I was invited to the most creative baby shower I’ve ever attended. My girlfriend’s mother owns an event planning company and wow, just wow! Super cute Willy Wonka theme, adorable for a kid’s birthday party… or heck, adults love the movie too! (Tom C. I’m looking right at you)

I knew I wanted to take photos, so I made sure the battery on my camera was charged. I had not planned on leaving the freakin’ thing in the charger at home, whoops! I ended up using my iPhone camera, which sort of sucks – I have the second generation iPhone – the third made improvements and I can’t wait for the one available for pre-order tomorrow. (Dan’s birthday present to me – woohoo!) o.k… major tangent. Back to the baby shower.

The invitations included a “Golden Ticket” – they used a Willy Wonka font – The attention to detail was insane.

“In your wildest dreams you cannot imagine the marvelous surprises that await you” – love that!

When I got to the baby shower, I noticed the signage right away. They also had a silk ribbon wrapped pole with a Willy Wonka sign hanging from that, I didn’t even  begin to capture all of the details.

The venue was a garden patio filled with oversized candy and lollipops. You entered the shower through an archway of candy delight.

The garland was super cute – cellophane wrapped around colored balloons with ribbon ties to separate the “candies” – super fun!

The centerpieces were genius! Plastic paint buckets with vibrant colored polka dots. They were filled with colored tissue surrounding floral foam. The buckets were stuffed with Willy Wonka candy – freakin’ adorable. I got all Martha Stewart and really investigated. They had the candy hot glued onto plastic flower picks – all boxes were empty, except the Wonka bars, Sprees, Sweetarts and Nerds Ropes. Loose Gobstopper and Spree candies filled the tops of the buckets where the stems came out. Dammit for forgetting my dang camera battery! The below photo doesn’t do the centerpiece justice.

The orange umbrellas cast a really warm glow throughout the tables. The whole thing was pretty magical – everyone at my table kept chatting about it and how they were going to use/borrow/steal the idea for their kid’s upcoming birthday parties.

Everyone said that the food was delicious. The sit down menu included four kinds of crêpes. A spicy avocado, a broccoli, mushroom and gouda, a ham and swiss cheese and then a super rich one – fresh strawberries topped with toasted almonds, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream or frozen yogurt. Yum!  – Because of the stomach stuff, I wasn’t able to eat any of the menu selections. I did have a few pieces of croissant and water. Woohoo!

Even though I wasn’t feeling well, I had a great time visiting with friends I hadn’t seen in a while. I stayed for the entire shower and left with my favor in hand.

I actually had another baby shower to go to in the afternoon. I hopped in the car and met Dan for the co-ed baby shower #2. Had a great time at that one too – it was in a gorgeous private home – they had a onesie painting activity and I had a blast doing that. While I painted, the guy in charge of the BBQ hooked me up. He put a piece of cheese on a plain bun and I had an instant BBQ’d grilled cheese – plain and perfect for my situation!

The menu at the second baby shower included BBQ’d burgers and gardenburgers, a really earthy mixed green salad, a platter of brilliant red and yellow tomatoes, a potato salad and carrot cake for dessert. I can’t wait until my body is back to enjoying food. This has been too weird. No cravings, no appetite… nothing!

The medical mystery stuff aside, I’m glad that I’ve been able to enjoy myself doing things – just upset that this has gone on for so long.

Enough of that, cheers to both of our friends with delivery dates coming up soon. May they both have healthy babies and may their hearts be filled with lots of love.

I know it’s been a while since I posted. In all honesty, I haven’t had a full meal since Thursday, June 3rd – crazy! I’ve pretty much been eating very small portions of the soup/rice/cracker combo and lots of bread in the form of dry toast, plain rolls, sliced baguette. The only veggies have been mushed carrots in chicken noodle soup last week – you know you’re jealous!

I’m waiting on blood test results and a CT scan with contrast dye. I was also put on a super strong antibiotic for infection. One test showed some signs of an infection. I think that has helped with the stomach pains too. It’s really sort of been a nightmare, especially since my 40th birthday fell right in the middle of all of this.

Dan pressed on with our tradition. He always bakes me a cake. We go to the store together, I pick my flavors and he goes to work in the kitchen. I look forward to this every year. Last year it was a giant cupcake. This year it was a full on girlie 40th cake. Butter yellow with chocolate frosting.

I would like to take this time to say, “I have the most amazing husband ever!” – He has been awesome throughout this whole health mystery. I could not ask for a more supportive partner. My family and friends have been really great too! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

My girlfriend Hilly came over to cheer me up on my birthday. We had a great time – lots of laughs like usual.  I even tried a little pasta and some of my cake, which turned out to be a HORRIBLE idea. I just wanted to be and feel normal on my birthday – my body had different ideas. I was awake for hours and hours with stomach pains and spent the next day in bed. Ugh!

They are looking at my kidneys, liver, pancreas, gallbladder and everything else they can think of. The doctor thinks it could also just be an intestinal infection – I am noticing a big difference with the meds.

I had big plans to celebrate turning 40, and in all honesty, it was just another day. Kind of sad – but you know what? I’ll be 40 all year. There will be plenty of time to have people over for a dinner party to celebrate… when I can actually enjoy the food!

Cheers to my 40th year – may it be filled with health, happiness and lots of fun times – hoping the health one happens soon!