30 Years of Happiness

   I surprise myself, feeling narcissistic a lot of the time, and then realizing I don't have all of the pictures explaining what we have done to celebrate my birthday each year. Luckily, I posted a bunch on Instagram so I have the pictures for you here:

   2011 (before I started my blog) ~ My 24th birthday was celebrated while on the set of Blood Widow. We had an overnight shoot and I sat on the porch of the old house we were filming in with Michael and Julie while I worked on emailing the next day's script and schedule to the actors. I made a little sign to pin on my shirt saying it was my birthday. They kept asking me when it was 12:20am (my birth time), and when it was, they sang happy birthday to me! I got to dress up as the lead character that night for a brief shot after the main actress went home.

   2012 ~ For my 25th birthday I wrote a small blurb about eating at Cheesecake Factory, back when I posted so often that I didn't write too much and only used one picture. But we also went to the new Universal Citywalk mini golf course that had just opened. These are the first pictures Michael has on his Instagram account since we had to get a new phone for him that day. The night before, while he was carrying in 25 balloons for me in the pouring rain, he didn't realize that his phone had dropped into a puddle until it was too late. I wish I had a picture (or knew where to find the picture) of all the balloons in our Millenia apartment living room.

   2013 ~ We went to Catalina Island while we were living in California for my 26th birthday!! <--linked because I did post a lot about that one! ;)  And a few more pictures from that day with the underwater camera here.

   2014 ~ I spent my 27th birthday driving down from Birmingham for Zach & Jacquie's wedding which was the next day. My family celebrated with me that weekend at home. I don't remember what I did back in Birmingham where we were living at the time, to celebrate with Michael and his family.. According to a picture of Michael and I both wearing blue gingham shirts on his Instagram after my birthday, I assume that is when we went to see the movie Oz: The Great and Powerful. I'm sure we went out to dinner too. Never mind, it says that movie came out in February and his caption for that photo is, "Older pic but a good one. Twins!!!!" I guess we'll never know..

   2015 ~ Mia was in Beijing, China for two months this summer doing stuff for work. Crazy! She later went back again, but only for two more weeks. I had to work on my birthday that year, but had the long weekend off from work and was joined by Michael, Sharanya, Tonia, Zach and Jacquie at Disney's Typhoon Lagoon. Then we had dinner afterwards at Macaroni Grill.

   The next day Michael and I went to a free art museum, got McFrappe's, I got a new work outfit from Plato's Closet, he bought me a nice splurge outfit (top and jeans) from Macy's, got a bunch of fancy earrings (probably from Icing's), saw the movie Pitch Perfect 2 because Mia had previously given us her free tickets, walked around Downtown Disney in attempt to use our Groupon to ride the hot air balloon (but it was down due to 3% wind..), then had a late dinner at Chevy's.

   2016 ~ Later during my "vegetarian ad vegan adventures" I posted how I celebrated my 29th birthday the following day with Mia. But I didn't write about how my parents came down, we had lunch at Yellow Dog Eats, then went to Universal to see Blue Man Group. Michael was able to get half price tickets the morning of the show for being an employee, and we still got pretty good seats. I enjoyed the performance and laughed a lot, but was super glad we got the tickets half price. The show seemed to be worth $39 per person, rather than the normal price of $80!! I got a Cinnabon at Citywalk as my birthday cake and my mom was so cute about whipping out a candle and matches from her fanny pack.

   2017 ~ This year, **for my 30TH birthday** I knew I wouldn't be able to do anything too crazy being 37 weeks pregnant, especially since Emma is being delivered TOMORROW!! I would be happy going to a water park for my birthday every year, and Michael has asked me often how soon we can go to Universal's Volcano Bay that just opened. Maybe we can go in mid-August or September after I'm all healed up from my C-Section, but I'm not sure what the rules are about bringing in a 3 month old baby? Lindsey told me that babies aren't even allowed to wear sunscreen until they are six months old. Emma sure would look cute in a tiny bathing suit and sun hat though! ;)
   Anyway, so yesterday was a mix of early birthday fun and regular errands day. Michael and I went to Once Upon a Child and bought a couple more preemie onezies for Emma. He also picked out a pretty coral/red 3-month dress and admitted that the store was really nice for being second hand. We got smoothies, took a nap, then went to dinner at Bravo again (where we went for our anniversary). I've been talking about Cinnabon a lot lately, so he drove us to Citywalk like last year and I got another roll. No candles this time though!

