Birthday Extravaganza- Taking Advice from Trish

A wise woman once told me that I should make every birthday as special as I want it to be. So I did. Thursday night was our night for Taste-N-Trade. This time it was at my house. It was so much fun there were 12 girls that showed up with wonderful breakfast goodies. They were so sweet. Before we even got started, they sang "Happy Birthday" to me. It was so appreciated. After we had eaten and gabbed for a couple hours, the girls left. Andrea hung out and we talked for a while since we hadn't seen each other in forever when the phone rang. I assumed that it was Cade calling to see if he could come home as he had left to go to his parents' house to give us girls to some testosterone-free fun (isn't he the sweetest?!?!). It was Jess on the other end seeing if I wanted to play a game since I would be out of town on my birthday. So she came over and the three of us played the Twilight game. It was so much fun! It was a great night.

Friday came and Cade called me to see what I would want to do since we were going to be out of town on my birthday. Last year, our good friends Bryce and Trish took us out to eat and out to the Redlands temple for my birthday. I think that I want to keep that as a tradition for me. So I asked Cade to take me to a session at the temple. We barely made it, but it was such a wonderful ecperience. I love when you get that feeling of absolute peace. It is so wonderful to be away from the chaos of the world and just have complete peace of mind, body and spirit. After we had completed our session, Cade took me out to California Pizza Kitchen. Oh so yummy! I love going on dates with my sweetheart. He is so great to talk to and he spoils me rotten. "Get whatever you want" is usually what I hear. So we both got our different pies (he- a meat lovers with every animal on it one could imagine me- a BBQ Chicken Hawaiian pizza with huge-o chunks of pineapple on it). It was so delicious. A wonderful night of spiritually refilling our cups, of fabulous conversation with the man of my dreams.

Saturday was my actual birthday. Cade woke me up with a kiss and a "happy birthday". Then my phone rings. Trish and Bryce called to sing "happy birthday" to me. It was such a lovely surprise. After that, there several phone calls and text messages from family and dear friends. I was very pleased. That afternoon we headed out to Parker to help out the Crawfords and Crooks with getting things ready for the trek reunion. It was so great to be working and serving others. It was a change of pace than I am used to for my birthday. It was a lovely activity with the kids getting together with their leaders and to remember the feelings they had while we were on the trek.

Sunday was a wonderfully busy day. I had to teach sharing time, which I think went really smoothly. Then Jill asked me if I could come over to help her prepare for her activity that is being held on Wednesday. So I went over and wound up spending about 2 1/2 hours talking. It was so great. She told me that she was going to be taking Ron and Faye over to my house in like 15 mintues for cake. So I headed home and walked in the garage. I walked in the door and my sweet friends were there to surprise me. Cade had been orchestrating this surprise crawfish boil for weeks. It was such a pleasant surprise. I'm so glad that I was able to be surrounded by wonderful people on my birthday. It was really fun teaching people how to eat crawfish and seeing them succeed. Crawfish can be tricky. I am glad that we were able to share something that is so special to me and my family with those dears that are here. Thanks to all who helped make it a wonderful day.