birthday shenanigans.

hello! please excuse me for not posting last night. after surviving my whole birthday on only 2.5 hours of sleep, i basically hit the wall upon returning home from my celebration and called it a night.

you know i can’t stay away for too long. SO i decided lunch break blogging would be a fun, different experience. it will also mess things up in the whole flowage of things, but i have a feeling it will all work itself out in the end.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE BIRTHDAY WISHES!

you guys are great. i was stoked on all the comments, emails, FB messages, etc etc etc that i received all day. ‘twas more than this girl could ever ask for.

also~ thanks for the plethora of camera tips! i have already learned so much and can’t wait to learn more and more about photography :)

yesterday was my 27th birthday. here is what i did.

like i mentioned up there, i only got 2.5 hours of sleep monday night. i popped dragged myself out of bed at 5:30 AM so i could make it to my 7 AM meeting on time.  since monday was a holiday, my regular monday morning meeting was moved to tuesday, which~consequently~forced me to go to work at 7 AM on my birthday.

it also forced me to stop for coffee even though i knew i would be getting coffee shortly at the weekly. sales meeting breakfast.

sometimes ya gotta.

i knew that i was going to be going to lunch AND dinner for my birthday, so i skipped the ever-so-filling bowl of oatmeal that i typically get at the monday tuesday morning sales meeting.

instead, i went with quicker digesting carbs~ dry wheat toast & a small side of fruit. plus a side of eggbeaters.

not gonna lie.. i loved busting out my giant camera at the original pancake house! my co-workers made fun of me but i really don’t care. no shame in my food bloggin’ game!

the waitress who waits on us every week is adorable and sweet and she brought a couple nutella filled crepes to the table in honor of my birthday!

i did have a nibble of the end and a couple strawberries, but chocolatey filled crepes are just too much for me.

truth be told, not a lot of work happened between breakfast and lunch. i did get all the vital work tasks completed but took a little break when momma b brought me 27 balloons!

my mom gets us balloons every year and matches the number of balloons to the number of years old we are turning. geesh.. 27 balloons?! i could fly away!

a little after noon we headed to lunch.  my boss takes me to lunch for my birthday every year and i picked the tin angel cafe because i LOVE their food. you may remember when i went there for dinner awhile back in december and also when i first tasted their food at the taste of the nation event last august.

love.

we sat on the enclosed patio which was decorated with unique items to give the area a lot of character.

i went with the ham & cheese croissant panini:

they were out of croissants so i got it grilled on the ciabatta bread that they use for their paninis. this was a great choice!

“Black Forest Ham, Fontina Cheese, Dijon Mustard and Garlic Aioli on Croissant Ciabatta”

it came with a side salad and i chose balsamic vinaigrette for my dressing.

i was happy that one of my bestie’s, j5, joined us for lunch.  she wasn’t able to make it to my birthday dinner and she also used to work for my company, so her joining us for lunch just made sense!

do i look older?

we were too full for dessert but i did enjoy one of their signature miniature almond biscotti cookies that come with the bill.

it was back to the office for a some more work.  little did i know, my co-worker, crystal, had gotten me a cake AND called marshall to find out my favorite ice cream! (dreyers 1/2 the fat vanilla bean, for those of you who are wondering. it is the best.) she is so awesome.

cut the cake!

of course i had to have a little bit ;)

i don’t like frosting so i cut around it and just had some chocolate cake with a scoop of crack ice cream!

i did a few odds and ends at my desk and then this guy popped his head (quite literally, he always peeks his head into my doorway) into my office:

an edible arrangement!

awhile back, i told marshall to never spend his money on flowers for me.. and instead, buy me an edible arrangement! it looks just as beautiful as flowers PLUS you can eat it. um, hello? no contest.

edible arrangements > flowers.

even though i was super full from lunch, i managed to devour a few “flowers” :)

after work i raced to the hair salon for a bang trim. had to get those bad boys in check, the engagement photos are today! eep!

i know that you should do whatever you want on your birthday, and what i really wanted to do was go to the gym.  i am glad that i wanted to work out.  in years past, i would never want to go to the gym on my birthday. i would have also been drunk by 5 PM, more than likely ;) oh, how times change.

i decided to do a make-up-as-you-go lower body 3 x 3 circuit.  when i say 3 x 3 i mean i made up three circuits and did each of them three times through before moving onto the next!

here are the deets:

5 minute treadmill warmup

circuit one (three times through):

move	weight	reps
bulgarian split squat	12# each hand	12 each leg
laying hip raise	10# on hips	20
alternating bench step up	12# each hand	12 each leg
bench tuck crunch	body weight	20

circuit two (three times through):

move	weight	reps
barbell stiff legged deadlift	40#	12
laying leg raise	body weight	12 each side
donkey kicks	body weight	12 each leg
alternating barbell forward lunge	40#	12 each leg

circuit three (three times through):

move	weight	reps
weighted ball crunch	10#	50
ball back extension	10#	20
plank	body weight	60 seconds
stability ball hamstring curls	body weight	20

stretching

total time: 50 minutes, didn’t wear my HR monitor so i don’t know the stats!

i went home and marshall was waiting there, bearing gifts!

so exciting :)

he is a babe. he got me this awesome owl duffle bag:

(please excuse my messsssy room and my mess of a self, just got home from the gym!)

i have a minor obsession with owls. this is SO cute.. it has a polka dot interior.

inside the bag was something giant and black. i was perplexed!

clearly, randy was concerned.

i soon realized it was the cover to a grill!

