happy birthday me!

so today i turned 26. this was not as easy as 25 and i should have seen it coming. i woke up feeling lonely and strange. this is the first birthday i've spent apart from friends and family (russ was with me, which helped a TON)... but without my close friends and family it felt really strange. i was thinking that i'd gotten past the missing everyone stage, but i suppose i haven't. although i can't say that i miss a certain place, because a lot of my friends have moved all over the states and abroad and so it's just a missing-feeling of people really.

my choice of therapy? retail.
i got a pretty spoiled-brat amount of birthday money, so i got to shop this weekend. let me first off say that the "being in grad school" connotation is pretty much true for us right now. we're really very happy, but there are times when we're eating a lot of leftovers and breakfast tacos and bean burritos. this is fine and we were prepared for this upon choosing this state and again, we are happy. however, getting to go shopping for a weekend was pretty fun and being the thrifty person that i am, i got a lot of good stuff. here are some of my birthday finds:

1. owl tealight holder
2. amy butler's in stitches book

3. bag for work stuff (i.e. every day i carry a lunch, big water bottle, large 3" binder and sometimes a digital slr camera)... now i don't have to use the cloth HEB bag anymore!

4. friends season 10
5. garden gnome (you know you want one!) mine is the one on the left, holding the mushroom...

6. red t-shirt from the gap

AND i still have about $50 left to spend, although i'm saving it for employee appreciation at work in a few weeks.
OH and russ got me a pitcher plant this morning, which is a type of carniverous plant. he's pretty cool. between him and the gnome, i figure i've got pretty good coverage scaring off bugs and cats from my mini-garden.

cheers everyone! and happy tax returns to all!
xoxo sam