Birthday Weekend

I have decided, though I'm not quite sure I've convinced Jeffrey yet, that 41 is just a number. How can I not when I look at this picture? What a handsome man! What a good looking couple! I suppose it's all relative to who's looking at it, but I'm quite fond of this pairing, and if a few grey hairs show up in EITHER :) of our heads, then so be it. (We can probably blame each other anyway.... This weekend we celebrated my guy's birthday, and the good Lord gave us the most beautiful weekend to do so, with temperatures as warm as 70 degrees! Lord knows this is all Jeff wanted for his birthday was to be able to be outside, so he was a happy bday boy! We started off the birthday weekend Friday night with sushi. It's a staple for us every few weeks, so I had a feeling I knew where we'd be going. Every time we sit at the sushi bar in front of our favorite chef so we can watch him roll. We probably look like mutts waiting for him to throw a scrap our way.... Which....is pretty much what he does (which is why the tip jar gets slid right in front of us too.) He always makes us a "special salad" for fun. Every time it's always different, always delicious. This time it was salmon sushi rolled with cucumber (instead of rice), with salmon eggs on top. The "salad" was pineapple, crab, and calamari.

Saturday was an outside day as soon as the sun came out and the temps rose! How gorgeous it was! We hung ("we" used loosely here....) the last new swing on the front porch, which is now fully decked out with all new wooden swings and rockers, come sit with us!.....

I baked a cheesecake for someone's birthday the next day....

I made enchilladas for dinner...which is definitely a team effort, with the frying, and dipping, and rolling, and baking, but we've never had more fun, or made more of a mess, and he LOVES mi enchilladas. (Note to self when I want new BCBG peep toe pumps....)

We loaded these three monsters up for as little sunset cruise around the ol' farm.

And watched this mama Jersey cow go into labor. Which.is.an.eye.opener.let.me.tell.you. Or maybe I wont. Whoa.

Sunday we went to Jeffrey's mama's church, a sweet little Southern Baptist church no bigger than a postage stamp. I emphasize how small it is, to express it's pews are overflowing with people, it's preacher speaks louder than its stained-glass windows will nearly handle, and nearly every 5 minutes he breaks to ask us all to sing either Amazing Grace, or I'll Fly Away, or The Sweet By and By, or some other great Southern Gospel you cannot help but feel the Spirit shaking those wooden benches while singing. I can hardly keep up, which is strange considering most of the members are older than me, but of the two times I've been I have felt more alive leaving than in several Sundays. I'm not sure if it's because the preacher just yelled at me :), and believe me, if you've been to an old Southern Baptist Church, you know what I'm talking about!, or if I've just been whipped into shape for the week!

Regardless, this week J and I went because it's "5th Sunday" and at this SB church they have one mean potluck on the "5th Sunday" of a month. We walked into the little fellowship hall and it was like Thanksgiving on crack! I've never seen such food in my life! Seriously, there were four pans of dressing! So, needless to say, WE ATE GOOD.

Then, we went home and napped.

And had a fun birthday outside again, because though it was more overcast, it was still so warm, so we soaked it up!

Once we could finally eat again, I made Jeff's birthday dinner....and all he had requested was fish, and we bought tilapia earlier. So I made fried fish sammies with jalepeno coleslaw, which was awesome! I don't even like coleslaw, but this was great, and J loves japs, or anything spicy really, so this sammie was a huge hit!

For dessert he had his strawberry cheesecake he so patiently waited on, and I was so very nervous about. But it was good too! We decided it was definitely a keeper recipe!

Oh, and the plate....we call it the "special plate"....it is brought out on special occasions when someone does something good, for a birthday, a promotion, good grades, or just because they're special! and that's exactly what it reads around the outside..."You are special today!"

And you are special, Jeffrey! Happy happy birthday! I hope you enjoyed it! I love you!