Celebrations!!

This month started off with celebrations for my 10 year anniversary at work. It amazes me that it has been so long. It's such a grown-up place to be in life having worked somewhere for 10 years. I am so lucky to have the job I have. I love what I do and the people I work with. We had a lunch celebration with some of my closest co-worker friends. Then, in staff meeting my boss reflected on the last ten years and poked fun at my excel knowledge. Then there was a nice reception with yummy food so people could come visit and reminisce. It was fun to talk about all the crazy memories and reflect on how much things have changed.

This week has been full of birthday festivities. What I have been blown away by with this birthday is how caught off-guard I have been. I'm usually pretty in tune with things going on around me. I'm not a snoop, rather, I am just "aware" - I tend to pick up on clues. But this year I'm apparently out of it. Either I've been too busy, focused or distracted. Maybe all of the above.

Tuesday was the first of my birthday celebrations. There is a group of girls at work that get together for lunch every other week on Tuesdays. Since that's my day at home, I usually go every other time. To my surprise there were cupcakes and ice cream and toppings to consume. Can't go wrong with any of that in my book. All of us girls love to bake and share recipes and it is just so much fun to have homemade sweets!

Yesterday morning my team at work suddenly appeared at my desk with cake and ice cream. This was 10:30 in the morning mind you. My love for ice cream has apparently become common knowledge. YAY!! Then I went to lunch with some friends for my birthday and when I came back there were surprises on my desk. There was a photo frame with a message from my husband and a picture of a camera. This one really confused me. I called Jim right away thinking maybe he had put this stuff on my desk and maybe he was still in the area. Turns out it was done by a couple girls at work who like to have birthday messages from people's spouses. It was definitely a pleasant surprise.

The picture of the camera was to tell me Jim got me a new camera for my birthday. I've been wanting to get a little digital camera that I can just carry in my purse. I love my big fancy camera, but don't always like to lug it around. This camera can also take video. We'll have to see if this will just be our new video camera or if we still want to shop for an official camera just for video. But I'm so excited to finally have digital video so I can share videos online.

Here is my boy rolling over...

Another birthday gift is that I will be getting my first date night since Joshua's birth. Tomorrow night Jim and I are going to go out to dinner and probably country dancing. I think it will be really nice to get out.

Joshua's gift to me is looking like it will be his first tooth. My mom had thought yesterday that she was feeling something sharp in his gums; but when I picked him up, she wasn't feeling it anymore. But last night I definitely felt sharpness. It's so hard to look in his mouth because the moment you pull his lip down, his tongue instantaneously covers the gums. But I couldn't see anything protruding last night. But today I'm pretty sure I can see the smallest hint of his tooth. It is such a major milestone and very exciting to me.

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of all my celebrations. I am really feeling how much God has blessed my life!