Happy Birthday To Me

Another New Years, another birthday. Yup, today I turned 31 years old.

We did my birthday dinner last night since Mike had to teach class tonight. My parents, Kati & Nate, Nicki & Tim and Ray & Nancy joined us at The Union in Volcano. It's this cool little inn and restaurant that has been around since 1880. We've been there a couple times... they're known for their burgers (they're huge!) and their fried chicken and macaroni & cheese. Needless to say, I went with the pasta dish - like I always do because I just can't turn down a good mac and cheese. They use a smoked cheddar cheese and top it with buttered bread crumbs. Yum!

I took today off from work - I don't normally do this on my birthday because I feel like it's a wasted day. I typically try to group my vacation days together so that I can take a week or more off. However, this year we had Friday off, so I basically made a four day weekend. The day started with Mike making me bacon, eggs and tater tots. We then chilled on the sofa for a bit before kicking around a few ideas for the rest of the day. We landed on working in the yard. Mike worked on finishing the retaining wall by the waterfall and I was able to prune some of my trees and oleanders. I know it probably sounds boring to most of you, but for me, this was the perfect day off. I absolutely love playing in the yard and lately have not had or made the time for it. The weather was absolutely beautiful today - overcast but warm - making it wonderful for being outside. I got a lot done, including pulling up my veggie garden and preparing the soil for some winter veggies.

Tonight I've spent the evening mellowing on the sofa... again, not something I do very often. It's been the perfect day! The one downer is that I seem to have caught some sort of cold... apparently my immune system just doesn't want to do it's job right now! Fortunately, I just have a runny nose and sneeze a bit, which I can handle. I'm hoping a few days of going to bed early helps out!

Thanks again to everyone who called, texted, emailed or Facebooked me... I feel really loved today! It was great to hear from some people that I haven't talked to in a while! I'm a lucky girl!