A Perfect Birthday

If I had known that celebrating my 45th birthday would have been so fun, I would have done it earlier! I didn't go white-water rafting, or parachute from a perfectly good airplane, but I was thought of and remembered by the ones I love. That's all that really matters.
-Thank you Sue for being the first one to greet me with my birthday wishes as I checked my E-mail at 4:30 in the morning and found your E-card;
-Thank you McKenna for being the first person to sing me "Happy Birthday" (and thank you for the 2 more times before we got to school);
-Thank you Pam for calling me at 7:11, just before I started my work day;
-Thank you to all my colleagues, especially Pam who got up early to bake me the most delicious brownies, thank you Misty for picking up the cutest little cake and for finding the most perfect art teacher card and thank you Wendy for my ever so awesome new John Denver CD!
-Thank you Donnie for texting me with your happy birthday wishes;
-Thank you Andrea for texting me not once but twice, "happy birthday" AND "I luv u"
-Thank you Barb for the whole STACK and tapes of Tomie dePaola books;
-Thank you Michele, for just whipping out a new pack of paper, when I was "flappin' at the mouth" that you wouldn't have it yet;
-Thank you Darlene, for your cash contribution to my additive habit (scrapbooking!);
-Thank you Lisa, for my beautiful home decor, esp. the candles - very cool! (or should I say "very hot"?)
-Thank you Grandma Gail, for my Crocs, for my manicure AND for my pedicure!,
-Thank you Mom, (who wasn't suppose to give me gifts at all 'cause we are saving for a trip), thank you so much for the gift card, for the sewing box and for the absolutely beautiful buffalo pendent;
-Thank you Kendra for my very first and oh so beautiful bible;
And finally, thank you Honey for buying me the TV trays that I've wanted from Wal-Mart for about 6 months now, but am too weak to pick up!
See what I mean, can you think of any better way to celebrate a birthday, or any more thoughtful gifts then the ones I received?!

I also realized that I will longer take my photography skills for granted.
After our birthday dinner we passed the camera to someone who works at Kotobuki's . I so wanted to document all who could be there.
Can you believe this photo?! My mom didn't have a chance to look at the camera and Scott's head is cut off! That's Darlene who is hidden and Barb, you almost didn't make it in the photo either! :) I love you all and am so grateful you could be there.


Sorry for the long post - now that I found a place to publish my blog (blog2print) I'm trying to be a little more detailed about what I write.
Just some ending thoughts:
-Andrea's swim team did great again this past week. I still don't have any great swim photos to share, but I'll keep trying. They do not compete this week, but they will twice next week.
-There were several notes I took during the message at church this week, but the one that hit me the hardest was, (parents' and teachers')
" our words can build confidence or destroy hope".

Love to you all,
Melle