I'm Forty Years Old!

I just turned FORTY!!!....The Big 4-0!

I think for a lot of people, that would be a sad thing...but quite to the contrary this has been such a joyful experience for me.  I was never one of those women who had fears about getting older.  Frankly the women in my family (on both sides) age exceptionally well:
Exhibit A - my maternal Grandmother

I believe that was taken on her 79th or 80th birthday

Exhibit B - my mother and my paternal aunt (AKA Jazzy Aunt Liz)

I wont give out either my mother's or my Aunt Liz's ages...but let's just say my dad who was 61 at the time...was the youngest "adult" there and in the case of his big sis, my aunt liz...by quite a few years

I originally started this blog as a countdown to turning 40. 

I had grand plans...losing 40lbs before my birthday, blogging daily (okay at least weekly), and having some major transformative, enlightened experience before September 10, 2010. 

Well guess what...none of those things happened.  I didn't lose 40lbs (although I am down a solid 8 and thanks to triathalon training and my haphazard experimentation with P90X a LOT stronger), I didn't blog every day (or even every week...heck I have abandoned this blog for months...I'm beginning to think I have adult ADD...I lose interest in things so quickly...do you think I could write myself a perscription for some ADDERAL??....oooooo look at the pretty flower...wait a minute...what were we talking about), and I did not have any major transformative, enlightened experience (unless you want to count the almost heatstroke hallucinations I had doing the Triathlon a few weeks ago where I was quite literally talking to Jesus).  And I thought I would be hard on myself about missing these goals (as a perfectionist Virgo is likely to do)  but I was in the BEST mood when I woke up (even though I was at work) for my birthday. 

I guess ultimately I am happy because I am still here and still able to celebrate my life and share God's love with those around me.  I have had way too many (okay only 5...but that seems like such a lot) of my former classmates check out way too early and I guess thinking about them and having their deaths touch my life has given me a completely new perspective.  We TRULY need to learn to live in the moment since no day or magical age is promised to us.  The friends I have lost have taught me to hold on to, to celebrate and to cherish the friends and family I have that much more.  And I have learned to live fully in the PRESENT moment that God has blessed me to have and be content with what I have (like in Philipians 4:13).

I have a big wang dang doodle fancy smancy birthday party/celebration scheduled for next weekend...but I had the best time today doing very simple and mostly unplanned things.  A surprise birthday brownie from a thoughtful co-worker, a spontaneous Happy Birthday seranade by my family followed by a slice of Birthday Pizza (I know...I am back to occasional dairy..what can I say everyone has a weakness...mine happens to be cheese); Feeling like a kid by sitting on the swings at Molly's my favorite cupcake place and enjoying a cupcake (or two) with my BFF Kara, puttering around on my deck tending to my flowers and vegetables, feeding the ducks and watching the sunset, meeting another friend at a happy hour to hang for a while, and finally seeing a wonderful movie by myself (taking in a movie solo is one of life's great joys...try it if you don't believe me).  All of these individually were simple minor things but taken together it made for a day that was sheer perfection. 

I am so looking forward to the joy and wisdom that this year will bring.  And I will try to share some of that with you over the next 12 months.  Now I am not promising I will write every day or even every week...but I will try to not completely abandon this blog and check in every now and then.

So that's right 40...I'm here...I'm happy and I truly am FABULOUS!!