There is such a thing as a perfect birthday...

You guys!! You just rock! Thank you all for such lovely wishes for my birthday.. I was blown away - seriously! I really figured the day would just come and go without much notice - and I was okay with that, I mean.. more than okay. Numbers really never effected me before. My 35th was chock full of "you're getting old" jokes and ha ha aren't you funny people. NOT. But I took it all in stride and didn't put too much thought into getting older. And without going into too much detail (as it's all been talked about over and over again) about what happened in my life this past year, the numbers did start to get to me. Not so much, "Gah. I'm almost 40" ('kay well a lil "Gah!" here and a lil "Blah!" there hehe) but "WOO! Looks like I'm really gonna make it to 40!" when around this time last year, it was questionable. But did I expect all of your good wishes? Your adorable and sweet e-cards and e-mails? Your cards sent to my home?? The BEST birthday present a gal could ever ask for, nestled in my mailbox?? Hell no. THAT was all completely UNEXPECTED and it was what made my birthday one of the best and memorable I've ever had.. thank you so very, very much! *sniff* Is someone slicing onions in here again?? *sniff* My day started off with the guys at work singing happy birthday over the truck radios shortly after I got there.. that was a hoot. There's nothing like hearing that song being sung by 14 different roofers coming in over the dispatch radio. ha! And then I was serenaded by the shop guys over the P.A. system when I went out into the warehouse to tack the daily leak calls to the board. That was embarrassing as it can be heard from quite far away. lol I also received a very cute card that was signed by everyone and a triple chocolate torte that was quite beautiful and delish =) Ohhh! And one of the guys made me - HOME MADE - banana pudding. haaa!!! I gotta tell ya.. not a big banana pudding fan here. But this stuff was AMAZING. I had to have Hubbs take the dish of it home as I couldn't stop eating it and was afraid I'd eat the whole damn pan. I've asked for the recipe and will be making it and blogging about it VERY SOON. *swoon* And then I made my usual stop at home during my lunch break to let the kids out and what did I find? My mailbox stuffed with cards and a box that travelled all the way from New Zealand! I about peed! The Best Birthday Present EVER Do you see this?? It's Chocolate and Salt. Hello? Could a gal ask for anything more?? hahahahaaaa!! It reminded me of one of my favorite episodes of Cheers! when Rebecca was upset about something and she was sitting in Sam's office smoking cigarettes and eating chocolate - wishing she had a chocolate cigarette. The only thing she was missing was the salt. A girl's best friend, chocolate and salt. Oh Yeah Baby. =)) And those bars?? Yeah, they are GIGANTIC! One is called "Bittersweet Zestful Orange" *swoon* the other is "Exciting Spicy Ginger Block" which is dark chocolate with nuggets of crystallized ginger *still swooning* and finally the third is "Raspberry River" - chocolate with a "river" of raspberry inside. *faint* And that's not your ordinary box of Morton salt, my friends.. oh nooooo.. it's a big box of Maldon Sea Salt that I shall use lovingly in my cooking - I can't wait! :D Each item was wrapped up in some very pretty and funky tissue paper and a very funny birthday card featuring a not too happy bulldog was also tucked inside - all of this came from my dear, sweet friend, Morven, who I lurve so very much! Last night I was taken out to dinner by Hubbs and my Mommie where I ate good food, laughed the whole time, and while I was thanking my lucky stars for my good fortune, I was handed two envelopes. One with a gift certificate to Amazon.com (woo!) then another card with a gift certificate from a local kitchen specialty shop, that I adore, with a note from Hubbs promising to build more shelves for my new toys. I'm going to need a bigger kitchen! And finally, when we took Mom home I was presented with my favorite birthday cake that only my Mom can make.. a chocolate cake with bananas tucked in the middle, and covered in chocolate butter cream with a hint of cinnamon throughout. Yum! The best part about this year's cake was that she accidentally poured too much milk into the frosting, which made it very thin, and she didn't have enough powdered sugar to make up for it - so she basically, poured the frosting over it. Imagine a perfect 2 layer round cake sitting on a big plate with a pool of chocolate/cinnamon butter frosting pooled around the bottom. ha!! It was the best cake she's ever made - but now, maybe, you can see where I get my frosting talents from? hahahahaaaaa! :D Okay.. enough of me gushing.. you get the picture, yes? It was one of the best birthday's I've ever had and it was because of all of you beautiful people.. Thank You. Thank you. Thank you! I am one of the luckiest gals in the world to have such nice friends as all of you =) xoxo