Birthdaying

Yes, I do realize that... technically... "birthdaying" is not a word, and my obsession with gerunds takes an unexpected turn, but hey, it's my party, and I can make up words if I want to!

Twenty-seven years ago today, July 30th, this little cutie was born. I just wish my hair was as blonde now as it was back then! :-p (And how cool was my dad for being a professional photographer in the 80s, when it wasn't as cool as it is now... how thankful am I?!?!)

It would have been more appropriate to post a birthday post at the *beginning* of the day, as opposed to the end, but I had a BUSY day, so 11:00pm will have to do.

Started my new job today. And for those of you who have never heard of it... run, don't walk to The Container Store right now. :) BEST.COMPANY.EVER. I mean, of course I loved it when I heard that all they sell is organizational and storage supplies (with a scrapbooking section to boot!), but then I found out that they're in the Top 20 Best Companies To Work For (in Fortune Magazine)... EIGHT years running!

I think I've had the best first day ever. Okay, first day at Disney was pretty awesome too, but wow... The Container Store really does go above and beyond in every aspect of operating their business... from training to hiring to how they treat employees... to their can't-be-beat customer service. I'm in love. Seriously. In love with this company.

The 40% discount doesn't help either! ;)

So yes, I started today, and then I went out to a fabulous dinner at Carrabba's (with my new friend Laura). Yummy soup and Chicken Marsala. Yum again! Then my friend Laura and I came home and made chocolate cupcakes. We took them out of the oven early and had them with vanilla ice cream, as part of the batter ran out... oooh, heavenly.

AND... Jeremy got me a month membership to a rock climbing gym here! So the DAY my foot is better (still limping...), I am heading over there! Yahoo!

Ohmigosh, SUCH a good day. I needed a good day to. And I'm glad it was today. Because this may sound conceited, but this is my favorite day of the year! LOVE my birthday. I wish it lasted longer. ;-)

Also, happy birthday to Jeremy, who is also 27 today! :) Our first birthday apart in seven years, but we survived. :-p

Here's to Year #28 that is on its way! Twenty-eight just happens to be my favorite number, so I am STOKED about that! LOL. But slow down, Reyanna... enjoy being 27. That's *almost* 30, you know! ;-) There I go again...

Parenting.

My parents were so wonderful to have me for FIVE weeks in March/April. That's a long time to have anyone. ;-)

It was great though. I *finally* got to visit their bakery, The Floured Apron (and meet their die-hard fans... seriously... who knew there were sticky bun groupies?!), and it was wonderful!

I think this is one of the only photos of myself as an adult... with both my parents (and Ruby, who apparently was acting shy), so now it's one of my favorite pictures ever! (Not because Ruby was acting shy, but you know, because I was with my parents.)

My mom is in her signature "flowered apron" (Floured Apron, flowered apron... get it?) and chef hat. Okay, technically, she's not wearing flowers in this photo. She's wearing vegetables. But all her other aprons... they have flowers. Why someone thought it was a good idea to put avocados on fabric... is beyond me. How would you even come up with the idea to put avocados on fabric? It's a mystery to me, but alas, she thinks it's cute. :-p

And my dad and I are twins. How cool are we, sporting our matching Rolling Stones tees I bought us? We're cooler than cool, no?!

You may think by looking at my mom that she doesn't have hair under that chef hat. And you would be correct. When she opened the bakery (she wears a chef hat 80 hours per week), she decided bald would be the way to go. Shaved it all off.

Tee hee. Did you believe me? A 55-year-old female, bakery owner shaving her head because she doesn't want hat-hair? Umm... yeah, that would be my mom. But see... me, being the fabulous daughter that I am (along with her husband, that is), told her that it was *not* a good idea to shave her head. So she didn't. :-D She does, though, have VERY short hair under there... that *still* sticks straight up when she takes off that hat. *sigh* Poor mom.

Though, she's so well known in that town, I'm sure people don't even care that her hair looks like Biff from Back to the Future. And when I'm out with her, and she's smiling that friendly smile, I can't help but think, "In her head... is she really just looking around and saying, 'Hey, what're you looking at, Butthead?!'" (Just kidding, Mom. Seriously, she's way too nice to have anything in common with Biff Tannen... you know, besides the hair thing.)

Anywho, I was stoked to get a photo of the three of us in the bakery. And I left it un-cropped, so you could see the wicked cute decor! ;-)

Catching.

Lots of catching going on. Catching up. Catching sicknesses. Catching my breath. *sigh* I've been wanting to post for so long. Funny how "life" gets in the way of recording my life on a blog. Tee hee. Oh well. So I'll post in spurts. Spurts of what's been going on. :)

Shortly before I went to Colorado (in March), I went to a super-fun scrapbooking class taught by my wonderful and talented friend, Kelly. It was great because we finally got to meet in person! Huzzah!

Since she lives in Kentucky, and I in Rhode Island, we both thought that was pretty darn cool! ;) We had so much fun laughing and chatting and scrapping. And she finally encouraged me to buckle down and finish my parents' engagement album (that I had been working on for almost a year!)... and I managed to glue down like three pages while I was at the crop with her. Woohoo. Thanks again a million and one, Kelly!

One post that I've been meaning to do: Done!

More to come! Hoorah! :D