Russia.  I picked them up from the airport that night. 

And, finally, on Monday the 4th, the day before my birthday, I gave myself a matching mani/pedi.  It's the first time I've put the same jamberry wraps on my fingernails and toenails at the same time. 

Oh, and one more thing. Spencer weighed himself and he's basically the devil.