My 31st Birthday Weekend of fun

Oh I just had the best birthday weekend! There was shopping, there was food, there was an amazing party with awesome women. It might have been one of my favorite birthdays so far.  

Shopping

It started out on Saturday with a shopping spree.  We got our tax refund back this week and so on Saturday we went to Dothan to buy a few things.  I was needing a break from the kids so I took the Jeep and went to do some clothes shopping for the kids.  

I was trying to find the location for this semi annual event called Upscale Resale where people sell high quality used children clothes.  Unfortunately I had bad directions.  But I ended up driving right by a thrift store that I haven't checked out yet.  I went in there and basically found my version of heaven.  I haven't found a good thrift store for furniture yet and so I was so happy to walk in there and find rows and rows of couches, bed frames, and dressers. 

The only downside was that I don't actually need any new furniture right now.  But they also had a pretty good selection of children's clothes so I was able to buy most of the things I needed for the kids.  I even found a new pair of pants for me for $4.  

After that I went to K-Mart which was having a store closing sale.  I'm always shocked to see that K-Mart is even still in business.  I walked around that store for almost an hour trying to find anything that I was willing to buy.  It was a good reminder of why I don't shop there.  Even at 30% off there wasn't much that I was tempted to get.  Finally I settled on some makeup. 

Then I drove over to Sam's Club and met up with Brandon and the kids.  They'd come down in the Honda and were waiting in the parking lot.  We went inside and got our Sam's Club Membership.  My family always shopped at Sam's Club when I was a kid so it was fun to take my kids there.  They thought the samples were fun. And they were pretty impressed with the size of the things we bought.  We grabbed a big 6 pack box of noodles and Charlotte exclaimed, "Lydia, It's EVERYTHING we need."  Which is true because they pretty much only eat noodles.

After that we went to Lowes and bought a deep freezer.  Or rather we just ordered one because they were out of stock.  But still it was good to know that we'll have one within a few days.  

We'd hoped to also have time for some clothes shopping for Brandon and I, but the kids were close to done.  (It tells you a lot about our family that we can do outdoor adventure stuff for hours, but we get worn out after just a few stores.)  Brandon had still needed to get some new copies of the Jeep key (all our spares have disappeared over the years and we were down to one key.)  But Lowes hadn't had the type of key he needed.  So I took the kids home in the Honda and he went to Walmart to get the key copied.  

On the way home I remembered we needed to stop at the commissary for some fruit for my birthday party.  I decided that we also needed to buy some cones to go with ice cream that I'd bought earlier.  I told the kids we needed to get three things at the store.  They were pretty good about making one last stop.  

Brandon got home a little after we did and we had a quick dinner.  Then we had ice cream to celebrate that we'd paid off a student loan that week and that Brandon had passed his FAA test.   Usually we do movie night on Saturdays, but the kids were so tired that we just gave them baths and put them to bed.  

Then Brandon and I stayed up reading Steelheart.  We ended up finishing it.  Brandon really liked all the twists and revelations at the end.  I was telling him that we need to read Firefight, and then we can both read Calamity together when it comes out later this month.  (It's one of my belated birthday presents.)  But Brandon says he kind of hates reading books with me when I'm reading them for the first time, because all I want to do is read the book as fast as possible. So I guess we'll just take our time with Firefight since I can read Calamity on my own.  (And if this paragraph makes no sense to you, you really should read the Reckoners series by Brandon Sanderson.  Actually you really should read anything by Brandon Sanderson.)

Food

On Sunday morning Brandon let me sleep in.  He even brought me breakfast in bed. (French toast, fried eggs, orange juice.)  When I finally did roll out of my room I was greeted by a chorus of Happy Birthday shouts from the kids. Soon it was time to go to church.  I was excited to wear this cute outfit.  I bought this dress when I was pregnant with Veronica.  I loved it that summer, but I haven't liked it so much since then because I feel like I look pregnant when I wear it.  But now that I've lost a lot of weight it looks better on me.

Church was good, but not very remarkable.  When we got home Brandon went to work making Egg Plant Parmesan.  This meal is so yummy, but it's labor intensive so I always feel bad asking Brandon to make it.  But it was my birthday so he was happy to make it.

While Brandon cooked I had the all important job of laying down and taking a nap with Veronica.  Later I was able to talk on the phone with my parents.  They are really enjoying their mission in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Then it was dinner time. Here I am enjoying my eggplant Parmesan.  Brandon did such a good job. Gosh I have the best husband.

