Birthdays!

My birthday was Saturday.

Saturday I was busy doing other things and just posted some Hassaniya rap music here for you. You don't have to understand it, just appreciate it for me. It's my birthday after all. But I promised to tell you all about what I did for my birthday, and even though I'm a day later than I might have said I'd post it, here it is:

So I started out my birthday by going to class. Yep. But it's not like when I was younger. I voluntarily signed up for this class. I wanted to be in this one. Not necessarily on my birthday, but hey, what's a guy to do? So the class was good, I got lots of tips on creating lesson plans and am one class closer to getting my teacher's license. After the class comes the fun part.

Melissa enlisted Elise's help and the two of them got the family together plus several friends to celebrate my birthday. Sadly, the Martins (my cousins) were missing, but I totally understand why and am just sad that I couldn't go see their art show (which is what we'd been planning to do before I realized my birthday was on the same day). My family obviously knows what my kind of party would include because Melissa and Elise got everybody together at 5 o'clock to play some soccer! This includes my sisters who came down from A&M university to help celebrate and hopefully be around for the official entry into the world of a niece. No such luck on the second part of that.

Now, I was sucking wind after about 1.5 minutes of soccer, but we stuck with it and ended up playing for maybe two hours. I realized that I am really out of shape, that I really should get some new cleats, that I am much quicker in my mind than I am in real life, and that my sisters are a lot better at soccer than I remembered (and fast too).

Then it was back to the house for some good food and hanging out. Just what I like. Chicken and dumplings, fried okra, and green beans. A solid southern meal to go with the first birthday I've celebrated in Texas since the year 2000. And then...cheesecake! Yes, Melissa made not one, but TWO cheese cakes for my birthday. Now, she will say it was from necessity because of the size of my family, but she definitely used that to it's full potential by making two different types: caramel pecan cheesecake, and a classic cheesecake with blueberries on top. I love cheesecake. And for those of you who have been to the Cheesecake Factory, their cheesecake is amazing, but for once it was topped. And I'm not just saying that because she's my wife. Actually I think it was Rachel who mentioned it first. But it's true, these cheesecakes were amazing-er than the Factory made ones. And as if that weren't more than enough, Amanda made brownie-bite-cookie things that were also really good. Drooling yet?

I got a soccer ball and some gift cards with the mandate to use them for something fun. I haven't figured out what I'll use them for yet (with the exception of the Chick-fil-a one), but I promise it will be something good.

And I bet you've been wondering why I said birthdays (as in, plural) in the title. Well, my niece's due date was October 3rd, my birthday, and I'll tell you that Elise was definitely ready to have her on the third, but as I already mentioned that didn't pan out. However...

It seems that I will be going to spend the night at my parents house tonight and, if all goes according to plan, I'll be saying hello to niece number 3 sometime early tomorrow morning! If you happen to read this tonight (then you're a crazy night owl and) please pray for my sister that all goes smoothly and quickly and well.