One Year Older....

.... and wiser too? Happy birthday to you!

Thank you so very much to the many people who remembered, called, e-mailed, or snail mailed their warm wishes. What a surprise it was to hear from so many people.

I enjoyed a day with my husband and baby. The morning started with smiley Jared and Stu at my bedside. Jared made me breakfast and took care of Stuart while I helped a family from church move.

It wasn't the top of my birthday activities list, but helping this family made my birthday so much better. Weeks ago they moved into a roach-infested apartment right before their long-awaited vacation. After leaving town and still not being able to move or get their belongings out of the unit, they finally got a new apartment but needed help going through everything they owned to make sure they didn't take more roaches hidden in their boxes. It was such a nightmare for them for weeks, so the least I could do is give a few hours to sort through boxes. Like I said, not the first thing you'd want to do on your birthday, but it made my day great. I got to see and get to know people from church better, as well as feel the joy of service. It was a wonderful birthday morning.

In the afternoon Jared and I made pineapple upside down cake, the cake I've been enjoying on my birthday for as long as I can remember. It has always been my favorite and my mom always made it for my special day. Here is what was left over:

Then in the evening, we left Stuart with the wonderful babysitters and went to dinner at Kinkead's downtown. It was delicious (and expensive) seafood, which I love. Good thing we got a discount on LivingSocial.

For dinner we started with the lobster bisque with brioche croutons and scallions, which we shared. Jared's dinner is shown below: grilled maya prawns with house made chitarra pasta, manilla clams, sweet and sour peppers, green olives, lemon and garlic. Mmmm.

I made the BEST choice: north atlantic cod with crab imperial, sweet potato butternut puree, country ham spoon bread, garlic spinach and three mustard sauce. Oh my, I could eat that for dinner every night for a week!

Awkwardly hunched over and still in love.

Thanks for all the birthday love and calls. It was a superb day!