it's been a celebratory sort of month

 August 10th was my 49th birthday.

Only one more year until I'm the big five-oh.

(Which freaks me out.)

I had no problems turning 40. In fact, my early to mid 40's were pretty good.

Until I herniated 3 disks in my lower back.

And had a hysterectomy. (At least it was laparoscopic.)

And had a lot of problems with my oldest son, Phil.

And then, Phil passed away unexpectedly when I was 47.

But, I digress. I'm not here today to focus on my "problems".

I just wanted to share a few celebratory things that have taken place

since I've last posted.

Hubby and I both took the day off for my birthday

and spent the day in Evanston (IL).

We first parked in the downtown area and walked around for a bit

before heading inside to Barnes & Noble and relaxing with some magazines.

We then went to lunch at "The Lucky Platter". This place is so cool and has awesome food.

As their web site states:

"We combine on a single menu old fashioned fountain cream soda, tandoori salmon, jerk chicken, jambalaya, spicy turkey meatballs, pumpkin soup and sweet potato fries (to name a fraction of our offerings). We stagger your palette and awe your senses with our eclectic folk art decor peculiarly American in motif."
 

 I had the Tandoori chicken over a bed of greens. Delish!

(Don't mind my wind-blown, stringy hair in this pic - yuck.)

 After our filling lunch, we went to a park on the lakefront to relax.

That, I did. :-)

Hubby and his new "Wizard of Oz" book from the Barnes and Noble trip...

Beautiful Lake Michigan...

Last stop was a favorite shop called The Mexican Shop. 

They have handcrafted jewelry of all varieties, and unusual clothes, bags, and sunglasses

that you can't get anywhere else. The jewelry cases line the store and everything in the store is handpicked by the owners from different small designers around the world. 

I bought myself this wrap-around bracelet with tiny, silver beads.

 Speaking of celebrations, I also helped throw a baby shower for a co-worker a couple

of weeks ago...

And then last weekend, I went to a lovely bridal shower. 

The bride-to-be, Nicki, is the daughter of my neighbor-friend across the street.

I have known them for 21 years.

Nicki grew up with Phil. They played together all the time when they were little.

This is the lovely dessert table at Nicki's bridal shower...

"The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate."
(Oprah Winfrey)