twenty three and a fairy tale birthday card

Twenty-three days until he comes home...

and twenty-three things to do before he gets here...

1. Plant flowers and buy a new baby palm tree for my patio (hopefully it will be warm enough to do this...)

2. Plan a dinner or two to cook for him

3. Charge my digital camera battery (the night before I leave to go to Charlottesville)

4. Plan and coordinate my outfits with shoes, and jewelry (many of my clothes will be brand new from Ann Taylor Loft- compliments of Philip and my very generous gift card that he gave me for Christmas)

5. Get a haircut

6. Manicure and pedicure. Although, I have been, what I like to call 'sanding' my feet, with my pumice stone, nightly, just to make sure my little size feet are smooth.

7. Clean my condo

8. Celebrate my birthday this Saturday. My last birthday with my last name, and as a 'single' girl!

9. Wash Macie girl's bed (she comes home with us after our short trip in NC to see my family)

10. Stock my pantry with ingredients I need to cook and other fun snacks

11. Begin and finish the book The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks. I am going to start it tonight. I'm excited because I bought it back in December and it has been patiently waiting on my coffee table for months.

12. Create a few playlists on my iPOD for our roadtrip from Charlottesville to North Carolina to Virginia Beach and back to Charlottesville...although I'm sure we will do more talking than anything. It will be nice to go on a little roadtrip together.

13. Switch my closets around and organize my spring wardrobe.

14. Set up a few appointments for wedding planning purposes.

15. Say a few extra little prayers for patience because I feel the anxiety and excitement increase every day.

16. Prepare lesson plans for the three personal days I am taking off work (this will be quite the task)

17. Finish planning a few surprises...( I would share those with you too, but Philip reads my blog, so that would not be a smart thing to do)

18. Can 17 and 18 work as planning the surprises...because it is plural-which is more than one?

19. Continue my work out routines and adding a few walks to the beach and back on beautiful, sunny afternoons.

20. Send Gran her birthday card (we share the same birthday month and the same last name-Davis)

21. Maybe I will buy a new pair of shoes?

22. Clean my classroom- he will be coming to visit me there too!

23. Fall asleep twenty two more times with a smile on my face, knowing that when I wake up it will be one day closer to seeing him.

Well, even though I didn't accomplish anything from the above list today, I was able to have a productive day at school, including a pregame pizza party for students before the home wrestling match. Being on my feet for almost twelve hours will make anyone exhausted...but I am especially tired tonight. I wish I could come home to Philip and we could curl up on the couch and he could watch tv and I could start my new book and I would trade him a neck/back massage for a foot massage :) Do you think he'd go for that?

I did, however, come home and check my mail. I had two sweet birthday cards in my mailbox today. One from my Grandma (who is my soulmate and I just love her dearly...) and the other was from my best friend who has had that title since 6th grade, and who is also currently flying across the ocean to Germany to spend a few days with the love of her life. Both cards brightened my day, well, night. I would like to share a little of what Tess wrote in my card. It was beautiful and perfect.

"Happy Birthday, Love! Do you know why you're getting this fairy tale princess card? Because you've found your prince charming and you're well on your way to starting your happily ever after! I'm so happy for you Heather! It's so wonderful to hear you absolutely beaming!"


It even came with 5 magic-special doors to open. It was truly a fairy tale card. And she is right. I have found my prince charming, Army Captain, best friend, grow old with him and drink lemonade on our porch when we're eighty three kind of fairy tale love in Philip. I really am the lucky one.

Also, I would like to share one more thing, and then I want to start my book...one of my previous students from last year, Hannah, noticed my necklace today and said, "Ohhh, that's a pretty necklace." I smiled and replied, "Oh! Thank you! My boyfriend sent it to me for my birthday." She simply smiled back and said, "I thought that was who probably got you that." I think even my kids know how special he is to me and how I light up whenever I talk about him.