My Actual Birthday

Well, yesterday turned out much more exciting than I was expecting. Turning 28 was actually pretty fun, when you get right down to it. All morning and most of the afternoon was spent either studying for my in-class exam or working on my take-home exam. I got a call from a good friend, Rene, and got to have a nice little chat with her. That was fun! Then, I had to get ready for class by showering, brushing my teeth, and getting dressed. I had arranged to meet up with a girl to sell her a textbook, so I left the house, while talking to Penny. I met up with the girl, headed to class, and all the while the skies were blue and the sun was shining. It was a gorgeous day. I parked my truck, headed for class, and I heard this loud boom behind me. I looked back, and holy cow! There was a big, dark wall of black clouds looming behind me. I thought "no big deal. probably headed the other way." Boy was I wrong! (more about that later). Anyways, I walked to class, got a phone call from Beth and got to chat to her for a little bit (oh, and I got a present in the mail from Beth. Good timing! Thanks for the book!) Class started, and my professor surprised us with... a birthday cake for me! That was so sweet! She even took some pictures.




I mean, seriously? How cool is that? I've never celebrated my birthday during a class before. Never in elementary or high school, since it always fell during the summer. And never during a college class-and I think I've had a final exam on my birthday every summer I've been in classes....Needless to say, I felt very special, and the final went AWESOME! I guess some students have complained in the past that it was difficult, but I thought it was pretty straightforward. It was open book, so the answers were all there. I did some prep-work, which I highly recommend for any open book test. If the teacher gives you a study guide, I suggest finding all the things on the study guide and writing down page numbers for quick reference. That makes it so much easier during the test to reread any information you might have forgotten.

{Speaking of final exams, I'm not sure how I did on my Advanced Child Theory final, but I got an A overall in the class. I feel pretty good about it. To refresh your memory, this class was the one where everyone technically failed the midterm exam. Including me, even though I got the second highest grade in the class (I know what you're thinking, 'Second highest?' Me, too. *sigh). Since we all did so horribly, the teacher added a whopping 20 points to our raw score, so instead of getting 55/80, I got 75/80, which is an A. There were still some people who didn't pass, even with the added points.}

Ok, so back to my in-class final yesterday. I finished it first-big surprise. And headed back to my car. Only, by this time the storm had hit. It was like the sky had opened up an just let it go! Now, I park off-campus, about a mile away (I'm not exaggerating) so this was going to be fun. I rolled up my pants, wrapped my cell phone and Ipod in paper to keep them from getting wet, and headed for the truck. At least it was a warm rain. By the time I got to my truck, I was thoroughly soaked. My original plan was to go, pick up Kate, go out to eat dinner, and see a movie. Well, it was raining so hard and traffic was bad, so it would have taken us too long and we would have gotten soaked as well, so Kate and I decided to eat some deer spaghetti and french bread at her house. The boys greeted me at the door with "It's your birthday, Mimi!" and "Happy Birthday!" So cute! They had drawn me birthday cards, and Parker let out the surprise that there was a birthday cake for me. I'm so glad I got to share my birthday with them! They are getting so big.
Kate tried to take pictures of me blowing out my 14 candles, but her camera died. Oh, well....Kate gave me her present-two Scentsy bars-one Wasabi Ginger, and the other White Tea and Cactus. I'm pretty excited about both of those!
I got two and a half phone calls while I was over there. Gwen called and told me some exciting news (you'll have to ask her), mom beeped in (but I didn't know it was her b/c I didn't recognize the phone number), and my good fried Matt T. called. I wish I could have talked longer!

So, Kate and I headed out to see the movie. My shoes were soaked, of course, and like wearing two blocks of ice. We decided to watch the movie "Julie & Julia" and it turned out to be a great movie. I hope Kate enjoyed it, because I thought it was really fun. It almost made me want to buy "The Art of French Cooking" and try some recipes. Almost. I saw how much butter those recipes call for! I'm not sure I could do it.

We got back home around 10:30, I dropped Kate off, called Mom back, talked to her and Nathan, got the cutest message in the world from Jill and Jheriko (at the end he is yelling "Happy Birthday Aunt Penny!!!!"). Too fun! Then I was able to talk to my husband for a few minutes before I went to bed. This was a really fun birthday, and a memorable one! Thanks, everyone. You all made turning older that much more bearable. I'm ready for this year, the year of 28. Its going to be a good one!