Gretch-a-sketch (old)

Happy Birthday!!! I love that library science bag so of course I have to enter!

Last year I spent my birthday in Boston with the (ex)bf. A couple nights before, I watched his lacrosse game out in some field and ended up getting attacked by bugs. Because I wasn't miserable enough already, we went to the beach where I fell asleep and burned every inch of my body.

On my birthday I woke up with bug bites all over (that itched) and a sunburn that killed every time a piece of clothing would so much as graze the area. Needless to say it was a pretty miserable day.

But the (ex)bf surprised me with a delicious strawberries & cream smoothie, a beautiful necklace from Tiffany's and a nice walk along the Charles River followed by dinner outside (I love eating outdoors).

I just love that even though I felt like complete shit and was so uncomfortable that this birthday was still my favorite of them all.

I hope you have a super great birthday :)

freeandflawed at gmail dot com

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

This is a good reason for a contest, I must say! I love the bag and the necklace. I hope I win!

Okay so a birthday memory? Well it was my 21st birthday and my boyfriend took me to a lovely Italian place for dinner and on the way home, we get to a stop light and lovingly turn to each other to be mushy and lame because why not?

And BOOM! We get rear ended and get pushed out into the intersection. Cars swerve to avoid hitting us again.

My 21st birthday present?

Whiplash.

jamieislovely(at)gmail(dot)com

Oh hot dang, I want them all!

When I was a senior in college I was an orientation leader for the incoming international students. My birthday is in late August, so I had probably known them only about a week when they decided to throw me a surprise birthday party. At some point in the day, someone who was not totally informed about the surprise-nature of the birthday party was like, "What time is your party?" and that *STILL* didn't ruin the surprise. I am not very bright.

Yay for birthdays!

I also threw a surprise birthday party once for someone else. I don't actually remember the surprise birthday party (thrown several days later) as well as the DECOY birthday party that we had on the day.

I am so playing this game! I love games like this.

I thought I should also share my 21st birthday since it is yours.

I was living in St. George with my cousins at the time but came back to Salt Lake to go through the temple on my birthday (I was leaving on a mission and all) except I forgot to bring a white bra, just a black one. Yep, I went through the temple bra-less.

It was a very rainy day and we went to the Bountiful temple. My dress was too big (mom had to hem it up at least 4 inches) and I was so excited I couldn't stop twirling (in the waiting room, of course). A lot of friends and family showed up and I was very touched to see so many of the people I loved there.

After we went out to eat at Wendy's because it was the only place open. What a great birthday.

(Of course I spent the birthday after that in Australia, the next one at Disneyland and my last one in Cairo. It's been decided that every birthday from here until I get married will be celebrated somewhere new.)

I hope your 21st is awesome (o:

Chillylint at gmail dot com

Yay I love contests!!!

My 24th birthday last year was one of the best. Went to this awesome bar in the city and had an open bar set up for all my friends. A ton of people came, and a long lost friend was drunk before he arrived and wound up "threatening" my boyfriend that if he ever hurt me, blah blah blah. Meanwhile he had never met my bf before!! There was also the random french dude that was ballroom dancing with me in the bar, much to his friend (my boyfriend's friend) dismay, the dude with gross facial hair trying to stalk me and my friends, and my drunk boyfriend, who tried to be all lovely and have us gaze into each other's eyes and I told him I couldnt because I wold throw up if I looked at him haha. Oh the fun of being drunk.

The next morning we had to go to a wedding, and I had to drive cause bf was still drunk, and the had to pull over before reaching the wedding so he could throw up in movie quality sounding style.

:) Lets hope 25 is just as goo!!

perksofbeingajap at gmail dot com

HAPPY Birthday! Again!

You're like a hobbit, giving away things on your birthday. I always thought that was the way to go, since giving is much happier than receiving.

