of birthdays and husbands

So today is my birthday (28 years old, if you must know), and it's been incredible. Shawn's learned that my love language is quality time, so he made a point to spend the entire day with me. Possibly the best gift in the world! Our dear friend Katie watched Jude all day for us, and we spent the day just enjoying one another's company (i.e. Shawn telling me I was being sassy, and me telling him that it's my birthday and I can be as sassy as I want).

We started off the morning getting some sweets and coffee at Ollie's Bakery in downtown Winston. The building is one of those triangle shaped buildings built on a corner. Food tastes so much better when you're eating it inside a triangle building. Then we walked around Old Salem for awhile, holding hands and talking. Afterwards, we headed to our mall where I searched relentlessly for a pair of Ugg-like boots. After trying a few on, I decided that they are, in fact Ugg-ly. At least on me. After walking the entire mall, trying on three hundred pairs of boots and discovering I didn't actually want boots, we went back downtown for a late lunch. We had intended on dining at Downtown Thai, but since they weren't open, we headed to Noma instead. Three words. Sweet. Potato. Fries.

Words can't describe how delicious they are. I think that's a southern thing - at least I've never seen them in restaurants up north, and oh my - thank you, south. Thank you.

We walked around downtown for a little while longer, and then headed home so Shawn could prepare for a Youth Leader's meeting. We're now at home, chilling out and preparing to eat a fatty slice of ice cream cake.

Thanks to my sweet and incredibly thoughtful husband, this has been an amazing birthday. My 27th year of life was a good one, a challenging one, and a life-altering one. I know that my 28th year will hold its own challenges, and that my life will be drastically different at the end of it. Still, it's exciting. Welcome 28th year, I think we'll get along just fine.