Blessed...

What a life I have. Really. I have been blessed beyond measure.
January is my "birthday month" I really do like to celebrate. All. month. long.
I am a birthday person. I don't care if people know my age. I am still young. Right? I do like to be celebrated. I am sanguine in personality. I like to have fun. I like to be noticed. They say sanguines are like otters...they just want to play all day...that is me. And so, I like to be celebrated.
I am very fortunate that the people in my life know this about me!

And so, my birthday month started with my sister inviting us over the Sunday before my birthday to celebrate the "January" birthday's (there are 4 in our family)
The morning of my birthday, my little sweeties made me breakfast in bed...Caleb "cooked" (turkey bacon and toast), Rebekah made the card, and Elisa made me flowers out of tissue paper, pipe cleaners, and straws, and put them in a glass for my vase.

I had invited my parents to come cook for me (yes, I really asked them to do this) the night of my birthday. Mike had to work a night shift, and I was sad not to have him here, so Mom and Dad came over with chicken to fry for the kids and I. Or so I thought.
After they arrived, Mike woke up, (he had worked the night before) and gave me purple tulips and a card. Inside the card it said "get dressed and let's go get some sushi." (I wasn't sitting there naked, just had not done much with myself that day)
I looked at him and said, "but you have to leave for work in an hour." He said, "not tonight, I took the first 4 hours off so I could take you to dinner."
You see, after he heard that I had called my parents to come cook for me on my birthday, he called them and told them of his plans and asked if they would cook for the kids and babysit...
Oh, how I love this man. I am surprised very little, and he surprised me. I felt so loved...and the sushi was so awesome :)

Saturday after my birthday, Mike had a Feed You Faith men's conference. I got to spend part of the day with Sarah, Joy, Leigh, and Amy helping out. Sarah surprised me with an amazing gift. She had started a quilt for Micah before he was born and had finished it. She brought it into the church and I started to cry. The quilt is so beautiful and so special because she and Laurel worked, and worked, and worked on it together for my little boy. And I love it.

It is "tradition" among a group of my friends (4 of us to be exact) to take each other out on our birthday's. We started this the year we turned 31, I believe...Joy, Tamara and I are all the same age, though I get to be the one to turn 36 first...and Lydia, Joy's sister...is a few years older than us...
Anyway, they took me out last Friday. Tamara wanted to start a new tradition of writing down, and then telling the "birthday girl" three affirming things about her. I do have to say "Words of Affirmation" is my love language. So, to have three of my closest friends go around the table three times to tell me something affirming about me was the most amazing thing...my heart was full...I even forgot there were birthday gifts waiting for me!

This week will finish out my birthday month with a trip to Disney, and my baby turning 6 months....does it get any better than this?