My Birthday

I was born on August 30th at 11:51 at night.  Growing up, my mom always put a ton of effort into our birthdays.  We didn't have big parties with our friends every year, but she always made us feel special.  Our birthdays were always a big deal - not necessarily a lot of presents, in fact, I don't remember those much, but we always got to choose what we wanted for dinner and invite a friend or a family over for dinner.  I remember I often chose my next door neighbor, an elderly lady named Mrs. King.  And we always had the special seat at the end of the table with the special red plate.  As a result, birthdays have always been special to me.

My mom still makes a big deal about our birthdays.  We do dinner, cake and presents at my parents' house on the closest Sunday - the kids all love it!!  With my sister and her family here, we have birthdays in Feb, May, June, August, October, Novemer and December.  The kids always ask WHEN is the next one.  For August, we celebrate 4 birthdays - my neice (Meghan) who is a senior in high school this year, my dad, my Aunt Donna who moved in with my parents this spring and me.  :)

I didn't take my camera this year so I'll have to get pics from my mom of the 4 of us with the cake.  I'm sure whoever decorated it thought, "really?  Donna AND Donna?" when they put the names on top.  I love having my Aunt Donna around.  Its really been fun to haver her more in my life and for my girls to get to know her.  My gift from my parents this year was money ... which WAS going to go toward my new bedroom set that I wanted for my bday but since I have changed my mind, it is going toward my camera!   I can't wait!

Steve wasn't used to quite the same, so its been a learning curve for him, but he does really well now. 

About 5-6 years ago, my birthday took a turn for the worse.  For three years in a row, my birthday was a really bad day ... not because I really care that much about getting older, but it seemed to be cursed, and I'm not usually very superstitious.  Really bad stuff always seemed to happen on my birthday.  They were TOUGH days with a lot of tears.  One year was losing my little nephew when my sister-in-law went into pre-term labor.  It was a heart breaking day.  As a result, for a couple years after those three years, I really disliked my bday and was anxious all day.  I still feel a little anxious as it approaches every year, and my heart is always sad for my sister-in-law and her family so when the day is over, I honestly still breathe a sigh of relief. 

This year was nice and uneventful!  ... nothing bad happened.  It was low-key here at home.  The girls actually forgot to mention it before they left for school in the morning, but had hyped it up for several days before.  My office assistant gave me a movie, some Martinelli's apple cyder and some bath salts.  I had planned to play the movie on the laptop while I enjoyed some Martinelli's and a hot bath that weekend while Steve had a gig, but his gig was canceled so I hung out with him instead (and watched the movie the next week when I was printing stuff for work late into the night). 

On my actual birthday, Steve took me and Melissa (my assistant) to lunch and I chose my favorite food ... SUSHI!  I love it!!  I NEVER thought I'd love it, but I crave the stuff ... when it is quality sushi, it is SOOO good!

After school, the girls remembered right away.  Tay and Jess had made me cards and Alyssa gave me some money she had been saving.  She so badly wanted to save up and get me one of the fire pits for the backyard, but she didn't quite make it.  It was really sweet of her ... although I've known since May what her plan was (she hasn't learned how to be subtle about things - ever since she heard me mention that I'd like one, she has brought it up asking questions like, where do you buy one, how much are they, etc).  I was really impressed that she had thought ahead and worked toward it. 

That night, we went to dinner with the girls to celebrate.  Again ... I forgot my camera (August was a bad camera month, forgot my camera to almost everything and have had to get pics from others ... and Sept has been even harder since my camera is broken)....  It was a nice, uneventful day!  PERFECT!

And I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED all the birthday wishes ... cards, emails, phone calls, and Facebook messages.  I heard from about 90 people that day ... on average, that's almost 1 every 10 minutes that I was awake!  How cool is that!!  I love feeling so loved by everyone!   Thanks all for making me feel so special!