Happy Birthday to Me!

I had the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER this year.  Seriously, I felt so loved and appreciated and special.  It was awesome.  This is not normal on my birthdays because, like so many people, my birthdays as a child were always so great that once I became an adult I still wanted them to be as special and they never lived up to my expectations.  My poor husband is aware of my high expectations and I think probably sometimes thinks "why bother, it's not going to be good enough".  You would think I would just grow up and not need my birthdays to be such an abnormally special day, however I still cling to that dream and each year hope that it's going to be a fantastic day.

This year however, I was not disappointed.  I was not hurt.  I didn't cry.  I didn't sulk.  (Man - I can be such a baby on my birthday!)  Peter got this one completely right!  He really gave me a day that showed how much he knows me and loves me.

I had to work on my birthday.  So, on the way to work Peter stopped and got me a Jamba Juice for breakfast.  Yummy smoothie!  Great start to any day.

At work I got a call from the receptionist saying that I had a delivery that needed to be picked up at the front desk.  How fun is that?  I've been in this office nearly two years and never had anything delivered so I felt pretty special.  When I got to the front I saw this awesome fruit bouquet!  Here it is as it was delivered, all cute and wrapped up, and then an "after" picture that I took at home when I was digging into it.  Kimberly, Ty, and Kaity had sent me the bouquet.  What an awesome sister - plus a great gift considering how into fruit I am right now!!

Then, about an hour later, I got another call from the receptionist saying that I had another delivery.  What?!  2 in 1 day?!  Pinch me!  Peter had sent me flowers!!!  I am always telling him how much I would love to get flowers at work but then in the same breath telling him not to do it because it's not worth the extra money compared to just buying a pretty bouquet in the stores.  Anyway, they were arranged in a decorative gift box and came complete with birthday balloons.  So beautiful!  And I could tell just by looking at them that Peter had picked this arrangement just for me.  #1 - It had lilies in it which are my favorite and #2 - there were no carnations.  (That's a story from a past birthday gone wrong but suffice it to say, he knows I don't like carnations.)  I loved looking at the flowers all day and enjoyed having them in my office for the rest of the week as well.  The card was perfect - it just said "Happy Birthday Sweetness". 

After Peter picked me up from work, we went home and he told me what he wanted to give me for my birthday.  Shoes!  But not only did he want to give me shoes but he was willing to go shopping for said shoes with me.  Maybe there are some husbands out there who love to go clothes/shoe shopping with their wives but mine is not one of them.  So again he showed his thoughtfulness and he was really focused on doing what makes me happy.  We shopped at DSW and I ended up getting 4 new pairs of shoes.  Peter was a great shopping partner and grabbed boxes so I wouldn't have to bend down as much and also gave opinions when he liked and didn't like things.  He didn't rush me or try to get the shopping over with as soon as possible.  He didn't complain when I changed my mind or wanted to look at an aisle we had already looked at.  He was, seriously, an amazing shopping partner. 

Oh yeah, before we left to go shopping, I had turned on the news because the weather was pretty crazy and someone at work mentioned something about tornado warnings.  The weather on the news did look bad but it didn't look like it would hit the DFW area so I wasn't too concerned.  While we were shopping, I got a call from my mom who had heard about the bad weather from Brittany and wanted to make sure I knew what to do in case of a tornado.  Of course I knew - the first time there was a tornado watch after we had moved to Texas, I did all kinds of research and freaking out.  I'm now more calm about it.

After shopping, we drove to downtown Dallas for dinner.  The weather looked pretty stormy in some areas but while driving we didn't hit any rain and only some wind so I wasn't worried.  Peter surprised me by taking me to a restaurant that we had never been to - Sambucca (first brownie point since Peter hates trying new places).  It had a cool, upscale, more refined menu (second brownie point because typically Peter doesn't like the more upscale/fru-fru-y food). AND there was live music (third brownie point).  My perfect husband had clearly put some thought into choosing a dinner location that I would enjoy.

Here's our appetizer - Buca Beignets

Dinner - Peter got a steak, I got tilapia and then we got a side of cheesy potatoes au gratin.  Everything was yummy!

Peter ready to dig in!

This is the desert that we ordered - Butterfinger Bread Pudding.  Holy cow - delicious.

When we sat down for dinner the weather was still pretty good.  We were close to a wall of windows that looked out on the patio so we could see what the weather was like outside.  My goodness how quickly the weather changed.  The wind picked up and then the lightening started.  I didn't start getting nervous about the weather until the tvs over by the bar stopped their regular programming and were just showing doppler radar with the weather guy pointing to stuff.  We were too far away to hear his words but there was a lot of bright reds and pinks on the radar (not a good thing).  Then the people behind us starting talking about how tornado sirens were going off somewhere.  People were getting up from their tables and going to watch the tvs.  I could tell at this point that there was some serious weather going on in the DFW metro area.  My anxiety wasn't helped by the fact that the music (which earlier I was so happy to enjoy) was at this point so loud that I doubted I would hear the tornado sirens outside if they went off.  Plus, the girl that was singing was choosing some angst ridden songs that put me more on edge. 

It ended up being almost a sensory overload with the intense, moody live music combined with the nervous energy of the other diners, the crazy lightening, and the red-dominated doppler radar.  At that point I hard a hard time enjoying my dinner and not moving away from the windows to a more remote part of the restaurant.  I joked that Peter really went all out for this birthday because he had even booked a light show as entertainment.  Here's a short 20 second video to show you what the lightening was like.  Just pay attention to how often there are flashes of light (I'm sure I could have gotten an even better video with lots of flashes of the actual lightening rather than just the light however I was trying not to focus so much on that part).  It was CRAZY!!!

We finished dinner and I checked out the radar before we left to make sure we wouldn't be driving into anything major.  It looked like, at least, for the next 20 min or so, that we could drive home without hitting anything.  On the way home, we were listening to the radio and the Emergency Broadcast Signal went off and was followed by an actual alert!  (I've only heard it as a "test" - never anything real!)  We later learned that in fact, a tornado did touch down about 5 miles from where we were having dinner.  What an exciting night/day, right?!

 

A few days later we also celebrated my birthday by having cake and ice cream at Brittany's.  I can't remember the last time I had cake/ice cream/candles!  It's so much fun to have family in town!

This is a pic of Peter and Landen.  I thought it was so cute, I had to include it even though it has nothing to do with my birthday.  Look how cute Peter is hanging out with a baby!