The best birthday yet!

(I told Tamara I'd tell her how my birthday this year went, since she asked.  Well, my birthday was a few weeks ago and I still haven't written her about it...  Better late than never!)

Last year during the time on and around my first birthday as a married woman, Dave was very sick.  He doesn't remember much that happened even.  So, I spent last year's birthday taking care of him.  I wasn't sad really that I didn't have much of a birthday, since as you get older, birthdays seem less and less exciting.  I was sad Dave was sick and my parents were in the middle of moving miles and miles away....

This year's birthday was way different, and I  think I can honestly say it was my favorite birthday so far!  Yay for 31!

Dave and I had planned to wake up and get a few things done that morning.  (He wanted to get the lawn mowed since it kept getting pushed back for one reason or another, and I needed to run a couple of errands, including one for work.)  Well...  We slept in.  It was so nice!!!  We don't normally sleep in much, even on the weekends.  It felt great!

We finally got up and I made us breakfast.  We lounged around and watched some TV together.  I finally got up and said, "Ok, we've stalled long enough.  We need to get our stuff done so we can party tonight."  Dave pulled me back on the couch and said he'd rather keep cuddling with me.  We watched some more TV and ended up falling asleep.  I woke up and couldn't believe the clock said Noon!!!  What?!?

It was so relaxing, though!  And super nice to spend some quality, lazy time with Dave!  :o)

We got up and Dave went out and mowed the lawn.  I got ready for the day and missed a couple of Happy Birthday phone calls from my family.  (How do people somehow always know when I'm in the shower?!)  It was super fun to talk to my parents and Jennifer while Dave finished up the lawn!  I love my family!!!  Plus, Jennifer helped talk me into not feeling guilty about being so lazy and not getting the work errand done.  Sisters are the greatest!

After Dave got cleaned up, he took me to an empty elementary school parking lot down the street from our house and gave me my very first lesson on how to drive a manual-transmission car.  (It's not fair that Dave is the only one who knows how to drive our cool, red, sporty Mazda RX8, so I told him that as a birthday present he could start teaching me lol)  I was quite nervous about it, but I surprisingly only stalled the car once.  And that's only because I think it's ridiculous you have to push in the clutch when you're braking.  Really??  You're just stopping the car for goodness sake!  The clutch should only have to be used when you're changing gears!  Anyway...

The driving lesson only lasted 15 minutes and Dave was surprised that I told him I was finished so soon.  The way I saw it, though, was this:  I wasn't in tears, and he wasn't yelling at me.  That equals a HUGE success in my mind.  :o)  I wanted to end on a high note!  (Plus, I was getting overwhelmed with trying to remember everything and needed to give my poor brain a rest!)

Still in a great mood after the driving lesson, Dave took me to see "The Lucky One" (another birthday present I had asked for).  We rarely go to see chick flicks in the theater and he said he'd go if we got tons of popcorn.  We did, and I really enjoyed the movie!  I'm not a huge Zac Efron fan, but I must admit:  he was pretty dreamy in his role in this movie.   ;o)  (No need to worry, Dave.  You're still the only guy for me!)

After the movie, we stopped at Home Depot for Dave.  Then we went to Kohls and I bought a new shirt for about $3.00!  Happy birthday to me!  (I love, love, love getting $10 gift cards in the mail :o)  On the way back home, we stopped at Publix to get my birthday cake.  Publix makes my most favorite store-bought cakes ever.  Their vanilla cakes with vanilla buttercream frosting is so way yummy!  Dave even sang happy birthday to me before we ate it after dinner once we got home.  What a man!

That was basically the day.  It was super relaxing and I spent pretty much the entire day with my wonderful husband!  What more could a girl ask for?!  Thank you, Dave, for making my 31st birthday dreams come true!  Although, now you've set the bar pretty high for next year.  lol  ;o)