Happy Birthday to Me!

So the week (okay, prolly closer to 10 days) of Dawn has ended and it was a wonderfully enjoyable celebration, thanks to family, friends (both old & new), and a certain awesome fiance.

The birthday celebrating began on Friday, 4/18 with a very sweet e-card from Ed to start things off that morning at work. Sunday after church was grilling out over at my sister's house (yummy brats) including some tasty pina coladas. It was nice to just leisurely hang out, play with the small fry, and enjoy a beautiful sunny day on the deck. Everyone went in on a digital camera and small camera bag for me...and the kids gave me a picture taken of the 3 of them on Easter, in a small acrylic frame for my desk at work. :)

Wednesday was the big day, and I was totally surprised to get a box of absolutely beautiful pink & orange roses (with that pretty purple stick-up stuff) delivered to me at work. Yep, you guessed it...from Ed! And my coworkers have been most complimentary...and jealous! ;) Wednesday at NewPraise practice, Julie told everyone it was my birthday and so I got to hear "Happy Birthday" sung in 4-part harmony - what a treat! Wednesday night, my Bible Study girls & I met at Macaroni Grill for drinks and dessert, instead of meeting at our normal Starbucks, and this was a very nice time - I love the fellowship time with them! Let me say that the red sangria was great and the tiramisu simply divine!!

Thursday night was what I'd been waiting on for 10 days - my flight to Raleigh and seeing Ed! He met me at the airport with cards & presents: yummy-smelling tealight candles from Yankee Candle Company, a beautiful framed picture with part of 1 Corinthians 13 printed and a shadowbox inset with a cross embedded, and a book about Tom Glavine! (Living on the Black: Two Pitchers, Two Teams, One Season to Remember ) We had our traditional beer at Hibernian on the way home of course. (Oh yeah, Ed actually gave me present #1 a couple of weeks prior when I was up there - a Fodor's Guide to Vancouver & British Columbia, including a section on Whistler, so we can read up on our honeymoon spot - so I guess technically it was the 2 weeks of Dawn... *giggles*)

Friday morning saw us picking up a rental car & hitting the road north for our weekend roadtrip to attend Ed's cousin Aylin's First Communion. It was a lovely day for a drive and we enjoyed lots of conversation in the car & lunch with one of my clients in Richmond as we headed up I-85 to I-95, then over to Hwy 301 to drive east through Virginia & up through Southern Maryland. Whilst in Charles County, MD, we took a detour past the house my family lived in for the last part of 3rd grade through 5th grade. First time I'd been there in about 33 years...what a weird feeling, yo! Finally we made it up to Pamela & Steven's house, where Ed & I enjoyed some microbrews on the porch with Steven before we all went out to a Greek restaurant for dinner. Talk about incredible seafood! I had gargantuan crabcakes and Ed had a broiled seafood platter - OMG, awesome!!! And we had drank enough beer that Ed & I decided to do some karaoke together, choosing Bon Jovi's "You Give Love A Bad Name" to entertain the masses. What fun!! And a little bit later, I did a solo karaoke rendition of "I'll Still Be Loving You" by Restless Heart. Yes, big awwwwww!

Saturday we got up early & hit the road for York, PA for the mass...and it also meant me getting to meet Ed's aunt & her family. Aylin looked just like a beautiful Disney princess in her white dress, veil & tiara! And I thoroughly enjoyed getting to meet Aunt Shell, Gil, Morgan, Aylin, Beth, Mohammed, and baby Adam, and spending time with everyone (including Ed's folks) at the backyard lunch afterwards. I felt right at home and a part of the family already. We got some "quality baby time" too, holding & feeding Adam, which was a lot of fun - babies are soooo sweet!

After we bid goodbye to Aunt Shell & family, we drove east to spend the night near Ed's folks' house near Valley Forge (which took us through some picturesque Amish country & we even saw a couple horse & buggies, but no Amish midgets...sad panda!). After getting settled in at the hotel, we picked Ed's mom up and had dinner at a local joint where we were able to watch more of the NFL draft, pay attention to the hockey scores, and enjoy some tasty prime rib. Good times! Ed & I had decided we wanted to bring some local beer back home with us, so we asked our waitress where we could find a beer store. She gave us directions to the most perfect place (with a perfect name, even if it is misspelled - LOL): Jamison's. It is owned by a couple who love & appreciate microbrews and beer in general and Ed & I spent prolly a good 45 minutes there, browsing and talking with the owners about beer. The wife even went in the back & brought out a beer for us to sample that she thought we'd like (what a treat!). We liked it, so we bought a case of it: Flying Fish Farmhouse Summer Ale (out of Cherry Hill, NJ). Then while we were paying, the husband hands us 2 pint glasses from that brewery to take with us! Very cool!!

Sunday brought a sightseeing drive in the AM in Philly, courtesy of tour guide Ed. In my numerous business trips to Philly, I'd never had the chance to go into the city, so this was a real treat! Ed showed me the historic high points and drove us through some of the ethnic neighborhoods. Let me say I LOVE the architecture in Pennsylvania! He also made sure to show me two of the more famous Philly Cheesesteak places! From Philly, we drove south to Silver Spring, MD to have lunch with Rich & Katrina. They introduced us to Ethiopian cuisine and it was quite tasty - the lamb & chicken dishes were great and it's fun to eat with your hands, scooping up different dishes using injara (a pancake-like bread) as your utensil. We also did a little walking around downtown Silver Spring. I really enjoyed getting to spend time with them again! Then it was time to hit the road and head back to NC. We spent the drive talking and when you do that, instead of just listening to the radio, it's amazing how quickly the time (and the drive) passes! And luckily we didn't hit any of the really heavy rain until we weren't too far from Raleigh. Whew!

Monday morning brought the usual 6 am flight back to the ATL...and back to work. I'm soooo looking forward to the time when we don't have to get up at 0-dark-30 to put me on a plane!