TADA! marshall bought me a grill! it would have been silly to haul it all the way to my house where i live, so he just wrapped up the cover. clever boy. i can’t WAIT to move into our house and start using it!

he also got me a fun dice game:

and the kiddos got me some pumas:

they are purple and yellow! those are the wedding colors :)

thanks kids!

after the gift giving and receiving, we headed out to dinner.

i made a reservation at oasis cafe which was a new-to-me restaurant but i’d heard great things about it.

super cute restaurant that is located inside of a book store!

i was thrilled to see so many of my friends :)

kristen-rory-nick-dave

nate-michelle-brandon-lindsay

katie-jaime-jessica-simon

allie-her invisible date-pete-amber

yay :)

we got the pita tasting plate as an appetizer:

“Fresh made hummus and olive artichoke heart
tapenade, served with grilled pita bread and a cucumber tomato salad.”

the hummus was delicious! i am a hummus connoisseur and i must say that the best hummus in salt lake city is still the one from aristo’s. this was still good.

kristen & rory got a good looking cheese and fruit plate, definitely photo-worthy:

“Cheese and Fruit Gallery: Cheese samplings from around the world, fresh honeycomb, berries, seasonal fruit, and assorted crackers.”

they also brought bread + oil + vinegar to the table.

after we ordered i decided to open some gifts!

amber got me a romper. i am not too sure how i feel about rompers but i am willing to give it a shot.

kristen knows me too well and got me some of my favorite foodie items! i was out of PB2 so that was definitely the highlight.

kristen & rory also gave me an awesome purple frame that i plan to use on the guest book table at the wedding. unfortunately the photos of it turned out all blurryyy. and so did the photos of a super cute purple dress jessica got me. but a big thanks to everyone!

our main course came and i was puzzled by my dish. i wasn’t sure it was what i expected!

“Rosemary Garlic Roasted Chicken Slow roasted, organic free-range chicken breast served over a wild mushroom filled tart with seasoned
mashed potatoes, topped with watercress cashew sauce.”

i swapped the potatoes for asparagus. but have you ever seen such a silly stack of food? i couldn’t help but giggle.

the “paper” it was wrapped up in was edible, but flavorless. basically an edible bowl to hold all the amazing ingredients. the chicken was moist and flavorful and the asparagus hiding at the bottom was probably my favorite part, so i am glad i made the substitution.

marshall got the lasagna:

“Oasis Vegetable Lasagna Baked pasta layered with roasted vegetables, tomato béchamel sauce, ricotta, asiago, and cheddar cheeses.
Dressed with bell pepper puree duet.”

unfortunately he didn’t love it because there were a ton of mushrooms in there! and he hates fungus.

i think everyone else really enjoyed their meals! and they have a ton of vegan options, so that is nice for my vegan buddies.

photo op:

all in all it was a great meal with great friends! thanks to everyone for coming :)

after the dinner we went back to kristen & rory’s house for ice creeeeam cake!

marshall knows the way to my heart. ice cream. the cake is just a formality. the ice cream is what gets me. this was a raspberry cheesecake ice cream cake.

make a wish!

27 isn’t so bad.

the perfect ending to a perfect birthday :)

yum.

just a note.. i ate out THREE times yesterday. and ate cake and ice cream twice. while it was all delicious and fun, i kinda feel like a slug today. i would much rather space my eating out adventures farther apart and keep to indulging in dessert twice a week, not twice a day. but i guess the birthday is only once a year? however.. i just don’t like eating out so much. i feel like a puffy, sodium filled salt lick today =P

so that’s that! since i am on a speed-posting time frame right now i better not ramble, this took long enough to put together. i will be back tomorrow with something.. not sure what.. this whole monday off/birthday tuesday has thrown my blog posting schedule through a loop! but i can assure you that guest post thursday is canceled due to the short week AND the fact that i don’t have a post. so you can come back tomorrow to read my rambles about something! actually i have a lot going on so i am sure i won’t have a hard time finding something to talk about ;)

Qs~

1. when eating out, is there something on the menu you ALWAYS order, in search of finding the best? in other words, are you a connoisseur of anything? my answer is hummus. if there is hummus on the menu i must try it. more often than not it is amazing.. but word of warning: do NOT get the hummus at fiddler’s elbow! yuck. i used to be a philly cheesesteak connoisseur but i’ve since changed my eating habits and so that obsession is out. hummus is in.

2. would you rather receive: a) flowers b) chocolates c) balloons d) an edible arrangement. my answer is obvious.

xo. janetha b.