Gift to Myself for My Birthday

It seems 38 is not such a bad place to be.  I have been gifted with good skin from my Mom and Grandmother so I don't look quite like a cougar yet.  I have friends all over the world and all over the interwebs.  I really don't need much.  So what to you get for the girl who has everything?

Since I am ME I would probably know.  This morning, I gave myself a dose of good health.

"GA!"  You say, "That is boring! How about a new pair of shoes or a cute purse?  What did you do? Drink one of those crazy Green Monsters or your Overnight Oats?"

Nope...what I did this morning was push myself.

"No!!!" you say, "Why on earth would you want to do that on your birthday? You could have slept in, cuddled with the doggies and then been late to work because you stopped at Starbucks overslept."

What happened was the voices inside my head told me, to take it easy this morning because it was my birthday.  I could have rolled over and slapped the alarm a couple more times but...the fact that I was another year older made me get up and out the door.  I was tired, I really was.  Last night Halo Reach came out at midnight and of course P had to go get it and play it which woke me up and/or kept me from sleeping well.  So after I walked the doggies, I set out to run.  As much as Annie Lennox told me 'One more time for the womenkind' and Cowboy Troy enticed me to 'play chicken with the train,' the voices kept telling me, "It's your birthday, you can stop at 3 miles.  It's like a gift to yourself."  I knew better.  I knew the best gift I could give myself was to push on to my 4.5 miles on my 38th birthday.  Even when the voice told me it was ok to stop and walk (which it usually is) for a bit, I felt a deeper need to power through, to prove to myself that even though I was 38 years old and I had too much pizza the night before, I could do this.  I could round the bend a the top of the hill and keep going.  I could run past the STOP sign that was usually the end of the run for me.  I COULD GO ALL THE WAY!

And I did.

Happy birthday to me!

Crackberry Friday: Birthday Gift from P

I apologize for the blurriness of the image but my Crackberry skillz were lacking today. I tried like a dozen times to get the right lighting.

This necklace was P's birthday present to me. I picked it out at klacustomcreations on Etsy. Kristen is also a fellow bloggy friend at La Dolce Vita and I love her jewelry. I also asked her to create a piece with my blog name and I'll post that as well.

The thing I love about this necklace is it is exactly my style, a little funky, a little preppy. I have been wearing it non-stop since I got it in the mail. I was SOOO excited when I got home and it was waiting for me. :) You know what else is cool? If you have an Amazon wish list, they now have a button you can add to your links bar and you can add anything from any store or site to your wish list. It is so easy (unless you are P) and I love the fact that using it helps support independent creative people. :)

Kristen has many different quotes and little charms that can be added to your piece. She also supports some great organizations with donations from her pieces of her artwork. They all make wonderful gifts too. Please take a gander at her Etsy store.

36 + 1 day = Wonderful Monday!

Except for a certain doggie being a bit of a pain in the rear this AM.... ahem

Yea! My b-day was so nice! I woke up, had coffee and blogged while listening to jazz (yes, jazz, I like it on Sunday mornings and when I cook). Then I headed out to get a mani/pedi (pedi looks great, mani, not the best I ever had so you only get this pic

will avoid that nail tech in the future) and to Barnes and Noble as I received a gift card from my aunt.

Here is what I got:

Dinner was WONDERFUL! We had a nice time and the food was great. For apps we had gnocchi (to die for) and calamari. I had seared tuna with wasabi mashed potatoes and snap peas. I normally would not go for fish on a Sunday but they didn't have info on where the steak came from exactly so I went for the fish and was not disappointed. For dessert, I split a Bananas Foster with my Mom. I also FINALLY had a pom martini.

We went back to my Mom's and I opened their gifts. Mom got me a fall decoration that I saw when we were at the Cape this year and a replacement of a seagull ceramic object that P broke at some point during one of our moves. I'll take a pic of the decoration b/c my fellow nesters will LOVE it! T got me a book about cheese (YUM), asiago crackers and cocktail napkins. My sister remembered that I complained about taking G-dog out when the grass was wet out back so she sent me these:

I have wanted them for some time.

All in all, a wonderful birthday thanks to my wonderful family.

Also a BIG GIANT THANK YOU to all who wished me a happy day. I could feel the well wishes across the blogosphere. :)