The end of October always brings a birthday celebration for me (Jamesie). Sometimes, I even get two parties. YAY ME!

This year, Jon planned a wonderful non-surprise evening of dear friends and family for Saturday the 25th. We ate a special dinner at Kelly Jae’s Cafe in downtown Goshen, where we’ve already established ourselves as regulars. Our dinner was hosted in the special private dining room with an awesome selection of tapas: black bean/grilled flatbread, sweet corn & crab chowder (my favorite), roasted edamame, roasted potatoes, crispy duck spring rolls, hangar steak/bleu cheese cream sauce and apple & butternut squash salad.  It was delicious, as always.  and for many of our friends, this was their first time to this restaurant, so it was a special treat for them as well.

Afterwards, we headed to Luke & Gretchen’s downtown apartment for games, birthday cake and just hanging out together.  Some people played Hit or Miss (an interesting game that most people seem to enjoy playing.  i really love the games released by this company.)  Others watched college football.  My wonderful cake was provided by my friend Lark. It’s a Mmmmint Chip ice cream cake from Cold Stone Creamery. I love mint chocolate chip ice cream!  After everyone left, Gretchen, Luke, Jon & I played Wii MarioKart for awhile. It was the perfect ending to a wonderful evening surrounded by many people who love me and whom I love.

On Friday evening the 31st, the Morningstar family went out to celebrate my dinner at Asakusa Japanese Restaurant in Fort Wayne. It’s someplace we haven’t been before, so it sounded interesting to me. They have the standard Japanese fare of teriyaki dishes and typical sushis, but they also had a wonderful assortment of specialty rolls that they created. I thoroughly enjoyed the Aloha Roll – crab, shrimp tempura, pineapple with a sliver of avocado and drizzled with sweet & sour sauce. tasty!

After dinner, we headed over to Crazy Pinz, where we bowled 2 games in the private suites (at no cost to us) and then played a round of indoor glow-in-the-dark miniature golf.  I definitely had fun, despite knowing that I was going to feel the after-effects of throwing a 12 lb bowling ball around. I hope the rest of the family did too. It’s something we haven’t done before together, so I thought it would be a blast to just goof off.  We’re definitely not a league-worthy bowling team and the highlight of golfing was Jon’s hole-in-one.

Turning 33 was not anything life-changing or drastic. Just another year to look forward to, and loving the family & friends who helped me enjoy it.

Wow, it’s been a busy season for us. at work. at home. 

On Sunday, Sept 21st we went to our first Colts game with Mom, Luke & Gretchen. Though Indy lost, it was quite an experience in the awesome new stadium.  Check out some pics here.

As downtown Goshen business owners, we try to do our part in our community.  This month we joined with other business to decorate downtown Main Street with straw bails and cornstalks.  Here is our fun entry.

and finally, on Saturday we volunteered to work Officer Appreciation Day 2008. It’s a time to say thanks and express our gratitude to law enforcement personnel and their families in our area. Our job was to work the Climbing Wall.  It’s the first time we helped with such and it was such a blast helping mostly children scamper up the walls.  There are some fearless little girls in our area! and lots of determined little people.

Of course, we have lots more planned for the month, but that’s our life so far.  Check out more pics here.

oh, and we’re still in the waiting process on our adoption journey.  No phone calls. No matches. Just trusting that God knows when the time and the families will be ready and right.