Another year stronger....

Last Tuesday I was fortunate enough to Celebrate my Birthday, my 30th Birthday that is! I hit that milestone, wow!
I struggled the months and days up until and even a couple days after. Now, my outlook has changed....I am going to take it with stride, I was fortunate enough to celebrate my Birthday, and this means I am alive! And another year stronger I prefer to say, instead of another year older. I am not sure why I struggle hearing that '30' number, I am not fond of it. I guess mainly because now this means I am out of my twenties. The twenties held some very important memories for me and I was not about to leave them in that era: I started and graduated college, I was engaged and married the love of my life, I was fortunate enough to birth the most 3 beautiful children in the world, we bought our first home, we bought land to hold our future home, we struggled, we learned, we took stepping stones to new directions in our life as husband and wife and now I realize all of these 'things', these moments, they were ALL a gift. So now I move on into my Thirty's with one simple goal in mind.....live each day to it's fullest. I am only as old as I feel, I truly do not feel thirty and saying that does put a smile on my face. While I do not know what these next thirty years hold for me, I pray that I am able to enjoy them to their fullest and embrace each day with my family and with each coming year I pray I will be stronger than the previous!
On Tuesday, my actual Birthday I was so blessed and had some great family make a surprise visit to my office with 12 beautiful roses! Thank you Ellie and Kim! And not long after that, 2 more beautiful bouquets showed up from Kirsten and Monica & the Pelleys! Thank you all for thinking of me on this day, these beautiful flowers really brought a week long smile to my face!

That night Brad worked late and the kids and I had our own little party, we baked a brownie cake and Dylan said we HAD to have party decorations and candles, so we improvised and had just that. Party beads and candles to blow out on his plate of choice for mommy, Mickey Mouse! I felt so special! After all with precious children of our own, birthday's now have a whole different meaning!



This weekend we were fortunate to spend time with our wonderful friends and have a great evening celebrating! My hubby with the help of a few friends planned a fantastic evening that I was very much looking forward to. With a limo ride and 9 of us packed in, we headed to Montour for a delicious dinner at Rubes Steakhouse! We arrived and got situated at our table and headed up to pick out our steaks of choice. Everything looked so good and it was quite the dilemma choosing what we would cook. We made our choices and headed over to the grill. With more than a few cold beverages these guys were eager to cook up our slabs of meat! The girls headed back to the table for some great conversation and a lot of laughs! It truly was a wonderful evening.

After dinner and a 'Happy Birthday' serened to Brandon for his birthday and mine also, our friends ordered up a pretty 'hilarious' birthday shot for me, to be taken with no hands by the way, and the night got even more interesting from there! A yummy brownie desert after a superb dinner and we were off for some more cocktails! I see another visit to Rubes again very, very soon! Our dinner was one for the memory books, it was THAT good!

'No hands, really?!'

 Tying cherry stems with our tongues, oh my!

 What a great group of friends!

We headed next door to Rubes Tavern where the girls picked a few classic tunes for the jukebox and we laughed and carried on and gave the bartender a lot to shake her head about I am sure! The limo awaited us and after a few drinks, we were off for our next stop!

We headed into Keystone for a stop at Turner Hall. The place was dead, only 1 person in the bar and we livened the place right up. The owner was working and she gave an all access tour and history of the place. With a bowling alley and a reception hall/ bar all in one, it was the perfect place to round out our evening! She was very hospitable and so nice and very welcoming. More shots and great tunes on the jukebox and the guys spotting a sign that said, 'Fried Testicles', you got it, that was not a type-o! So before long the owner was starting up the fryer and cooking up some testicles for these crazy hubby's of ours. She gave us the story behind the process of getting them ready to eat, soaking them in salt for 4 days, rotating them into fresh salt water every day to make sure they are 'cleaned out', then sliced in half and pounded down and frozen, all ready to cook. With a quick taste, one of the guys said it was like a chewy tenderloin topped off with a homemade type of horseradish sauce...gross... us girls were NOT going anywhere close to trying one of those disgusting things! After one last Birthday shot toast to Brandon and I, and storms roaring outside we hopped back in the limo and headed towards home.

 Tequila is my favorite, thanks Kir! But that lime was disgusting!!

 Fried Testicles, go ahead Cory be the first to taste, you ordered them! HA!

 Nite, nite! After 'take 2' on this pic I was busted!

 A ton of fun!!

What a fantastic evening with great friends, a very relaxing and fun limo ride and lots of great drinks and a fabulous dinner, all to celebrate 'another year stronger'= one very blessed me who could not ask for anything more. A super fun Birthday evening! And a very Happy Birthday to Brandon as well!

Thank you SO much to my hubby and fantastic friends who celebrated with me and our fantastic cousins for taking such great care of our kiddo's so we could celebrate!