Last Saturday was my 44th birthday!! YIKES!

Mom, Maria, Olivia, and I decided to spend the afternoon at the mall just to do something a little different.  Another first without Nick is always so hard for me.

Well, as we sat in the food court, we noticed a hot dog walking around handing out balloons.  I tried to get Olivia to let me take her picture with him, but she was not interested at all.  Mom said, "It's your birthday, Tammy.  You should have your picture taken with him." 

Well, I'll tell you this:  After all we've been through in life, I truly have very little fear anymore...even of looking quite silly.  so, I walked to the hot dog and told him it was my birthday and asked if we could be photographed together!

He even gave me a green balloon!!!!!!!!!!!!

As we were taking the picture, I heard some chuckling and discovered that friends of mine from Grayson were also at the mall.  So I thought, "Why not take my picture with them too!?"

  This led me to do some real thinking which made my mom laugh and take this picture.

I thought, "WHY NOT HAVE MY PICTURE TAKEN WITH EVERYONE I SAW IN THE MALL THAT I KNEW?!?!?!"

Holding my new green balloon, of course!!!

So the rest of the afternoon was filled with fun visits with many people I hadn't seen in a long time!  It turned out to be really fun!

At the end of the day, we were all worn out!!

After dinner, I decided to let Phillip (my nephew) say "bye bye" to my balloon!

He counted down from 10 and away the balloon went!

Hopefully Nick was able to enjoy the site of my balloon floating through the air!  Oh, and I wrote my blog site on it before we let it go...so if someone comes here because of my balloon, please, please tell me!!! 

Another birthday has come and gone.

Thank you, Lord, for getting me through the day with so many hugs and smiles!

And for using a human hot dog, of all things, to start me on an adventure of love and laughter!

Lord, help us always see the creative ways you work to give us just what we need....