Birthday Week 2012

Up until a few weeks ago I hadn’t given a single thought to turning twenty nine, much less thirty.  But then I started thinking about it and it made sad.  Maybe sad isn’t the right word, but I think it is.  I’m just going to miss (Well, I do miss it now) the being young and stupid and reckless thing.  Not that I really need that in my life anymore but it would be nice to be able to drop everything and leave town for a few days just for fun on a moment’s notice.  I miss life before Max.  I miss life before Rob even.  I miss life before I moved out of my parent’s house.  The grass is always greener, eh?  GET OVER IT ERIN.  It’s fine.  Twenty nine will be great and 30 will be fabulous.

MOVING ON……

So I turned twenty nine last week and it was a really, really great day.  Perfect in fact.  First off I woke up to a bouquet of flowers and for lunch Rob and Max took me to the Grilled Cheese Grill, I loooooove that place.  A restaurant dedicated to grilled cheese sandwiches?  GENIUS.  While Max was napping Rob presented me with presents and a heart shaped red velvet cake!  Rob made me a cake!For dinner we met my mom and Cameron and brother by friendship, Alex, at a place I’d never been, Golden Valley Brewhouse.  max ran around like a damn maniac, because that’s all he ever does anymore GAAAAAAAAHHHH.  That’s for another day.  Dinner was lovely, and the brownie/ice cream deal was great.  AND THEN WE WENT TO ZOO LIGHTS.  Except when we got there the line was insanely long and I was crabby about it, but then it went fast and we got in and it was suuuper crowded but we still had fun.  You know who had the most fun though?  MAX DID.Oh, he just loved it.  I think we’ll go back soon but earlier in the evening so we’re not running into bedtime, but even having been up two hours past bedtime this kid did awesome.  Also, we got a zoo membership!  So we’ll be hanging there all the time.

And that was my birthday.

Friday was Rob’s birthday.  He’s so old now I’ve forgotten his age.  I had to work during the day so festivities were put on hold til after I got off.  I gave Rob his presents and we went out to eat at his family’s favorite chinese place, Kwang Chow.  It was just me and Rob and Max, our little family.Saturday was Rob’s real celebration.  For the last three years Rob has made a tradition of going to play laser tag for his birthday.  So that is exactly what we did.  Our team won each game we played, duh.  I even got the highest score out of everyone playing the last game.  That’s out of like thirty people!  It was a blast, even if we were playing against a bunch of preteens.(Thanks Greg for the group photo!)

After laser tag we went to dinner at our favorite Mexican joint, La Caretta where Rob and I shared a cazuela, a bowl full of liquor.  Rob and Max got to wear the birthday sombrero, which when I think about it is really disgusting and probably full of lice and somebody else’s dandruff.  Ew.After all that we had a few friends over for a game night in our rumpus room (basement) which is still decorated for Max’s for Max’s first birthday party because I obviously don’t spend enough time down there to actually clean up.I’d say we had a nice birthday week.  Each year all I want is to be with my family and have cake (because it’s not really a birthday without cake).  I’ve got year, well 359 days, until I turn thirty and until then I will enjoy the last days of my twenties the best way I know how, drinking white wine spritzers and watching Roseanne.

You can find past birthdays here: 2011, 2010

Birthdays

We’re in the thick of it, people.  Birthday season.  The month of December is chock full of friends and family member’s birthdays, including mine and Rob’s.  We went out last Friday to celebrate with friends at a karaoke bar where there was supposed to be an Elvis impersonator, but he called in sick.  We had a blast anyway, karaoke-ing without him.  That night while Rob and I were lying in bed I told him that now I’ve had a baby I have a new appreciation for birthdays.

I’ve always been a birthday whore.  It’s my day.  It’s my one and only day of the year that’s all about me and I get presents and people pay attention to me and tell me nice things and there’s cake and whatever I want for dinner.  But now suddenly it’s not all about me.  All I can think about is my mom and her bringing me into this world.

Yup, it’s one of those posts.

I am such a damn sap.  Whatever.

Now that I’ve brought a whole human person boy into this world I think about things differently.  I keep thinking about my own mom and what she went through, and how she must feel watching me grow up and do all these grown up things, like have my very own baby, and I can’t help but think about how I’m going to be doing the very same thing with my Max.

I don’t know what exactly I’m trying say here.  All I know is I’m all kinds of emotional over my birthday this year.

So to my mom; thank you for being my mom.  I love you and I can’t put into words how much I appreciate everything you do and have done for me.

Turning 27 and 31

This year I entered my late 20’s.  Yup, I’m 27.

