A (belated) birthday round up

On my dessert plate

My birthday this year was a little weird—I’d scheduled a day off, and Kent and I had planned on using a gift certificate from my folks to Story. But he had to leave very unexpectedly for Tulsa that afternoon to help his mother, so we postponed everything.

After a week--still gorgeous!

My friend Kerry sent me some gorgeous roses (she knows that pink is my favorite color), and my mother sent me a book she found both enjoyable and thought-provoking (The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson). And oddly, I got a free meal from Ikea (guess that family rewards card pays off?).

This last Saturday, Kent was able to be home for about 36 hours (he is in Tulsa again) and we enjoyed our belated birthday dinner.

There’s a story behind the dress I’m wearing. My friend Jeanne who is both an imaginary and real friend (since we went to the same high school, she’s definitely real but she lives in Ohio so we don’t see each other all that often) has a daughter who is now in graduate school, so in her early to mid-20s. Jeanne had a dress that her daughter had worn in eight grade and was asking some of our mutual friends if their daughters would be interested. I hesitantly said that if none of them wanted it, I would be interested. Long story not so long, she sent it to me.

You can see the details
a little better here

I layered a lace bodysuit under the dress—it’s winter, after all, and the dress has spaghetti straps plus I don’t like wearing strapless bras. The bodysuit has a very deep-cut back and the sleeves are ¾. I also wore a raspberry pashmina with the dress since we had unseasonably warm temps on Saturday (70° in February?) and I didn’t need a coat.



All in all, we had a great time. I’m hopeful that my mother-in-law’s health will continue to improve and we won’t need to make emergency trips to see her and help her with things.