51

Yesterday I turned 51 years old. Some years nothing has really happened to celebrate my birthday. Last year I bought tickets for us to see a show at Sight and Sound on my birthday, and we also ate lunch at a smorgasbord restaurant in that area. This year two of my friends made my birthday special. On Thursday Tab treated me to lunch at Panera because I love their strawberry poppyseed salad. We ate outside the restaurant because it was a lovely day, and we sat and talked for a while after we ate. Thankfully, the kids are old enough that I can leave them for a few hours, and since our school year is winding down it takes less time to finish our schoolwork. I picked up donuts for Friday morning, Venarri's pizza for our dinner, and our favorite peanut butter Oreo homemade ice cream. I'm not really a big fan of donuts, but the kids and Paul really enjoy them, so I bought a half dozen as that is one of our family's birthday traditions. We rarely get our pizza from Venarri's, but it's my favorite pizza place in Pennsylvania. Tab also gave me a card in which she had written some sentences that almost brought me to tears they were so touching. On Friday, my friend, Cheri, took me to lunch at a restaurant I had never been to before. Many entrees on their menu interested me, but I ended up choosing a strawberry crepe because I haven't eaten a crepe in several years. It was delicious! We ate outside and walked around the town some after we finished eating. I don't have lunch with a friend very often. I think it's been at least 14 years since I had two lunches with a friend in the same week. I'm very grateful for these two friends! I also talked on the phone this week with my friend, Joyce, Yvonne, Aunt Janet, Aunt Tina, and my dad. Some weeks I don't talk to anyone on the phone, so I definitely was on the phone more this week than usual! I also received a birthday card in the mail from Paul's dad and my friend, Kay. I gave Cheri my first birthday burger reward from Red Robin. I gave Oliver my free birthday pastry from McDonald's as he loves cinnamon rolls. I got a free birthday pastry from Panera yesterday. I picked a cookie that I hadn't tried there before and split the cookie between Oliver, Nadia, and myself. Paul got me a pair of sneakers, and my dad and Margie got me a tablecloth, book, Perkins gift card, and snowmen to put on the garage lights next winter. Last year was the first time that any of my kids bought me a birthday gift. None of them got me a gift this year, but the boys each did one extra chore for me this week as a gift.

This week was our last full week of school as we did schoolwork every day Monday through Friday. Next week we have two field trip days, and the same is true for Nadia and Ian two weeks from now. May 8 will be our last day of school. Paul got up at 4:30am on Wednesday morning and was on the road at 5:00am. He arrived at the airport in Indianapolis at 1:30pm. A couple of hours later someone from the Honda dealership picked him up. He left the dealership in our van at 4:30pm and arrived home at 1:30am. Paul drove 17.5 hours within 21 hours! We are thankful to have our van back.