   This morning Michael gave me a birthday "card" that had a photo shopped picture of us from a dream he had a couple months ago. It had to do with him fishing and he caught a squirrel, which then flew into the air, pulling Michael and I behind it. I told him then that I wanted him to draw a picture of it for me, and today he did. This afternoon we drove to Cocoa Beach and went for a lovely walk along the ocean as the clouds held the rain overhead. Michael took some brave "mandatory" bikini bump pictures of me. I can't wait to be extra skinny and healthy again! We were talking yesterday about how we can't believe how fast our relationship got going, a big part of it starting when we went to Cocoa Beach two weeks after we were officially dating, and decided that we wanted to get married and have kids together one day. Obviously it all worked out splendidly and that "one day" for having a baby is now just about 15 hours away! We stopped by Cheesecake Factory on the way home for some to-go desserts. I got the Snickers cheesecake, which was super good with the chopped peanuts and Oreo crust.

   I doubt I will be able to sleep tonight, but might get up at 1:45am to eat, since I'm not allowed to eat after 2am due to my C-section appointment starting at 10am. I'm trying really hard not to be nervous - about the epidural, praying that she cries when they pull her out, that she breathes well on her own, that I recover pretty quickly and don't take too long to be able to walk comfortably, that I am able to breastfeed easily, and the list goes on! We wonder what color her hair is, how much she actually weighs, what she looks like without having a smashy face against the placenta in a sonogram picture, how long her limbs are compared to what the doctors think they will be (with possible dwarfism, etc). We are staying positively excited though!

What a Fun Life!! ♡❊♪♬

   For the past eight years since I met Michael, I have been more accustomed to a "fancy life", but since we have been married, every once in a while I look at our budget and income versus spending and it makes me sad, feeling less than super duper responsible. But at the same time I hear lyrics such as ~ "It's all the money that you're saving while the good life passes by".. which is good because I know we have had a really fun life and I have enjoyed so much of it. I've been getting a bit stressed and sad lately (but also staying pretty calm) seeing that we will really be living paycheck to paycheck now that we will have a precious baby that has to go to daycare three days a week (and us having to pay for it five days a week).

   We haven't been on too much of a budget lately due to wanting to squeeze all the fun dates that we can while we still have a little extra money. It will be a hard adjustment, not going out to eat anymore (we do that quite a bit), or buying things whenever we want. I wonder if it will be harder on my needy flesh since Michael became suspiciously good at hoarding his grocery money to pay for tattoos last year.. Our schedules at work are changing from 12 hour shifts to 10 hour shifts. Mine will start at 3am, which will also be a big adjustment, but I'm sure after a month or two we'll find our groove. Getting off in the middle of the day will allow me to pick Emma up from daycare, rather than Michael having to drop her off and pick her up. There will be a lot of changes going on in the next few months, but obviously it is all worth it to see that sweet new baby face. I'm sure each time we see her smile or hear her laugh, the stress of bills will melt away and we will give another sigh of thanks for her health, since that is the number one most important thing.

   Anyway, the Fun Life title is to share some of my favorite pictures during our time at Full Sail (July 2009- March 2011). This blog is loaded with fun life posts from the past five and a half years, and now it's getting even better! I like going back and having quick references of all the times I have been so happy. Smiles are contagious, even when they are my own. I also think a lot of the fun was due to meeting new people, sharing new experiences with Michael (including falling in love!) and seeing how his make up FX skills have progressed over the years. I loved being his guinea pig for new pieces, and being so creative with my hair and make up. I attempted to put these in order. =)

Filming our Biogenesis Halloween teaser trailer in October 2009:

Lighting lab after I gave a presentation on The Wizard of Oz in Public Speaking class:

 At Christopher and Meredith's wedding, January 2010:

 

 

 With Michael's grandparents (above), then back in Orlando I decided I wanted pet hamsters, and kept them for about five months. The tiny one is Pippin, the bigger one is Kovu:

February 2010: Tonia invited us to a free runway/ modeling class. They said my walk was too bouncy:

^^ Gasp, real models! Below is me directing a scene for our Digital Cinematography class.

March 2010, Photoshoots for fun and starting a small scrapbooking class at the library on Sundays:

May 2010 with cousins: 

June 2010, at home celebrating my 23rd birthday:

 Amish man photoshoot in make up class!

  Shown above is a view from our top floor hotel room in Fort Lauderdale. (Part of that "fancy life" provided by Michael's parents that I mentioned at the top. But it's all the strong grounded advice that I was taught by my parents for 20+ years that lets me know we will be living just fine over the next five years when money is really tight.)
   Filming short projects for another class, below. I starred in two that week since I always volunteered to be in front of the camera! This one was called "Monsters are People Too".

   Last night, like a few other nights we have had in the past couple of weeks, Michael and I laid down to go to sleep, but realized neither of us were that tired, and we ended up talking and laughing and snuggling for an hour. It's so great being with him and we both really enjoy this kind of time together. I was even thinking "this is better than a dinner date", plus it's free. I also really like when we go for walks together and hopefully we can start that up again once I recover enough after my C-section. I hope we still have enough time and energy for all of that with Emma at home. He has high expectations for all the "firsts" we will share with her, even this year while she's still small and won't remember anything. Ha! I guess that is what a blog is for ~ all the great memories!