happy birthday to me!

Yesterday was my birthday, and it was an exceptionally good day. Here's a look back through pictures:

I arrived at work to find this on my desk, courtesy of my mom:

Dark chocolate always makes me happy, as does my Harney & Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice tea! Then I got a text from my sister-in-law, who wished me a happy birthday filled with Vietnamese coffee. I adore G7, but it can't be good for me, so I've been avoiding it. But I decided that it was my birthday, so why not have some?

Also note: I'm wearing my For the Love launch team t-shirt. Jen Hatmaker's For the Love releases next Tuesday, and it's so, so good! If you haven't preordered yet, you should. Or you could just walk into your local Barnes & Noble and pick one up, as they already have them on the shelf. Also, one of the things we did as a launch team was write endorsements for the book. Mine wasn't chosen for the printed book, but they did include all of them on the website. If you want to scroll, scroll, scroll, you'll eventually find mine!

Unfortunately, the G7 wasn't the greatest idea on earth--the rush of caffeine and sugar caused me to get a bit jittery around lunchtime. As my friend Steph suggested, perhaps I should just have a sip of someone else's G7 next time!

After work, my mom and I headed to Grand Island. I had two main goals in mind: 1. Find a chair for my reading nook in my newly-rearranged bedroom. 2. Find goodies for my mug swap girls.

Here are the details on the mug swaps: Someone in the For the Love launch team Facebook group posted about a mug swap hosted by @cuppakim. I clicked through, read about it, and thought it looked like loads of fun, so I signed up. Then some girls on the launch team decided we should have a mug swap just between us, and, well, I had to sign up for that one, too! I have had so much fun getting to know (aka Instagram stalking) my girls and picking out things for them. Because while it's technically about the mug, it's fun to find other goodies to send along, too!

Our first stop in GI was Qdoba. Love me some Qdoba!

Then we went to T.J. Maxx. I found a chair I loved, but it cost $50 more than I was willing to spend. I did find a few little goodies to throw in with the mugs, as well as a gift for my cousin whose college going away party is tomorrow night, so I consider it a win ... but Shopko provided the biggest win of the night when we found The. Perfect. Chair. It was exactly the price I was willing to pay, too! It's not the chair I thought I was looking for, but I absolutely love it ... and so do the cats.

The problem? We had my mom's old Cadillac, and the box the chair came in was huge. Fortunately, the furniture carryout guy knew some kind of magic and was able to wedge the box into the back seat. So then we headed for Topperz for some frozen yogurt.

We'd left my car at work, so we went there before heading home ... and when we were about a half mile away, we ran out of gas! That had never happened to either one of us before. We walked up to the school, got gas from my dad (who was, of course, back at work trying to get some last-minute stuff done before the beginning of school), and then headed home.

It was a very eventful and fun birthday--so far, 34 is looking pretty good!

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase an item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."