* Little House in the Country: The Livin' Is Truly Easy

I turned twenty-seven eight days ago. This was the first time that I was actually dreading my birthday. Toward the end of June, when I would remember that my birthday was coming up, instead of feeling my usual excitement, I would panic. There's just something about that seven... or the fact that I'm now in the "late twenties" group instead of the "mid-twenties" group... or the fact that I'm now way way closer to thirty than I am to twenty... How the heck did THAT happen? The closer the day got, the worse my mood became. I had to actually apologize to Dustin a few times for being so rude. Dustin just thought it was funny and tried to make it worse by saying things like, "Did you like how the waiter didn't ID you?" after I ordered a margarita at a Mexican restaurant or pointing out how quickly the last three years have gone by so "thirty will be here before you know it!" I hate him sometimes. Two days before my birthday though, I decided to stop pouting. (Dustin also helped in my decision as he finally told me to GET OVER MYSELF!) I am going to make sure twenty-seven is my best year ever. EVER. "After all", I told Dustin, "my favorite numbers are two and seven, and I won't get this chance again until I'm seventy-two!" Lame? Probably. But it worked, and it got me really excited about turning twenty-seven.

On the morning of my birthday, I woke up really early so that I could take a shower, fix my hair and actually put on make-up before Eden got up. I put on a dress because I wanted to look pretty on my birthday, and I put Eden in a sweet little dress and bow as well. Eden had a music class that morning. (I signed her up for a summer baby music class.) After her class, I chose a cute little cafe for lunch, and we ate outside. Eden was absolutely delighted by all the birds that kept landing on our table. She would laugh and scream, "FLY FLY" and strangers would look at us and grin. Then I treated myself to four new books at Barnes and Noble and some news clothes at Banana Republic. Before heading home, we swung by Ooh-la-la so I could pick up a strawberry cupcake for myself, a chocolate cupcake for Dustin and a mini strawberry cupcake for Eden.

Now Dustin has the same birthday as me. Everyone thinks that is just the cutest thing ever when they find out about it, but I HATE IT! HATE IT, HATE IT, HATE IT! I actually suggested this year that he go to the courthouse and pay money to get a new birthday. He said it's my fault since I was born second. So since it was his birthday, he decided to go play golf with some friends after work. And unfortunately since it was his birthday, I had to let him instead of pitching a fit and insisting that he spend MY birthday with me. I've been dealing with having to accommodate him on my birthday for eight years now. It sucks. (I'm kinda kidding, kinda not...) Eden and I still had a good evening playing in the water trough (best thing we've ever bought), and Dustin came home in time for us to all enjoy our cupcakes together.

After Eden went to sleep, Dustin and I sat outside watching the sun go down and drinking white wine. A lot of white wine. And I learned the next morning that my body cannot handle as much white wine as it could when it was twenty-six.

It was nothing fancy, but I thought it was a great birthday. I loved eating and shopping with my girl (she was PERFECT that day - there are definitely days that she does NOT want to go out eating and shopping!), and I loved my evening spent with Dustin.

And for the past eight days, twenty-seven has continued to be pretty dang great. I've learned by the age of twenty-seven that it's the small, simple things that truly make me the happiest.

Dustin and I have this whole summer thing figured out. At the end of last week, HEB was having a huge sale on lobster so Dustin went and did his version of shopping and now our freezer is full of lobster tail and our pantry is stocked with wine. We've had grilled lobster, lobster ravioli, stuffed lobster... and when we're not eating lobster, we're eating something off the grill. We spend peaceful evenings outside - Dustin grills, I relax and sip my white wine and Eden either runs around in the yard or plays in her water trough.

I sit there relaxing, watching my husband grill and my baby play, and I think there's no way my life could be any sweeter. Why was I so worried about turning twenty-seven? I have everything I've ever wanted. Every night after Eden goes to bed, Dustin and I have continued with our sunset watching/wine drinking. It's been such a wonderful, peaceful, relaxing, happy summer so far. A simple, but perfect, summer.

Also, Eden was THE cutest baby (kid? eek!) ever on the 4th of July.