I'm 43!

At my advanced age,  you might think that birthdays don't deserve an exclamation point (43!), but I want it to be known that I'm okay with my age. I am. There's a lot of great things about this stage of life.

• I waste very little time worrying about what others think of me any more. 
• I'm not offended very often because I've experienced enough to know there's always a reason someone acts rudely, and it generally has little to do with me.
•  I feel really busy, but less stressed than I did in previous decades. I have small pockets of time to focus on things that are important to me. 
• The kids are spread out from age 8 to age 21, so we cover many enjoyable kid stages and are firmly past the potty training and sippy cup stage. 
• Dan and I enjoy hanging out with our kids, but we also like the fact that we can get away sometimes and leave the responsible teenagers at home to handle things. 
• Dan and I have focused on creating a marriage where we know how to work together to get things done, but we also know to prioritize time to relax and be together. 
• Just like it's kind of a relief to get the first ding or scratch in the paint of a brand new car, it's kind of a relief to not expect to look 20 anymore. I have long since acquired some grey hairs, wrinkles, and love handles, and I begrudgingly admit that I am coming to terms with these facts, even though I do invest time and money in haircolor, wrinkle cream, and gym workouts. 
• My next big hurdle? Accepting the quickly approaching necessity of "granny" reading glasses. I am SO not okay with that right now, but I'm working on it.

I had a great birthday, and I partied it up big. This is what I did . . . .

A few days before my birthday I invited two of the amazing women I spent time with at Girls Camp to join me for a deluxe pedicure.  It was just lovely. The pedicure was relaxing and our toes looked great, but mostly I felt so privileged to spend time laughing with these women. And they brought me a delicious chocolate cake!

 The day of my birthday I was awakened with breakfast in bed. Okay, so that's the official story, but really I got up around 6:30 and visited with Dan while he got ready and then left for work at 8:30, and then I went back to bed and pretended to be asleep when the kids woke up at 9:30 and made me my breakfast. But, it was a perfectly sweet thought, and I loved it!

A few hours later I met some more amazing women and they treated me to lunch at a Thai restaurant. I am so blessed to have great friends!

When Dan asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I told him I wanted him to buy his car so I didn't have to think about it anymore. We had spent an intense week or two researching cars and communicating with dealerships via email to negotiate the rock bottom price for Dan's new car. I finally got several dealerships to agree to an incredible price for a new Hyundai Sonata, so Dan stopped by to check out the actual car. Here he met us along the road, going for a test drive with the salesman. He ended up locking in the price I had negotiated by email and buying this car on the afternoon of my birthday, and that was the best present I could have asked for. A great price for a great car and I didn't have to step foot in a dealership!

We met Dan and the salesman along the road because we needed to hand off Joseph to them, as the girls and I had tickets to go to the Taylor Swift concert in Portland.  We wore red, of course for the RED tour and made signs, which we were sure would buy us entrance to meet Taylor backstage.

Okay, so I am really 43, but it just didn't rhyme with the original song!

Kanye West, that is.

 We had a great time together! I love hanging out with my daughters.

We were really lucky to get tickets as they sold out immediately way back in December. Our tickets were not super impressive.  Okay, they were pretty much classic nosebleed!  And we definitely didn't get to meet Taylor. I'm not sure she could have seen our signs way up on the third level, even with a telescope.

But, we had a great view of the Jumbotrons and could enjoy the huge elaborate spectacle of a show, even though we couldn't see Taylor's face up close. 

 

And, at the end of the day, we were in the same building as Taylor Swift, experienced being "at" the concert, and the money we saved on tickets (versus paying more to a reseller to get a better seat up close) will pay for some college tuition someday!

I had "The Best Day" (get the Taylor Swift reference?) on my 43rd birthday. I couldn't ask for better. It will be a fantastic year!