only comes once a year...

For all of the drama, 30 has been nothing short of awesome so far. This will be a little recap of the birthday funness I've had so far. I will be my traditional birthday year in review post at another time.

I started the celebrations the weekend before my birthday with a nice family dinner at the Hibachi. I wanted to do it on a weekend when Isaac would be with me. Our chef wasn't quite an animated as some I've seen, but it was delicious and yummy. They brought me out a little dish of icecream with a candle in it and everyone sang. We all started cracking up because as soon as we finished the last night Isaac promptly yanked the dish over to himself and started eating. In true Stephenson tradition, we didn't take any pictures. Afterwards we came back to my place for cheesecake and Dad helped me fix my vacuum cleaner.

I had a long day/night of parent-teacher conferences on my actual birthday. I did have a nice birthday dinner at Applebees with a group of my coworkers. My fabulous classroom assistant Sheree bought this cake (which was delicious!):

When I got home my mom surprised me with super cute placemats. They match the kooky chefs in frames on my wall.

This weekend I had the best birthday ever with my girlfriends. We went to Becca's in Fishtown and had a Stampin' Up rep come and help us make this adorable card:

The party decor was so fun. Becca made me this great banner:

The plates somehow managed to combine my favorite things, pink and animal print:

One of my favorite parts of the party was when Becca's husband Steve brought over a homemade Nutella panini. I order one of these at this great place in the city Tria every year for my birthday. We didn't go there this year, but they still brought me one, complete with a tea light on top.

They gave me some really thoughtful presents, including an awesome Wii game, one of those karaoke ones with the microphone.

(It should also be noted, that I received some *ahem* less thoughtful presents... anyone who knows me knows how I feel about bananas...) The evening ended with a trip to the piano bar where I sang "Part of Your World" from the Little Mermaid. =) So, so far 30 has been pretty great.

ugh...

I'm freakin' 30.

as much as I hate Glee...

This is so clever!!

I'm an awkward and uncomfortable thing

I can't seem to embed this video (maybe cause it's unlisted) but here is a link to a little bit of Isaac playing soccer. After we were done with soccer he took off with his dad and I headed into the city to meet up with Becca and Jamie. We did the following:

• Rode the El into the city
• Caught up with the Occupy Philly people who were marching around for bank transfer day
• Went to a whole bunch of stores but niether of us bought anything
• Finally decided what I want to do to celebrate my 30th with friends
• Went to Sephora and tried on a bunch of outrageously expensive makeup. (Seriously, who would buy a 30 dollar single eyeshadow?!)
• Ate dinner at El Camino Real (SO YUMMY)
• went to a Barcade that featured tons of video games from the 80s like Ms. Pacman, Tron, Double Dragon, Tetris, etc.
• Ran into someone I knew from Pitt there.
• Made plans for Thanksgiving Eve to see my old friend Nicole.

I finally decided to sign Isaac up for the winter Saturday soccer clinic. If you've talked to me at all this weekend, chances are I probably hashed this to death with you, but it's been weighing heavily on my mind. Isaac was invited to this winter Saturday soccer clinic that runs from the end of fall soccer to the beginning of spring soccer.

• Pros
• it will help him improve as a player
• it is recommended for kids who will probably play travel soccer, which Isaac probably will
• It will give us something to do on Saturday mornings when he is with me
• He loves, loves, loves soccer.

• Cons
• we have to buy him indoor soccer shoes
• it will mean a Saturday commitment for 75% of the year
• it means that our visitation schedule is reduced to only Saturdays for 75% of the year instead of whole weekends.
• It makes me miss having occasional Friday nights to myself.
• And then it makes me feel terribly guilty and selfish for missing Friday nights so much.

I had made the decision to NOT have him do it after I recieved the inital e-mail invitation. There are plenty of other years for soccer clinics. But of course the coach came over and mentioned it in front of M (Isaac's dad) and of course he thought I should for sure do it. This of course made me insist that he shouldn't, just to be contrary and disagreeable. Anyways, his dad agreed that he would take him some extra Saturdays to make up for missed Friday nights. So I think that's a good compromise. And I swear I won't talk about it anymore.

ANYWAYS.

Back to my birthday. The big 30. I will be blogging more extensively about that sooner or later I'm sure. In the mean time I stumbled across this vlog about it that I loved and thought I would share. I thought I found a grey hair the other day, just in time for the big birthday and that freaked me out way more than the age bracket change does. I called Isaac into the bathroom and demanded to know if the hair was white or blond. He declared it to be white and then helped me rip it out of my head. Hopefully ten more don't grow in it's place. I'm not ready for that. Anyhow, I will begin celebrations this Friday with a family dinner at a local Hibachi. We went last year and had so much fun, but Isaac was at his dad's. This year I wanted to choose a time when he could come too, cause I think he will love it. More birthday plans to come.

I guess I better wrap this up and go to work. Happy Tuesday all!

gpoy

via

one

I picked up this book from Target. I'm looking forward to starting it. I haven't read a book in a while, and now that it is chilly curling up in bed with a good book sounds so lovely. Plus, I'm a sucker for self help books.

two

I've picked up this little palette at Ulta a few months ago and I have been using it for my makeup everyday. The colors are nuetral and pretty and have great payoff. I'm such a creature of habit, I'm sure it will be quite some time before use other make-up again.

three

While I'm on the topic of beauty products, I think it's safe to report that I am OBSESSED with these lip balms. I picked up the melon one at Ulta but I got the strawberry one at Target, right in the checkout line. Try them! They are adorable and soooooooooo YUMMY.

four

I need this mug. Have a great day!!!

tick, tick, tick

This morning I was at a Relief Society thing taking in a few classes in an effort to become more domestic. The cupcake decorating class was very unstructured, just people frosting cupcakes and chitchatting. Which of course, at church tends to make me feel like this:

source

But anyways, there is a new young pregnant girl who just moved into my ward. Her husband is here for (...wait for it...) dental school. Someone asked her if she has found a good Ob-Gyn yet and she mentioned that she is going to the practice where I went when I was pregnant with Isaac.

For some reason (I'm blaming PMS), just hearing her say that really hit a chord with me and I found myself welling up with tears. I think it was one part wistful nostaglia and one part brazen envy. I wonder if I will ever get a chance to excitedly tell someone that I am seeing Dr. Segal and my baby is due in a few weeks.

I turn 30 in a few weeks and it just feels like time is passing by at a breakneck speed. I'm worried that I will never have that opportunity, or if I do that my ovaries will be totally stalled out.

Blah..