50th Birthday? Where has the time flown? Best birthday EVER!

Where to start? What a spectacular 50th birthday! Well week really!

Tuesday night my sweet visiting companion took our friend Nancy Whalen and me to an early birthday dinner at Olive Garden.

Nancy's 55th birthday was Wednesday

and my 50th was Friday.

We had a fabulous time visiting and eating the all you can eat soup and salad bar.

Thursday Darvin took me and Grandpa Clement to an early birthday lunch at Old Country Buffet. We thought it would be a good choice because it would be quick (I had a dentist appointment that I needed to go to afterwards and we couldn't go until after Grandpa's blood draw) and there would be lots of menu choices. Well it turns out that maybe all those choices were a little confusing for Grandpa. But he did find some fried chicken and mashed potatoes, etc.

I got the front porch stained

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

and the lamppost painted black to match the carriage lights and front porch light.

DURING

AFTER

Our sweet Yakima adopted kids insisted that we come over for an early birthday party and dinner since Darvin had to work the late shift on Friday. Aaron and Wendy made delicious smoked ribs and beans and twice baked potatoes and we had yummy lemon birthday cake!
When you're as old as me, you need help blowing out the birthday candles! lol

Sweet little Mason got to pick out a birthday gift for Nana Denise. Wendy took him to Walmart and told him he could pick out anything he wanted for me. I was expecting something with tires (aka Monster truck, etc). Mason did not disappoint as he picked out a beautiful balloon with a race car on it! He was coveting the balloon, so I made sure to tell him that we needed to leave the balloon at his house because I would be coming back the next evening for my actual birthday.

Wendy got me a beautiful birthday card and Mason picked out some AWESOME halloween socks.

He was so proud of his gift, love that little boy! Wendy said as soon as he saw those socks in the store he made a beeline for them and knew they were exactly what he wanted to give Nana. My thought is that they have some road looking markings on them, so that must have attracted him to them! I put them right on and then wore them again when I went over Friday night!

On my birthday, as mentioned, Darvin had to work, but in true birthday fashion I didn't spend too much time working on the house! I met some of my besties (Seminary teacher 'retirees' and current teachers) for breakfast at Eddy's. It was SO nice to chat up a storm. Then all day long I got some awesome phone calls from my family singing and wishing me a happy birthday. It seems like when I was on the line with one person, someone else was calling on the other line to wish me a happy birthday or sing to me! My favorite calls were from the little people in my life. Alex called a couple of times and sang, "happy birthday dear Alex..."! lol Jackson said, "happy, happy!" Erin said, "He just said happy birthday right before we called" and then she tried to get him to say happy birthday and again he said, "happy, happy"! So cute! Then to top it off, Lance called and I could hear Aidan crying in the background. Donna asked Aidan if he remembered Abby dog and he stopped crying immediately as he indicated that he DID remember Abby and he DID remember Aunt Denise, but as soon as he was asked to wish me a happy birthday the tears started rolling again! lol

I went shopping (now isn't that the way to celebrate?!) and got some expensive paint from Sherwin-Williams and a free dose of kick in the pants from the S-W clerk to get some courage to start working on priming and painting the woodworking in the house! I'm not sure why I'm having so much anxiety about it.

I got the piano sold and picked up. I had been asking $350 but ended up selling it for $250.

People just don't value pianos around here and I really needed to get it sold. The couple who purchased it are in their 70s and don't play, but they have kids and grandkids that do, so Grandma wanted to have a piano at her house. I'm glad it was sold to someone that will really enjoy it. I put a touch up coat of paint on the lamppost and painted a mirror that's been on my 'play time' list (as opposed to my 'work time' list).

My dear friend Teri Mickey stopped by with a card and an 'emergency' chocolate bar. I decided that I didn't need to have an emergency to eat it, just needed a birthday!

Wendy would not allow me to celebrate my actual birthday at home alone, so I returned on Friday for a taco bar. My dinner date for the 2nd night in a row at the Middleton's was wonderful. I love that little family. They have kept us in grandkids since the Pascual's moved. I hate that I'm working so much on the house because we haven't had much play time with them. I told Wendy that I need to hurry and finish getting the house ready so we can start having play dates again!

I also felt super loved by all the facebook birthday greetings, before, on and after my birthday from my friends far and near! I got another birthday card today from Lindsey and another birthday present. Briana video taped Alex reading The Friendly Duck and posted it on YouTube. It is the cutest thing EVER! I downloaded it to my computer and need to get it copied onto a DVD so we have it to give to HIS children when he's all grown up! I kept telling Alex and Briana that what I wanted for my birthday was a video of him reading the book. And he did it! He was a little shy about being taped at the beginning, but he warmed up quickly and a couple of times as he was 'reading' he said Nana, Nana! He knew he was reading it just for Nana for her birthday!

I'll continue to celebrate my birthday as we'll be heading down to Texas again later this month. Darvin and I are taking a 7 day Western Caribbean cruise and then spending an additional week and a half with the Texas kids. The girls pitched in for my birthday to give me onboard credit for the cruise so I can get a spa treatment too!

I watched the morning session of General Conference on the computer today and was excited about the announcement of two new temples, one in Tucson, Arizona AND that the age for young men and women to serve full time missions has been lowered to 18 for men and 19 for women! Exciting and in my opinion a true sign that the Savior's 2nd coming is approaching! I LOVED the talks! The Saturday sessions are always the BEST! I missed the Saturday afternoon session so I'm super glad that I ordered conference on CDs again so that I can listen and re-listen to them as I'm driving in my car.

Darvin did a bunch of pruning in the yard and I helped him haul the trimmings to the back yard and over the fence to the orchard where the workers will mow them with the tractor. It's so nice to not have to worry about hauling yard waste to the dump!