50th Birthday Celebration

Warning! Long post and lots of pictures ahead---

Today is my 50th Birthday which was celebrated in grand style this past week at work. Come along and I'll tell you about it. Bright and early Monday morning I was given this lovely ribbon to wear all week.

Tuesday, I received this lovely necklace to wear with my ribbon from Monday.

I was out sick on Wednesday, but on Thursday I have these lovely pieces of jewelry. One of them "flashed red lights" all day long.

I received new eyeglasses on Thursday too. The approximately 40 email birthday greetings from clients, friends, family began to arrive on Thursday afternoon as well. It was obvious that someone reported the event to my entire address book. (Oh my, just when I had I cleaned up my address book?)

But Friday was the designated DAY! So I was greeted with this at my parking spot!

And this in the hallway next to the office door.

The entryway!

My office window!

My Door!

My office!

Not to be outdone by my co-workers--I had arrived at the office wearing this lovely gray wig complete with "old lady" wrinkled forehead. One of our clients had supplied this nice touch to the celebration. It sure was fun seeing the looks on their faces when I had a surprise for THEM!

I couldn't forget my age!

They supplied the "drinks" for the occasion! I'm a bit of a Diet Dr. Pepper addict!

Another button--flashing no less--to add to my jewelry collection.

And a lei!

Can you guess what this is?

That was Vick's Salve to bring the sense of smell into the overall theme. Too bad I was so congested I couldn't smell it. This card had appeared somewhere along the way.

At last I turned on my 'puter to try to work some. Was greeted by this lovely wallpaper! Of course the screen saver was changed as well....something about how nifty it is to be Fifty!

A card arrived from a previous co-worker filled with this!

I did receive some lovely gifts--A house plant that is supposed to survive an owner without a green thumb.

A dozen bright and cheery roses!

The official CARD from the staff!

More flowers! I just love daisies!

And this came from the firm!

What a wonderful celebration! What a wonderful group of co-workers!

Birthday Week

So this coming Saturday is my 50th birthday. My office started celebrating on Monday. I'm almost afraid to go to work tomorrow.

My nugget!

So I know this is going to be kind of long and there's no pics, but I wanted to share a little "nugget" from God.

Do you get little "nuggets" from God? I'm so glad He gives us these little special blessings that are so private and personal and are just for us. So here's my story about a recent nugget.

A little background--
2009 was a hard year--if you've read my blog very much you already know that.
We looked at houses during the summer and ended up deciding it wasn't the right time.
I'm working pretty hard to get my CPA license.

So a few situations happened near the end of the fall that made me think maybe it might be time to look at houses again. I won't go into all the details of what they were, but more than one factor went into the decision to even look. So we started praying about it and specifically asked Him to let it happen easily if it was in accordance with His plan for us. I also asked Him to block it all and let me know if it wasn't right. I finished fall semester of school on Dec 14 and was registered for an online class to begin Jan 19. So in my thinking, I needed to find a house and be moved during that 5 weeks. Just couldn't see how I could handle work, moving, and school all at the same time. So we found THE house on Dec 23 after only a couple of trips with the realtor.

So it almost always takes about a month to get all the loose ends tied for a home closing. So I reluctantly agreed to closing on Jan 22 and giving the sellers a couple days to move out. So we wouldn't be able to move until the end of Jan. But all else was going so well, and I had to face reality that it was totally impossible to think we could be moved in and settled before Jan 19. I delayed officially dropping that class and internally struggled over this until less than 1 week before the closing. And so I ended up moving the class to begin Mar 22 along with another class all the while knowing that I was totally stupid to think I could take 2 fast paced classes during the worst part of tax season. So I was just holding on to my plan and figured I would end up dropping one of them before they started.

So we ended up closing on the house on Jan 19--the day school was supposed to start. AND I got an email from the instructor of the "delayed" class giving us the entire 8 weeks of work and told us we could start whenever we wanted to. AND that was my "nugget." Only God really understood how badly I wanted to stay on target with school. Only God knew that I really just needed 2 or 3 week delay, not 8. So He whispered in my ear--"I've got a way. You can start whenever you get settled." I set a goal for myself to start working on it by Feb 15. I hope to have most if not all completed before the course officially begins.

Now I have started on the work and am once again overwhelmed with how wonderful God is to work out the details of my life, if I simply follow Him.

It's SNOWING!

BIG Fluffy Flakes!!

So pretty!

Some decorating pics

So here's a glimpse of how I've been spending my non-work hours lately. this is the top of one of my kitchen cabinets.

And now the other set of cabinet tops.

Here is one wall in my den/living area.

And my breakfast nook--new table.

A new fake plant to hide some cords and plugs. I don't think I'll kill this plant. Silk tends to do well without light or water or my mom, sister, and niece's green thumbs. I did not get that green thumb gene. I think I'm finally accepting that and will just buy the silk stuff and turn from my life of plant killing.

Here is a bookcase in a little nook between the entryway and the cozy living area.

So far this is all I have in the formal living area. Need to go furniture shopping.

Here's the dining room part of the combination formal living room/dining room.

And here is the table in the entryway.

I'll try to post more pics later as I get different areas finished up.