29 for the first time

Over 2 months ago, I celebrated my 29th birthday.  As you know, I've had a hard time remembering how old I was the past couple of years.  Don't worry - it won't be a problem this year...

My sweet husband made my day super special.  Here are a few of the things he did to make the beginning of the end of my 20's so great:

He made 3 flavors of cake balls, and they were all soooo delicious!

Pan-seared steak.  Yum.

Can you believe this?!

One of my very favorites!
Gift not pictured: a gift certificate for a massage with the appt. already made for my birthday afternoon!

So many friends and family, near and far, thought of me and called and/or sent texts, messages, cards, and gifts.  How kind and thoughtful?!  They all know me so well!  Here are a few of the tangible items I received:

You know how much I love a good deal, and in the weeks surrounding my birthday, we got to take advantage of several awesome birthday offers.  Here are just a few:

Free appetizer with an entree purchase at Granite City.  We shared both and still had leftovers, and our sweet waitress even sent home a special birthday treat, since we were too full for a b-day dessert!

Free Gigi's cupcake!
(We ate it before we remembered to take a picture...woops!)

Free pizza from Pizza Shoppe.

This didn't photograph super well, but it sure was yummy!
Free stack of pancakes (any flavor) from IHOP.
This one was white chocolate raspberry!

It was a really good day...and week...and month.  Haha.  ☺  29 is going well, so far - life is good.

Anyway. just thought I'd share with you...finally.  Thanks for reading!

More to come soon.

29-ly,

Kensy

Favorites of the day:

quality family time

technology

my cat-shaped lap warmer ;)

28

Hey all, and Happy Fall!!!

As you may know, I turned 28 at the beginning of this week.  (Fun fact: this also meant, as my mom reminded me, my birthday fell on the same day of the week that I was actually born.)

I don't think I've admitted this super-publicly, but recently, I've been forgetting how old I am.  For real.  I felt so silly when I had to do the math a couple times over one night when I was explaining to Bryant about forgetting my age earlier in the day.  I don't know what the deal is...and while trying to figure it out, it has occurred to me that the ages between 25 and 30 (or maybe 29) seem to get smushed together.  They're just kind-of there...as placeholders after the 25 milestone...while you wait to turn 29 so you can prepare to enter into your 30's.  Can anyone relate?  Maybe this is just a way for me to justify the fact that I legitimately thought I was 28 for a time during my 27th year.  Ha.

Anyway, I thought I'd share a bit about how I rang in Year 28:

As you also may know, I've signed up for approx. 52,873 birthday/rewards clubs...which means I receive approx. 52,873 e-mails with special birthday offers in the weeks surrounding my birthday.  You'd better believe I capitalize on as many of those as possible...esp. the "no purchase required" ones!  (And you should, too!)  So, birthday festivities began well in advance of the actual day with this gem:

The night before my birthday, my sweet husband organized a surprise birthday dinner!  I was under the impression just he and I would be enjoying supper "out," but when we got to the restaurant, I was greeted by these sweet people!

There was even a complimentary birthday dessert!
They used cocoa for the stencil...we were wondering, too.  ;-)

My hubby got to spend nearly the whole day with me the next day!

We got an early start on the birthday festivities with Scooter's and a new donut shop.

The donuts were enjoyed at a new-to-us park and were followed by some exploring.

Those are locks on the bridge!

We didn't come prepared to leave our own...but maybe someday.  ☺

Also found some railroad tracks...

...and there was a train coming!
(Don't worry...it wasn't actually coming right then.)

Our next stop was the beautiful Overland Park Arboretum.

I think idyllic is the word.  ☺

(Not pictured: a bench by a babbling brook where we stopped to read for a bit, as well as a bird-watching cottage.)

These were little tiny wooden houses placed in an old tree's trunk!

Lunch: self-explanatory. ☺

There just happened to be a cupcake shop next to Chick-fil-a, so we decided we'd better try it.
As luck would have it, they give free birthday cupcakes!
Pumpkin Spice Latte and Choc. Chip Cookie Dough were our flavors of choice.

Bryant had a dentist appt. in the afternoon, then came home with flowers and made me a delicious steak dinner...

...and cake!
This is an aerial view of it with candles (2 and 8 for 28) - it's called Earthquake Cake...and it was so yummy!

I felt so celebrated by so many people!  Calls, cards, gifts, and wishes came rolling in all day!  I'll admit that a good percentage of the cards I received had cats on them...

Pretty sure if there was a literal key to my heart, it would be a cat-shaped Target gift card...or a tiny red vase...or a childhood-favorite snack mix with mini Doritos in it...

Received this pretty package in the mail...complete with a baby whisk!

This is what was inside!  Can't wait to put it to good use!  ☺

Not pictured: the gift of in-tune music in the form of piano tuning!  Hooray!!

Also not pictured: a sweet, thoughtful, precious gift from my husband.  Maybe I'll tell you more about it, someday.  ☺

I really can't put into words how thankful I am for yesterday and all it brought.  I never expect much (if anything) for my birthday, but I always receive beyond my wildest dreams...and not just in the form of tangible gifts.  The friendship, thoughtfulness, and love shown to me are more than I could ever ask for...and it all means so very much.

A great big "THANK YOU!" to all who helped make the day so special.  And an even bigger thank you to my husband.  He made me feel so celebrated and cherished all day.  I'm so very thankful for him and all he does!  I won't gush anymore, right now, but gosh, I love him!

Thanks for letting me share with you all!  I hope you are well and enjoying the last few days of September - can you believe it's almost over?!

