26.

 Today is my 26th birthday.

I've had a weird feeling about turning 26, only because that's when you are adult, I think. Well, maybe not so much that you ARE an adult, but you're not a kid anymore. I'm closer to 30 than 20. I guess it's all downhill from here. Ha!

I had a wonderful day! Ben and I had a bit of a tiff last night before bed and I fell asleep on the couch and stayed there, but this morning he came up and surprised my sleepy head with some gifts. He's sneaky that one. He has recently taken to ordering me things online and then changing the password on the bank account so I can't see that he has bought me something.

I have wanted a simple silver cuff bracelet forever but have been unable to find a nice one. Taking inspiration from my Christmas gift (this necklace I LOVE), Ben searched Lisa Leonard's website and found the perfect one: 

He had it stamped with: "ever mine . ever ours" (a quote by Beethoven). It's beautiful and perfect. I love it so much.

However, he wasn't done, I also got an adorable pair of pearl drop earrings (this was the only picture I could find):

AND...a gift certificate to a local spa (he found it on Groupon, which I love even more!). I have been wanting to try a stone massage and I cannot wait to book it!

Oh man, I felt so spoiled! We then decided to go to brunch. I said I wanted to go somewhere we don't always go and I wanted a mimosa so we got dressed up and headed to an amazing little restaurant, VQ.

Oh my gosh, the special banana-milk bread was to-die-for and the eggs benedict was delicious. The mimosas, however, were only so-so, but we were so pleased anyway!

After brunch, my sweet hubby was really feeling like spoiling me because he sat through a manicure (I tried the new shellac stuff and we'll see how it lasts) and then a trip to lush. He waited patiently as I looked around and even offered to go more places if I wanted to. However, I knew he had a lot of school work to get to and I didn't want him to feel stressed, so home we went.

We laid low for a few hours and I toyed with the idea of going to a Tea Party with some girls from my small group, but just about when I was thinking about getting dressed, Ben said, "where do you want me to take you for dinner?" I didn't know I was getting dinner out too! I opted for an evening with my love instead of tea with the girls and we prepared to try a new restaurant: Fire on the Mountain. When we got there though, in typical Portland fashion, it was busting at the seams with people and it didn't look like we'd ever get a table, so we headed down the street to The Matador. We had a few mojitos and then a pretty good dinner. We lingered over conversation and yummy food and had a lovely evening.

I am so thankful for my husband for making my day so special. As I briefly mentioned above, we had been fighting and I wasn't excited about my birthday, but he made everything OK. It meant so much to me that we were able to step away from the stress and busyness of life right now (which is what we had been fighting about, things just sometimes get to be too much!) and just focus on being together.

It is a blessing bigger than words to have a partner to live life with. The good, the bad and the ugly. Someone to celebrate the joys with and to wade through the muck with. I am so thankful for my sweet Ben, and I am thankful that 4 years ago today he gave me the most amazing gift ever by asking me to be his wife.

Baby Dreams...

...only not by me.

Ben has had two baby dreams recently. Because I think it's cute, I'm going to jot them down for memories.

The first was about a month ago and as he was driving me home after work, he said "I had a weird dream today. We had had a baby, a little girl. I was really sweet on her. I was holding her and talking to her when all of a sudden she jumped down to the floor and ran under the couch like a little gerbil-baby. I tried to get her out but I couldn't. Bridger was even trying to get her out (like he always does when he gets his toys stuck under there). It was crazy!"

Then again last week, also while driving me home: "I got really mad at you today. I had a dream during my nap today that you were pregnant and do you want to know how I found out? You posted a baby picture on Facebook and you had like 50 comments on it, but I didn't even know you were pregnant yet. I was so mad that you told everyone else before me! Then I woke up and realized that it was a dream decided to not actually be mad."

So, I promised my sweet, silly, super-afraid-of-actually-having-a-baby-yet-still-dreaming-about-one husband that A) when the time comes, I would do my best to not birth a gerbil-baby, but a real, human-sized one, and B) I would not use Facebook to announce that our little human was on her way.

Brain Dump

- I had a 50 hour work this week (including one holiday) and my paycheck should be sweet.

- It will help pay for this:

(in black) which we found in the Ikea "As-Is" section. It was there because it was assembled but didn't have a box or the assembly instructions. It was about 30% off the original price, but because of their daily deals, it was another 30% off the sale price. How could we say no? We've been wanting a leather sectional forever. We love our old couches, but they are a pain when it comes to dog hair! Now, we have 3 couches in our living room - it feels very much like a McMenamins movie theater, minus the movie and basket of tots.

Anyone want a lovely sofa set?

- We are going to see Grace Potter on Friday. I'm a very wishy-washy fan of live music, but I'd see this girl if she played in a dumpster. She is beyond awesome. If I didn't love Ben, I'd totally have her babies.

- We spent the morning in one of my favorite ways: sleeping in, walking to Baker & Spice, the Farmers Market and playing with Bridger at the park. Lovely.

- We're finally going to church tonight - it's been way too long!

- The bedroom is coming along slowly, I'll post pictures when it's done!

So worth it

I'm am tired today. Bags-under-my-eye's-bags and sick-to-you-stomach tired, and it was totally worth it. Last night, Ben and I stayed up all night talking. Just talking, having fun, laughing, sharing, cuddling and enjoying being together. We were in bed reading books to wind down but started talking and kept going. We talked about our past and little details we both cherish.

We shared silly secrets (who knew we had any secrets after being married this long) and poked fun at the other.

We talked about the relationships that helped for each other into the person we were when we started ours. We talked about falling in love. We talked about how we love each other more now than we did back then.

We discussed the future, what we want for our family. We said many times how thankful we are for our little family right now.

At 3:30 AM we finally decided we should brush our teeth and go to sleep considering Ben had to be up for class by 7:00 AM.

Before we drifted off to sleep (and I consequently woke back up an hour later and was pretty much up the rest of the morning - stupid cough!) my husband looked at me and said "I am so blessed to have someone that after almost 4 years of marriage we can still stay up all night talking and having fun. I hope we can do the same thing 8 years from now and 20 years from now. I adore you."

I adore him too.

I went to work today. I had made it through yesterday just fine. I went to bed early and slept well. When I woke up with my eyes crusted over this morning, I though, "it'll pass - power through!" so I skipped mascara and headed in. However, I started to notice that none of my coworkers were standing near me, and then, finally, when the 2nd attending of the morning asked if I had just been crying, I decided enough was enough and I went to the doctor. 

How's about a upper respiratory infection, a sinus infection and bilateral conjunctivitis. Sounds like a Z-pack and some erythromycin eye ointment should do the trick. 

Now, I'm laying in bed about the watch last night's Bachelor and frequently needing something from my little stash: