birthday

The big 3-0

/ Shane / 7 Comments

Today is the big day. I’m turning 30.

To be quite honest, it doesn’t really bother me. I kept waiting to have this big, “Holy crap, I’m old!” moment, but it never really happened. Maybe it’s because I’m doing pretty well with myself. I would probably feel worse if I felt like there were things I should have done before I turned 30; like my life was lagging behind my expectations. If anything, it’s exactly the opposite: I am married with a beautiful daughter and another kid on the way, I have a job that I like, a Master’s degree, I own my home (by which I mean I owe a whole lot of money to the bank, but hey, they don’t call those payments rent!), and I have some dough in both my savings and retirement accounts. What more could a 30-year-old ask for?

I’m not saying there’s nothing that could be improved in my life. I need to lose some weight (but isn’t that supposed to be what I say when I turn 30 anyway?), my hair is hiding who-knows-where, the house could be cleaner, etc., etc. But all in all, when I look around at my life, I think I’ve got a pretty good thing going.

Is this normal? Will it hit me at some point? Am I missing a good excuse to make a big deal and get a lot of attention? Do I need to turn the histrionics up a bit? (I mean aside from posting this early in the morning so I can get compliments all day, instead of posting it at the usual time) Anybody have any good getting old stories / discussion? Feel free to post in the comments.

Turning the big ??

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Happy Birthday Sara!

I’m not sure if she cares or not, but I won’t say how old. Of course I did use two question marks, so that does narrow it down to between 10 and 99.

Vacation Part II – Birthday Party

/ Shane / 2 Comments

As mentioned, Sunday was Evie’s second birthday. Our party was a little more low key than last year, with just family attending. We planned it so that we would have presents in the morning, eat during her nap, and have cake in the afternoon, so that people could come and go and everyone would get at least part of the party.

Before her birthday, Evie had only a few requests:

Sara: “What do you want for your birthday?”
Evie: “I want a gift with a prize in it.”

She was also very specific that she wanted a “pink cake” with “sprinkles”, which was delivered to her satisfaction.

She got a lot of good presents, probably better even than she knows. Being a kid, she was more excited about things like socks and purses than things like books, even though she will probably get more enjoyment out of the latter in the long run.

One of the cutest things was practicing with Evie how to stick two fingers up to show how old she is. She would concentrate really hard, staring at her hand until she put the correct fingers down, using her other hand. Then she would slowly cover them with her thumb to hold them down and take her hand away. Then she would get a really big smile on her face, hold up the hand and proudly proclaim, “Two!”

So Evie was kind of into ages and Sara asked her how old the day care lady was:

Sara: “And how old is Florence?”
Evie: “Too much.”

Evie had a blast all day, running around like a crazy person with a big grin on her face. We couldn’t believe that she took a nap, but she was so exhausted that she stayed out until we woke her up. It was a lot more fun than last year since she actually kind of knew what was going on and was excited about it.

So thanks to everybody who came, I hope you had as good of a time as Evie did!

2nd Birthday

/ Shane / 3 Comments

Today’s the day, our big girl is 2!  I can’t believe how much she’s changed in the last year. Here’s to 200 more!

Happy Birthday to Me

/ Shane / 1 Comment

And I am gracious enough to share my birthday with several lesser known celebrities:

           

And a couple of people not quite as smart as me:

For my birthday we went over to Dixie Kitchen.  I mentioned that we have tried to go there several times but it was always too busy, so we went elsewhere.  So we figured we better get in there before the episode aired, or else we’d never have a chance.

The food was really good, well worth a birthday meal.  They give you complimentary johnny cakes on your table, which was unique and they were pretty good.  We had fried green tomatoes as an appetizer and I was really impressed with them. I don’t think I have ever had them and these were just perfect.  Slightly spicy.  I thought they would have some sort of sauce, but they didn’t.  The cornbread muffins were really good too.  They actually had little pieces of jalapeno in them.  I knew it was a southern place but I didn’t know it was a specifically a Nawlins place.  I had catfish, mashed potatoes and red beans and rice and Sara had blackened chicken, mashed sweet potatoes and greens.  I thought it was better than Calypso, but Sara said she still prefers Calypso.  Oh, and did I mention it was pretty cheap?  Anyway, Mr. Obama has good taste and I will definitely be back some time!