28-ly,
Kensy

Favorites of the day:

surprises

Post-it notes

the opportunity to attend a great piano teachers' workshop and win this door prize:

Pretty fitting, huh?

25

Where to even begin...

Those of you on Facebook know that I have been celebrating "birthday week" for over a week, now.  Those of you who have known me for awhile know that I don't usually make a huge deal about my own birthday, much less make it a week-long celebration.  This year, however, lent itself to lots of celebrating...and I didn't resist it.

I'll try not to be redundant here, since I posted about the week's happenings on Facebook, but here is a brief recap of some of the surprises the week brought:

I painted this spoon rest on a birthday present trip to Paint Yourself Silly (and Ivanna Cone!) with my roomie.

One of the very thoughtful and sweet families I teach brought this birthday cookie and a bouquet of flowers for me to their lessons on Monday.

Tuesday started with a spontaneous birthday breakfast with the family I nanny for followed by a trip to the zoo on such a beautiful, sunny day!

On Wednesday, one of my coworkers brought treats to staff meeting partially in honor of my b-day, and I was treated to nachos and a free birthday dessert while out with friends later that evening.

Thursday included lunch with (and compliments of) a dear friend and these cupcakes (from my favorite cupcake shop, Le Cupcake) from a couple very sweet and thoughtful students.  (They were supposed to have lessons that evening, but had something come up, so made a special trip to drop these off earlier in the evening.)

Friday (the 21st) was my actual birthday.  I'm only a little embarrassed to admit I spent the morning cleaning house (since I'd been celebrating all week, I hadn't had a day at home to take care of things like I usually do).  Then, I taught the Children's Music Academy class I teach on Friday afternoons.  The three precious 4 -year-old girls and I made a "music cake" as part of our normal lesson.  I told them we could put some candles on it, though, because it was my birthday.  They had a real hard time deciding how many to put on the cake.  Once we got to 20, they jumped straight to 35!  haha

I have a little bit of downtime on Fridays between teaching the CMA class and lessons, so this week, I  walked across the street to use my only-valid-on-your-birthday free yogurt coupon at Cherry on Top.  What a pleasant surprise to find they have bowl dividers, so you can get two totally different flavor combinations!  Someone was thinking...

Friday evening was spent out to supper with friends (yes, I got the free birthday dessert...and song), then karaoking at a venue no one in our group had experienced.  It was a little sketchy...and we'll probably try somewhere else next time...but a good time was had by all!

We sang "Summer Nights"...good times!  haha

One of my coworkers (and friends!) offered to make me something for my birthday.  I told her I wasn't picky, but that I really liked cheesecake, so she made me THIS!  Almost to pretty to eat, but oooh so yummy!  What an amazing job for her first cheesecake!

Saturday was spent with my parents and extended family, and today they took me out for a birthday lunch before leaving town.

Words cannot express how blessed and loved I feel!  Many thanks to those who sent cards and gifts, called, texted, posted on Facebook, and helped me celebrate the 25th anniversary of my birth!  

I've told some of you that I haven't really been affected by the number associated with my birthday, until this milestone year.  I'm not sure why it seems like a bigger deal to me, but it does...and I feel a little clichè that it's affecting me at all - haha.  It is what it is, though, and I'm just increasingly thankful for the blessings in my life - past, present, and future - and the new opportunities each year, month, and day bring!

Looking forward to seeing what is in store for the coming year!  Thanks for sharing in the journey with me!  ☺

Old-ly,
Kensy

Favorites of the day:

my electric blanket

that cheesecake...!

Room 211 (the church service I attend)

: )

Hello!  I hope this finds you all well!


I woke up to this song, and was singing it all morning:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqh9sHTXcAI&feature=related  What a great start to the day!


Today is a "Kensy day," as defined by one of my aunts who takes a day off for herself every once in awhile.  I got back a little while ago from a walk/jog and yoga class, have the windows open and an "Autumn Apple" candle burning, laundry is being washed, and I'm sipping a smoothie...and Charlie is in my lap.  Doesn't get much better than this.  : )  Plans for the rest of the day include checking many items off my to-do list, having a phone date with my brother, making a Creamy Pesto Chicken pasta dish, and teaching some lessons this evening!


I have a few things to share from each of my jobs:

• When I was nannying the other day, the 2-yr.-old little girl's hair was crazy when she woke up from her nap.  I told her we should fix it, and she asked specifically for a ponytail that was low so it wasn't too tight, in so many words.
• A student at the studio was telling me she'll probably have to get braces and "one of those container things that stretches your teeth."  I said, "You mean a retainer?"  "Oh...yeah."
• Duties to add to my "music librarian" job description:
• candy dish monitor
• fish tank light bulb changer
• keyboard fixer (this only goes as far as blowing large amounts of dust/cat hair/etc. out from in between the keys)
• At our Arts Inc. staff meeting this week, the birds were roaming the table (not unusual), and one was walking on a piece of paper that was hanging over the edge of the table.  He didn't realize the table ended under the paper, and fell off in a flurry of feathers and growling/barking/squawking.  Don't worry - he went unharmed and was back to trying to sip others' pop and coffee in no time.
• The student who asked why I wear my wedding ring on my toe gave me this last time I saw him: 

In other news, since it's my birthday month, I've been signing up for and receiving a multitude of free stuff...mostly from restaurants.  I'm not going to have to cook for myself all month!  : )


Time for lunch!  Enjoy the rest of your week and weekend!


Satisfactorily,
Kensy

Favorites of the day:

I think these go without saying : )