Happy Birthday to ME!

I had the best birthday weekend! It started with a friend coming by on Friday night. Deonne surprised me with a handmade birthday card and lots of chocolate (always the right size, always the right color) She stayed and visited with me and Emily. It was a very pleasant evening.

Then, on Saturday, my actual birthday (the 18th) I got a phone call from my niece, Linnea. That was so thoughtful of her. It was great hearing her voice. I also got to talk to Merlene. I then had a real treat when Vicki, Jana and her husband Randi came to pick me up for lunch at

at the Whittwood Mall. Ruby's diner is one of my favorite places! We had hamburgers and ice cream and the waitresses sang to me! It was fun. I'm not always crazy about hamburgers, but their Hickory Burger is the bomb. We ate way too much, shared parmesan fries and talked and talked.

After leaving there, Vicki and I went shopping. It's so nice to be able to walk around without pain! I find I still get tired easily, and my asthma was bothering me, but I was able to do almost all the walking I wanted to, trooping through Best Buy and Target. What a joy! Then, I drove over to Barb Wagner's house for a get-together with part of the "gang". Lisa, Elaine and Maura joined us and we all went to

for dinner. Lisa just loves Pumpkin Pancakes which are in season now, so we made sure she got plenty of whipped cream and pancakes. To my surprise, they picked up the tab for me and wished me a Happy Birthday! Then we went over to Barb's house for a rousing gin rummy-type card game called 3-13. It was such a pleasant day. The group was going to play "9 in the Hole" but I had to leave, smiling, at 9 p.m. - early because our church starts at 9 a.m. and I still needed to work on my lesson for the Young Women of our ward.

On Sunday the Young Women all wished me a happy birthday. We have some newbies into the program, so my class was full - there were 8 girls instead of the usual 2 or 3! Talk about giggling cuties. They make me laugh.

I enjoyed church services, had a nice Sunday afternoon nap, and received nice calls from Dianna Lynn and Roxie, then Peggy came by bringing salad, soda and strawberry birthday cake!

Soon, there was a knock at the door, and a delivery guy delivered pizza from Papa Johns!

So, we had a great time eating pizza - and I even got real fancy candles on my birthday cake! Then Peggy very kindly hooked up my new DVD player for me. (My old one just died and I had just purchased a replacement). It's so hard for me to do because you have to get down on your hands and knees to get at all the plugs. Peggy did a great job and it was up and running in no time! So, of course, we had to play a movie - just to make sure it worked. I chose to see "P.S., I Love You", which I really enjoy. No doubt because it has Gerard Butler in it!

What a nice birthday weekend. It almost made up for being older than dirt this year. Still, I figure anyone who has so many sweet friends - people willing to buy you lunch to celebrate with you on your birthday - is very blessed and rich indeed. How lucky I am!