This adorable (if I do say so….) card came in the mail on Saturday, my thoughtful mom made it herself.  It made me cry, actually.  However, it also made me laugh because the age is wrong, and the reason that it’s wrong is because there was a brief period of time in which there was no doubt in my mind that I was turning 35.  OOPS.  I even told mom, “Please come out for my birthday, it’s a milestone, 35!”  I either sounded very convincing, or she felt sorry for me.  Like a big dope, I told several people I was turning 35.

My friend Kathy eventually cleared it up, as she knows exactly the number of years between us and set me straight.

((happy to be:36))

Consequently, I didn’t fully understand how old I was going to be until just a few days beforehand.  Has this ever happened to anyone else?  I was telling a lady at church the story and she said that when she turned 49, she and her mother both thought it was her 50th!  She got a year back, which is the much better way to forget your age, I think.

So, on my birthday, we went to church, like we always do on Sundays.  Rich taught Sunday school (it was on a parable about prayer), and then we had a sermon from our preacher (about how God knows the very number of hairs on our heads).  Darling son Seth fell asleep and I was able to hold him all through church, which was a gift.  He was so sweet as he slept in my arms.

After church we were hungry, so did our usual thing: take out lunches.  The children had Wendy’s burgers. fries, and nuggets.  Rich and I had BBQ at a new place for us.  It was very good.  I had pulled pork with sauce on the side, coleslaw, and a very yummy black bean cold salad with cilantro in it. 

But, the best part of all……..was when we arrived home and discovered this:

 

My sister Amanda, her husband, Jason, and their children (Abbie, Naomi, and Weston) came to the house and decorated for a party while we were at church!  They were gone by the time we arrived, and it was so fun to admire everything they did for me.  For all of us, really, because the children were just as excited as I was (Rich was in on the surprise).

I discovered pretty beads, and a “big fun button” to wear.

There were cookies, on a decorated table.  These cookies reminded the children of marshmallows.  In fact, Seth called them, “Lucky Charms.”  hm.

There were notes taped to the window.

“Happy Birthday!!!  36 is very young.  You have a long way to go Aunt Shanda”  (from Abbie)

From Amanda:

From my brother in law (he’s such a wonderful guy!)  He even did up my dishes that were in the sink.

Of course I had to take pictures of everything, and daughter Grace took these for me:

 

 

Here I am with my tall son Jacob!

(I wish you could see my feet, I was wearing some darling new silver flats!)

(mercy me, I just noticed Seth, pay no attention to that.) 

 

Amanda and Jason even brought me a cake, candles, plates, and ice cream.

They thought of everything.  (and what a great thing for the children to see::love between siblings, even grown up ones!)

Poor David was sad because he put the candles in the cake and pushed them too far in.  We didn’t realize how long it would take to light *all those candles* so by the time Rich got to the end, the first ones were melting into the cake (and the big brothers were teasing him about it)….

 After a rousing rendition of the happy birthday song, I took a deep breath and blew out my candles.

I was glad that “Happy………Shanda” remained legible after all that fire and wax.  Very fitting.

The cake and frosting were delicious. We just couldn’t wait to dig in.

 

Birthdays are a lot of fun, aren’t they?  Especially when you have a loving family to celebrate them with.

Now, if you’ll excuse me….there’s leftover cake out in the kitchen and a good book calling me on my new kindle.

Hope my friends have a wonderful day!

 

 “Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever.” Psalm 156