Thanks for all the well wishes!

So, how does one spend a "mid" to "late" 30's birthday... well, this year was unique. New job, hotel room, sick as a dog, mail on hold AND... all production lines that my engineers manage shut down this morning in a major incident...! It's been interesting.

I go back to work in a few hours so I've got a few minutes to give thanks to a number of people... My wonderful husband, Mom, Julie/Tom, Karen/Richard/Riley, E, Nana, Cheryl, Cindy, Heather, Renee, Vince, Rich, Kat/Chris, Mike and of course Nicole. They remembered my birthday and each in their own way did something touching.

From the flowers at work (my favorites, Peruvian lilies, stargazer lilies, gerber daisies), to the hand drawn on card from Nicole, to the wonderful gifts from Karen I am truly blessed and loved and I'm grateful to those who took the time to say hi! A few that I mentioned passed on that a card is somewhere stuck between Maryland and CT and the various postoffices that are now handling mail... eventually we'll get them all! But thanks so much.

The flowers from E are still at work and so I have no pictures but I love him for his thoughtfulness, for understanding that I love flowers, for knowing which flowers are my favorites and for recognizing, that I'm finally ready to have flowers again in my life... a big step since we lost Sophia... we had more flowers than a packed funeral home for a long time, it was too much and so sad. He also got me 2 cards... one from him with a wonderful loving message and one from Magpie. I love you honey and thanks for your thoughtfulness.

Just wanted to share a few highlights, check out the ladybug card from our Niece, all the cat and dog cards and this assortment of cool gifts from our friends Karen and Richard. They sent a beautiful fan theme photo book we'll use for postcards or pics from China, 2 books to read with Magpie, I love books, one about Chinese New Year which is a beautiful festival and one about the moon, good timing with Mid Autumn Festival coming up and the significance of the Moon.

E and I both are touched when people get to know Magpie's culture, she'll have two and we'll be spending a lifetime, literally, honoring both. We hope she is surrounded by people who honor both.