birthday extravaganza

Subtitled: Husband of the Year

At the beginning of the month, Doug asked what my expectations were for my 30th birthday.

I said I just wanted to celebrate with people I love.

Well, he took that and ran and ran and RAN with it.

On my birthday, Doug told me that my gifts had a theme - 

he had looked at my "Life List" and decided to help me accomplish some of them.

That evening, he handed me this:

He explained that we'd be having a family dinner at Taste of Ethiopia, complete with coffee ceremony.

Then he told me that he'd talked to the owner, Mez, and arranged for her to teach me how to make injera.
This was such a special family evening. Bo had his first sip of coffee... and seemed to love it.

Mez was awesome. Such a sweet woman.

Here we are, practicing with the griddle before adding the injera batter.

Meanwhile, Willa was also making friends in the kitchen.

 Ta-da! My first injera! (Note the hole - I didn't spread the batter quickly enough!)

Mez & me with my finished injera.

Such an awesome experience - can't wait to try it again!

On Thursday, Doug had asked Victoria & Jeremy to watch our kids, 

and we had our first date night since Willa was born.

I met Doug at his office and he gave me this:

We went to Wegmans and took their sushi class. It was so fun!

I would definitely love to take more of their classes in the future.

Friday night, Doug had also told me to keep my calendar clear.

He just told me we were going out to dinner, and we got in the car and drove... to my friend Sarah's house!

Doug told me that only Willa & I were staying - he and Bo had other plans.

I walked in the house, and there were a bunch of my girlfriends!

They were all there for Life List #9 - can homemade salsa.

It was such a fun night laughing and cooking and eating tacos & amazing cheesecake.

On Saturday, Victoria, Willa & I headed to IKEA, where we burned the place down.

Finally, Sunday morning, Doug presented me with a card for my final birthday surprise:

We're going to Maine this summer! 

I am so overwhelmed by the past week.

I feel so blessed and so loved and so spoiled by my husband and my friends.

I'm lucky to have such loving people in my life.

Thank you all for making this such a special birthday.

I love you all!

30

I've passed the point of no return: 30.

In the words of my role model, Jay-z (minus that whole stabbing incident, I guess):
"Thirty's the new twenty, [friend] - I'm so hot still."

I was inspired by my friend Christy to reflect back on highlights from the past decade,

as I bid a fond farewell to my 20's.

20
End of sophomore year of college/beginning of junior.
Dated Doug long distance while he lived in NYC.

21
Got engaged!

Studied abroad at Oxford. Visited Italy, France & Ireland.

22 
Completed my student teaching.

 Graduated from college.

Married Doug!

 Taught in Detroit.

23
Started teaching at PCA.

24
Got Zooey

Went to Jamaica. Went to Ethiopia and Kenya.

25
Bought our first house.

Went back to Jamaica and Ethiopia and Kenya.

26
Started our adoption journey.

27
Became Bo's mom!

Went to Costa Rica. Quit teaching. Started a job that allows me to work from home.

28
Moved to New York

29
Became Willa's mom!

And now, 30.

Three decades.

Life is sweet.

three!

Our little bean is three years old!

Your life is a testimony to God's mercy & might, our little man.
We are so proud of you, and we love you so much, Bonsa Douglas!

who's 31 today?

Love you, Doug. Happy birthday! 

recently i'm... [32?]

Slacking:

Oh dear. I meant to do individual posts about my brother's wedding, Bo's birthday,

his birthday party, our new kitchen colors, etc... but I'm just a slacker!

Blogging isn't much of a priority in my life these days. 

I realized that I've had a blog for 10 years now.

TEN YEARS, people. Granted, not this particular blog. My first "blog" was a Livejournal...

and my moniker was "Packt_Sardine" ... 

because I was eighteen years old and a Radiohead reference was like, the coolest thing, 

and finding obscure music was clearly the most important thing in life.

Oy.

Anyway, then I started a blog for my experience at Oxford, 

and then I started this ole blog to update western NY fam & friends on our life in Michigan,

and now I'm supposed to be doing the same for fam & friends in Michigan.

Public self-absorption for a decade. Woo-hoo!

ANYWAY.

THAT was a tangent.

Celebrating:

LOTS of big celebrations this season!

[1]

Robert & Bailey's wedding was beautiful. BEAUTIFUL.

Such a sweet couple, and the wedding reflected them in the most perfect way.

All of these pictures are stolen from various people on Facebook - thanks, friends & fam!

My brother branded the bottom of his cowboy boots, which showed when they kneeled at the altar!

I mean... just perfect, right?!

[2] 

Bo's 2nd birthday!

I started a birthday post to him and never finished it. Horrible!

The day of his birthday was beautiful & I tried to do a photoshoot with him,

but he wasn't really feeling it.

Much to my delight, Bo showed no hesitation with his birthday cake this year.

Then we had a tractor birthday party for him over the weekend.

Even though it was rainy and cold, we had a great time!

Enjoying:

Our new kitchen colors! (Here you go, Sara!)

Before:

After!

Reading:

The Meaning of Marriage, by Tim Keller. Awesome, awesome.

Loving:

Autumn in western New York.