Birthday story: I have a twin sister, so my birthday is always shared. My birthday is also rather uneventful. Really. Last birthday party was when I was 12 years old. I invited four people, and they came, and we went bowling. But it was all awkward since two of those people I wasn't really good friends with, I was just trying to be good friends. So no more birthday parties for me, since I can never figure out who to invite. . .

heatherwrites101-at-gmail-dot-com

I didn't realize I'm not a big dessert person until just recently. At first, I thought I just preferred white cake with vanilla icing because it's a classic. No chocolate for me, thanks. So when I turned 18, I figured my Mom would be used to the bland cake routine and was looking forward to a very subdued birthday while my Dad was away.

My dear mother, in an attempt to spice things up since she felt neglectful giving me such a boring kind of birthday cake, got me a fruit flan. A FLAN. Flans are not cake. They are fruit and yogurt in a pie crust with a gelatenous glaze over the top.

I acted like a complete asshole only to find out three days later as a shiny new Corolla drove up the driveway that they had bought me a car.

I am scum.

ben(dot)boudreau(at)gmail(dot)com

Happy Birthday! I'm totally digging the Itunes card. Paul is constantly making mixed CDs...you two should swap tunes sometime. Hmm...all my birthdays have been somewhat uneventful. I guess there was my 21st birthday where I got an awesome necklace from some guy who claimed to be dating me. And the bash at the Hard Rock Cafe that night was pretty sweet, even though Paul couldn't make it and I had to sit with weirdo guy...

maraco36 AT yahoo DOT com

My birthday is New Year's Eve so I have many, many weird stories of forgotten birthdays, people not wanting to come to my parties . . .

I also have great birthday stories too. My most favorite was my 17th birthday when my girlfriends surprised me by getting a hotel room at the fancy Marriott in downtown Salt Lake City and we did all the fun New Year's Eve stuff and had a total blast!!

My email is kateastrophe@cox.net

Happy birthday!

One of my best birthdays was my 18th. I had just started college and was afraid that my new friends weren't going to celebrate. The night before I was writing my high school friends an email saying that I missed them, when all my dorm friends burst into my room with a big cake singing. The next morning I woke up and left to go to class, and there was a MONSTROUS chalk drawing outside the dorm wishing me a happy birthday. Then later a bunch of people got together to take me to dinner, and finally, a friend stopped by the room to say happy birthday and distracted me while somehow like 10 others snuck in with balloons and stuff to surprise me. It was super cute and I felt very loved. =) The end!

Whoops, I forgot to leave an email address - arielleblogs@gmail.com

Oooh, free crap!

So, when I was turning 8 or 9 or somewhere in that age I was having a sleepover with a whole bunch of friends. We're little kids, so of course we're going to be loud and noisy and my parents were going to come and tell us to shut up at least 10 times. On the last time they came in a split us all up into two groups. I don't know how they knew who the two main trouble makers were, but they singled us out and made sure we were in separate groups at separate ends of the house. Needless to say everyone else was a bit upset at us because THEY weren't being rowdy, why should THEY have to be punished, etc. And so we turned it into a war. Throwing pillows at the other group and "spying" on them.

Good times.

Crap. I forgot my email address, mikemotorcade [at] gmail [dot] com

It is my unbirthday, too! You know what would make it the best unbirthday ever? That library tote! Because A) I am a librarian, B) I love tote bags, and C) it would give me a story to tell of the bestest unbirthday I ever had.

Oh, right-

nancypearlwannabe [at] gmail [dotcom]

On my sixteenth birthday, I woke up and there was pink glitter on my cheek and my pillow. There was a note saying the birthday fairy had kissed me in my sleep and this was a most special day so GET UP ALREADY. My mom had made a huge breakfast consisting of all my favorite breakfast-y foods and my dad had come over (they have been divorced since I was 2.)

We walked outside and there sitting in the yard, was a 1992 Nissan Maxima. It may as well have been a Mercedes Benz. lol.

We went back inside (after my gleeful checking out of said Maxima) and my mom said she had an even MORE special present for me. I rolled my eyes..I mean, GET REAL, I'm 16 and I just got a CAR people. It can't get any better!
Then she handed me this old round cheese box tied up with a ribbon. In it was 16 envelopes marked with numbers 1-16. I opened the first, then the second, then the third....and I was crying. She had written a letter to me every year on my birthday telling me how much she loved me, filled with things I'd done or said that year, funny antecedotes. EVERY YEAR.
She still does it and after I read it, I put it away in my little cheese box.
I am also continuing the tradition for my kids.
Holli Dowdy...hollidowdy@gmail.com

oh, I love the typewriter necklace! If I don't win, I might just have to get it.

