When I was a kid, my parents never did my homework.  I always had to struggle through whatever it was and they would help me figure things out, but only by leading me to my conclusions, never by doing any of it themselves (which is good).

Well, now I'm ... 34 (still getting used to that) and my dad has helped me with my current version of homework: two items from my 101 in 1001 list!

62. Send wedding thank-you cards.
65. Order our wedding album.

My dad used to be a professional photographer when I was little (he shot weddings, bar mitzvahs, etc).  He gave it up when I started school but has always loved photography.  He then became really interested in computers as those became part of every day life.  Well, now photography and computers are inseparable, what with Photoshop and Blurb and VistaPrint and all those other lovely programs and services available.

So my dad created a photo collage thank-you card for us and my parents paid for them for us.  We picked out the photos for it, so this wasn't a surprise after the initial announcement, but that makes it no less exciting.  The cards are awesome - I totally love them.  Unfortunately, I have not taken a picture of one so I cannot share it yet... plus, I just mailed them yesterday so I want people to see them in their mailboxes before they see them here.  But I'll post a picture in a day or two.

The wedding album was a complete surprise and given to me as my birthday present from my parents.  My dad created it on Blurb and it's everything we wanted from our wedding album: a hardcover book with images on the book's front and back covers with layers of photos on each page (i.e. more than one photo per page for most of the pages).  Neither the hubby nor I are fans of the one-photo-per-page type of wedding album.  I've seen beautiful ones, but they're just not our style - so the album my dad put together for us is amazing.  I'll share some pictures of that soon, too...

I think that's about all my dad can do for my 101 list, though.  The rest of my homework is mine, as always.

As I'm finishing writing this, my wedding song just came on Pandora: John Legend's "Stay With You."  Okay, must stop tears now.  Need to stop tearing up in front of the students.  But I've been remembering the wedding so much the past few days, what with writing the thank-you cards yesterday and looking through the album this weekend and just generally enjoying every single second I get to spend with the hubby.  And it's just - I'm so happy.  What can I say.

Top Ten Great Things About A Mid-August Birthday (in no particular order):

1. You can always have a barbecue dinner or party.

2. Ice cream cake is "in season."  (My sister always gets ice cream cake for her birthday in December, but it really belongs to August.)

3. If you're a nerdy kid who hates summer because there's no school, your birthday gives you something to look forward to and also provides the point from which you can feel like the new school year is right around the corner.

4. You never have to bring cupcakes to school (unless you have one of those teachers who did the whole "summer birthdays" party on one day in June).

5. You always have great entertainment on television because three semi-significant events occurred mid-month: 1 - Elvis died on August 15, 1977 (two days before my second birthday), so there is always a plethora of Elvis specials (if that's your thing); 2 - Madonna's birthday is August 16, so depending on how popular and relevant she is any given year, you can usually find one of her concerts on cable; and 3 - Woodstock was August 15-18, 1969 so there are always retrospectives in mid-August (especially this year, which is the 40th anniversary).

6. It's either ungodly hot, so you have the excuse to do something indoors or it's unseasonably mild and everyone is grateful to be able to do something outside without sweating to death.  It's rarely in the middle.

7. Any birthday money you get can be spent at back-to-school sales.

8. You can spend your birthday down the shore (not that I've done that for a long time, but it's a great option).

9. No matter where you work, August tends to be slow so it's usually not difficult to take time off.

10. August is the only month of the year without a major holiday, so your birthday gets to be the month's major holiday!

So party a little on behalf of me today.  Cheers!

*"I am thirty-four today" just sounds so much more elegant in French, n'est-ce pas?