40

I'm turning 40. Soon. Since I occasionally let my shallow side shine through, I'm a little surprised that I'm not upset by this milestone. In fact, I've decided to embrace it. I can say, with complete honesty, that the last decade has flown by, and if it weren't for the other obvious indications (like the age of my kids), I may disagree with anyone that tells me I'm turning 40.

I have actually looked forward to turning 40. My friend Sara & I have said for years that we're taking a trip when we turn 40, and we're actually going to do it. We're in the process of booking a trip to California wine country. As much as I'm looking forward to the wine, I'm looking forward to the fun Sara & I always find, too. Let's just admit that the wine may take a back seat to the kind of girl talk that only happens when you get away from home and can freely talk about whatever you want with nobody you know within a thousand miles. The fact that her husband seems a little worried that we may sleep together is subject matter for a different blog. :-)

So far, turning 40 is actually working in my favor. Besides the vacation with Sara, I think my wonderful husband is going to take me out to a nice fancy dinner with nice fancy wine, all of which I "fancy." Someone I shall only refer to as Naked Bitch is already wishing me happy birthday on facebook (4 days prior to the big event, mind you), and my kids think it's funny to mention my advanced age. Little do they know.

I feel pretty damn good. I'm just hoping there is good champagne involved in turning 40.

Snow Day

As a rule, I'm not a fan of snow. Or winter, for that matter. But today I'm willing to say I enjoyed the snow. My kids had the day off school because it was snowing, and I had a good day with them around.

Taggart, who loves to drive anything, was pretty happy because he got to move the cars around so we could get the snow pushed out of the driveway. He spent the rest of the day sledding, running around the neighborhood in the snow, shoveling a bit, and...........getting the neighbor's lawnmower stuck in the middle of the street. I'm waiting for him to come in so I can ask why in the world he was driving the neighbor's lawnmower down the street in a snow storm in the first place. Should be an interesting explanation, I think.

Sydney and I had a busy day, too. She was home from school and a little bored, but we had a great afternoon. We spent two hours cleaning her room, which desperately needed it and she was pretty happy when we were done. It was fun cleaning. We found old pictures and laughed and shared stories. While cleaning, she was reminded she has a really awesome camera, so we went for a walk in the snow and she snapped some nature shots. I also grabbed the camera and got some really fun shots of her rolling down a huge hill of snow. After a quick round of snow angels, we made supper and cinnamon rolls. We're finishing our night off with reality tv and another roll.

All in all, I've decided to give winter a (very) temporary reprieve. For today, I love winter and will thank it for giving me a memorable day. Let it snow!

Oh, Heaven

I have a niece named Heaven. She'll be 7 in about 20 minutes. We had a little birthday bash for her at our house tonight, and we had a good time. I just had to pay a little homage to Heaven. I'm not sure why, but the kid has always held a pretty special place in my heart, and she cracks me up.

Sometimes, I'm not really sure why she likes me. I have a tendency to pick on her. I can't help it, she's fun to harass. At one time, I think she was 4 years old, she and I were in the car by ourselves. She got bored and threw her socks at me. I picked them up, pretended they were puppets, and proceeded to do a little play and dance on the steering wheel with her socks. She was not amused. I knew this, but I was bored, too, so I kept at it. Until she reached over, found her shoes, and threw them at me, also. Her shoes are not the only thing I have driven her to throw at me. I recall an episode with a very large book thrown at my head. I probably had that coming, also.

One of my favorite Heaven stories happened when I gave her a gift. She was going through a horse loving phase, and she was getting ready to start Kindergarten. I decided a new book bag from Aunt Rachael was in order. Knowing she loved horses, and the color purple, I ordered her a lavender backpack with a horse embroidered on it. It was ugly. I knew that before I gave it to her, but thought, "Hey, she's 5. How picky can she be?" I should have known better. She opened the box, took one look at that bag, and said, "This is ugly, Rach." While I doubled over in laughter, because who can fault brutal honesty, her mother, Renee, about came unglued. Good thing Renee was too stunned to really say anything. We saved Heaven before she got to her. We also returned the bag in favor of something much more beautiful.

Happy birthday to Heaven, my little devil with just enough angel in her to make her perfect.