The (big fat Zumba) birthday present from Amazon.com

I recently turned 32. Part of why my family was in town to visit, was to celebrate my birthday with me. The best part about a birthday, to my mind, is celebrating it with the special people in your life; family and close friends. The second best part is experiencing the generosity of these wonderful people. I'm not just talking about the gift-givers... I mean the card-senders and the well-wishers and anyone else who took time out of their own busy lives to think of me. Thank you all! In the first week of August, Bry's sister asked me what it was I wanted for my birthday. She was the first to ask and, while I've actually found the answer quite difficult in past years, one thing popped into my head immediately. Any guesses before I continue?

I told her, "Just one thing."

Can you tell what this is? It's a gift card to Zumba.com. I can use this to shop their site and boy am I excited. My dad asked me the same question and I gave him the same answer. Zumba.com is not like Amazon.com where you can buy a gift card and have it be sent electronically. With Zumba, you have to order a physical gift card that is delivered to your house which you can then pass on to the intended recipient; or have mailed to the recipient. It comes in this nice little card. Conveniently, Zumba has a summer sale going on right now.

From my sister-in-law, her husband, and their son

I'd been window shopping this sale on and off, and I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted by the time the gift cards arrived. The sale has been going on for over two weeks already so I kept an eye on that shirt I wanted and tried to make sure they still had my size in stock... And that pair of capri pants... The things I ordered haven't shipped yet, but pictures to come...

My father-in-law and his wife got me a gift card to Amazon, as did my brother-in-law and his wife. Now here's the wonderful thing about Amazon, there's not much you -can't- get from there and that includes Zumbawear! I have ordered Zumba brand clothing from Amazon twice in the past and I have been very satisfied so I went to the same place for a third time and got lots of lovely goodies by combining both gift cards. Thanks again to my really wonderful in-laws! Whenever I have Zumba gear on the way, I can't help but do that thing where you keep the tracking info open on your computer and refresh it once an hour just to see if your stuff has moved. What? I'm the only one that does that? Huh...

12.5 X 9.5 inches

When the mail truck arrived, I hurried down to the mail box to get the envelope. The nice thing about Zumba clothing and accessories is that none of it weighs very much (remember, lighter = cooler) nor does it take up tons of room; so everything I ordered fit into a single cardboard mailer. I cracked it open on the way up the driveway actually, and my first instinct was to dump it all out and enjoy the minute I got it in the house, but then I figured it might be fun to take some pictures so you lovely readers can enjoy vicariously. So I stuffed everything back inside and took the picture you see at the left. Want to know what all I ordered? Inside that envelope was a pair of capri pants, two tanks tops, and a set of silicone bracelets. Amazing that it all fit right? In fact, the thing that took up the most room was actually the bracelets because everything else lays flat except for them. Alright, picture taken, event documented...-now- I dump it all out! This package arrived on the best possible day. My father-in-law and his wife were coming over to swim and eat brownies in celebration of my birthday. My sister-in-law also came over with my nephew. I was happy that they were going to get to see the things I'd bought. My brother-in-law and his wife live out in California, but hopefully they'll catch this post and see how much I'm enjoying their gift. After tossing aside the envelope, I ripped open the plastic wrap on all the items and spread them out so I could take some more pictures.

In the post I wrote some time back about my four pairs of cargo pants, I mentioned that I was likely to buy some capri pants eventually. That day has come.

Feelin' It capris in Indigo

Wonderful Zumba makes cargo capri style pants! The best of both worlds baby! Jae swears by capris and says they're great for us short gals. She has a point. I am always tightening the elastic ankle on my full-length cargoes before class or I'll step on the hem when I dance - learned that the hard way... This pair you see over to the right is the pair I ordered from Amazon. It's the capri version of my full-length Feelin' It cargoes which can be seen in my previous post. Before I ordered these, I made sure to talk to Jae since she has this pair in a couple of colors. One, it's nice to have a review based on a firsthand experience, and two) I figured it would be good manners to ask before I bit her style... But she (in all her awesomeness) said I should go for it, so go for it I did! I'm pretty sure she doesn't have this particular color though, so at least I'm not totally unoriginal here.

As for the tops... One of the advantages of shopping for Zumba brand clothing through Amazon is that they are more likely to have items that Zumba's website has sold out of, either entirely or in preferred color and/or size. Amazon is also more likely to have items from a previous fashion line that Zumba has already discontinued. So if you let that really neat top go by and later regret it, chances are that Amazon might have it. Case in point, the pink tank top on the left. This is from Zumba's Party In Pink - the first one. For the one that is happening currently, the new tops are white with a pink ribbon and I tend to stay away clothes that are white. This top rounds out my little collection of cause-related Zumbawear, and now I have one item from all four causes. Until recently, I didn't actually know any breast cancer survivors personally; in my family it's typically heart disease and stroke.

Bry's stepmom is a survivor though, the first one I've known, so this cause is much closer to home for me than it used to be. As with the other clothing items, 30% of the proceeds from the sale of merchandise go towards the cause. The tank top on the right is not nearly as "important". It's just one I saw that I liked because the colors appealed to me. This particular one was actually part of the big sale that Zumba has going on, so the price would have been cheaper to get it from there. If they hadn't been sold out of this top in every single size! Bummer, but I guess that's what happens when tops get marked down to $10.50. Oh, and as a completely off-topic thing, I'm totally annoyed by the top that's on sale there right now for $8.50 that I paid $20 for four weeks earlier... Grr.

Lastly, my new bracelets. Zumba always seems to have a ton of accessories for sale and it feels like a big percentage of those are bracelets. A lot of the bracelets for sale are those silicone kind and I think I've figured out why. I've worn bracelets to class in the past and I've learned that any bracelets with weight and/or that are loose, will slide around once things really get moving.

I actually had a set of pink bangles that I wore once that were perfectly round when I started class. By the end of class, at least half them were bent into ovals. The first one I tried to squeeze back into a circle snapped. I guess that's why Zumba sells so many different kinds of silicone bracelets - they aren't heavy, they don't really slide around on your arm, and they are extremely flexible. I bought a variety 8-pack. They're each a different color, though it's hard to tell in this picture. One of the ones that looks yellow is really a lime kind of green, and one of the ones that looks pink is really a neon kind of red. I liked this particular set because they say "Join The Party" which is just like my new tank top.

I'm really happy with my new birthday things. Thanks again family and in-law family for your thoughtfulness. Tonight is Monday and it's supposed to be a scorcher here. Good thing I my new cargo capris are washed and ready to go. It's also the last Monday night of this summer session that I affectionately dubbed "Summer Camp". A little sad to see it end but at least I'll be giving it a very fashionable send-off.

Best advice: Try to enjoy every birthday no matter how old you are. I do. They seem to get better the older I get, and that's why I don't mind admitting that I'm 32.