Day 215 - Presents!

I have been extremely busy. I have neglected my blogs and wanted to give a quick update. I think I'll do it by bullet points:

Crazy birthday weekend. My birthday was last Saturday and Martin was in a wedding. We had a great day. Thankfully my friend Kellyanne kept reminding me it was my birthday. I kept forgetting. Not sure if that's me being 33 or just the fact that we were celebrating at the wedding and it didn't feel like my birthday. Sunday after church we went to Martin's parents house and had Wild Wings (they have the BEST buffalo chicken cheese steak in the world) and just chilled.

Our Anniversary was Tuesday. Eight years! Time sure does fly by when you're having fun! We weren't going to do anything special because we had such a busy weekend but about halfway through the day I started feeling guilty that we should do something special to remember the day we became one. So we got adventurous and went to a new restaurant. It's down the road from our neighborhood but we've just never gone before. It's called Terra Nova and it was amazing. It was perfect for a special meal. A place we will probably only go a couple of times a year. I had salmon stuffed with crab and was able to make two meals out of it. Nothing was bad. It was all yummy.

Birthday Present! Growing up we could chose to either have a party or get a present from my parents for our birthday. I always chose the party because I was a social butterfly but now that I am older I much prefer the presents! So I took all my birthday money from my parents, Martin's parents, Martin's brother, Tim, and my boss, Jim and ordered a new camera! We have a big fancy Cannon camera but I really wanted something I could slip into my purse and take pictures of life. So I researched and found the Nikon coolpix S70. It is completely a touch screen on the back which will take some getting used to but it has gotten good reviews. Martin picked out the color. He thinks it looks very unique (I had the black picked out - surprise surprise) Here is what it looks like:

Birthversary present. A few months ago I got Martin a camelback (a backpack that holds water and has a straw thing to suck out of) for when he goes bike riding. It was his early anniversary present. So he surprised me for my birthday/anniversary with an Amazon Kindle and case. I was completely blown away. If you don't know what a Kindle is then don't feel bad. I wasn't quite convinced they would take off but I have now joined the masses. They are electronic devices that hold books. And lots of books. Over 3,000 electronic books can be held on one Kindle. It is slim and light and you can download thousands of free books like Jane Austen books! You can also buy a book in seconds. Martin got me the one that has WiFi available on it so if I'm at a place with free internet I can simply go to Amazon.com and download away! The battery life last for over a month! The sad part is - I LOVE books. I love how they look, I love smelling them, I love seeing them on my bookshelf in my living room. Sometimes I buy a book for the cover. But this will allow me to read more. I know that we have to read lots of books for adoption and we can simply download them in seconds. Can you tell I'm excited? The sad part is that it is backordered. They just released the cheaper, newer Kindle so I'm pretty sure half of the world ordered one because they haven't even told me when my Kindle will be shipped. When you buy one you are put on a waiting list. Hopefully I'll get it before vacation at the end of September! So for now, I have to settle for pictures - here's a picture of the cute leather case Martin got me and the Kindle: