It's My Birthday!

"It's all about me ME me..." ~Julie Powell from Julie and Julia

This morning the girl at the coffee stand said "So what's new?" I got a big smile and said "It's my birthday! I'm 30!" Nope, no holding back for me;)

There are a few different traditions that I became pretty accustomed to as a kid and I still think they are very necessary! After 6 1/2 years of marriage my husband is learning to entertain my fancies.

All of my requests came from my mom and her making a very big deal out of birthdays. We always had more than one party, a family and then a friend party, and then of course there were treats and balloons delivered to school at some point. Birthdays were celebrated at least all weekend long and sometimes all week. My mom cooked whatever we wanted for dinner and the birthday kid always got to check the mailbox. Birthdays were a big deal, as they should be:) Of course my mom would do other stuff like tell us about the day we were born.

A few years ago my husband was taking me out to dinner for my birthday. He made reservations at Anthony's Woodfire Grill (one of our favorite restaurants) and I was excited about all the initiative he'd put into this. Then we got to the restaurant and when the hostess was taking us to our seats I didn't think there was anything abnormal about a huge table of people with menus high up in front of their faces. I was TOTALLY surprised when the menus lowered and a bunch of close friends exclaimed "surprise, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" It was so much fun and I felt really special.

So yesterday we went out to dinner, just the two of us. Before that Bill went and browsed through Half Price Books and he didn't complain once about being there so long. We then went and got coffee and he bought me a box of Thin Mints outside on the sidewalk. Then we walked around the mall for awhile and I got some really cute shoes. I can't upload pictures until I find my USB cable so you'll have to take my word for it!

On the way home I returned a movie to the red box and rented "Julie and Julia". I was content with our simple and relaxing evening together and excited to have a glass of wine, half of box of thin mint cookies and relax in bed and watch MY movie while my husband watched HIS movie downstairs.




I really was wanting this but when I started the movie and realized it was about a girl (Julie) turning 30 and being unhappy with her life I almost choked on my Cabernet and actually shed a couple of tears at the irony. I shrugged off any further tears, stuck a whole cookie in my mouth and washed it down with another gulp of wine.

Actually the movie was so good. Meryl Streep deserves an Oscar for her performance and I always LOVE Amy Adams. If you haven't seen it, this is one to rent! It will inspire you to cook, love your significant other more, follow your passion and dream for life and not let discouragement get the best of you.

I haven't got Julia's cookbook yet, so these aren't her recipes, but tonight for my birthday dinner I'm making herb crusted wild salmon, baby red potatoes with butter and parsley and asparagus with more butter. Then I'm thinking chocolate mousse for dessert...

~Bon Appetit