june 16th...

twenty-eight years ago at 8:52am colorado time, so 10:52am here, my wonderful mother and father welcomed me into the world. it seems odd that i'm about to be twenty-eight but i will still be celebrating with my family. i made a dinner reservation at paparazzi (an italian restaurant in lafayette village, north raleigh). dinner will be followed by cupcakes and gifts at the house. (a couple weeks ago, a co-worker brought in cupcakes for her birthday from a bakery just beyond the apex town limits in cary called simply cakes. i only had one but it was AMAZING. just the right size, not mini but not oversized. vanilla cake with strawberry mousse filling (surprise!) and "white" icing. fyi: thursdays are $1 cupcake days.) :)

my life is not what i expected it to be at this point in my life, but in most ways, it's way better. i have a lot to be thankful for and i am very appreciative for the life i have and the people who are on this journey with me. thank you to all of my family and sweet friends / acquaintances for making the past 27 years mostly wonderful. ;) 28 will be great, but hopefully even better.

anyways...happy birthday to me. :)

today is my dad's 68th birthday.

and while my family is out to dinner, i am stuck at home..sick. i started to feel ill yesterday...last night i ran a fever, complete with chills, aches & pains, scratchy/sore throat with cough...and now, the nose is beginning to creep in. excellent.

at least i got in my priming marathon last night while i could...i painted in the cold (the heat up front only heats one room!) for nearly 7 hours (with breaks). but both dressing rooms are done with 2 coats and ready for color. :)

67 Years' Celebration

here are some pictures from my dad's birthday party from earlier in the month. :)

my mom made him a cake version of his favorite: boston creme pie. she glazed & then put it in the fridge so that's why it looks kinda flat..but it sure was tasty. btw, cake and beer go great together. ;) he was really surprised to get the wii, but sadly, i think it was more of a present for my mom than my dad...i haven't heard about him playing it much..... ;)

67 years

today is my dad's birthday...he was born 67 years ago today!

a late night and rainy weather deterred me from heading to raleigh today, but that's where we're headed tomorrow, through monday (or tuesday?), to celebrate. shh! my mom got him a wii. :) i'm excited. i got him one of those squishy neck roll pillows, burgundy with the vt logo of course. :) hope everyone has a great weekend.

by the way, did the groundhog see his shadow on tuesday??

My Birthday Will Be Memorable

...But not for reasons you may think. After work, I went to Northlake. This would've been okay on any other day, but this was not any other day. I opened the door and nearly passed out! Poor Bella had gotten sick in her crate (diarrhea) and was standing up (thank goodness she didn't lay down in it!). I will spare you the details, but essentially, I spent my birthday taking care of/cleaning up after Bella. We stuck her outside while we cleaned the inside, and once darkness came, she threw up outside. Poor baby. We left her out on the balcony while we went out for a little bit and came home to a damp dog (it had poured right before we were going to leave--oops!). She felt a bit better I could tell, so I let her sleep inside, in her crate.

Yesterday morning, I took her to the vet and had to wait for 2 hours. I ended up leaving her at the vet for x-rays. I picked her up and she was so excited to see me! It was so cute. So, pretty much she just had an upset stomach and was dehydrated. So, she's on prescription food and has a camel hump and goes back in a week. ...She better be feeling better $350 later. ...

I may be hurting now but financial wealth seems unimportant whenever I look at this face! She is absolutely the sweetest ever without (hardly) a mean bone in her body..except when she hogs the bed. Even at ~70lbs., she still melts my heart. I love her. :)

Happy Birthday to ME

Today is my 26th birthday. :D My parents sent me a gorgeous (& huge!) bouquet at work today. It's full of gerbera daisies, gladiola stems, carnations, white daisy mums, ..it's beautiful. Tonight, I'm meeting some friends at Stooly's (not very exciting, I know) since I'm taking tomorrow off from work!