Happy Birthday to Me...

I haven't posted much here lately, but there's good reason for that--we've been busy doing fun stuff! Ted's mom, Rhonda, flew in on Saturday, and we are all thrilled to have Grandma J here for Thanksgiving. The children kept her hopping as they did the ol' show-and-tell routine..."Grandma, come see my room!" "Grandma, look at this!" "Grandma, I want to show you my..."

Sunday afternoon I did a stamping party, and when I returned the kids, Ted, and Rhonda surprised me with a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday." They had gone birthday shopping for me while I was out, and, figuring the kids would not be able to keep a secret until my actual birthday (the 22nd), decided to begin the birthday festivities early. I received a Baby Blues treasury, which is fitting since Ted and I have grown to love this comic strip now that we are parents, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal does not carry it. Also in my bag was an "Anguished English" daily calendar for 2006, which should provide much amusement if the blurbs on the back of the box are any indication. Among the bloopers and blunders are:

"Handmade gifts for the hard-to-find person."
"The manager has personally passed all the water served here."
"This is Leningrad Airport, and You Are Welcome to It."

And then we all enjoyed ice cream cake from TCBY. Chocolate and peanut butter...mmmm! They know what I like!

So yesterday, my actual birthday, Rhonda had a card waiting for me at breakfast that said new stamping shelves would be arriving that day. Yay! The shelves I had previously been using to hold my stamp sets toppled over one day, and my stamp sets have been in disarray since. The shelving unit was not actually designed to be used for holding stamp sets, as it was made by my dad during my college days to fit on my college desk, with space right above the desk for my bulletin board. We then used foam tape to secure it to the cinder block walls, which made it quite useful and sturdy at the time. But a free-standing shelf holding thousands of stamps...not so much.

In the evening Rhonda babysat for us while we went to the Strip for dinner at the Excalibur's show, "Tournament of Kings." It's in an arena where we watch and participate in a highly imaginative display of medieval antics. We feasted on tomato soup (drunk from tureens, as there is no silverware here!), a cornish hen (yes, a whole one, and no, I couldn't eat all of mine), broccoli spears, and potato logs, with apple danishes for dessert. We were assigned a section and cheered for the appropriate king--or, in our case, the evil dragon knight. It was strange cheering for the bad guy!

Anyway, the show was lots of fun, and we were impressed with the choreography, as each sword clank coincided perfectly with the sound effects. Definitely one of the more family-friendly shows in Las Vegas, I am sure!

During this time Ted gave me an envelope with a cute card (no, not stamped, but cute nonetheless!) saying he had had a difficult time shopping for me since I had said I didn't really need anything. He decided that time would mean the most to me, and he was right! He plans to reserve time for me at a spa for a massage and whatnot, followed by a date night, with him making arrangements for the sitter and everything! That is definitely a wonderful, thoughtful gift, and I am very thankful for such a dear husband!! He knows my love language is quality time and conversation!!

After the show, we walked down the Strip and watched the fountains at the Bellagio, then went through the maze of Caesar's Palace, heading for the Cheesecake Factory. We stopped to look around in FAO Schwartz and spent quite a bit of time looking at toys! But this was our downfall, as we realized when we went to the Cheesecake Factory and discovered it was a half-hour wait to get in. And this on a cold November Tuesday night!! Since it was 9:00 already, and we had a long walk back to the car, we decided to skip it and just come home for more ice cream cake. :-) We caught another fountain show on the way back and managed to avoid eye contact with the men trying to pass out girlie flyers. Sigh... There are fun things on the Strip that don't involve sin, BUT it is impossible to escape the evidence from the things that do.

So, that was my birthday. Oh, and I also received a VERY lovely collection of stamped cards (thank you, everyone who took time to stamp for me!), plus some birthday money that I will likely use to either purchase a table for my stamp classes or else new shoes. :-)