Kate's Birthday!

Yesterday was my birthday and it was an amazingly wonderful day! Andrew woke me up with breakfast in bed, yummy! When I walked into the living room, Andrew had decorated it with green streamers and balloons. It was so fun! One rule that we have in our home for birthdays is to wait to open up birthday cards until the day of your birthday, so I opened up a few of my cards and my present from Mom and Dad Dodd (which ended up being perfect timing, since they called right when I was about to open it!). We got ready for the day and headed to church. We were greeters for the month of May, I absolutely love serving in this area. I just love making people smile as they walk into the worship service.

After a great morning at church, we went to Red Robin for a birthday lunch. The waiters sang to me and gave me two balloons and an ice cream sundae! It was really fun and it is always a treat to eat out. I spent the afternoon getting sung to multiple times from my family :) and getting many fun birthday wishes. I opened up the rest of my birthday prizes and cards. Andrew surprised me with a new purse and the movie "Marley and Me". Because of the apartment we live in, we are not able to get a dog. So this movie about a funny Lab and his owner is a great alternative until we live somewhere else.

Afterwards, we headed to Tunnel Park in Holland. It was a beautiful and warm day; so we decided to spend it at the beach. We had fun playing card games, walking down the beach, running down the sand dunes, and just enjoying the warm sunny day at the beach. We did not venture into the water but had fun watching the little kids run in and run out shaking from the freezing water! When we got back home, we had birthday pie (Double Chocolate Peanut Butter pie!) and ended the night with watching my new movie. It was a GREAT day! I am so thankful to all of my family and especially to Andrew for making my day so special! Looking forward to what God will do during the next year of my life!

Quote of the Day

This evening Kate slammed her elbow into the kitchen counter behind her, by the sound of the impact, think explosion, I knew it was going to be very painful. What I wasn't ready for was the next words that came out of her mouth. She cried, "OH, MY CHIN!" Mind you she just whacked her elbow against the kitchen counter. This quickly relieved all tension and a little bit of the pain as I could hardly ask her with a straight face if she was okay.
If you are not doubled over laughing at this point maybe it's one of those instances that you had to be here for. Trust me Kate is okay, well recovering and what she insists she really said was, "OH, MY BONES!"

Thanks Kate for the quote of the day and all your smiles :)

Retirement Party

It was a long day today. After working from 1A-9A at the Holland Rescue Mission I had a quick turnaround and headed to the Finish Line for one final shift from noon to four. After two and a half years of working at FL I'm able to quit with Kate beginning her new job at Spectrum later in the month. Kate and I recently figured out that I have been working two jobs since the fall of 2005. So glad to be transitioning out of this phase of life!
Much to my surprise when I got home from Finish Line this afternoon Kate had made a sign to greet me that read Happy Finish Line Retirement Day. I smiled and thanked her for the kind and fun gesture. Oh, but the party was just getting started. Kate had prepared a wonderful dinner, Chicken Rissoto, and had a double chocolate strawberry two layer cake as well. I was so out of it tired that Kate counted that I passed by the cake three times before realizing that this wonderful masterpiece was sitting there on the counter! It was such a wonderfully magnificent dinner and dessert. All I wanted to do in "retirement" was to take a nap since I was so sleep deprived and due to the fact that I am getting up there in years being retired. All in all a faboulously tremendous day with my Bright Eyes!
Here's a picture to prove it :)