I'll share my story about turning 21. I was pretty super stoked to go order my first drink with my friends who had been 21 for months and were thus more cosmopolitan than me. We had a few graduation parties to go to, and we ended up getting caught up in catching up with old friends that it was 11:30 and I hadn't had a drink yet. My friends were all freaked out for me, and rushed me to the closest bar. By the time I ordered my drink and it came to the table, it was 12:01. I technically didn't get a drink on my 21st, but I loved my friends for trying :)

[allthewineblog@gmail.com]

Count me in! Happy happy birthday. Let's see...a birthday memory...

Probably my 16th birthday. It was a pretty miserable day - we had to go to a funeral for my adopted sisters biological dad and it was pretty depressing. Until we got home and my parents surprised me with a car. It was in the driveway with the big red bow. Totally saved the day!

nunya business at comcast dot net

Oh no! An illegal CD!

Sweet giveaway... I love the typewriter necklace, but since I don't wear jewelry that often, I'd probably go for the iTunes card. I love me some music. And I'm all about the mix cds too! If I don't win, maybe we could still exchange mixes or something sometime.
One of my birthday memories is a party I had when I was 6 or 7... we decorated my house with pink and yellow streamers, and my mom made a pink and yellow cake... we had little paper cups with pink and yellow candies, and all my friends and I dressed up and played games and stuff. We have a picture of one of my brothers in his trademark sweatsuit wearing this cardboard mask of a woman's face with sausage curls and a big feathery hat. Hilarious. I don't remember a whole lot, but I do remember the pink and yellow, and feeling so pretty in my dress. And laughing at my brother in his weird mask. :)

Enter me.. Love the typewriter necklace. My favorite b-day memory was when I turned 30... all my friends surprised me with a rockin' surprise party.
dalley19atmsndotcom

Happy Birthday! One of my b-day memories is from back when I was in young womens. It was mutual night, and we were in the meetinghouse. One of my leaders wanted me to blow out a candle, but open flames are not allowed in meetinghouses. So, she put on in a cupcake, lit it, and had me blow it out a minute later!
supershorty@gmail.com

Awesome contest. Giving on your birthday... big time good karma. I can't give you ONE birthday memory... but a series because here's the deal... I've had the flu, bronchitis, mono, etc etc etc every. single. year. Every birthday. Since I can remember. Seriously. Every one.

Hope this find you well :)

Lets seee... do I have a good birthday story... no... but I can tell you a bunch of bad ones....

my 21st birthday I spent alone and single and none of my friend took me out.

my 15th birthday my bro was on house arrest and couldn't make it to my party

same bro gave me "puff the magic dragon" on my 14th birthday

by my 16th birthday we had the swat team after us.

my 22nd & 23rd birthday my now ex bf used my credit card to buy my birthday gift.

my 24th birthday people at the office felt pity on me and my boss got me wasted.

last but not least my birthday (a little over a month ago) i had someone butt in on my birthday that I didn't really want to.

starchase83 (at) mac (dot) com

I can't resist!

For my fourth birthday, my mom took me to an unnamed retail store to pick out my gift. After walking through all the toy aisles, i picked out a neon green toy chainsaw. I brought it home, and began "sawing" the swing set in our backyard and immediately the chain broke. Cheap unnamed retail store!

Yay for birthdays!! You rock to have a give away with your birthday!

For me, birthdays are a BIG deal at my house. My favorite memory is of my 7th birthday when we had a huge princess birthday party. There was pin the tail on the dragon, princess crowns, making me a dress out of wrapping paper, and best of all, a Barbie birthday cake. (where the Barbie is inserted to cake and decorated so it looks like her dress). Pretty much the best birthday ever.

