Birthday Weekend

For pretty much the entire month of August I was dreading my birthday.  40.  Ugh.  That's just so old!!  In general, I like my birthday.  I like cake.  I like presents.  I like going out to dinner.  But this year I was just not looking forward to any of it.  At.  All.  But then I had the best weekend ever!

Tom showed up around 11am on Friday with a cake from Cakes on Board.  They did our wedding cake and, seriously, they make the best cakes!  I ate cake all weekend and my mouth still waters thinking about that cake!  I was so happy and surprised that I didn't even (hardly) notice that the cake has my age right there on it for everyone to see.

But then I got the best surprise ever!  My bff, Lori, surprised me by flying in for the weekend!  My mom picked her up at the airport on Friday and brought her to my house just in time to go out to lunch.  I like to think that I'm pretty tough to surprise.  Mostly because I'm sneaky and nosy.  Yes, I'm the one who goes searching for presents in closets.  Always have, and probably always will.  But this time I think that nearly everyone around me was in on it and no one told!  Not a single solitary person!

On Friday, my mom took me and Lori to lunch at Ted's Montana Grill (love their chopped salad).   My mom also gave me a quilt that has been in our family since 1890 that I've always loved.  Wowza!  Friday night was book club, which is always fun.  I tried out a new fall sangria recipe (fabulous) and we had a great time talking about everything but books (as usual).

Tom had to work on Saturday (drill weekend), so Lori and I had the day to ourselves.  I received some gorgeous flowers in the morning, then Lori and I spent the afternoon shopping and lunching.  (Two of our favorite things to do!) 

Isn't my husband awesome?  We went to dinner at Blue Ginger Saturday night.  We sat outside and ate sushi.  Yum.

On Sunday, I dropped Lori off at the airport after lunch and a little more shopping.  It's always so sad when I have to say goodbye to her, but we'll be seeing the entire Potter family in 10 days when we go on vacation, so it wasn't so bad this time.   My parents took us to dinner Sunday night at Columbus Fish Market.  It was awesome!

By now, I think I've recovered from my weekend of eating too much sugar and drinking too much wine!  I had a full 3 days of celebration.  Reminds me of the time that I went to Disney w/ the above-mentioned BFF and her family a few years ago.  We happned to go during Emma's birthday week.  She spent the entire week pointing at her birthday button whenever she met a character and having cake at every meal.  Spending time w/ my best friends and family is my version of Disney.  It was a truly magical birthday.  :)

Weekend Review

Not much going on in the Davis home this weekend, other than cleaning and a little spring decorating. I put up my St. Patrick's day mantel-scape. The wreath and the print were Etsy finds, and the little display on the right is an idea I saw on Pinterest (go figure). It's a little less busy than my V-Day mantel, but I like it. I may add a St. Paddy's day banner similar to my heart banner.... In health news, I am pleased to report that I've lost 12 pounds since the beginning of January! I hit a plateau for a while, but last week was a very good week. We've been really focused on eating fruits & veggies and are trying hard to stay away from processed foods of all kinds. But it's so hard, isn't it?? I mean, all the really good stuff has cream of mushroom soup and cream cheese in it, right? We're also limiting ourselves to 1 adult beverage a week and 1 dessert. DH is struggling with the dessert part a little bit. Tommy loves him some sweets! Tom's lost just over 6 pounds, which is great. He's also been working out at least 3 times a week, which is awesome. He also committed to participating in a 100 mile bike ride to raise awareness for diabetes. He's doing it with his brother. Yep - I typed that correctly - 100 miles! At the end of June! Can you say hot?? Seriously, I'm so proud of him, and I know he can do it! :-) I just started exercising yesterday, so hopefully that will bump up my fitness level up a notch! We leave for vacation in a little over one month, and are spending 3 days before our cruise at Disney. And, if you've ever been there, you know how much walking that means! So I must get cracking on working out so that I have the stamina to deal with Disney. I hate to exercise. Hate it. I don't get ever get that proverbial "runner's high" after working out. I don't look forward to it. At all. But I've realized that it is a necessity for me. So I do it. Grudgingly. I've tried to have a better attitude about it. Really, I have. I wish I could be more like my sister, who got up early on the morning of her wedding (with a serious cold, mind you) to work out. But no, not me. I spent the morning of my wedding drinking champagne and taking a bubble bath. I guess I inherited the lazy gene. Have a wonderful week, my friends.

Monday Monday

My hubby's had a rough weekend. First, news on Friday that the base is losing 6 planes. At this point we're unsure of what will happen personnel-wise, but it's very troubling. I'm trying to stay positive, because I know that we can handle anything that is thrown at us AND there's no sense worrying about something that may or may not happen. And I do feel that the two of us can do anything that we put our minds to. Still, you can't help but worry. Side note: I NEVER paid any attention to defense cuts before. Never. Just something that was talked about on the news, in my opinion. Boy, have things changed! Then today, Tom's mom refused to go to the Senior Center for the day. See, we've arranged for her to start going a couple of days a week. They have lunch, crafts, exercise, all kinds of fun things. Plus her BFF goes every day. Tom took her there to look around and she was ALL for it. So today, Tom went to her place early to help get her ready and she refused to go. Flat out refused. We're so sad about that, because we think she'd really like it once she got there. Needless to say, my man needed some cheering up today. So we went to Bob Evans for lunch, which is his VERY favorite eating establishment. In. The. World. And then we spent some time with my parents, because Curtie always makes Tom happy. And I got to see Frankie. Which was a good thing, because I miss that sweet puppy.

And then he helped me fix up a batch of the goodies pictured at the top of the post. I'm sending them to work on Wednesday, because I certainly don't need them hanging around the house! I used Hershey's Kisses and cherry M&Ms for some and Rolos and walnuts for the others. I happened to sample a few that "fell" off of the tray and BOY ARE THEY YUMMY! By the way, M&Ms are on sale at Target this week! Plus, the V-Day bags had a "buy two, get one free" coupon on them. In other news, I've been using e-mealz to help me meal plan. My BFF uses e-mealz and loves it, so when she told me about a groupon, I signed up for a year. It's fabulous! Makes meal planning soooo easy. Here's the menu for the week:

Due to some plans with family, we're only cooking 5 meals at home this week. So Tom got steak for dinner tonight, which made him very happy. Tomorow, I'll share some more Valentine's Day crafts! Have a good week, my friends!