Happy New Year and Happy Birthday to Me

YES, today JANUARY 4TH is my MY BIRTHDAY. I am forty thr thr thr three. There I said it.

I always thought that having a birthday ten days after Christmas was just not fair. I always had good birthdays though. My mom and dad were wonderful about planning something fun for my birthday when I was growing up. So no complaints there. But it is still so close to Christmas.

Now that I'm getting a little older, I'm OK with a January birthday. [It's not like I can change it.]

Not only do I get to buy a new unfilled, blank calendar each January, but I also have the opportunity to begin a new year of me each January.

This is the way I chose to celebrated my birthday today. First we went to the 11:00 service at church then...

This is the new house Keith and the girls got me for my Birthday:

JUST KIDDING!

This is the place I requested {forced} my family to take me for my birthday ~ A garden tour of Miss Ima Hogg's 14 acre estate at Bayou Bend in Houston.

The thoughts of touring 14 acres of gardens just thrills them. (not) But it's my birthday and it's the only day out of the year that I get to expose them to things that I enjoy. Mother's Day also works to my advantage :)

As you can see Buster enjoyed the tour of the garden immensely: There's just nothing like flora and fauna to get Buster "RELAXED".

WAKE UP THERE'S MORE GARDENS TO SEE - WE'RE ONLY ON ACRE ONE! Let's go:

I'll give you a quick background on Miss Ima Hogg (1882-1975) if you aren't familiar with her. Her home was built in 1927. She was the only daughter of James Hogg. He was governor of the State of Texas in 1881. She never married, but was known as a collector and philanthropist during her life and she was just flat out stinkin rich!

Here are some pictures of Miss Ima Hogg's beautiful gardens. Keep in mind it is January and in just a couple of months these pictures would be exploding with color, but it is a beautiful place to see no matter what time of year.

[why did I forget to suck in my stomach???] dadgummit

The camellias were blooming and some azaleas:

Paige and Leah finally got Buster up. I'll only post a couple of more pictures....Hang in there with me. Remember it's MY birthday!

One of the corners of Miss Ima's house:

Our tour had come to an end - time to cross that bridge, get back to the car and have lunch:




So we headed off to California Pizza Kitchen where I enjoyed a scrumptious pizza covered in Goat Cheese/Roasted Red Pepper/Grilled Eggplant and caramelized onions. Needless to say I didn't have to share with anyone. hehehe.

THEN, on the way home (No we don't live next door to Miss Ima) we're pretty close to our house when we stop at a red light; then start to go when it turned green and something did not sound right or feel right. WE HAD A FLAT TIRE.


Thankfully we were off the busy interstate and on a street in our community close to a grocery store parking lot. We limped in. While Buster took care of our tire problem, the girls and I went into the grocery store. Paige and Leah snuck into the bakery and bought me the cake that you see at the top of this post. I was off looking at goat cheese or something.

Then we came home and I opened my gift. It is a tortilla press. I've been wanting one for a long time. Now I have to figure out how to use it.

I know this is a long post, but I only turn 43 once. [unless I decide to turn it again a few more times. That is a woman's prerogative] So thanks for hangin in there with me as I chronicled my special day.