16 Candles....

... and add more than just few to that, and you'll have my age. Yeppers, I turned the big 3-6 this week. And I share a birthday with Mr. Know-It-All, the (now) 6-year-old son of Stacey & Chris. It is amazing to realize how much he's grown up..... holy Moses!

I had a wonderful birthday dinner with my friends Nicole & Jeff, and Stacey & Chris and the kidlets at Haus Edelweiss, a nearby German restaurant that is one of my favorite places. MMM-MMM GOOD! We had lots of good German food, a delightful Riesling (we gals), the boys enjoyed some brews (Bitburger and Warsteiner), and lots of laughter. The kids kept us in stitches, and Nicole brought me a cool "Girlfriends" memory book for Stacey and I to work on together. It's kind of wild to realize that Stacey and I have been friends for half my life. It feels as though I've known her forever.....

Yesterday, my buddy "Queen Serene" (as I call her) gave me another super-cool present! It's a cooler with a radio in it! Is that not the neatest thing??? I can tailgate and listen to the game (or pre-game show) and keep my stuff on ice. Or if I take some drinks to work to keep at my desk, I can keep my radio on low and all will be well. Hmm, now there's an idea!!!! Plus there were some drinks and snacks in it as part of the gift basket. Now that's a friend who knows me well, too!! And it was great to get to see her. I miss her lots, especially now that we're not working together anymore.....

Then today, my coworkers and I went to lunch to celebrate both my birthday and my boss's (hers was Friday). We did have to make it a working meeting, but that was okay too -- lots of stuff to go over. We had a great lunch at Red Lobster, and stopped at a little place called The Chocolate Shoppe. Oh. My. God. Homemade cookies that were TDF, and chocolate confections everywhere. Thank goodness it's nowhere near the office or I'd be in some reeeeal trouble.

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It's hard to believe how much I've aged, but how little I feel it. Honest to God, I still feel as though I'm in my mid-to-late 20s. When I was a kid, I always felt older than everyone else -- more mature, even though I was younger than most of my friends and classmates. I hit 18, and it started reversing itself. I felt younger than I had in years.

I think one of the greatest medicines to stop the aging process is laughter. Luckily, it's a medicine I take daily, if not several times a day! So keep laughing, and keep living.