33

It's been a sweet day.  How could it not be, with a venti mint hot chocolate and a piece of banana chocolate chip coffee cake at Starbucks for breakfast and chocolate ice cream from Kline's as a bedtime snack?  :)

My day officially started with hearing Josiah and David talking and laughing together a few minutes before 7:00 AM, which made me smile.  It is rare that they are both awake that early--usually David is the one who sleeps in--but this morning, they woke up before 7:00, then obediently stayed in their beds until that magic hour when they're allowed to get out of bed.  After that, they quickly came into our room and sang in whispery voices (since Tobin was still asleep in his room just off ours) "Happy birthday to you!"  I loved it.  :)

After that, I got ready and left the house.  Since my birthday landed on a Wednesday, Jeff's day off (I wish that happened every year!), he graciously agreed to stay home with the boys and let me have some time out all by myself this morning.  It was thrilling.  :)  I went to Starbucks and used the gift card that I won in a give-away on Jo Ann's blog, then sat there and started reading A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers.  It's been a number of years since I read it--probably ever since Carolyn Fields had all the women in her discipleship group read it way back in San Diego--but I'm enjoying it immensely and being challenged by it.  Only problem is, now that I've started that book, I want to sit and read it while I should be doing other things!  :)  

After Starbucks, I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond because Jo Ann, in her generosity, decided that since it took her longer than expected to get the Starbucks gift card to me, she should include a gift card to Bed, Bath, and Beyond as well.  OK!  I'm not complaining!  :)  I peacefully walked through the whole store with no little people tugging at me or wanting my attention.  I thought about a few things I might like to get; but when I saw this sign...

...I knew I'd found the one.  It was the first time I'd seen a sign with this saying, and I look forward to hanging it in our bedroom as a reminder of the wonderful love story woven through my life!

My last stop before heading home was the nursery to get my big gift: a magnolia tree!  I have some magnolias already, but I want to continue the row of them all along the western side of our property.  This tall specimen was actually $20 cheaper than I thought it would be, so that made me happy.  :)

After I arrived at home, we got ourselves ready and headed north, my parents included, to eat lunch at the Olive Garden in Winchester.  It's a long trip for just a lunch out, but oh so yummy...and worth it on such a special day.  :)

Then home in mid-afternoon for a nap (interrupted by vivid dreams of characters from A Voice in the Wind!), followed by family time with no set agenda.  Jeff loved me through acts of service by working on a few little projects around the house, and I went on a little nature walk around our property.  First, I found my mother up on a ladder, pruning the grapevine! 
Then these cheerful daffodils caught my eye...  
Ours are on the north side of our house, so they always bloom later than most in the area.
Some hyacinths...
...which I planted a few years ago around the base of my fringe trees.
Green grass... It's kind of silly to take a picture of grass, I know.  I only wish the color was better in it so the vivid green would be visible (I'm too tired tonight to even try to edit it to correct that!).  One of the things I love about the month of March is how the grass greens up.  Beginning of March, it's brown.  Beginning of April, it's beautifully green.  What a difference!
Water drops on lily leaves from our light sprinkle of rain earlier...
But most precious by far of all the things I saw around our house is the treasured face of my little Tobin Bear.  He's gorgeous to me!

It's always interesting to me to look back on my previous birthday posts (appropriately named 31 and 32!).  Last year, I posted some old photos; and this year, I decided to take another trip down Memory Lane (and, by the way, I pulled these old pictures out of boxes and albums and took pictures of them with my current camera to post here; that's why the quality of some of them is not the greatest...but again, I'm too tired to do anything about it now!).  It's hard to believe that I was this little girlie...

...who grew up and (skipping a bunch of years!) became this skinny college student...
...who had short hair and liked big earrings...
...and went off to Israel and met an almost-too-good-to-be-true man and fell crazily in love and was wooed long distance by him and received countless letters (real letters, hand-written, not emails) from him and occasionally even flowers...
...and who became engaged to him and could hardly wait to marry Prince Charming...
...but who still had to finish her senior year of college, but fortunately had fantastic friends to help her through...
...who finally did graduate, three weeks before the wedding day...
...who embraced the adventure of being a newlywed in the far-off land of California (here at the San Diego Zoo...there's a lion in the bottom right corner of the picture)...
...and did silly things like kissing Jack (from Jack in the Box restaurant, but most East Coasters probably haven't heard of that restaurant) on Halloween...oh, you guessed it, it's really Jeff inside that silly head he made!...  :)
...and came back to her college campus in Pennsylvania a year or two later to dress up in her wedding gown and take more wedding pics, just for fun  :) (since the wedding was in Virginia, we didn't get to take real wedding pics in this gorgeous location)...
...and who eventually became a mother--A MOTHER!--to her firstborn son...
...and her second...
...and her third (but there are plenty of pictures of that on the blog already!), and now is expecting a fourth.

What an incredible adventure the past 33 years have been!!!  

At this stage of life, I feel a very deep sense of contentment.  Oh, sure, there are some things I'd like to change; but overall, I feel like I am living out my earliest, most cherished dream.  Surely I must be the most blessed woman on the face of the earth.  In the words of The Shack, God must be "especially fond" of me.  How grateful I am!!!!!!!!