A little shameless self-promotion

Hey, what's a blog if it isn't a little self-centered?

So, today is my birthday and I thought I would briefly recount some of my memorable birthdays.

The first that I can remember is my 3rd birthday. Back in 1973. And, yes, that really is the year I turned 3. I KNOW! Who'da thought? I don't know if I remember the birthday as much as we have photos of it, so I remember the photos. I had a smiley face birthday. We played games--probably ring-a-round-the-roses, London Bridge, and button-button. We got big, yellow, smiley face suckers. I sort of remember they didn't really have a flavor, other than sugar. My mom made a round chocolate cake with a smiley face on it. It was a fancy birthday.

The next memorable birthday was my fifth. If I could take back one action from my childhood it would be not putting the Kirby vacuum away. You see, a couple of days before my fifth birthday, I refused to put the vacuum away. Not because I was being a bad kid. I think I was just procrastinating. My mom had asked me several times to put it away and I was being slow. She finally told me that if I didn't put it away right then, she would cancel my birthday party. Yeah, right! SO....when she told me she was canceling the party, I remember sobbing, "Look Mom, I'm putting the vacuum away! No mom, you can't do this! Mom look, the vacuum is put away." No luck. No party! I just realized that perhaps some other moms may have been mad--they had to try to return birthday gifts to the store. Some other moms were probably pretty happy--they could use my example to get their kids to clean up.

When I turned eight, I had a pretty good birthday. The theme was a paper doll party and all the kids were supposed to create a paper dress and wear it to the party. Most of the kids had butcher paper tracings of a dress that they had pinned to their regular clothes. My mom was so cool--she sewed (with real thread and everything) a dress for me and my sister out of variegated tissue paper. I think she used a pinafore pattern. We were the best dressed! I still remember my friend Julie Dean brought her uninvited brother--Jason Dean, who gave me a sling shot. I was a girlie girl (hard to believe, I know!) and wasn't too thrilled with a sling shot. My mom told me it was probably what he wanted the most and that's why he gave it to me. My brother, Todd, who had just turned three, gave me a Slinky. He cried when he realized he didn't get to play with it, so my mom had me give it to him. She told me she would buy me another one. Do you think I will get one for my birthday this year?

On my twelfth birthday, I had a swimming party. I got to have more swimming parties than anyone else in my family since I have a summer birthday. Todd's birthday is also in the summer, but he's a boy and for some reason, they don't like swimming parties as much. I think this was the year that Shelly Espersen's hair turned bright green. You know those really blond girls whose hair turns green after a summer of swimming? Well, for some reason, Shelly's hair went from toe-head blond to sea-foam green that after noon. To keep from having everyone see her bright green hair, she would hold her breath and stay underwater as much as possible. I think that only made matters worse. We ended up leaving a little early to save her from too much embarassment.

We moved from Germany to Tucson a couple of weeks before my sixteenth birthday. My mom had a party with all the teenagers in my ward before we moved. It was at the church in the cultural hall on a Saturday. I don't remember too much about it, but I remember it was good to see my friends before moving. Then, on my real birthday, we were staying in the Radisson Inn on Speedway in Tucson, while my parents looked for a house. We would get up, eat breakfast at the buffet (I got sausage links, bacon, french toast, and strawberries every morning), swim to our hearts' content, and watch TV--we were obsessed with multiple channels and commercials (AFN--the military's version of TV consisted of one channel, no commercials, and older programming). The night of my sixteenth birthday, I got to choose where we ate--Pizza Hut or KFC were the choices. I chose Pizza Hut. I think I even got to have the last piece of pizza.

Throughout 1996, I told all my friends they were invited to come to my surprise 26th birthday party. It was my little joke. Well, my friends and family planned a party for me. It was at John and Matt's condo and almost every one of my friends in Tucson was there. It was a great surprise and was so much fun. I should start planning surprise parties for myself again.

The next year, I had moved to Phoenix. My birthday was on a Monday evening and as was the tradition in my ward, the fifth Monday of the month was a dance. My roommate, Arlissa, had made a french silk pie, from scratch--we used to make all sorts of fancy food--and we needed to find people to come over and help us eat it. I asked a few people over, including a guy we had just met--Darrell Lund. He came over and ate his entire piece of chocolate french silk pie and the rest, they say, is history. The funniest part of that story is that Darrell hates: 1-Chocolate; 2-French; 3-Silk; and 4-Pie. Poor guy. I can see it as if it were yesterday. He really was trying to be polite, but I think he may have thrown up a little. :)

Obviously, these aren't all of my birthday memories, but a few that stand out. Thank you all for the wishes that you sent me and allowing me to talk about myself.

XOXO
Stephanie
a/k/a "The Birthday Girl"