My Birthday 🌸

Oh my goodness. I had such a GREAT birthday …

I for sure cannot believe I am 55 years old. But honestly, I don’t even care, because each year gets sweeter and sweeter and now that I am a grandma, I’m good with these advancing years, ha! But truly, I am surrounded by a LOVING family—and at an appropriate social distance this year—so many wonderful friends.

Here’s an accounting of my May 6th, 2020.

My day started out early—5:30 AM—at the Spokane, Washington Temple. For FIVE years I have attended the temple every Wednesday morning with my friend, Sue—as long as I’m not traveling. (Note: This has probably been the thing I miss most of all during this shelter-at-home period) My friend Kerry texted a few days before my birthday and asked if we could go on a birthday walk. Yes I said, at 5:30 AM near the temple! What a GREAT friend right? She met me there and we walked and talked and even hiked the big hill behind the temple. I took this picture, which I will be enlarging and putting in a frame!

The crazy thing is, when I got home and pulled into my garage it wasn’t raining, but a brief moment later, as I walked into my kitchen and look out our big picture windows, it was pouring down rain. And, It rained (hard) for most of the day, so that early walk was truly a gift.

ALL DAY LONG my door bell rang—I received flowers, pandemic pajamas, bath salts, homemade baked oatmeal and gluten-free lemon drop cookies (yes, I will share the recipe soon), a copy of this magazine (so pretty) and so many yummy-smelling candles. Sue made me delicious “healthy” chocolate bites and gave me a totally cool yellow tray that is perfect for my living room. My sister, Chanda sent me these and my sister Darci sent me cute socks, gum and chocolate. At the end of the day I went to the door and found our awesome neighbors, the Walters on the porch singing—they gifted me a HUGE basket full of fruit and more candles!

When Trey got off work at 2 PM, I was treated to THE MOST original scavenger hunt ever. It was a collective effort by both he and Taft and it started with a bouquet of fabric flowers from the dollar store—they broke them up and hid each one with a clue and a poem. As I discovered these flowers and clues I also found small gifts and evidence of super nice things, ie. Trey secretly set up our fairy garden by the pool which he apparently did in the middle of the night when I was asleep! Taft is so good with words—each clue was written in verse. He is currently working on a scavenger hunt for Geoff’s birthday!

When Geoff got home from work—I think this may have been his first full day back—he mounted my new Simple Human Lighted Makeup Mirror in our bathroom. Legit, this thing is SO COOL and now I can actually see to pluck my stray facial hairs which appear with more and more 😩 frequency.

We then ordered Cafe Rio via their app, picked it up and ate at HOME.

Finally… a BIG finally, my sweet and very talented friend, Janea wrote me a song.
A song?
Yes!! She messaged me during the day and said, “I left you a message on Marco Polo” I thought, “that’s cool” and promptly forgot to go listen.
Two days later I remembered and found this! Whaat?

So, NOW you see why I had to document this day filled with kind gestures and so much LOVE. I am truly blessed and so humbled by the sheer kindness and thoughtfulness of people. There is certainly much to be concerned about right now—but my pandemic birthday was an epic example of how PEOPLE can make enduring challenging things so marvelously sweet.

Here’s to another year on this 🌎 planet.
Bring it on!