Birthday Award - and yet another reason to extend talking about my birthday!

The most genius user of the Swiss Dots folder that I know (who claims she only has one creative gene - and it's totally untrue), Marisa over at Rosemary Reflections, gave me this award yesterday for my birthday, so I thought it would be a great time to relflect on things that make me happy (in particular, they're what made me happy yesterday - in no particular order)

10. Naps - I never napped until I met MrP. Weird truth. I was up late all week while he was gone off to Vegas and then I surprised him by picking him up from the airport (which he didn't think I'd be able to stay up late enough to do since my usual bedtime is around 10:30). My birthday was filled with naps!

9. Mystycka, my sweet, sweet kitty. She cuddled with me on the couch yesterday and something about cuddling with her always makes us end up napping. Oh yeah...and yesterday I made a few strips of bacon with my breakfast and left it on the counter for the grease to harden. Turns out when we went out for supper, someone thought she'd give the grease a little taste!!

8. Planning - I'm a bit of a crazy planner and on Friday, our tickets for Wicked in NYC arrived. Talk about exciting! Seeing those official tickets really made it real. MrP also gave me the 'permission' to use some of our $$ from savings to take two riding clinics this summer - the same Cross Country three day camp over the August long weekend and then the following weekend, my instructor's having an adult fun camp where I'll enjoy another fun filled two days of horseback riding/jumping fun.

7. Almond Joy - yep. I really enjoy Almond Joy bars, as I've mentioned before, and MrP brought me three king size bars and three regular bars from Vegas. Apparently when he grabbed the three king bars at the Walgreens, the lady laughed at him and said "Really like them, hey!?", to which he replied (a little offended since he put on weight while in Vegas) "We can't get them in Canada and my wife does. I hate coconut". Oh I can picture the look on his face, as he truly despises my love of that darn coconutty goodness bar! PLUS as a bonus, he brought me back a pair of TKOs - Thomas Keller Oreos. Thomas Keller is the (in my opinion) genius behind The French Laundry, which we dined at in 2008, along with Bouchon Bakery, which makes the glorious TKO, and a couple other NYC restaurants that have earned him Michelin stars. Check out my goodies!

6. Springtime - I love seeing our trees in the back yard flourish and the green grasses start coming up. However, I don't love that the one poor tree in the back yard is finally having a good year and we're ripping it down to build the garage. I've also got some perennial flowers that are FINALLY shooting up happily on their own and wouldn't you know it, they're going to be cemented over this year. MrP told me we could cancel the garage if I want to let the flowers grow. I think he was being facetious, but if it was pansies that were growing, I'd consider it =)

5. Technology - MrP won a minoHD Flip video unit while at the convention he attended and while we don't have a dedicated video camera (we just use our digital cameras), this is such a fun little unit and so easy to pack around that we'll have to see about taking it with us to New York.

4. Good food - since it was my birthday, I indulged. Not that I went stark raving, end of the world crazy, but I did have a small plate of delicious potato salad for lunch from a new favorite cafe (mainly because of their outstanding coconut cream pie, which I took a slice home for dessert to enjoy today) and for supper, MrP took me to Madison's Grill, where we enjoyed the six course Menu Surprise. Again, an outstanding selection of courses that I would normally not have ever been brave enough to order. Truthfully, by the end of the third course, which was a delicious halibut, I was so stuffed I didn't see how I could continue. The serving sizes were larger (at least we thought so) than the last time we were there and I had just a few nibbles from the fourth and fifth courses. The dessert course I powered through like a champion since it was a very small square of walnut cake with caramel whipped cream and peach preserves. I felt like I waddled to the car on our way out...which leads me to #3.

3. Exercise - good thing I've got cycling and running events that I've been fundraising for or else I'd be far less likely to be going out today for a wonderfully long bike ride to get our distance comfort up! The MS Bike Tour I'm participating in is on June 12-13 and my next 10K run is scheduled for May 9th, the Forzani's Mother's Day Run.

2. Friends - yesterday I received a ton of FB messages from friends wishing me a happy birthday. I love how everyone chooses to personalize them. Even more exciting was the days leading up to my birthday where I received the most beautiful cards in the mail. Laural and Maureen sent me stunning cards and I can't even describe how much they meant! Then Marisa passed along this award, which just lets me extend talking about my birthday another day - LOVE IT! These amazing Canadian ladies inspire me daily with their stunning creations and I'm so honoured to be considered a friend to each of them =)

1. Family - MrP especially gives me reasons to laugh and smile each day and I love him beyond words. My nieces and nephew left me a message on the answering machine yesterday that brought tears to my eyes. My niece left her message first "Happy Birthday, Auntie! *and then very soft & sweetly* I love you." Gotta love kids and their amazing ability to tug at your heartstrings. Almost makes me want my own, but I have those three to keep me entertained for a while, I figure =) Family, whether they're driving you crazy or making you laugh is just the right medicine!

I'd like to pass this along to a few other blogging buddies who make my day with their talented creations:

Karin
Andrea
Chriss
All my Sisterhood ladies!

This card was the Verve Beach Party Color Challenge of aqua, green & orange, where I used Mercy's Tuesday Sketch #70.

As you can tell, I really need Maureen & Laural's help with bows. They're bow masters. Hopefully the Bow Easy I ordered will help?!

Anyways, have a fabulous day - and check back at 9:00MT tonight for the winner of my totally random birthday blog candy. Oh - and I'll do the PWCO blog candy draw on Friday!