My Birthday

This picture is of the "Nissan girls" at my birthday-Easter dinner. From left to right I'll name the girls in the picture. First there is Sheri, her daughter Kimberly (isn't that a cute name?), Denise, and me. Kimberly is the only one of the kids at dinner that we got a picture of. There were about eight other kids besides her. However, she was the only girl. The rest of the kids were boys so they were not in our "Nissan girls" picture. Denise had been traveling and had just returned home from Mississippi. She arrived in time for dessert. I was glad she came.

Of course, I can't post a blog about my birthday without telling you about my birthday present. Bob knew how bad I felt that I didn't have a camera to post pictures on my blog, so he bought me one for my birthday. He got me a really nice camera. However, for those of you who know me, I'm a little challenged when it comes to technology. I like those cameras that you just point and shoot. Better yet, it would be nice if it pointed and shot pictures itself. This is a point and shoot camera, but it looks like a professional photographers camera. It has all the bells and whistles...just what Bob and Michael would like. It is totally a "gadget guy's" camera. I know I'll learn to use it, but like I told Michael, I'll never be able to stash this one in my purse or take a picture discreetly. It does take great pictures though...so thanks Bob! I'm just happy to have a camera again!

Dinner was great! We had a traditional dinner with ham, funeral potatoes, green salad with strawberries and glazed walnuts, jello salad, asparagas, rolls, and cute sugar cookies shaped and decorated like Easter eggs, and cupcakes decorated like Easter baskets. We all brought something for the dinner. (I brought the funeral potatoes.) I told Sheri that I would come if we just made it an Easter dinner and not a birthday dinner. It was just that until dinner was over and she gave me a gift. It is a really good smelling vanilla candle. I was happy to be able to spend my birthday-Easter with friends.

This picture is of Julie and John. He works for GM and has been here for about 3 years. They have moved a lot during their married life and say that Nashville is their favorite place so far. She has a great attitude and says that she doesn't let any grass grow under her feet when she moves somewhere new because she never knows how long they will be there. She makes every place she lives feel like home as soon as she can.

This is Jana and Brian. They just moved here with their four boys from Kaysville Utah. She is the one who wears the flashy hats and took me to the Republican Women's luncheon. She is really outgoing and fun to be around. She and her husband Brian invited us over to their house for spagetti dinner the week we moved in our house. I was amazed by their wonderful hospitality. They were still in boxes themselves and were having us over for dinner!

This is Sheri and Steve. This Easter-birthday dinner was at their house. They are also one of the Nissan families to move into our ward. They moved from the Anaheim East Stake in Yorba Linda. We lived so close to each other in California, yet never knew each other. Bob's friend, Joe, who serves in the Stake Presidency in the Anaheim East Stake, tried to get us together with Sheri and Steve before we moved. We could never seem to make it happen because of our busy schedules. As chance would have it, we met them while here on a house hunting trip. We met them inside a house that Bishop Watson built. He had asked us if we would mind it if he showed us a house along with another couple who was moving here with Nissan that he had just met that morning at the church. Of course, that was fine with us. When we began talking to them, we soon realized this was the couple that Joe had been trying to get us together with in California. We couldn't believe it! Here we were in Nashville in the same house! We laughed when we realized it was them. They were just sending their son on his mission when they moved here, and we were just getting our son home from his mission. Either way, we both felt like we were terrible parents moving away while our sons were either coming home or leaving on missions. Sheri is our Young Women's President and I serve with her as one of two Laurel Advisors. (I don't teach on Sunday...I help with activities etc.). They have become good friends.

It was a nice birthday. I missed my family, but am so grateful for the Church that gives us immediate friends!