A quarter century complete.

Ohio, along with most of the country, has been a soggy mess this month. We’ve had so much stinkin’ rain – our basement wall is leaking, the yard is full of mud & puddles, baseball games are constantly cancelled, and fields look like this, or worse in many cases…

I even saw a duck in our neighborhood while waking the pup. We don’t have any ponds {other than those caused in our neighbors’ yards by the rain} or rivers near our house, so the duck was not a normal or expected sighting!

 
{This is not my pic, but it’s what he looked like! Image Source}

So Monday was my 25th birthday. I really don’t like celebrating my birthday. I know that’s sad, but I really don’t. Despite the rain, and not really wanting to celebrate, I did have a little somethingone to smile about on my birthday. My sister & her family had a flight to leave on Sunday evening, but because of a tornado that damaged the St. Louis airport they had to reschedule their flight for Tuesday. Lucky me – I got to have my birthday dinner with my whole family {wondrous thing!}

Baby Cate gave me my favorite birthday gift: a dance party with my favorite niece. We laughed and danced to Mariah Carey’s “You’ll Always Be My Baby” haha. She loved it {and so did I!} She also had fun playing with Eugene’s baseball hat. What a cutie pie…

 

We swerved from the birthday cake route and went with pies. {We also celebrated my sister’s birthday which is tomorrow.}

I was blessed with some pretty sweet gifts too. {That’s another reason I don’t usually get thrilled over celebrating my birthday…I’m a much better gift-giver than gift-getter.} My sister & brother-in-law gave me two beautiful plant arrangements for our new house and a fun yellow summery purse. One was pansies {which always make me remember my college roomie…her favorite. I heart you, MK!}

And the other had a mix of daffodils, bright pink tulips, {my love} hyacinths.

Eugene bought me a very pretty Vera purse. Despite my strong threats urges for him to not buy me anything {a house is plenty!}, he assured me that I’d be proud of the deal he got on the purse. Good deal? Well, alright then. {He knows me well!}

And my parents got me my Christmas wish-list spring form pan & went big with an absolutely beautiful pearl necklace.

          

The pearls are so smooth; they make me feel pretty with these things around my neck. :) I don’t know why, but when I wear the pearls, I feel very classic, stately – think, Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman…

{image source}

Now I just need my gloves & a hat to go with it! ;)

I finished up my b-day celebrations last night with Lib & Scott and my favorite, funfetti cake. It’s crazy how much you grow in a quarter of a century. Been through a lot, learned a lot, loved a lot, lost a lot, laughed a lot, lived a lot. God has blessed me {so much} over the past 25 years. And what’s even better is that His mercies are new every morning {Lam 3:22-23}, so each morning I’m blessed with after these 25 years will be full of new great wondrous things from above. I can’t wait to see what new mercies lay ahead of me for the next 25!