Birthday Cake & Presents

My mom & my little brother came over to celebrate my birthday with me last week, and they, along with my husband, spoiled me like a little girl. I mean look at this super cute cake!

I was so tired, when I finally got home from teaching school & then dance that, even though they offered to go out somewhere, I really just wanted to eat pizza with my family at home, so that's what we did! Look at the beautiful wrapping!

I am definitely bragging right now, but look at the nice gifts that they gave me!

Joel surprised me with a Betsy Johnson purse I've had my eye on, and a Seahawks sweatshirt.

My mom gave me cute storage boxes, an awesome monkey bank, and a teaching plaque and mug.

My Grandma gave me the beautiful necklace and earrings.

Any my youngest brother gave me a beautiful leather bound copy of the Wizard of Oz.

These boxes are so me. My mom gets me. I already have stuff I need to sort through in them haha.

The pages of the Wizard of Oz book are soo pretty! If you look closely, they are not only foiled, but sparkly as well. Also, Emerald is my birthstone!

I decorated my bar cart in festive pink for my birthday month :)

The pennant banner was an impulse by from Target.

My new monkey is perfect for the bar cart! I love it!

I love my family! It was so refreshing to visit with them. I've been feeling stressed and down on myself lately about some things that are beyond my control and it was so nice to be reminded on my birthday that I have a lot of family and friends who love and support me.

My birthday week may be over...
but why not celebrate it all month right?
Happy Monday!

Birthday Getaway: Lincoln City

 Joel and I took at little one day mini-vaca mid week to celebrate my birthday a day early.

We stayed a night in poor man's Las Vegas at the Chinook Winds Casino in Lincoln City.

    

Unfortunately, the room we booked was having some work done on it, so we had to stay in a smoking room :( 

But the manager gave us a discount and free buffet for two. 

So even though we had planned to eat dinner elsewhere, we couldn't pass up a free buffet ;)

P.S. I could probably start a blog dedicated solely to pictures of my husband
 giving me a weird look because I'm trying to take a picture of our food. 

After dinner we went for a walk on the beach at sunset.  

 I wanted a nice picture of myself on my 28th birthday...but every selfie I took, I looked soo tired, because guess what? I was!! So here's some goofy pics and a pic of how I felt about my selfies. 

The next morning we had breakfast at the Seafood Grill at the casino.

We had a great view of the ocean from our seats.

 I really liked the dining ware they served our food on.

Joel had a seafood omelette, and I had monkey style pancakes.

Usually I enjoy a savory breakfast, but I couldn't pass up salted caramel sauce with pecans and cinnamon sugar cream.

After checking out, we did some damage at the outlet mall, and then headed to beach to walk around some more, and try to burn off some of the calories we had consumed!

I finally wore the sequinned pineapple shirt I got at the H&M in the Forum Shops in Las Vegas.

Joel & I were both pretty tired, and as much as we love exploring, we also love our home.

So we came home early to enjoy the nice weather in our own backyard.

Joel made a delicious dinner, we played cribbage, and I actually painted my nails!

The Everett Oasis is coming together nicely.

I am very blessed to have such a wonderful husband.

It was so nice time to spend with him and to have a day off in the middle of a busy week!

I have a couple of more birthday posts to come, because I like to celebrate birthday week :)

Birthday: 28, 28 is great

Today I turn 28.
Let's see where I am at in life right now:
I am married.
I have a full time job as a teacher + some part time dance jobs.
I bought a house.
I am blessed.

What's next?
Hopefully some travelling.
Maybe a new car.
More dancing.
More creating.
Possibly babies.

The last one absolutely terrifies me.
Everyone always jokes around about how guys are reluctant to have children.
Am I odd because I'm a woman and I'm not just dying to have a baby?
I still have so many things I want to do in life, and the thought of being absolutely responsible for another human being, in a world that is becoming increasingly more complicated and at odds with what I believe in is not something I am taking lightly.

Who knows?
Next year at this time Joel and I could have a baby.
Maybe we'll have a new car.
Maybe we'll go to Mexico.
We'll see.
Year 28?
Challenge Accepted.

A Few of my Favorite Things

Hi all! I was looking through some of my old posts the other day, and I realized that I have gotten a lot less colorful of late and I've really just been chronicling the fun events that I have gotten to do. I want to get to back to a more variety of different posts. For the last 2 years I have done a compilations of things I like for my birthday, so I thought I would do it again this year.

As you can see from my list, I have summer on the brain!!

1. Fabric // 2. Lantern // 3. Anthropologie Plate // 4. Star Lantern // 5. Pottery Barn Drink Dispenser 

6. Anthropolgie Candle // 7. Flamingo Light // 8. Pineapple Serving Bowl // 9. Swizzle Sticks

As much as I love the "fixer upper" Joanna Gaines style... I will never have it.

As you can tell by this post, I love COLOR, I am super eclectic, and I may still have teenage girl tendencies when it comes to decorating :) 

Stay tuned for more birthday week!

Happy Tuesday!

The search for the Perfect Perfume: Anthropolgie

If you've been following my blog since the beginning, you may remember a while back I posted about trying to find a new perfume. I lamented about how every time I find a perfume that I like, the company quits making it! So I've been on a search for a new perfume for a while. While in Las Vegas, Joel even agreed to letting me pick out and buy a new perfume. 

We spent quite a while in Sephora smelling, what seemed like, every perfume in the store. I didn't like a single one!!

Well, I think I finally found the one! My mom discovered it first.

It's from Anthropologie and it is:

Royal Apothic Conservatory Eau De Parfum in English Rose.

After we recover from paying our taxes last month, I'm going to go for it!

Fun fact: Tomorrow starts my birthday week, and only 5 more weeks until summer vacation!