I was excited for this birthday for a couple reasons.  Reason 1: This is my last birthday to be celebrated before I officially become a mother.  Reason 2: Last year’s birthday was one for the books, but for all the wrong reasons.  Read about it here.  I was determined to have a great birthday this year, and that I did.

On my birthday, Sunday December 5th, I had a few friends and my mom over for a fondue dinner.  I love cheese fondue and have never made it before and thought it might be fun to try.  I made a (slightly altered) smoked cheddar fondue and a roasted garlic fondue.  Joy brought a traditional swiss fondue with cranberries.  We had bread, apples, mushrooms, flank steak and sausage for dipping.  It was fantastic!  I think I definitely have a little bit of learning to do as far as altering fondue recipes, but for the most part it was a great dinner.

For dessert Rob and I had a cake made at JaCiva’s on Hawthorne.  We had looked at them for making our wedding cupcakes, but they were pretty spendy.  We had a red velvet cake made for us to share.

Yes, I shared my birthday with Rob.  I may be a birthday princess; but I’m used to sharing my birthday because my cousin Michael happens to have the same birthday as Rob, he was born the same year as me.  We’re two days apart, so we shared all of our childhood birthdays.  Happy Birthday Michael!  May we one day be able to celebrate together again!

Between dinner and cake we played a game called The Game of Things.  It’s a pretty fun game where you have to guess who said what.  Joy ended up winning, beating out Brad by a hair.

And after cake, it was time for presents.

Joy got me this awesome serving tray, and filled it with peanut butter truffles!

Rob and my mom both got me this Coach perfume that I fell in love with a few weeks ago.  My mom also got me a nursing gown and pajamas, which I asked for.  They’re pretty cute and will definitely come in handy!

Shauna painted this for me!  I love it!  It’s hanging in my craft room on a wall I have decorated with owls.  I have such creative friends!

Rob also had another birthday surprise for me, we were going to the Blazer game on his birthday!  He also took me to Target to pick out pajamas.  He knew which ones I wanted, but he wanted me to get the right size.  I had such a great birthday.  It was everything I wanted, a low key fondue dinner and game night with family and friends.

Now, fast forward to Tuesday December 7th, Rob’s 31st birthday.  He had to work at the video store during the day so I brought him some thai food for lunch.  When he got home I had his present ready for him.

I got him a (refurbished) Sony PSP.  I think he likes it.  I also got him a game, Manhunt 2, and a Blazers shirt to wear to the game that night.

Then it was time for the game.  As far as I knew we had the usual 300 level seats, which are fine.  But when we got there I pulled out the tickets and saw that we were sitting in the 100 level!  Holy crackers we were so close!  Before we went to our seats we got our hot dogs, popcorn, pretzel and soda and played a ring toss game where I won a Blazers bracelet.  We tried to find our seats ourselves initially but were confused because we were row NN, not N.  The usher said “Oh, the double letter seats are closer to the court”.  Whaaaaat?  We walked down to row NN, 13 rows from the court.  What’s going through my head is OHMYGODICAN’TBELIEVE WE’RESITTINGTHISCLOSE.  When the players came out to shoot around before the game I was just in shock.  Steve Nash was 50 feet away from me, and about as tall as me.  I was star struck.  Rob couldn’t have picked better seats or a better game to go to.

Here’s a crappy phone picture to give you an idea.

We played the Phoenix Suns who we lost in the playoffs to last season.  They have some pretty good players and some really scrappy players.  It was a great game.  We were ahead pretty much the whole game, except for the end.  You know, the Blazers fourth quarter fall apart.  But, we pulled ahead to win it 105 to 99 I believe.  There were some questionable calls made throughout, and a lot of temper tantrums from Alvin Gentry which I could hear from where we were sitting!  I could hear Brandon Roy yell as he got fouled, and I could hear Nate NcMillan throw a fit over a shitty call.  We got to see Patty Mills play his best game in his career, he’s a bench player who’s getting more play these days, and we got to see Joel Przybilla back in action.  It was so fantastic.  I wish we were rich and could afford season tickets in awesome seats like that.  Rob wins for best birthday date ever.

After the game we went to the Boiler Room to celebrate with friends.  I had bought a box of Cinnabons to share for his birthday.  Rob’s favorite food is cinnamon rolls.

Dr. Love had the bar in a dancing tizzy.

And we sang Happy Birthday.  It looks like I’m holding a box of fire.

Rob did have a few drinks.  I think he’s filled his 5 drink quota for the year.

Rob’s old high school buddies even came out to see him.  And buy him a shot.  Surprisingly, Rob did not get sick from drinking.

And there was photo booth fun.

All in all a great, and very late,  night.  I’d say we had fabulous birthdays, but that would be an understatement.  Thank you to our friends for celebrating with us.  And most of all, thank you to our parents for having us.