My Day

Today was my birthday and what fun day it was!

It started extra early as Maddie and her friend had to be on the road to school by 6:45 for choir.  She gave me a big hug this morning with the question, "How do you feel???"  She's expecting Mike and I to start walking stooped over soon.

After dropping off the kids Mike and I headed to Caribou to get my free drink!  Hooray Caribou!  Then we drove to Edina where I wanted to look through a couple stores that I hadn't been in and was curious about.  Store #1 - closed for 45 minutes more by the time we got there.  Store #2 - Container Store where I got some boxes to hold my future reincarnated stamp collection.  Store #3 - Trader Joe's.  When we realized this was just a grocery store we were out of there pretty fast.  Store #4 - Closed.  Or else the door wasn't working - the guy we saw walk in had to pry the doors open so we just assumed he worked there.  Boo.

But, then it was off to run some much needed errands for our basement and Mike took me out to lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant - El Toro.  We celebrated a little extra than most days we dine there...

The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging around and then I taught.  After dinner we headed downstairs where I got to open my presents at the bar while Mike worked on grouting and the kids looked on.  Jake was the official photographer.

I got a massive box of Jr. Mints which are my favorite candy.  It also happens to be loved by my children so I'm glad they got the big box.

When I finally got through to the inside of this box I found the present I have been waiting (and not-so-secretly) for...Photoshop Elements 11!!!

I believe it was right after I bought my new computer about six months ago that I started massively dropping hints that THIS was what I wanted for my birthday.

Then Mike asked for a list (which I normally give with pictures/prices/locations just to be clear).  There was only one picture on my list: Photoshop Elements 11.

Then last week when he asked again I straight out informed him that if I didn't get this most requested of all gifts I would be a very sad girl.  I even offered that it could double as my Christmas gift.  Wait...I don't think I did offer that.  But I would have if I felt it truly necessary.

What was an extra special surprise was that last Friday while we were unloading things from the car Mike asked me to check the front door for any deliveries.  We had been having bar/basement stuff delivered all week and it had been raining so I assumed he didn't want anything to get extra wet if it was there.

I rounded the corner and saw...a new monitor for me!  I had thrown this into a conversation a couple weeks ago as a "someday I would like..." gift.  It's so awesome!!! It's HUGE compared to my teeny laptop (which really isn't teeny at all).  But, it's a monitor geared more toward photo-enthusiasts so there are some differences which are too much to explain - even for my wordiness.  Suffice to say it's AWESOME.  I love it.

So, the blog has suffered lately because I frankly did not want to upload pictures and resize them on the tiny (really...12 inch!) monitor circa 1992 in Mike's office.  When he wasn't in there, it was late and I was tired and lazy.  I have TONS of pictures I want to play around with and tons of things to update and now I can do it anytime!!

So...I had an awesome day.  But, I have an awesome family to thank for it.  Even without the presents they made me feel really special and I love them for it.

But the presents aren't a bad thing to accompany that (wink, wink)!