How to Gain 5 Pounds on Your Birthday:

Can I just take a moment and brag on my husband? I'll admit, for the last week or so I've really been struggling with being bored and kind of tired of being in this state of transition that we're in. So as my birthday was approaching, David asked me if I wanted to take part in planning my day or if I wanted to be surprised. I told him I'd leave it completely up to him because I needed to have something to look forward to without having to once again tackle the "what should we do today?" question. Let me just tell you that he took that responsibility and owned it. For the past several days he's hidden away in our office to do research in preparation for my day, including mapquested directions to several locations. This morning I woke up, got my birthday greetings from my husband and dog, opened my first birthday present, and we were on our way.


First stop: IHOP for breakfast. Going out for breakfast is something we don't often do unless we're on vacation. So for us to start the day with stuffed french toast at IHOP made the day feel kind of like I was on vacation. It was a bit of a chore to make this happen, however. The only IHOP within 15 miles of our house closed down about a year ago, but David looked into it and found one about 1/2 hour away. It was worth the drive. And it was a good way to start the day.


Second Stop: Downtown Detroit to the Renaissance Center. We took a leisurely drive down by the lake to make our way south to the city where David gave me a self guided tour of the Renaissance Center (I'd never been and apparently it's on the "Top 10 things to do in Detroit before you die" list). I was very impressed; my tour was surprisingly educational. (David had read up on the subject the night before so he would be ready to tell me all about it).


Our reservations for dinner weren't until 7:00, so even though we'd had a big breakfast, we were going to need to eat something to tide us over until then, so...


Third stop: Buddy's Pizza (our favorite little Detroit pizza joint). We split a small Hawaiian pizza (which we'd been thinking about since our grilled pizzas the other night...), ate a slice each, and boxed up the rest for later. Buddy's is far enough away from our house that we don't get there very often. Usually it's only if we're on our way back from Detroit (which isn't very often). So it was fun to stop in, even if only for 1 slice.


After Buddy's we shopped our way back home. There were a couple of items on my birthday list that were giving David a hard time, but after a few stops we found what I wanted at Target. We spent a few hours at home with Allie, got several phone calls, (some from churches, some from family and future family) and opened a couple more presents. Then we got back into the car and ventured out to our fifth stop (the fourth was home).


PF Chang's! This is our favorite restaurant so this was pretty much a no-brainer. We enjoyed a delicious dinner and an interresting and humbling walk through the Sommerset Collection mall. This is a very expensive mall that we only go to for PF Chang's. During our ride in the elevator we listened to this woman tell her friends how proud she was that she just bought two pairs of shoes for $100. Apparently this was a real accomplishment for her since she normally spends $400 a pair. Can you imagine? I doubt that I have $400 worth of shoes all together in my closet and she spends $400 a pair!


From there we made our way back to church, I mean the movie theater to catch "Benchwarmers." I'm no movie critic; all I know is I laughed a lot. I'll be honest, there were several occasions that I groaned a "that's so stupid," but all in all, it was a stupid movie that made me laugh. Which is pretty much what I expected going in.

Over dinner I was complimenting David on a day well-planned and this was his response: "I have nothing else to do right now. I just figured, to allow your birthday to be sub-par was completely unacceptable." I had a good birthday today and I spent it with a great husband. Thanks, honey. And thank you to all of you who signed in to wish me well!