NoThanks – Day Nineteen

Tonight I’m thankful for a great celebration of the anniversary of my 39th birthday!

The morning didn’t start out so well. I had planned to leave early so I could stop by Starbuck’s and get my complimentary birthday beverage. Everything was running on schedule, but I didn’t account for my chatty family. Or the loose lid on my baked oatmeal container which fell off, spilling sticky baked oatmeal into my unzipped purse. Or the frost on the windshield of Todd’s truck that I had to drive this morning, making me have to wait for the defroster to kick in. To add insult to injury I don’t know how to work Todd’s stereo and was forced to listen to music I don’t like on the way to work.

Work was pleasant, though. Nothing stressful or difficult and coffee was involved. Starbuck’s coffee, to be exact. Not a white chocolate mocha or a pumpkin spice latte, but some delicious, hot French Roast nonetheless. After coffee, the half of the baked oatmeal that didn’t fall out of the container and a few projects, I was taken to lunch by a few of my friends. We had Mexican. It was delicious. And fun. And free for me.

From there I drove home and then Todd and I immediately left for a visit with his elbow surgeon. He had elbow surgery over a year ago and he still has severe tenderness and even nauseating pain when he rests his arm on a table or arm rest or whatever. The doctor’s office was running behind and we were there for nearly two hours. The doctor thinks he has scar tissue pressing on nerves in his elbow and we’re going to try some therapies before we get to surgical clean up. He’s also had a lot of pain in his right index finger and it turns out he sprained it. So yeah. He’s a mess. But at least now we know why.

Anyhoo, between the traffic and our stop for Chinese food it took us an hour to get home. When we walked in the door Shelby was making my birthday cake from scratch.

So the evening went something like this:

Dinner

Laughing

Scrabble (I won, but they said they let me because it was my birthday.)

Giggling

Cake (It was spectacularly delicious. It’s her grandmother’s recipe with a secret ingredient that I am now privy to, but I can’t tell you because then it wouldn’t be a secret anymore. It was chocolate with a yummy icing, topped with dark chocolate pieces and then drizzled with peanut butter sundae topping.)

Yummy sounds

I think I’ll run to Starbuck’s tomorrow morning to get my belated birthday beverage to drink with my breakfast. The breakfast that’s chocolate with icing and dark chocolate pieces and peanut butter sundae topping. Just exactly like my birthday cake.