It took me a few days to put this post together because I'm having a hard time coming up with just the right words to describe just how loved I felt on my birthday. What I'm about to say is totally cliche but also the truth. I read these wedding blogs where the women say they felt overwhelmingly loved at their bridal showers and I usually scoff at them, I mean really it's a party, what makes it so much better then any other day with friends? Well, I can honestly say, I felt overwhelmingly loved on my birthday. Not just from Joe or my family but from each and every person that shared the day with me. I don't know how to describe it or how to thank everyone for the way they made me feel. I'm pretty sure Joe thinks I'm a total wacko because I teared up telling him how much I appreciated everything and that it was my best birthday ever but that's just what this whole event has done to me, and now, the highlights...
We woke up at a respectable 8am, Joe got out of bed and went downstairs to take care of some last minute party preparations and left me to lounge around. I did just that, I watched some tv on the DVR & started reading through the 60+ happy birthday messages on Facebook. We were planning to head over to the resort around 10:30 so I finally pried my butt out of bed around 9 and hopped in the shower. I didn't have to put any thought into getting dressed, Amanda & Tammy had picked everything out for me the week before. We were greeted by sunshine on the way out the door. The weather was supposed to be windy but sunny and in the mid 60s which is a miracle; it has rained on my birthday probably 80% of my life.
We arrived a the resort at about ten minutes to eleven. We were so early they hadn't even set up the tables yet so Joe wandered around looking at all the recently completed renovations and I hung out in the lobby chatting with Sarah & fielding incoming text messages.
Guests started to arrive shortly thereafter. The first of which was my sister & Bill, a total shock because they are rarely on time for anything, in fact I think the only reason they were early was because they misread the invitation.
By 11:30 the tables were set and everyone was starting to arrive. There were hugs all around and lots of "do you feel older?" Nicole was definitely Joe's helper throughout the whole process. I'm not sure what they were talking about but I know there were plenty of secret text messages in the days leading up to my birthday. I'm also extremely grateful that she also stepped in as photographer whenever Joe was busy coordinating & hosting.
Our parents and sisters came out to celebrate as well. It was nice to have everyone in one place and with very little drama.
Over the last eight years our friends have melded into one big group. It's no longer, Joe's friends and their wives/girlfriends or my friends and their husbands/boyfriends, we're all just one big happy family. I was so happy to continually hear "my husband really like talking with so and so's husband." I love seeing all the new friends requests on facebook the day after a get together!
There were a few people that asked me to open their gifts immediately. One of which was my mother, she got me this salt crystal candle holder and the big joke of the day was asking people to lick it. I can't even imagine how much saliva is on that thing.
Towards the end of brunch the staff brought out a piece of cake with a candle & happy birthday written in chocolate, the piano player played happy birthday and everyone sang. I'm not going to lie, I totally loved the attention :-) Before I could even try a bite of cake the server wrapped it up and told me there were much better desserts on the buffet to try, lol.
We even managed to get a picture of all my girls before too many people started to leave. I'm really excited to have a shot of all of us together.
Before I knew it we were packing up and heading back to the house. We invited everyone (and their kids) over to enjoy Joe's fancy renovated back yard and of course for cake and more drinks.
After an hour or so of visiting with everyone I was called to the living room to open gifts. Everyone was very generous! We'll be having a lot of meals out in the near future! Amanda got me the kitchen aid ice cream attachment and a Ben & Jerry's cookbook, well definitely be having a girl's night ice cream social sometime soon!
Unfortunately, Joe forgot about the purse shaped pinata he had gotten until after most of the guests had left. It was still fun to whack it with a broom though and Jack enjoyed running around picking up all the candy.
We almost missed getting a picture of Joe & me! Out of close to 200 shots taken there wasn't one of the two of us. Luckily Nicole was on top of her game and remembered to snap a few at the end of the afternoon. I know Joe doesn't read this blog very often but just in case he does I really want him to know that it was my best birthday yet and he thought of absolutely everything I could have wanted. I really just don't know how to put it all into words...
