Happy Birthdays to Us

It's birthday week again here at the Malone household. Since our birthdays are only two days apart, it feels like we have three days of birthday, instead of just one day. (And can you believe it's February AGAIN?)

Sunday was David's birthday but he had to work. (Boo.) But before he went off to work, I made him a Texas Sheet Cake.
Which was really more for me than for him but I did buy him some ice cream which he prefers over cake so I'm not totally selfish. I think.

David also requested steak, mashed potatoes and corn on the cob for his birthday dinner. I was more than happy to oblige. Tonight (for my birthday dinner), David and I are going out TOGETHER and ALONE for the first time since Zara's birth. I'm totally excited. Our dear friends are going to watch our baby and David and I are going to eat at a Thai restaurant. I'm looking forward to my pad thai. Mmmm.

David and I typically buy ourselves one large joint present for our birthdays (see below) but I also wanted to get him a little something else because he's had a rough year (work and school-wise) and has worked so hard and he's almost done. Zara wanted to help him open his present but apparently she didn't like what I got him given her reaction at the end.


And yeah, maybe the Lego Hogwarts Castle was a little bit for me too since I totally love Harry Potter way more than a grown adult woman probably should. It was just too cool a set to pass up and I know they'll probably stop making them soon. Being married to a Lego addict has made me appreciate their creations and why not buy something the whole family can enjoy?

As for our joint present, we went a little crazy this year. See, when we left Hawaii we sold our television with the intention to buy a brand new set in Korea, the land of inexpensive electronics. But we never actually got around to buying a television because David wanted GIGANTIC or nothing at all and I could always find something better to spend our money on anyway. Our friends gave us one of their old televisions which we set up on two kitchen chairs in a true showing of ghetto fabulousness. But it worked and that's all we needed. And we could have stayed that way for a long time. But big changes are in the works for us. David will be getting out of the military in six months time and hopefully moving straight into a graduate program. Which means no more steady paycheck and a return to the life of poor graduate students for us. So we've been discussing the things that we need to buy while we still have the funds. A car (when we return to the States.) A new mattress. (Upgrading to a King size, hopefully.) And a television. Because if we didn't buy a new TV now, we'd have to wait another 2-3 years.

And David decided he didn't want to wait anymore. So we ditched our old chairs and bought a real TV stand and found ourselves a nice, new, shiny 42" beauty (with a built-in Blue-Ray player).
David could barely fit the TV in our car. It's a good thing we didn't buy the 46".
I forgot what it was like to actually watch movies on a nice television. It's fantastic. And playing games on our Wii is so much easier.

Zara seems to enjoy it as well. She was enthralled by Monsters, Inc.

Lots of fun all around. It's shaping up to be a good birthday.