I'm 25!

Today's my 25th birthday!! I'm pretty happy about it, and things that have been happening. :)

The picture is the candle that my sister-in-law gave me yesterday, spiced cider. Mmm, mmm, mmm!! It'll be vying for attention for my nose along with Bath and Body Works "Sugar and Spice" lotion. Man, I just love that stuff. :D

Highlights of the past few days...

-We celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday. My MIL is going out of town on the actual Thanksgiving day, so she decided to do it 2 weeks early. That also leaves the day free for other family members to celebrated Thanksgiving on the actual day (like my sister-in-law's husband's family).

It didn't really feel like Thanksgiving - more like they were having a grand feast for my birthday. ;)

-On Saturday I got a birthday card from my only living grandparent, Pops. You all "met" him last Christmas. Inside of the card was a $50 gift card to JoAnn's. I'm *really* touched by this gift! Pops has never mastered the computer (yet! I still hope he will) and so finding a JoAnn's isn't a one-click away for him. And the gift card also says to me that he really appreciates his quilt and wants to fully support my hobby. :)

-This morning I got an email from Amazon.com... I nearly deleted it! It turned out to be an egiftcard from my parents, for a very generous amount! I am planning to buy the Foxfire Books, and the Dangerous Book for Boys.

I almost got the Daring Book for Girls, but I read a few reviews and somebody warned that there was palm reading, fortune telling and summoning spirits mentioned in the book. Just not the kind of thing I'm interested in promoting or reading about. Plus, a bunch of the Boys book review said it was great for girls too, so I'm gonna stick with that one. Hey, I was the one who wished I could be in boy scouts when I did a year in girl scouts. :)

I'm pretty excited about the Foxfire books though! I checked one out at the library and have been slowly reading it (a LOT of information to process) and would love to own all the books in the series. This is my chance! Thanks Mom and Dad. :)

-Since the beginning of October, I have lost almost 20 pounds. Whoo!!!!!!!!!!! This is my first time losing more than 10 pounds since 2001! Yeah, I have been struggling for years. One of the biggest changes I've done was to go off of birth control in the beginning of summer. I still gained over the summer, but since my visit to my parents house in October, I've been dropping. Feels so good. :)

While I was at my parents, I went to the thrift store and found this GREAT pair of dark green dress pants. Oh, I so loved the color, I just had to try it on, even though it was one size smaller than what I could comfortably wear. Sucked in my breath to get them to button and told my husband IHaveToHaveThesePants!

Yesterday I was able to get them on with ease, eat a Thanksgiving meal and touch my toes a few hours later! Yeah! :D

-I can drive a rental car now! In the past few years it's been a wee bit of an issue. On a couple of my family vacations we had to drag my dad around as the driver, cuz none of us kids could legally drive the rental cars. And my poor mom had to navigate Gettysburg to find a bike rental shop - for a quick second she forgot that I wasn't 25 yet and almost handed me the keys. :) (Of course, we kids teased her about not giving birth to me sooner so I could drive).

-Tomorrow my Connecting Threads order better come! I'm still pouting that my birthday has been declared a no-mail day, in honor of Veteran's Day. Sunday was a no mail day. I'm a mail-a-holic. Can you tell? :D

Off to update my profile, I'm no longer a 24 year old quilter!

Leah