Ok, one more. I couldn't do all this writing about my best girls and leave out my sister. I mean "a sister is a forever friend" after all. I almost talked about her in day 10's post about my closest friend but then I decided that this description was more appropriate since I've known her since the minute she was born. We're almost exactly 3 years apart in age, Shana was due on my birthday but came 2 weeks early which is a good thing because I am not a good sharer when it comes to my birthday... We are great friends and there's no one else I'd rather spend an afternoon with, in fact we were excited to realize during out shopping trip last weekend that we're almost the same size now and will be able to share more then just shoes soon. We're usually on the same wavelength and can understand the others thoughts/feelings with a simple look. But I'm not going to pretend it's always been sunshine and roses, we're like any other siblings, we used to fight and wrestle when we were kids and even now that we're older sometimes we bicker but we definitely love each other. Even on the day this picture was taken, her wedding day, she snapped at me and gave me attitude but I let it roll off my back and smiled sweetly because who else can you take your frustrations out on but your sister.
I figured that while I'm waxing poetic about my friends I'd use this topic to talk about Nicole. If you read this blog with any regularity you know that Nicole is married to Lou, the mom of Jack and they're our neighbors. I have only known Nicole for a little over 2 years; we met the day I closed on my house 11/14/08 and that day I knew we'd be great friends. In fact, my mom was there and said "dear god, they're like the same person!" I can tell her absolutely anything and even if we don't agree (which rarely happens) she takes my point into consideration before engaging in an open & honest discussion about whatever the topic may be. She's also incredibly selfless and super helpful. I asked her to HELP me with a couple of things for a friend's shower and before I knew it she had done the whole project on her own. I can scream & cry and totally be myself without judgment, I've even stopped prefacing comments with "I don't mean this the way it sounds but." I really could go on for a long time about what a fantastic human being she is. But I'll stop now because she's probably totally embarrassed and remind her we still need to catch up on Dexter & make some ice cream...
This is Sarah; we have known each other since Pee Wee cheerleading, which is roughly 22 years. While our crazy times of late are more about drinking too much wine while watching ridiculous reality tv shows we used to get into a little trouble. Now mind you we were never Thelma & Louise or anything but she is definitely the person I share the wildest stories with. Like in middle school when we traded boyfriends from month to month; sometimes Jason was mine and sometimes he has hers, and there was always Bob or Jay in the background in case we wanted variety (btw this was long before 7th graders were sexually active). Or the time I had a small get together and she spent the evening in the back of her (parked) station wagon with her boyfriend (that same Jason, lol) and a handle of vodka only communicating with the outside world through a cracked window. The majority of my senior year when we'd wander the condo complex with a video camera acting like Charlie's angels (there's not a lot to do in south Jersey if you're under 21). There are hundreds more but those are the first few that came to mind, oh, and the time I went to the kitchen in the middle of the night and slipped in a laundry basket, we laughed for hours and still do whenever it comes up... 
I wasn't sure what to post when it came to my favorite book. I am an avid reader especially in the summer time; I'll easily go through a few books a month on the beach. I'm not a huge fan of serious, heavy books though; I much prefer "chick lit" and "beach reads." I actually almost chose the Twilight series because I could not put those books down. I would stay up until 3am reading them because I needed to know what would happen next. I'm pretty sure I knocked out the whole series (4 books) in 3 weeks while working two jobs. But I realized that even though I really enjoyed reading that series I don't have any desire to read it again. I've never been one to reread books, I have a crazy good memory for things I've read and can usually spout off information even if it's something I read years ago. So I started trying to remember if I ever read something more then once and the only book I that came to mind was Judy Blume's "Forever." It's a quick and easy read that just spoke to me when I was about the same age as the main character. Hmmm, maybe I'll download it to my kindle and read it again...
