Birthday Bliss!

Well today is my 26th birthday!! 26..... Wow, so at some point I will have to actually start acting my age, I am like a real adult now. My husband still is not, he is still only 25 haha...

Every year I try not to get my hope's too high with my birthday mainly because I am a woman and I am married to a man who doesn't think about all the tiny details like I do. I also have this really weird quirk where I absolutely hate getting a present early! Whether it's Christmas, Valentines Day, what ever I hate it if I get the present any time before the actual Day.

I don't know why that is such a big thing to me but it is and every year my poor husband has been on the negative end of my discovery process.
So each year we go through a bit of a process of high expectations, I blame my mother and step dad even if we didn't have any money they would always make a way to make our birthday's matter! They would make us feel so special and well to be honest that expectation has followed me into marriage.
I have tried to ignore this annoying side of me but every holiday it seems to get worse, this year Jose gave me chocolates and flowers a day early for Valentines day and I nearly cried. I guess it feels like the speacialness is taken out of the day, some people may think I am shallow for this, but I am just being real. Its a part of who I  really am it is not that I am not incredibly thankful for anything he is willing to give me, I just hate that internally I am sad if it's not on the day. Now that we are down to one income, things have changed. I am not really expecting anything at all, so my expectations are fairly low because of our budget.

This year however, Jose out did himself,
Jose usually leaves early in the morning and today when I went to let the dogs out I nearly tripped over a chair. There in my kitchen was a beautiful new bike. A new beach cruiser, Jose and I talked for over a year how nice that would be for me to get, but we never really talked seriously about it because of our budget. He also got me a big container of protein powder, which for some of you that would be weird. But I have been really wanting some, but again those big containers are like minimum $25 bucks.





I felt so incredibly thrown back, I had no clue. Nothing led me to believe I had any gift coming this year, usually the girls let it slip and this year...nothing. So, a true and serious surprise. It was amazing.

The girls and I walked through the canyon to Mcdonalds and had berry parfait's.

I was able to watch Heartland my amazing Canadian horse show which I never have time to do, so it was a serious treat.

Our amazing neighbors picked me these beautiful flowers from their garden and wished me a happy birthday!

My fantastic mother in law offered to watch our girls for a little while so Jose could take me to dinner. We tried out the Smith Rock Brewery, not for the Brew but for the location. It looked so cute on the outside and was actually pretty cute on the inside. We finished it up with some Yo-Wild  and it was the end to a perfect birthday.

I feel so blessed and loved and I love that as my girls get older they try so much harder to make my day special. I love it because I work really hard to make my families birthday's amazing and it is so nice to have that re payed.

So now you know all about my birthday bliss :)

Prepare To Be Unprepared

               The thought of going away is so exciting usually, right. I mean, you get to be away from normal life. We packed up and headed North to Washington last week, and it was amazing. The next day we headed even further North up to Canada and spent the weekend in Vancouver, B.C. 
As wonderful as our hotel room was, and not having to give baths, and make meals,and do laundry; I hate that feeling where you are trying to fit in all the fun within the time you are given. I tried so hard to have as much fun as we could that I ended up stressing out about having fun. I didn't even know that was possible.

You see our big day of fun was going to be Saturday, and  I packed a whole suitcase full of extra shoes and cute dresses and tops. I mean, I am home 75% of my life, so I really wanted to show off my cute clothes.I had several destinations already planned out in my mi

nd for where I would wear my cute clothes. One of these places being a waterfront restaurant, super cute right downtown. Ironically enough I wore one outfit. ONE.  You see my wonderful husband planned out Saturday for us already, like months in advance.
                                                   ***********************
 Playland! Yes that was the plan, an all day adventure to an amusement park, where we could be kids again. Sounds wonderful, right? It would be except for my paralyzing fear of anything that spins,rolls, or flips at speeds higher than 5 mph. I put on this face, like I was ready for this awesome day he had planned, nearly shaking at the very thought of spending my entire day "faking" my happiness. You may say " well, how do you know that you wouldn't have had fun"? Well I am here to tell you that I have down my likes and dislikes and I do a lot of pretending and people pleasing but near death experiences is where I draw the line. See, I don't need to get nauseous and sunburned to feel like a kid again. I get to be queen Mommy at all the princess parties, and I read stories to stuffed animals on a regular basis. I feel like a kid all the time. 
My amazing husband saw through my fake smile, and quickly thought of a detour to our day. So because he was so sweet to let me out of this pre planned adventure, I couldn't say no to his next plan. Which was to simply walk the 3 miles to the Harbor Look out Point. So I got on my not so cute clothes and laced up my tennis shoes threw my just done hair into a pony and headed out. 
                                                        
If you haven't walked 3 miles in 80 degree weather into a huge foreign concrete jungle mess of different nationalities and bus stops, then well I have news for you, it is not pretty. By the time we got downtown the make up I had put on earlier was now gone, I was sweaty, my hair was gross. I was exhausted and honestly dazed at how freakishly tall the buildings now were. My cute little restaurant that I had planned to go to looking cute, well it Ironically was right next to our big destination point. So there was no point in walking all 3 miles back just to get changed just to drive back and pay for parking to eat there. So naturally we went and ate looking the way we did. We also threw a movie in the middle of our day, yet another event that I planned an outfit for... now ruined by my sweaty street clothes. 
                                                   
Finally sunset was nearing and there we were in the middle of this huge, unknown city. The crazies were starting to come out and I started to panic  So instead of thinking rationally and trying to plan a bus route with out any internet I did what anyone else would do. I practically ran the 3 miles back to the hotel, determined to make it back before dark. I felt like a hobbit being chased by a ring wraith. So my relaxing and amazing weekend had now turned into a blister filled day of exhaustion and sweat. I laugh now, but in the moment it was sad and frustrating and I have to ask myself, why do I even bother sometimes. Life is going to happen no matter what we plan, but I am realizing those are the things that make the memories the most fun.