Birthday Blog!

Yes, I had a Birthday this week (Tuesday the 12th- Abraham Lincoln's too! Next year will be his 200th birthday, BTW), and am now 29. For the FIRST time. :) My co-workers were super sweet and threw me a little party at the library, and since I gave up sweets for Lent, we decided it would be great fun to make smoothies instead. They were so good! Afterwards, we all decided that we should have a smoothie day once a month. Here's a picture:

And another one of the beautiful spread they made for me:


Yes, that is a cake that my supervisor made (wasn't that sweet?). It was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone but me. The flowers are still on my kitchen table, and beautiful!

Other note worthy news: Ashton lost his second tooth on Valentine's Day. After school. It's gone. He was really upset that he didn't have a tooth to put under his pillow for the tooth fairy. I told him we could make a fake tooth instead, but we haven't gotten to that, and Kevin's parent's picked up the boys for the three day weekend (driving to Berkeley tonight to visit my brother later tonight) so it'll be a little while until we get to that. If he and I remember. Sean still has a loose tooth, but he doesn't want to bug it, so it hasn't fallen out yet. But it's been like 2 weeks now! I always rocked my loose teeth back and forth with a vengeance until they came out. Anyway, back to Valentine's Day. I baked special cookies for their class parties: Ginger-honey almond cookies, recipe courtesy of Turi. Thanks dude, they were awesome! (Broke down and had one little one despite my Lenten promise. But I knew that was coming and planned on eating one anyway!) Here is a picture of them all in a bag, ready for the party!

Other news, I've finally been able to start running again! Very carefully, so I don't mess up my back. The only thing that's been holding me back are the side cramps I've been getting within the first mile or two. Anyone have any suggestions on how to prevent them? I'd be grateful if you'd share!