Ohhhh happy birthday! Let's see... birthday memory. I'm going to have to go with my last one, my 22nd. My mom got together this huge surprise party with a bunch of friends new and old, and my whole family. It was awesome, especially since birthdays are rarely celebrated anymore in my family.

I hope yours was everything you hoped for!

Wow, so exciting! Since it's your 21st b-day I will share my 21st b-day experience. My birthday is 4 days before christmas which every year of college just happened to correspond with finals week. My 21st bday just happened to be on a Friday when I had a physical chemistry final at 7 o'crotch at night. Somebody had it out for me. Also, all my friends had already gone home because it was xmas and they were done with school. But lucky for me I came home from the final to find boyfriend at the time making me my fave omelette and ready to go out on the town just the two of us. Then I had a 22-run...instead of a 21-run. Anyways, drink a really big margarita and have a better birthday than I did...

First of all, Happy Birthday, you young whipper snapper! Coming from Tib's blog...
My birthday memory...let's see it's the day after Christmas. My mom thought that would be a SWELL day to do a slumber party in which only one girl showed up. And guess what that little girl gave me for my birthday...chicken pox. Great memory!

21? What a cool age. Legally an adult and all. My birthday memory - for the magic 16 (I called it sassy sixteen because I didn't like 'sweet sixteen'), my parents had a surprise party. People from almost every place I've lived (seven, count 'em, seven) came, and shared different memories of me. It was so, so cool. Plus my brownies are always delicious...

email: maddee_schrader@yahoo.com (I know, my anonymity is shot now. Oh well).

I'm loving all the stuff! But being a music junkie, I'm digging the iTunes card.

A memorable birthday moment was at my 10th birthday. We had just moved to a new house and all my old friends from my old school came. It was an M&M themed and we had a scavenger hunt, pool party, presents, the works. However, the only thing I remember is that one girl at my party (who I wasn't that close to, might I add) took the piece of cake I wanted: The one with the blue M&M on it. Man, as I upset! Come to think of it, I don't think we talked much after that... :)

Have a wonderful birthday!

email: snapcracklepop31@aol.com

Best Birthday - tons. One that I remember for sure !! Eating at the Blue Ox in Roy Utah when I was 10. We never ate out much as a family. They brought me a piece of cake with candle and sang to me. It was great.... The last few years, we've been in Logan (usually) at the Bobcat Brawls (wrestling tournament) watching my son wrestle. Great Great times. I'd love to win a prize.
sled4fun2 at hotmail dot com

SWEET contest. I totally want that typewriter necklace.

Hm...birthday memories...I guess my last birthday (17th) was probably the best EVER. The day of my birthday wasn't terribly exciting, but as a present my parents took me on a trip to Seattle later on in the month and I got to meet Shannon Hale and Libba Bray AND have a birthday party at which three author-friends of mine attended: Lorie Ann Grover, Janet Lee Carey, Dia Calhoun. It was a pretty surreal time. It was hard to believe all that goodness could happen to me. :)

mimagirl@gmail.com

All of my birthday memories from recent years have included a big group of friends & family going out for a Night on the Town, which usually involves dinner, drinks & something fun (comedy show, movie, etc.). I have AWESOME friends & family, so I always enjoy whatever we do!!

This is a waaaayyyy too awesome giveaway - - - you're very generous! Happy Birthday to YOU!!!!

Happy birthday!

I was often a bit disappointed at my birthday when I was a kid, because it always happened during spring break so a lot of my friends were away. I gave up on birthday parties early. When I was... 11? 12? ... I went collecting rocks with my mom and a couple of her friends, and we would up having a picnic in the ditch beside the rock outcrop. I think that was more fun than a party would have been.

Happy birthday! I hope it's a lovely day!

My 21st birthday was not spent like most other 21 year olds. A month earlier, Katrina washed ashore in NOLA and being about 70 miles from there, people were on edge. So on MY 21st birthday, Hurricane Rita was coming ashore in southwest Louisiana. That afternoon, my roommates and I drove through the rain to French Quarter Daquiris, just down the street from my house, and got mixed drink concotions.

