I hate to break my streak of blogging about my birthday (every year since 2007!), so I will take some time to discuss that here.
My birthday was on a Sunday this year, but the celebration started on Wednesday when my work surprised me with a day-long celebration. I walked in to open the office at 7:00am and was greeted by this:
And some super cute preschoolers came and sang to me:
My boss even surprised me with a lunch party for the whole office. To make things even better, Matt called to invite me to lunch that day to celebrate him being done with finals, so I got to invite him to come to the party. It was very lovely, but unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures.
So, all of that was very pleasant and unexpected.
As for my actual birthday, I was super excited to spend it with my husband. But I could never quite decide on what I actually wanted to do the day of, so when my in-laws called and invited us for dinner, I thought that sounded pretty awesome.
The day before my birthday Matt and I stayed up watching movies and around 11pm, I decided that in honor of my birthday, it would be super fun to go to Denny's. I have a not-so-secret love of going to Denny's at midnight and watching the weirdos there. I even worked graveyards at Denny's one summer in college for that very reason. Matt, however, had never taken a late night trip to Denny's. Between the excessive swearers, the insanely pierced, the angry-looking fellow who kept staring at us in an obvious attempt to intimidate us, the awkward double daters, and the extreme PDAers (that one might have been us), and the fact that (in true midnight at Denny's fashion) it took about an hour for us to get our food, the trip did not disappoint. It was everything I had hoped for. Matt, for some reason, did not see the fun in it like I did. Maybe it's just something you have to grow up with (by which I mean "experience in college").
After Denny's we stopped at Walmart to get some stuff to take to my birthday dinner the next day. It also turned into a Christmas shopping trip, since Matt had been working 60-hour weeks and hadn't had time to do non-internet shopping. I was delighted to discover that my sweet, wonderful husband had been keeping a list of everything I said I'd wanted for the past several months (which really was smart of him because I would never think of saying I wanted a tortilla warmer except when I am warming tortillas). He had a very comprehensive list full of things I never would have thought of when asked. We had so much fun shopping together.
When we got home, Matt decided to give me his birthday gift. He pulled out an expertly wrapped maroon box, which since becoming a married woman I have come to recognize as a box containing expensive jewelry from Shane Company. He bought me a BEAUTIFUL gold chain!
It was the perfect perfect perfect gift because two years ago, I really wanted a gold chain for Christmas, but my boyfriend at the time couldn't be bothered to go buy me one, so I bought myself one as a reminder that I couldn't bank of anyone else taking care of me and needed to take care of myself (you might remember me telling the story here. Wow! That post is AWESOME to read, knowing where I am now and remembering where I was. Everything I hoped for happened!). It is so so nice to have a man who really really wants to take care of me now. To me, the necklace was a great, tangible, symbol of that. Plus, the gift was especially perfect because there's a lifetime warranty if it breaks, and I have a tendency to break things (the necklace mentioned in the blog post above actually broke twice before I gave up on it). I love my husband!!On my actual birthday, I got to wake up to this:
It was my first time waking up next to this studly man on my birthday, so I took a picture (good thing I sleep with my phone under my pillow). We went to church, taught our Primary class, took a nap, and then went to Matt's parents' for dinner. As always, it was a delightful evening with the best in-laws imaginable. They even bought me a birthday cake from the same bakery that did our wedding cake!
It was very fancy! And they even remembered my love of mint/chocolate combos. And the artist was clever and added holly leaves to the edging. I love when people do that. 
I have loved reading my birthday post from last year and compare it to this year. As hopeful and optimistic as I was, I never would have guessed things would work out so perfectly or so quickly. It is CRAZY how much can change in 12 months. My 31st year really was the best one ever. This year, I for sure am going to do a better job recording life as it happens. Especially because I'm pretty optimistic that 32 is somehow going to be even better.
I have loved reading my birthday post from last year and compare it to this year. As hopeful and optimistic as I was, I never would have guessed things would work out so perfectly or so quickly. It is CRAZY how much can change in 12 months. My 31st year really was the best one ever. This year, I for sure am going to do a better job recording life as it happens. Especially because I'm pretty optimistic that 32 is somehow going to be even better. 