Grateful

As I'm over a week into my 30s, I am really thankful for all of the love and celebration that has been aimed at me for my birthday! The weekend before my birthday, I made the trip to Dallas with my parents for the Cotton Bowl. We had a great time and got to spend lots of time with my sister.

My actual birthday started with my friend Linds decorating my living room with balloons and streamers.....what better start is there to a birthday?! After work, my birthday was capped off with my choice of Chipotle and my parents got me a Dairy Queen ice cream cake. Mmmm!

Last weekend, I had quite a few friends show up to have a drink or two or.....for my birthday celebration. So thankful for everyone who came to hang out, especially my friends who decorated yummy cupcakes and cookies, and the ones who did decorations as well. Such a special day I'll fondly remember.

Adorable cookies my friend Kylie made....and they were tasty too!!

My birthday bakers, Kylie and Sarah. Sarah made the delicious dense chocolate cupcakes.

Me.....getting older. Thankfully.

Looking forward to my next birthday! :)

Happy St. Patty's Day weekend!...Minus that whole KSU loss thing...

I had a great St. Patty's Day weekend and hope everyone else did too! On the actual day of, I had to work. Boo. But afterwards, I met up with friends for a couple green beers and later got to see K-State win their first round game in the NCAA tourney. St. Patty's is also my friend Kristen's birthday, so it was fun to help her celebrate. Happy b-day KFan!

With two of my buds since high school. Glad Lacey and Andrea could both come join the fun!

The fun continued.....and the Kristen birthday celebration.....on Saturday night. We celebrated her 30th birthday but SADLY K-State lost their second round game....BUMMER! Kristen is a KU fan but everyone was being fairly civil about the loss and following sadness.

With Sharee and Megan and our K-State stickers!

Last night, I celebrated St. Patty's with my parents in our tradition style (minus Meg)....with mom's homemade reubens. They.are.awesome.!!!! Massive sandwich and tater tots.....only do it once a year but oh so worth it.

Aren't the napkins SO festive?!

Yep, Dad's got a tot in his necklace...

Mom and me....don't be mad I posted this. :) It was a casual evening....as in I had just got out of the shower after the gym! Btw, what's going on with my hand in this picture??

Oh yeah, and welcome spring! So ready for some great weather!!

The Month of Linds!

Yep, people....if you didn't realize this, May is technically "The Month of Linds", as in one of my bff's Lindsay's birth month. Her birthday was yesterday so I went to Wichita Friday to celebrate with Linds and a few other friends.

Since I see that Molly just posted about the evening, I will refer you to her blog so you can get the scoop. :) All 5 of us that got togehter have a blog, so I had had to laugh at one point during the cooking class we took when everyone had their camera out. Thanks for a fun time girls! Happy Birthday Lindsay! Enjoy the rest of your month!! :)

My fellow bloggers with their camera out and ready to capture the moments...

Vacationing in Topeka

Yesterday two of my best friends came to visit/vacation in Topeka and we had the best time! Kylie and Lindsay are two of my college roommates and we were bummed our other roomies Julie and Katie couldn't make it, but had a day full of shopping, snacks, watching the K-State/KU game and catching up!

My guests arrive to their vacation home. My friend Sarah (yes, pictured below in that horrible blue color) told them when we were watching the game regarding having a beer or something, "Go ahead! You're on vacation!"....Topeka is nice this time of year. :)

Go State!
Sadly, it's actually true they are #1. :( Dang Jayhawks!!

Me with Tom Hagen, a local weatherman/celebrity. I had to get a picture with him for a friend who is a big fan! He was very nice and apparently a Tiger!

For my birthday which was earlier this month, they brought me the BEST gifts! They gave me two cookbooks that I am PUMPED to use! One, is to plump you up "The Pioneer Woman Cookbook" written by a well-loved blogger from Oklahoma Ree Drummond and it looks fantastic. She is also a superb photographer and there are some amazing pictures in the book. The other book is to slim you down and is "The Biggest Loser Cookbook". Thanks so much girls! Look forward to trying and sharing some good recipes!

Happy Birthday to me!

This weekend I celebrated my 28th birthday with some friends and also with my parents. It was fantastic! My friend Sarah had invited me to go have dinner at her house Saturday and it was going to be a low-key event. I suspected something was up and I was right that it was a surprise party with lots of my friends from work! It was great. We had fajitas and my friend Jenny made a low-calorie chocolate angel food cake for the occasion as many of us had just started the Biggest Loser competition at work (which is now up to an $80 pot). It was a lot of fun!

On my actual birthday (yesterday) I hung out with my parents, watched KU lose a basketball game (following KSU's lead) and went to dinner at Longhorns. I was really excited to receive a Garmin from my parents as I have wanted one for awhile!

Thanks for a great celebration and I'm looking forward to my 28th year!!

Velvet Birthday.

One of the other speech therapists that I work with at the hospital had a birthday today!!! Since there are only 3 of us....I offered to make cakes of their choice for them. I love baking but also love to have somewhere to take those calories and sugar....my coworkers seemed pleased. In a recent post, I mentioned that my mom gave me Betty Crocker's baking book....and Jason requested red velvet cake.....so I used the recipe out of there. Pretty good, not my favorite. It was my first attempt at red velvet, let alone scratch....so not sure what it should taste like, but they are very dense. Made a cream cheese frosting that I was pretty into....My favorite part of the whole experience was having a reason to use my new cookbook stand that I bought with a giftcard from my mama to a local cooking store. It completes my kitchen. :)

So, my coworkers tell me that red food coloring is made from beetles' shells....this called for 2 bottles!!! Mmm, Beetlejuice!

How many candles?!

This weekend I was back in Wichita to see friends, friends' kiddos, get a hair cut (yes, I will find a person here locally, I just haven't yet), and etc. I lucked out that I happened to be in town to attend a friend's birthday party. Kelly is married to a friend that I met through my roomies in college and I played bunko with his wife and sis-in-law in Wichita. A fun group of friends! Well, this wasn't just any birthday...it was Kelly's 30th birthday. Weird that we hang out with someone that is 30 years old! That means we are closer to that milestone!! Ahh!! It definitely spooked a couple of my friends quite a bit. I am not quite as phased. I told them that since I spend my days with the 90+ crowd, 30 doesn't seem so bad. Get back with my feelings on that when I am a couple years closer....here are some pictures from the party; good times!

The birthday guy Kelly with his sis-in-law Emmy....

Me with the pregnant sisters: sis-in-law, Emmy, and wife, Sarah, of the birthday guy Kelly.

Lindsay, Kylie and me....

Jenny and Lindsay....

Brady and Kylie- one of their first big nights out since having a son in February. Kylie is proudly displaying the t-shirt she won in the door prize drawing.

The anticlimatic 2-7....whoop whoop!

Last weekend I celebrated my 27th year of birth....couldn't have asked for a better celebration. My sister drove up from Dallas and my parents came down from Topeka. It was a very laid back weekend with a few highlights. My sister treated me to a pedicure which was awesome, we all went to see "Gran Torino" which I continue to claim as the best movie I have seen in years, and Saturday evening we had our inagural visit to "Bonefish Grill" which was awesome! All in all, a great day as I celebrate gracefully entering my late 20s, which I am still wrapping my head around!

Meg, shocked at my old age....


My mama and me on the big day!


The "Sunshine Cake" that I made for my birthday (yes, I made my own birthday cake because there was a Pampered Chef recipe I wanted to try with my new bundt pan and my sister threw a fit that I wasn't going to have a birthday cake)....it was pretty good; would recommend it!