As night began to fall, it became increasingly obvious that all the restaurants and bars (and most people, too) were scared Rita was going to be another Katrina. And most of them closed down early. So my birthday dinner was celebrated at a crappy Italian restaurant where our waitress was trying to push us out and hurry us along so she could go home. And after we left there, we went back to the sorority house for cake and ice cream -- apparently, the only place open. And we spent the rest of the night there, just goofing off because nowhere else was open.

While Rita kind of put a damper on it, it was really nice that my friends pulled through and made it a celebration worth remembering.

i'm never going to win, but i have to enter! i might get a mix CD, and how fun would THAT be?

birthday stories, birthday stories...well, i'll go with my 30th, since it was my last one. my roommate threw me a disney pink princess party, where i got a jane austen action figure from a really unexpected person. the day before, i got roses and daisies from my grandfather in NC and a FedExed present from my mom, and two days after my birthday, i took off work to go to disneyworld with my bf at the time. it was GOOD times. it was probably the best, fullest, and most amazing birthday week so far. maybe i can top it with christmas this year. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! :)

here's the email address: carrie.bolte [at] gmail [dot] com.

Happy Birthday! One of my best birthday memories was my 21st bday. Hubs and I were still dating. He threw me a 'surprise' party, but I totally knew it was going down. Mom and I went shopping that afternoon for an appropriate party outfit! It was really fun to pretend to be surprised for all my friends that evening. But the whole time I was wearing my new outfit!

PS- methinks you might be receiving a birthday present from me! My giveaway ends tonight.

Happy Birthday!

I had lots of great ones, but I think my most recent one, my 30th, was one of the best. It was a small gathering at a bar in New York with friends from all different parts of my life. The worlds collided, and they all got along.

PS - just added you to my RSS reader! I don't know why that took me so long.

Hope you had a great birthday, Gretchen!

Hmm...well...how about the birthday that I ended up grounded? I was like five, and we went to the Crayola Factory in Easton, PA, and I don't know what happened, only that I ended up being sent to my room. Yep.

It's a curse: I can't remember the last time I actually enjoyed my birthday.

todwellondreams@yahoo.com

Best birthday memory ??? Last birthday before my mom died -- she came out and had cake with us and looked like she wasn't even sick -- from the way she looked you would think the cancer was gone and she was going to be OK -- we knew better but that's now what I remember --- her looking so good and happy that day and eating ice cream cake with us. (she died about 2 weeks later from lung cancer)

I guess it would be my 17th birthday...a high school boyfriend through me a surprize party at the house of my -then- future husband...wonder if he would have done that if he had known I'd marry his friend instead of him? Anyway, no one has ever thrown me a party since, so I guess this one stands out.
ababe28(at)hotmail(dot)com

My birthday memory goes way back in time to my 8th birthday. I remember feeling kind of strange the day before at school. I woke up the next morning, went to the bathroom, looked in the mirror and noticed these 'unusual' red dots all over my skin. Lifted up my shirt and they were all over my belly too. What a perfect day to get the chicken pocks!! Turns out my birthday party was that day too. I was still able to have my birthday party but a lot of my friends weren't able to end up coming because they hadn't had the chicken pocks before. I still had a great time though.

Happy Birthday!

Ice Cream Cakes! It's my favorite b-day cake. My mom always used to get them for me. I've been trying to teach my husband that one, my birthday is this month so I guess we'll see how well he's learned, after eight years....

nicole dot godsey at navy dot mil

My 30th birthday, my husband came home with Siamese kitten for me. I loved her SO MUCH!! Thank you for the giveaway. :)

First I have to explain that my birthday falls around (and sometimes on) Thanksgiving.

A poem:

A day when the temperature was high,
I saw an exhibit on Princess Di.
I turned twenty-two,
with this science museum view.
Then I went home and ate some pie.

I hate premade frosting. My mom always made me Rice Cripsy treats instead of the horrid store bought frosting plastered on cake. Not many kids crunch on thier birthday cake--"crunching" is a must, as moist (yech) treats are about as rancid as eating wet styrofoam (you know, the bally globbed type stuff?). Bless all the hearts of every mother who works to please the birthday child. God bless Krstina!

byumiriamjoy@yahoo.com

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