Benihana Birthday

Last Thursday I turned 30 and it was a good day. In light of recent events I feel very grateful to have reached the age of 30. I can remember back to my 25th birthday and being so sad. I think I cried three times that day. Partly because my mom forgot my birthday that year (she remembered this year and was the first person to call me). But mostly because I was afraid of getting old. We also had been trying to get pregnant without success. In my 25th year God taught me alot about His timing and showed me how to trust in him completely. It was a rough year to say the least but I can honestly say I had some of my sweetest moments with the Lord and alot of eye opening conversations with Him. He was my Comfort. At the end of that year God pleasantly surprised us and I found out I was pregnant. The last 4 years have been rough in a very different way. Motherhood has been so much more challenging than I ever expected but the delight I have in my son is indescribable. I feel blessed beyond measure. I am just grateful to be here in my life, a wife to my husband, and a mother to my son. I am grateful to be on this journey. I still felt the need to celebrate and I decided I wanted to go to Benihana's. It felt worthy of a 30th birthday. Rodney had to work on our plumbing all day on my birthday because we had a pipe break behind my washing machine. This happened on Monday and we had been without water since then. Rodney was out of town Tuesday and Wednesday so Thursday was the first day he had to work on it. My husband is quite the handy man and likes to do things himself. He does a good job so I don't complain even when we are without water for 4 days. We stole water from his mom and dad and did all of our showering and bathing at their house. One morning I ran out of water early on so I went next door and borrowed some from my neighbors water hose (they don't know that yet but I know they won't mind). I felt like I was in some third world country as I carried my jugs of water back to the house. I now know how much water it takes to flush the toilet and it is a lot. Tobey will blow his nose and put tissue in the toilet just so he can flush it. No more of that. It is so very wasteful and I am ashamed I have let him do it all. Anyway Rodney worked on the plumbing all day and Tobey and I hung out with Mimi. Then we all went to Benihana's for dinner and it was yummy. I loved watching Tobey's reactions to the food being cooked right in front of us. That was the best part of the night as well as the spa certificate Rodney presented to me. The food was so very yummy. I had forgotten how good it was. And the green tea ice cream...delicious. I felt so bad for Tobey. He wanted some of the "green" ice cream so bad. But he couldn't have any because of his milk allergy. This usually doesn't bother him because he is so used to it but he was upset that night. He folded his arms and cried. It broke my heart. I should have thought ahead and packed his favorite cookies. Lesson learned. He got a soy ice cream sandwich as soon as we got home and all was better. Here are a few pictures. Rodney snuck away and told our waitress it was my birthday. So at the end I got to stand up and "shake my bon bon" (in the words of our waitress) to their little birthday song and then blow out a buddha birthday candle. That is the picture of me standing up and I love how Rodney is so amused in that picture. Thanks honey! Our waitress even took a picture and placed it in a Benihana frame as a memento. It was kind of sweet. Then we went home and watched The Office and went to bed. Rodney and I have gotten hooked on The Office just this season. I know it is the 5th season but it just never clicked with us before. I think it is because we have a DVR now and we can record it and watch it after Tobey goes to bed without distractions. I love it!  It is one of my favorite times of the week and it is the one show we always try to watch together. So it was a great birthday. We got our water turned back on, I had fabulous food, great gifts, and entertainment from The Office. The 30's are going to be good!