Turning 29

Today is my birthday. I am officially 29. This is the last year of my twenties. I have good intentions to use it well... I sure hope it works out that way!

My birthday weekend was lots of fun! The drive in Friday night was SO much fun! I'm very happy that we went and even happier that we stayed for both films. I liked Iron Man 2 just fine – it's not as big of a story as the first movie. It's more just showing the natural progression of life for a super hero who becomes public. The bad guys weren't really scary and it didn't take much to bring them down. But the cast was good and I had no complaints when it was over. I have always been a Robert Downey Jr. fan, and I really like Gwenyth Paltrow as Pepper. She's adorable! I was also very pleased with how much I enjoyed the second feature of the evening, The Losers. I mean, it was good! I only new a few of the cast members going into it, but I thought everyone was good. And the guy who played Cougar? Whoa! Was he cute!!! The weather was perfect, as was my date, and the whole thing is so inexpensive, it almost feels like steeling. A double feature for $6? Come on!

We got home super late and didn't get to bed until around 2:30, so Saturday we slept in and it was glorious! We went to lunch at The Cheesecake factory where the food is just okay but the dessert will blow your mind. Seriously. I got Chris's Outrageous Chocolate Cake which is a mixture of cheesecake and chocolate cake with my all time favorite: coconut icing. INSANELY good! Or I guess I should say outrageously good. I enjoyed it both times that I ate it! It's too much to eat at once, but way too good not to take home to finish the next day.

Brett had killer allergy issues on Saturday, but he was still wonderful and took me on a shopping birthday trip. We went to Target where I got some crazy cute gold sandals, two shirts, 3 journals (I got all three because they were super cute and only $7 each... I couldn't pick, so I decided at that price, I should just get them all!), a picture frame and a scrapbook project box! Can I shop, or what??? Then we went to Fry's to replace a controller of Brett's that stopped working and get my mom Avatar for Mother's Day. I know... not the most fantastic gift. But she really wanted to see it. While I was looking for Avatar, I found Troop Beverly Hills for $7. I grew up loving this movie! It's one that I always check the $5 DVD section at Target for and when I saw it at Fry's, I just had to get it. I watched it last night and it still makes me smile =-)

Saturday night we went to the Sunday School Cinco de Mayo party. It was fun... mostly. I did okay in the beginning, but then after an hour or so, I started to get really anxious. I can't pinpoint exactly what caused it. Actually, I think I can. A group of us went inside to get a piece of the cookie cake that they had for dessert. My piece was a totally normal size, the same as what everyone else had, but when we all went back outside, a guy zeroed in on my piece and started talking about this double layer cookie "as if one layer isn't bad enough" and how he and his wife don't eat sweets. It made me so uncomfortable. And then Brett mentioned to someone nearby that we had eaten at The Cheesecake Factory for lunch, and all I could think about was what this guy must be thinking of me. And then it just got more and more awkward for me from there. Even before that, I was sitting in this plastic chair outside that wasn't strong enough to hold me. I was trying desperately to not let anyone else realize how the chair was wobbling, but it was horribly uncomfortable. I think only one guy noticed the chair bending and almost falling over when I sat down. I got up and moved the chair pretending that it was the uneven surface that made the chair buckle, but after that, I was balancing very precariously and trying my darndest to keep up a normal conversation with the people around me. Tyler pretended not to notice. I'm immensely thankful for that.

But we stayed for almost two hours before I asked Brett if we could leave. I want to go to the social events because I really want Brett and I to make some couple friends. But this is the second one in a row where I ended up kind of freaking out mid party. I wish that I could say that moments like that are motivating for me... that they make me want to eat super healthy things and run five miles every day. But the truth is, they make me want to eat a Twinkie in the dark and then lay down and die. Dramatic, I know. But those are the feelings that I have to fight off sometimes.

Anyway, when we left the party we picked up a Mother's Day present for my sister and some cards for all of the moms we were going to party with the next day.

