Birthday weekends ROCK!

:-)

I'm so happy!!

We'll start at the beginning. Friday. My actual birthday. Dave had to work Sunday so he got Friday off too (my workplace gives us our Birthday off as additional annual leave! yay for workplace incentives!!). We changed the alarm time to 8am, and spent a lovely 2 hrs extra in bed. You don't need to know what filled those two hours on a Birthday Morning, but let's just call it 'napping' okay?

So I was all snuggly and loved up and it was time to get ready for the day. The plan was to spend the day at Mum's preparing for the party - cooking, organising the house, making some treats. I did a little marshmallow production line on Thursday night to get those out of the way. Dave had never had these (melt chocolate, put blobs on non-stick paper, squish a marshmallow into the blob, more choc on top and then an M&M on top) and he was astounded that I could make 100 in 5 minutes!! Easy!

I showered, had my LnE breakky, and headed off to Mum's. I arrived to find her and my aunty elbow deep in sausage mince, and the next 4 hours were filled with chatting and baking. We made sh*tloads of sausage rolls, mini pizzas, and quiches. We also threw together a couple of slices for dessert. Yummo! I had brought my LnE for lunch, but ended up eating a couple of quiches that we had forgotten about in the oven (hello crunchy goodness!) instead so whacked it back in the freezer to bring home.

A quick clean and tidy of the house and we were off to get our nails done. The theme for my party was 'Dress Down', so people were to come in their old daggy clothes, pyjamas, trackies, flannies, uggs.... but I was going to be the 'Princess' as a surprise. I got my nails painted to match my dress, and then got back in the car to head to a work dinner.

It was a team bonding dinner, that turned into 'work pays for your meal' so I got a free Parma for my birthday!! Yay! When the food arrived, the Parma was HUGE. I'd been pretty good all day, nibbling nothing except the couple of quiches and NOTHING sweet, but who wants to ruin all that hard work? I knew I was going all out the next day at the party, so I had a couple of chips and then gave the rest of the bowl away to one of the girls who ordered a tiny pasta and wolfed it down within about 3 minutes. She gladly took them from me! I also eyeballed the Parma and selected roughly a third that had a mixture of saucy cheesy goodness and the edge that was oh-so-crunchy and delicious. I cut that 1/3 off, and concentrated on enjoying the chatter, and enjoying each mouthful of my food. If I'm honest, that little section would be more than the Parma on LnE, so I didn't deprive myself, but I'm very glad there were others at the table who-d ordered smaller dishes and were willing to take the rest off my hands (and my plate!) before I overindulged. That was definitely a WIN in the eating stakes. I trundled off home and went to bed early as Saturday was going to be a big one too.

Saturday... PARTY DAY! But first, Cali. We had a whole club practice/performance where everyone from the 3-year-olds right through to the 'Masters' did a big warm-up and stretch and then performed one of our items for each other. It was fun, because the littlies got to see what they're aiming for, and how awesome Cali can be, and the big kids get to know the little kids and help them improve. The parents also got to see why they need to keep bringing their kids - cos us oldies do some pretty AWESOME stuff. One of the girls got me a birthday balloon, and everyone was wishing me a happy birthday all morning. I felt pretty bloody special.

After Cali, I had a big drive back home to collect my cake and make myself beautiful, and then it was back to Mum and Dad's for the party. Some people (with kids) came early and we had some dinner, and before I knew it, people were arriving and the party was in full swing. I'm so glad I decided to have one (a 30th party) as I'm not a big party person but it was a chance for all my friends to be together in one place, and I had a great time. At about 9pm, Dave came up to me stressing that he'd lost his car keys. I was REALLY enjoying the champagne by that time, and didn't think about it much. He eventually found them after 15 minutes and seemed to calm down. I went back to chatting and thought nothing of it.

Speech time. Everyone gathered in the lounge room for the cake and speeches. My Dad gave a lovely, short speech, about how I was my own person, and they're very proud of me. I went on to thank everyone for coming, and to mention that I'm the luckiest girl in the world because I have friends who I call my family, and my family I call my friends. I was feeling the love (and the champagne) a little too much and could hardly speak. Then Dave started talking...

Earlier in the week, I'd asked him jokingly if he'd prepared his speech. He went completely white and stammered a bit, so I didn't expect him to say anything. He started off 'I'd like to thank you all for coming' and my brother yells out from the back of the room 'geez mate, just ask her to marry you!'. The next thing I knew he was in front of me, on one knee, with a ring. WITH A RING.

I couldn't hear anything, I couldn't see anything. I don't know if it was the alcohol, or the shock, but I just burst into tears, and covered my face.

When I took my hands away, he was still there. It wasn't a dream... he was actually asking me to marry him. Of course I said yes, and we had a big hug and a smooch and I think people sang 'Happy Birthday' and I blew out some candles, but honestly all I saw and heard was him for the next few minutes. Then there was a blur of hugging EVERYBODY in the room, some people twice. Not a dry eye in the place.

I sent Dave off to bed at around 1am as he had to be up at 6am for work, and I think I was up until 2 or 3 shooing people out and cleaning up a little before I stumbled off to bed in complete disbelief. And now, after waking up, cleaning up, and coming home, I'm sitting here typing slowly and getting distracted by the shiny ring on my finger...

So now there is, you know, a wedding to plan, and some SERIOUS motivation to be looking EFFING AMAZING for the rest of my life. After my hangover lunch of KFC and Pepsi Max, that is...

KICK OFF tomorrow!!