Happy birthday to me!

{It's the big 26!} 

Okay, I guess it's not a "big" birthday per-se, but it means that I'm in my 2nd half of my 20s, which I hope brings as many joys (and more) as the first.

Today was amazing for many reasons.  I felt special, loved, and rewarded: something everyone deserves to feel once a year.  It's all in the little things.  :)  Here's why my birthday was a "winning" one:

{breakfast}

Charlie made me breakfast before I left for work today.  Since he works from home, for him to get up at my un-Godly teacher hour makes him a saint.  And it wasn't just cereal...he made me cheesy eggs and diced fruit.  And wrote me a card that made me cry drying my hair.  That kind of a good morning.

{kids}

My students broke out in song (in Spanish) to sing me happy birthday.  This made me smile.  What made me smile even more was that they remembered.  So cute. :)

{friends}

For calling.  For loving on me.  For remembering.  For leaving a smoothie on my desk in the morning.  For writing on my facebook wall (as lame as that sounds it makes you feel so loved!)

{my fabric}

Charlie went out of his way today to go to the most girliest of places (the fabric store) to pick up the fabric I ordered for our dining room chairs.  He totally didn't have to but did because he's amazing.  Here's what we chose, BTW!

{roses}

I told you my husband was amazing already, right?

{thai and ice-cream}

Self explanatory.  I mean please, who wouldn't love that?

{my memoria}

You may remember my Spanish thesis (memoria) nerves here.  Well, my grade came today, on my birthday of all days.  It took me a good three minutes of staring at the screen before I opened it.  And... I got a sobresaliente.  This is the American equivalent of an A.  (I may or may not have peed my pants.)  I worked soooo hard on this baby.  Okay, beyond hard.  Crazily!  (Ask Charlie---he witnessed memoria tantrums and hysterocity.  Yeah, that's a word.)

  It left me to wonder...did they even grade the right paper?  How could I have earned this grade?  Everyone I talked to got a B or a C on it, and Spanish being my second language, I didn't think I was capable,  and I expected myself to get a B (notable) at best...thinking that would be a long shot.  But I did, and I'm so proud.  

I stretched myself in every way a person can.  I spent hours researching to back up claims I made about my classroom with statistical evidence, I took pictures, I documented, I recorded my students, I edited like crazy, and I made is personal and really relevant to what I believe as a TPRS teacher.  I worked my tail off and it was noticed... by a native speaker compared against other memorias written by native speakers.  I'm still in shock.  There was the moment when I opened the email to see that little word "sobresaliente" and my heart skipped a beat.  It's like crossing the finish line after a marathon you weren't sure you could accomplish in the first place and realizing you beat your time by more than twice what you thought.

Al menos sabemos que la leyenda es verdadera.... ella que encuentre el sapo escondido apruebe la memoria final ;)

(At least we know the legend is true... she that finds the hidden toad passes her thesis)