Yesterday was Ben's 27th birthday. It also happened to be the first Friday he's had off in a few weeks. (Normally he has Fridays off, but has been working a lot of overtime lately.)

It was by far the most stupendously fun day we've had in ages! First, when we woke up, I gave him his presents to open. I got some great deals on his gifts. I bought him GAP jeans, Vintage Cut... on the clearance rack for $3.99!!! Yeah! So, of course, I bought 2 pair. Then I found a long sleeved grey stretch shirt on the same clearance rack for $1.99! WOO-HOO! So, I got 2 pairs of jeans and a shirt for $10.57 with the tax. I'm a bargain shopper, yes I am!

I also bought him a short-sleeved orange tee-shirt there but it was full price... $16. It looked great with the dark denim of the Vintage jeans!

After he opened all of his gifts (I also got him 2 CD's and some Nautica after-shave gel and all over body moisturizer) I made him blueberry-banana pancakes for breakfast. They were wayyyy yummy! After breakfast we showered and changed and drove out to the mall. We were looking for a good pair of crosstrainers/aerobic shoes for me. The first place we went to was Lady Footlocker. I tried on these pair of Nikes. They were sooooooo comfy. I couldn't believe how comfy they were and how lucky I was to find a pair of shoes I fell in love with the first try. Ben suggests though, that we wait, get something to eat and comparision shop at other stores in the mall. I agree. Meanwhile, we go to Sunglasses Hut to buy him a much-needed pair of sunglasses since his other pair has a huge stratch across the middle of the lens.

We go, find the perfect pair and find out they're on sale for $20! WOO-HOO!! We're both estatic. Then we walk around visiting more shoe stores. No luck for me or him. We go back to Lady Footlocker and decide to buy those shoes. We were willing to pay the full price of $79 listed on the tag. When the salesguy rang them up, they came up for $59.99!!! So, with the tax my shoes were only $63.89!!! Ben and I couldn't believe our luck!

So, then we're on a mission to buy his new shoes. We end up at a store called The Finish Line. We were in there a little over an hour. Ben tried on about 9 pairs of shoes. Finally, he found the right ones but the left shoe was missing an insert in the bottom of the shoe. The manager said that because of the defect we could take an additional 20% OFF the already sale price of $49.99. So, Ben's shoes rang up for $42.58!!! Now we're totally THRILLED because we got brand-new sneakers for both of us for just over $100! Yippee!!

After we bought our shoes, we left the mall and went for dinner. After we ate at "On The Border" (a fabulous Mexican restaurant) we had to pick up the ice-cream cake I had ordered for him on Wednesday.

We get home and decide to split a piece of this truly decadent cake. It is nothing but ice-cream; there is not really any cake in this thing to speak of!! The bottom layer of icecream was Peanut Butter Cup, then a layer of crushed Oreo cookies, then the middle layer was Vanilla Bean ice-cream followed by another layer of crushed Oreo's and topped with a layer of Praline Crunch ice-cream. Oooooh, can you say H-E-A-V-E-N?!?

It was a fanatastic day. Even more so because Ben and I were laughing and cutting up and acting like we did when we were dating. It was woooooonderful!

Thought Of The Day: "The final word is love."--Dorothy Day, activist and humanitarian

Thought Of The Day #2: "In love the paradox occurs that two beings become one and yet remain two."--Erich Fromm

Until next time... peace, love & HEALTH!!!