That, my dear friends, is me!!! The newborn version, of course.

At 5:09pm EST on 20 February 1979, I arrived in this world, joining my mother and my father and my older sister Michele. This means I am now 28 years old.

Happy birthday to me!!!

It's been a faboo week or so. First I got the jacket that Kurt bought me as my birthday present, which I had to subsequently return due to a lack of quality.

Then a few days after that I got my birthday presents from my seeeeeeeeester Michele. She'd gotten me a box of Tastefully Simple stuff, as well as a box of cross-stitch kits from Joann's. Oh, and gold needles too! I love gold needles. They make stitching so much easier. I can't explain it; it just IS. The kits should keep me out of trouble for a few weeks, especially considering that I am nearly done with my huge autumn sampler.

This weekend my friend April came to visit, which was just awesome. April is my mom's friend from college, who now lives out here in Oregon. I met her for the first time when Grace was three weeks old; my mom had flown out here to help me with Grace and her medical problems, and one day we drove down to Centralia, WA, to meet up with April. That day April and I just clicked, and we've been friends ever since.

She got here late Saturday afternoon, bearing gifts!! She'd stopped by Trader Joe's before she left (I love Trader Joe's and wish there was one close to me) and picked up some coffee, some daffodils and some tulips each in a pot (I am my mother's daughter -- I love tulips as much as she does), and three bottles of wine!! Don't worry; we only drank two bottles, and I saved the cabernet savignon for myself. Tee hee. AND she brought an entire tiramisu!! I still have half of it in my fridge. It's calling to me even now... "eat me.... eat me..." I love tiramisu. Now THAT is a birthday cake!

Saturday afternoon I took her to the park near my home, where I actually ran into my friend AS. Small world! On Sunday we found a few nature parks to wander around in, and also wandered around my little touristy town. And yesterday we found more nature trails and ate lunch at a little cafe that was sooooooo darn good.

Today, my actual birthday, was the BEST. Why??

Y'all remember how I said Kurt wasn't able to email me because of some top-secret something-or-other the ship is now involved in??

This morning I got up and had eleven emails in my inbox from him!!! I couldn't believe it! How much better could a birthday get?? He told the CO thank you for getting email back online in time to wish me a happy birthday, and the CO joked that he did it just for me. We've been emailing back and forth all day. I've gotten several texts from him on my phone even!

Such a warm, fuzzy feeling.

J took me out today. We started out at the bakery, but my "boyfriend" wasn't there. But I did get my once-yearly donut, and since they were on a "buy one get one" deal I also got one for Grace, as well as a cup of coffee. For me, not for Grace, although she does like to drink my coffee when I'm not paying attention.

Then we were off to the mall, where I bought myself two new t-shirts. But then I also bought Grace two new pairs of sandals (Penney's was having a "buy one get one for 88�" deal) and a pair of jammies. Oh, and we went off to World Market where I found a crocheted stuffed monkey and elephant as well. Which means I bought more stuff for Grace on my birthday than for me. Ah well.

J also treated me to lunch. I decided to go to this little mom-&-pop Mexican place in town where I absolutely adore the mole (No, it's not mole meat, folks. It's MOH-lay. Good stuff). I had full plans of getting the mole too. Small problem -- mole has peanut butter in it.

WHO KNEW???

No mole for me. I'd rather not eat it around Grace.

We ended up getting a quesadilla/taquito combo with bean soup that was amazingly good. So it worked out, but darn, I had been looking forward to the mole.

Then I came home and vacuumed out both cars. Yes, I did chores on my birthday. I couldn't take the dirt inside my car anymore, especially with the donut crumbs Grace had gotten all over the backseat.

But I got awesome birthday wishes from both my good buddy Art and Chocolate Chaos, which was really rad. Thanks!!!

My birthday isn't over, though! This weekend my friend is coming to spend the night on Friday. It will be very high school -- movies and popcorn and talking about boys. Of course, we'll be talking about our husbands, but even though they're in the 30s, they're still BOYS.

Do boys ever grow up??

So it's been a week that I've been having birthday celebrations. This is the longest birthday I've ever had, and it's not even the big one! What are my friends and family going to do for my 30th??

Good luck with that!