Happy Birthday to my Wee Girl!

Who, at 9 years old, is not quite so wee.  Especially since she'll probably be almost as tall as me by the time she's 12, and I'm 5'9"!
But she'll ALWAYS be my li'l princess.

In other news, I voted this morning.  Hurray!  I hate campaigns, but I LOVE voting!  The best part is that little sticker they give you that says "I Voted."  This year we the get fancy-schmancy Presidential Election version.  I always wait until my ballot is confirmed, and THEN I put the sticker on.  And wear it proudly.
And I'm not the only one: There was a discussion at the coffee shop this afternoon about this very subject.  One man said "Why vote by mail when you can go in person and get a sticker?!"
There's just something about stickers.
And balloons. Who doesn't love balloons?  Sadly, balloons are NOT given out at polling stations.
 But it'd be REALLY cool if they were!

I'm trying not top get too anxious about the results.  I keep telling myself that, regardless of the outcome, my family and I will be OK.  It feels a little selfish, but it's about not giving in to panic and possible despair at this point.
So I went for a walk.  I've been meaning to tackle this particularly long street in our neighborhood. It's all uphill one way, then, of course, downhill back, running right into the above-mentioned coffee shop, where having, if not tackled the hill, then at least made it, gasping and panting, to the top and back down, I practically crawled in, guzzled a bottle of water, then sat to enjoy my  iced soy latte.  Then it was a 12 minute walk home.  On legs that felt like lead pipes. A bit of yoga/stretching, a bath, and now I'm nearly good as new.
As I was walking all I could hear in my head was Hugh Grant's voice saying "My god, it's the longest street in the world!"  You probably know that "Love, Actually" is one of my favorite movies.  It's been playing on cable quite a bit lately, which makes me very happy. But that description fit this street to a T.  Except I wasn't searching for My Natalie, I was looking for signs of the Chevron station at the top of the hill.  When I finally caught sight of the blue and white stripes, I thought "The end is near!"  But in this case, that was a good thing.

My walks with Hubby have been on the back-burner, at least until his show closes.  He now uses his lunch break to nap in the car.  :) So I'm doing my yoga and my workout DVDs, along with my walks.  Still teaching one Pilates class a week, and expending LOTS of energy with the Shakespeare kids.
As well as my own.

So now it's getting close to the time when the Birthday Pizza will arrive & we can do some celebrating.  Because regardless of the election outcome, my girl's birthday is DEFINITELY something to celebrate!

P.S., I'll just say that tonight, with the election results in, I am breathing a HUGE sigh of relief.
Feel free to disagree.

P.P.S., Hubby just ordered us a low-priced but well-reviewed Spin bike!!!!!!!!  WAAA-HOOOOO!!!!!!!!