I've had a birfday, shout hooray!

Age has never been a big thing for me. I don't get upset like most women do about people knowing how old they are. I don't mind if everyone knows...it's better that they do because all too often I forget my own age and need help from an outside source to figure out how old I am when I'm asked. I usually have to think about how old my sister is and then subtract five from that to remember how old I really am. The funny thing is, that she has to do the reverse to think of how old she is! She knows how old I am and just adds five years to that!

I think I'm like that because my mind must have stopped maturing around 21 or 22. That's where it stopped keeping track of how old I am each year. I still feel a little awkward in my own skin, like I'm just starting out on my adult life, and like I still have so much to learn.

Maybe that's a good thing!

This year I had a very pleasant birthday. With all our big purchases lately (namely a new house, a Prius for Scott to commute in, and a new washer that can be on the second floor and won't shake the house the bits), I was ready for a laid back birthday.

I woke up and Scott had already started breakfast. He had wanted to make crepes, but he thought he would cheat and use pancake batter instead of making crepe batter. The result was that they just turned out to be thin pancakes! He also made grits with scrambled eggs and sausage in it. It was nice to not be in charge of making breakfast! And with it being on a Saturday, my birthday gift to me was not doing our normal Saturday morning deep house cleaning after we ate - the kids seemed to really appreciate my gift to myself!

Then Scott took the boys fishing and Teagan and I went to go see the movie Hunger Games together (Duncan tagged along too because he isn't quite a boy yet, he's still a carry on accessory of mine!)

After enjoying the movie, Tig and I went to Carl's Jr. for a Jalapeno burger and an Oreo shake and then went to visit our nearest oriental market. The market is about half an hour away and this was our first time going there. It's on a not so good side of Everett, and was sorta tiny, but I was so glad to finally get the Thai fresh/frozen ingredients that are staples around our house!

When I got home I got the first of my birthday gifts. Emmy, who had been singing "Happy Birfday to Mommy" all day long, came running up to show me my birthday gift. He had transformed himself into birthday card and written all over his body! He did have writing on his face too, but I had washed it off before I took this picture.

According to him, one leg says "Happy Birfday to Mommy Kristina" and the other one (the one with the big part on the knee) is a 'birfday hawrt' that says "I wuv you Mommy, wuv Emmett Erick" The parts that were on his tummy that you can't see is a picture of he and I; complete with smiles and hair and everything!

For dinner we were supposed to go to a neighbor's house for a work BBQ, but it was cancelled at the last minute, so I was last minute planning a meal for dinner. Luckily I had all that fresh produce on hand, so we had stir fry and Tom Ka Guy (a Thai coconut soup that is heavenly!) and Ginger tea with rice balls. Yummy yummy! (My traditional birthday meal of manicotti was postponed until next weekend when we are having the sister missionaries over to celebrate their birthdays as well. One of them shares the same birthday as me, while the other one's birthday is on Friday. So I invited them over for manicotti and cake on next Friday as a massive birthday party for all three of us.)

After dinner I got to open my gifts. Teagan had picked me up a pretty pair of green chopsticks from the market earlier that day and had given them to me early so I could use them with my stir-fry.

My mom had made me one of her legendary berets. Mine is a floppy relaxed one that Teagan and I both love!

 She also gave me fun new cookbook to use. On Sunday we had a couple of snotty nosed kids who we didn't want to send to church to share their germs, so we had Teagan stay home with them. We came home to find her donning her apron making some Pumpkin Gnocchi cookies from my new book! The house smelled delicious!

I had friends e-mail and facebook birthday wishes to me. I got to talk to both my mom and my sister for a good amount of time. My dad called and chatted for a few minutes. I got to go on a girl date with Teagan to a movie that I was really excited to see and I found some tried and true ingredients that I haven't gotten to use for three months.

 It was a great birthday!