Have you heard of Jo Malone perfume?

I was on a website a month ago and listened to a radio program featuring the gifted perfumer, Jo Malone.  I was inspired by her story (listen here) and after I learned all about her, including that her husband almost died of a terrible illness, she battled aggresive breast cancer, and is dyslexic, I decided that I would request a bottle of her perfume for my birthday, which is today.  Every time I wear it I will think of her strength.

Rich took the day off from work and took us out to a fancy breakfast at the Marriot Hotel.  Both of us ordered eggs Benedict served over crab and asparagus.  It was delicious, I mean seriously, I was groaning with joy over it.  Sarah was so cute and asked me to tell her all the things she could have, since it wasn’t time for macaroni and cheese.  She settled on sausage with maple syrup and she ate every bite.

After breakfast we headed for the mall and straight into Nordstroms.  I was so excited to finally be able to experience all the fragrances of Jo Malone.  (I get way too excited over things like birthdays and perfume).

Rich couldn’t help us until the end because alas he gets headaches from smelling too much perfume. Sarah and I had an absolute ball smelling every single bottle.  There was a jar of whole coffee beans at the counter, too, to “cleanse our noses” between sniffs.  So fun!

It all smelled so wonderful it was hard to make a choice.  I had Rich smell the last two bottles that I narrowed myself down to and he said, “Get them both!”  “No!” “Yes, I really think you should get both so when you get tired of one you can wear the other.”  “Okay”.  I was touched once again by his generosity toward me and he left with his wallet and the nice lady, to make the purchase.

It’s so easy for people to love on Sarah Joy.  I’ve been working on her attitude of friendliness for so long and I am happy to say she was a sweet little girl to the saleswoman, but it’s sort of easy to be sweet when you’re surrounded by such nice things like ribbons and boxes and good smells.

The lady’s name was Lydia and she is from Belgium.  She put Sarah right up on a tall stool and put her to work making Mama’s perfume pretty.  They carefully put the bottles in boxes with tissue paper and Sarah helped tie the bows.

He wanted to get me two full sized bottles but they didn’t have the big one in one of the fragrances.  I picked out Red Roses, and Blackberry & Bay.

As a treat for you, I have a free sample of the Red Roses perfume to send to one commenter on this post.  Leave a comment on this post, NOT ON FACEBOOK, and tomorrow afternoon at 3pm I will ask my son David to give me “a number, any number”(not telling him why or showing him this post)….and the number that he randomly chooses will be the comment on this blog post which wins the perfume.  You will receive one tiny free sample bottle of Red Roses perfume in the mail from yours truly.

Thank you, God, for one more year of wonderful life.