Happy Birthday to...

...me!!! Yes, that's right, today is my birthday. And this is me trying to be happy about that fact. I'm not sure when it happened, but I turned the corner from being excited about birthdays to kinda sorta dreading them! Now all they do is make me feel like life is rushing by WAY too fast. I wish I could be more like my two and a half year old. He *adores* birthdays, his and everybody else's. He learned quickly that birthdays = cake, and boy does he love cake! I also recently figured out that to him, cake = frosting! He was eating a cupcake recently - ate all the frosting off and said "more cake please!". He takes after his mommy - I love the frosting best too. I've never understood those people who say "oh, the frosting is toooo sweeeet" (<-- that is meant to be read in an annoying, whiny little voice). I say, "corner piece please!!!" LOL! But this birthday is especially yucky because I've just sorta been in a funk lately, too. I guess it's due to the thing with my dog. And the fact that our house selling didn't happen (we officially took it off the market last week, we're going to try again in the spring). I've been doing Weight Watchers and that hasn't gone well the last few weeks (hmm, perhaps that's related to the frosting thing??) ;-) I actually hit my 10% goal, for those of you who know WW talk, but then I creeped back above it again. I even got myself a Copic airbrush tool as a reward, but I haven't used it yet because I no longer "deserve it" until I get back to 10% again!!! I haven't had enough time to blog, I'm sooooo behind on all of the blogs I love to read it's pathetic (I'm to the 1000+ point in Reader where it stops telling you just how far behind you are...) Anyway all of it has combined to make me feel rather blah. But........... it's a new year for me! Maybe I need to snap out of it?? I'm spending my birthday on a plane headed up to Cape Cod - now that's not too shabby, is it?? As you are well aware, I have two beautiful kids that I couldn't be more proud of (as witnessed by the fact that I force photos of them on you at every opportunity!). And good things are happening just this week - I've gotten some WONDERFUL birthday RAKs in the mail already. I had two sweet bloggers, Nic and Jane, give me the "I *heart* your blog" award, which totally rocks. (and I just made myself chuckle by typing Nic and Jane, which sounds like Dick and Jane - I'm such a dork!) I won some AMAZING blog candy over at Colleen's blog - I get to attend one of her My Creative Classroom courses for free!!! How cool is that?!! I'm going to take the ABCs of ATCs - fyi if you want to be my classmate! Sign up!!!! And finally, one of my stamping IDOLS gave me a birthday shout-out on her blog today, and mentioned my From Courtney's Closet challenge. Did you see it?? It made my day, that's for sure. Actually, let's make this interesting - a little gift to you on my bday - if anyone actually reads this rambling post, AND knows who I'm talking about - leave a comment. First one to get it right will get some little blog candy goodie mailed to them when I get back from vacation! Here's a hint - she's one of the nicest and most talented stampers in the whole world (wide web!), she lives in the Upper part of my home state, and she loves to stamp sim... - errr, wait, that's too big of a hint! ;-)

Ok I'm off to hob-knob amongst the elite. I'm secretly hoping for cool weather so there will be no pressure to actually go IN the ocean (ie Home of the Sharks). But not too cold that Carter can't play in the sand...! I was hoping to be all cool and get some things stamped to schedule some posts while I'm gone, but who was I kidding? There *might* be an FCC challenge next Thursday - a photo for inspiration but no sample from me (and a round-up from this week). No promises though. The house we're staying at is supposed to have high speed access, but we'll see... Anyway - have a WONDERFUL week and I look forward to blogging with you again soon. :-)

OH and btw - the cute stamps on today's card are all from HAMBO STAMPS!!! :-)