Brett taught Sunday School on Sunday morning and it was great. Afterwards, we ended up going to lunch with a couple from our class. It is the first social interaction we have had with another couple from the class outside of class events, and I'm really thankful that it was this particular couple. I would love it if we became friends. Lunch went well and we made plans to make plans to go bowling...

Sunday afternoon Brett napped while I read some New Moon and then we met my family, along with Brett's mom, for dinner at Los Lupes. It was perfect. I am so in love with my family. It was my entire immediately family along with my dad's brother, mother, sister and niece. We had a great time and Brett's mom seemed totally comfortable, so that's great.

Last night I stayed up late, watching Troop Beverly Hills, and reading. So it was a good day.

Today got off on the wrong foot. My days off never seem to go as planned anymore. Today I seemed to ruin the day before I even got out of bed. I was supposed to accept a package from Fed-Ex this morning, but I thought they weren't coming until 10:30, so at 8:00, when I woke up with a headache I decided to stay in bed and "rest". Well I fell back asleep and didn't hear Fed-Ex. When I got out of bed at 9:30 there was a note on the door that I had missed them, and Brett was in a panic because he couldn't get a hold of me. I didn't hear the door and I didn't hear my phone, and there was nothing I could do about it. Brett came home and got the package on his lunch break, so it wasn't a big deal, but he was still pretty upset that I had worried him this morning, and I just don't handle it very well when he is upset with me =-( So blah. Not a great start to the day.

But I did a pretty decent cleaning of the apartment. I vacuumed every bit of carpet, I cleaned the mirrors, sinks, counters, floors and toilets of both bathrooms. I didn't want to spend the time cleaning the showers, so I will try to do that soon. And I ran out of floor cleaner and Lysol before I could get to the kitchen. But I threw out every single piece of trash and even dusted, so that's definitely progress. I finished cleaning at about 11:30 so I took a shower and ate lunch with Brett when he came home at noon. We have lots of leftovers from this weekend!

I left the apartment at 1:00, but I spent some time in front of the dumpster cleaning out my car. We had a box of junk explode in my trunk when we moved. That's right... 16 months ago. And I had never cleaned it out. Well today, I finally did! And then I went to get my car washed. I planned on vacuuming it really well, but was foiled when they told me I couldn't use the vacuums, I could only pay them to vacuum it. No thanks. I'll do it somewhere else. So my car is cleaner, but still not clean. But again, it's progress!

After that I had about a million stores that I wanted to go to and two movies that were options to see. One of them (The Joneses, which I was really interested in seeing) was playing at 4:20 and the other (The Runaways, which I was sort of interested in seeing) was playing at 5:15. So here's how the day ended up going post car wash:

- Starbucks for a Venti Iced Chai

- Borders in Lewisville for Hungry Girls new cookbook (I had a coupon for 30% off one item which was totally cancelled out when they asked me to donate a bag of coffee for the troops that ended up being a $12 bag of coffee!!!)

- Mardel for $1 clearance books. I bought 12. I'm hate not having anything to read.

- Bed Bath and Beyond. I went for one set of picture frames and bought two sets. Oops. But so cute.

- Back to Irving for Half Price Books where I returned a movie that Laura gave me yesterday but I already own (Labyrinth... love it!) and used the gift card that she gave me to buy a fresh copy of Jane Eyre because mine was in tatters, Paula Dean's memoir and a book about a certain crafting project that I have been considering trying out

- Grapevine Mills for the 5:15 showing of The Runaways. Wish I had made The Joneses.

- Lane Bryant to pay my bill and use the gift card that my MIL gave me to buy 2 shirts

- Home to get Brett

- Dinner at Pei Wei

- Grocery Shopping

- And now it's way past my bedtime and I am blogging.

I got tons of birthday messages on Facebook and my phone and they really brightened my day. Overall, it was a good birthday. I love my husband and my family, and I still have some celebrating to do with friends that I am totally looking forward to.

Back to work tomorrow. I am in such a weird mental place about career stuff right now. This post has already been a mile long, so I'll talk about it later. Probably.

Hope everyone had a good time celebrating motherhood!

My last year of my twenties has begun. I hope it's a good one =-)