I LOVE BIRTHDAYS!!!

Let me start off by saying I LOVE BIRTHDAYS!!!!!

Today I turn 33.....WOW! I can't believe it myself, & I am pretty certain my family can't believe it either. Time Flies.

I stole the idea to blog about "stuff" from a friend of mine - Madison. She has been blogging for about 3 months now and her blog is my favorite site to visit every morning...I never miss it! So sometime in the last few months while getting to know my friend through her blog, I decided that I could do this. Maybe some of my friends would want to read my blog as much as I love to read hers, or maybe they would at least get to know me better through random thoughts about my life, or maybe not. Either way, I thought I would give it a try and see if it becomes "therapeutic" for me or just a pain in the butt.
I have never been good about keeping a journal. Every New Years I think a journal would be a great "resolution" for me, so I start them and then forget about them. So yes, if you want to know about my life in January of every year, I have that documented...it’s the other 11 months that got lost along the way... Whatever. C'est la vie.

So let’s get back to my birthday...my FAVORITE day of the year....yes even as I get older. I thought that as I got older I wouldn't want to celebrate my birthday like I used to, but that has not been the case at all. A friend of mine said it best when our group of girls was gathered to celebrate her birthday...
She told us that when she was growing up her father hated birthdays and never wanted to celebrate his own. On one birthday she called him up and told him that even though she knew he didn't want to hear it she wanted to wish him a Happy Birthday.
On this particular birthday his health had deteriorated due to cancer, and his reply surprised her.
He told her that he had it all wrong all his life.... He told her that birthdays should be celebrated; they are a gift from God to celebrate another year on this earth. Another year to celebrate your life. Her father died shortly after that.
My friend will never forget the words her father said and shared with us her feelings - Birthdays are important occasions and should always celebrated and shared with your friends and loved ones.
Needless to say we girls could not fight back the tears in our eyes in that moment we shared. We toasted and I think we all secretly vowed at that very moment to always celebrate each other’s birthdays in a big way.
I guess it was more of an affirmation that our celebrating each other’s birthdays for the last year was important and appreciated and necessary.
Soon after her birthday, we changed our strategy for birthdays...but that's another topic for another day...

I remember when I was turning 23...I can't believe its been 10 years!?!?!?!
I remember specifically thinking on that birthday:
What a great age! 23! Just the right age so people won't say "oh, just barely old enough to drink" anymore. Too Funny. Honestly, I was quite a knock-out at 23...its funny how you don't realize it at the time...

So now I'm 33...I thought I'd be much "further along" in my life by this age. You know, a couple of kids and a mini-van....like the LeeAnn Rimes song "Something's Gotta Give." I especially thought that song fit when I turned 30....before I met my husband. (Even my Mom thought it fit me...she is the one who told me about it.)

awww...That takes me back to my 30th Birthday...what an important birthday in my life that was!!! To start my 30th BirthDay: Sky Diving over the North Shore of Hawaii! To end my 30th BirthDay: the major breakup of a 3+ year relationship (THANK GOD!) Possibly a topic for another day...

Now I don't want you to misunderstand and think I am not perfectly happy with where I am at this point in my life...in fact, its quite opposite.
I have NEVER been HAPPIER with my life! EVER!
After a long, broken road I finally married the man of my dreams! The people that know my husband know he is Not Perfect, BUT he is absolutely PERFECT for me. On one hand I think: I don't know how or why but somehow I finally hit the jackpot in the love department. But on the other hand I think: Hell, I have done my time on that long road of bad relationships and I freakin' deserve a good one to finish out the rest of this amazing life with! More on my wonderful man later....

Another thing in my life that has never been better is my circle of girlfriends. Truly.
I have never been able to keep relationships going. It always seemed one-sided and friendships really take two to make them work. Most my friendships broke down because I got tired of always being the one making the effort. Of course there were some that ended for other reasons...but none of those are important enough for me to re-visit.
My Girls Group is unbelievably amazing! It's really crazy how we all ended up together, but now that we are...I really think we will be friends forever. (If that sounds cheesy...I don't care!) I will absolutely blog more about my Girls in the future!
Last but not least, my family. My family helped to shape me into who I am today and I am pretty happy with that person, so I have to give them a little credit ;-)
My family has been through some rocky times, but today I can say we have all reached a point in our relationships that we are comfortable with, and for that I am glad.

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