I've gotta feeling that today's gonna be a good day!

Okay, maybe there are some perks to getting another year older. First off, my sister Laura, and sis-in-law Karin, took me out to lunch with some friends from my old neighborhood that I haven't seen for a long time. They arranged this all for the day before my actual birthday knowing that Larry would be coming home on my birthday. It was so much fun visiting and eating yummy food. Thanks for making me feel so special. Laura surprised me with a gift certificate for some much needed pampering at a fancy salon in town. Thanks Laura, Lisa, Haley, and Mom for the treat. I can't wait to go redeem it! Karin gave me my favorite treat--cinnamon bears, and movie tickets (I'm saying they can only be redeemed for a chick flick).

The next day was the official birthday and I woke to the sound of dishes clanking. I was surprised to find that Carter and Chase had gotten up early and had not only unloaded the dishwasher but loaded the remaining dishes into it. When I later went upstairs to wake up the younger boys, I saw that Carter and Chase had also made their beds and cleaned up all of their clothes! WOW! Now that is an awesome start to a birthday. It started me singing, "I gotta a feeling that today's gonna be a good day, that today's gonna be a good good day." ( I like to revise lyrics).

Corbin and Caleb didn't want to be outdone so they quickly made birthday cards out of printer paper and displayed them on the entry table. They got dressed without whining, cheerfully gathered their backpacks and helped load Chloe into the car. I dropped them off at school.

As I was walking back in the door still singing and grinning from ear to ear, I heard the tail end of an answering machine message. It was something about Carter. I quickly looked at caller i.d. to see it was the high school and called them back. I was patched to the nurse's office where I was told Carter had split his lip in PE and needed me to come get him to go to the Dr. for some repair work.

That ended my singing. Luckily he got patched up and back to school. The Dr. says he should heal up just fine and that chicks dig tough guys with scars.

Later that afternoon I got to go to lunch again with some friends from my neighborhood. They found out Larry was going to be home a little later than planned and stepped in. It was so much fun.

After lunch, Chloe and I took a nap on the couch. That was awesome.

That evening Larry made it home. Yeah! He took the family out to dinner and then surprised me by having our niece, Kelli, watch the kids overnight while he took me to a beautiful hotel. It was so wonderful sleeping in and waking up on my own. Before heading home we enjoyed having a delicious breakfast together.

He gave me a cute new outfit to wear-- this cardigan...

and these pants. He picked them out all by himself. Pretty impressive. (Sure wish I looked like this in them).

I had an amazing birthday and am so grateful to my family and friends for making it so memorable.