Things that Make me Wanna Dance
It has been a super stressful month for me. I don't know about you, but I think 2016 needs to step up its game. The past few weeks especially, for me, have just been nuts. I have been racking my brain all week what to post. I finally figured since it's been such a rough week, I needed to post something positive to bring up my spirits. It's been tough trying to make myself dance, but the thing that stuck out the most to me was my birthday weekend. You read it right, I took up the WHOLE weekend.
At work on Friday (day before) the kids sang happy birthday to me and the staff was so sweet to wish me lots of love for my birthday. I told the kids it wasn't nice to remind me I'm getting old. Of course then my kids had a fun time trying to guess my age.
Saturday (day of), my husband sweetly wished me a happy birthday as soon as we woke up. He always has to be the first to say it so he won't let me answer the phone before then. Then my sister has to text me one letter at a time first thing in the morning. Last year it woke me up, but this year I was smarter and put it on silent even though I was already awake when I got it. I even got a voicemail from my parents (who live in Africa) who called to sing to me. It made me feel like a kid again. We then had to do adult stuff. Lame, but it was necessary. Brad's chest freezer was delivered so he can start work on his Keezer. We had someone come out to give us a quote to build a fence around our yard. Then we test drove a few cars to see what we might want to trade our 20 year old car in for this summer. Finally, we went to our favorite Chinese Buffet for dinner where we always enjoy people watching too.
When we got home we just layed around and enjoyed a quiet night together while Brad worked on my birthday cookie. I'm not much of a fan of cake, so I have always preferred cookie cakes. My mom started the tradition, but Brad continued it and has done it every year since we've been dating. I think his decorating skills are getting better, because this years was SO cute I hated to eat it--almost! He calls me Manda Bear (you know, instead of Panda Bear) so he puts a panda bear on my cookie cake. When I write him notes I even sign it with a panda.
Sunday (day after) was to be the actual "celebration". As an early birthday present to myself I bought a Canon Rebel T6i. I only had a chance to get the occasional picture, but didn't really get much of a chance to play with all of the cool features. Plus since I started teaching I haven't been able to get much of a chance to be with nature. My last two jobs were outside as a naturalist so not being outside and around nature has been really hard on me. We found a local park for the three of us to go on a hike.
Brad made us a big breakfast.
While I packed our picnic lunch and all of our bags, even the dog has his own bag for hiking. They are really genius! Instead of having to haul his junk around we bought him saddle bags. We even bought him a collapsible water bowl so we didn't have to carry his giant water bowl with us everywhere (another genius purchase).
We were able to get a selfie (ignore my rosey cheeks, we've already been hiking for an hour) after we finished our picnic lunch. The lunch was great. We all enjoyed sitting down for a little while just off the trail enjoying the scenery. The dog was so goofy, we would toss him snacks so he wouldn't get jealous. When we were done eating, the dog decided to bury his head under the blanket and then rolled onto his back to fall asleep. Such a doofus, but he was amazing on the hike and we encountered a lot of dogs.
When we were done we went home to make dinner. We grilled ginormous NY strips (which were a steal at costco), asparagus, and ravioli. Dinner was an amazing end to an even better weekend. So, when I'm sad I like to think about things like this to help me smile.
What do you like to think about when you're feeling stressed or overwhelmed. Here's one of my favorite pictures of the day. My dog is my favorite model--those ears just make me laugh every time.