Now I Know How *34* Feels

And it's not that different from 33. I celebrated my birthday last Saturday. Brandon tried to surprise me with breakfast, only he got a little upset when I woke up before he left to go get it. He came back with a buffet of delicious fruits! He asked me, "Did you think I went to get doughnuts?" And to be honest, I was a little afraid he had. I appreciated him thinking of me enough to get me something he knew I'd enjoy. Then he gave me my gift, "The Original Fast Foods" book that I've been wanting since I went and listed to Jim Simmons speak back in June. It has lots of recipes and suggestions to help me eat better. Since that was the only gift he gave me I asked where my knife was. You see, my in-laws sent me an electric knife I had on my wishlist (to help me cut my bread since we've gone strictly homemade). When this package came in the mail with my name on it I thought I should open it. Well, when Brandon came home from work that day and saw it, he stole it and hid it from me and told me I couldn't have it until my birthday. So, come my birthday I was a little surprised NOT to see it. So he went and got my knife, and the girls gave me a couple things they had made.

After breakfast I didn't have anything planned, my family were all doing their own things, so Brandon suggested I use the afternoon to do something on my own. I went down to the new Church History Library to find a pamphlet Dallas had asked me to locate. That was quite a process to go through -- very high security -- but I got a copy of the whole pamphlet and was in and out in about 30 minutes. When I came out of the library I saw I had missed a call from Dallas, so I was excited to call him back and share the good news.

While I was gone to the library my visiting teachers had stopped by and brought me a gift. Brandon told me they had brought me some soap, and Sophie brought it out to me, but I asked her to go put it on the counter until I could go inside to open it. I was pleasantly surprised when I opened it not to find soap, but some organic agave nectar! Those are some visiting teachers that felt inspired. Actually, one of them told me later that she overheard some people talking about it at the store and just thought of me. She was a little worried I would think it was weird, but it was perfect!

For dinner Brandon took me to The Olive Garden (he had a gift card to use). He was going to get a babysitter, but I told him it was my birthday and I would kind of like to have my kids there too. Well, the kids butted in and said they'd rather not go! I know, how mean! But they didn't want a babysitter either; they were squeezing out a playdate with their friends. Luckily, Kellie was a great sport and had no problem having them over. Unfortunately, it was also the night of Homecoming so every high schooler around also wanted to go to The Olive Garden. We waited it out and got a table and I had my eggplant and was happy. I'm pretty sure that is not a grammatically correct sentence, but it was my birthday so I don't care.

I ended the day with phone calls from my parents and my sweetest friend in California. And for all of you that I got psyched up about my big 10-10-10 birthday next year, my party has been called off. I realized it's going to fall on a Sunday and it doesn't feel right to have a 10-10-10 party on 10-9-10.