Then it was time for cake.  Honestly I would have been fine skipping cake, but it was important to my kids.  The girls and I made the cake on Friday and frosted it on Saturday.  We decorated it with little sugar hearts that they actually picked out for Veronica's birthday back in September.  We didn't use them then, so I saved them for now.

The kids watched as Brandon put 31 candles in the cake. I think I should add that I kind of panicked a few weeks ago when I realized I'd be 31 soon.  I was just fine with turning 30, but turning 31 means I'm officially in my thirties.  There's no turning back now.

Derrick loves to watch all the videos I've made of the kids blowing out their candles.  So I made sure to film my cake too.  I handed the camera over to Charlotte and I think she turned it off for a minute, but you get the idea. 

The kids loved the cake.  When they were done we still had an hour and a half until bedtime.  Even through it was Sunday I decided we needed to have movie night for the weekend.  So we watched my favorite birthday movie - Miracle.  So yeah while the rest of the US was watching the Super Bowl we were watching a movie about a hockey team in 1980.  It's funny because usually I identify with the young players when I watch that movie.  But this time I was identifying with the coach too.  I guess that's a sign that I'm getting older.

The kids were pretty hopped up on sugar which is a recipe for disaster when you are trying to watch a movie with a lot of dialog.  They did like the hockey parts so we ended up fast forwarding a lot of the movie and just watching the games.  Charlotte fell asleep, but Lydia stayed awake the whole time.  She was so excited when "our" team won at the end.

The kids went to bed and then Brandon and I had fried ice cream.  He'd also made that for me.  It was so good, but wow - what a lot of sugar.

Party!
As great as my birthday had been the thing I was looking forward to the most was the party I'd planned for the next day.

I'm trying to remember where the idea for the party started.  I think the very beginning of the idea was from my friend Erin.  Years ago I went to a birthday party that she'd planned for herself.  She told me, "I always wanted other people to make a big deal out of my birthday.  But they didn't so I decided that I had to make it a big deal."  I liked that idea.

Another seed of the idea started a few months ago when I started going to P-31 activities at the chapel on post.  I was able to get to know my friend Becca better and we both really enjoyed the chance to just talk and connect as women.

And a few weeks ago I started hanging out at the park with the other mom's in my neighborhood.  It's turning into this understood thing that on good afternoons we'll all just meet up at the park and talk while our kids play.  It's been so fun and honestly makes me feel like I'm one of the "cool moms."

I also had really good memories of the party that I put together two years ago for all my Fort Hood friends when our husbands were away on Valentine's Day.  I wanted to do something similar with all my Fort Rucker Friends.

So all these ideas swirled around in my head until I decided that I wanted to celebrate my birthday by inviting all my friends over for brunch. And we all know that when I say all my friends I really mean, anyone I've ever even sort of had a conversation with.  I just can't leave any one out.  (Side effects of feeling left out a lot in my early teens.)

Thanks to the magic of Facebook I was able to invite a lot of my friends really easily. I was also able to track down a lot of people that I know, but that I don't interact with a lot.  Even then I'm still worried that I forgot some people.  So if you are reading this, and you weren't invited I'm sorry.  We will have to get together sometime.  By Sunday night I had at least 15 women who said they were coming to my party.

On Monday I hurried to get the three older kids onto the school bus, and then Veronica and I came home and finished getting everything ready.  Brandon had put the leaf in the dinning room table and I was so excited to see it get used.

At first as I was planning this party, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to serve but then I remembered that if you get a group of women together-who don't know each other well-they actually wont eat that much.  (It's a weird scientific fact that I've discovered over the years.)  So I decided to keep it simple.  I made healthy chocolate banana muffins and less healthy chocolate covered pretzels.  I had fruit and veggies available and I knew that would be enough.

I just have to show off the pretzels. These are have become my favorite treat.  I think I've made a variation of them for every holiday since Halloween.  This time I did them in white chocolate and put conversation hearts on some of them.  Other's got pink or heart shaped sprinkles.

People started showing up a little after 9:00.  It was so great to have everyone there.  Most of the people who came were from my LDS ward, but there were a few neighbors too.  Even though most of us go to church together we don't always get a lot of time to socialize.  So everyone was happy to have a chance to talk.

I'd told everyone not to worry about bringing a present, but to come ready to chat.  I explained that my love language is Time and so I would rather have people come spend time with me than give me gifts.  (But that doesn't mean I didn't appreciate the gifts that people gave me.)

I also read a quote from one of my favorite bloggers, Jennifer Fulwiler.  Two years ago she wrote a post called When in Doubt . . . Go about why people need to get together.  That post inspired the Valentine's Day party and was one of the main reasons I worked so hard on the play group and other things I did when I was in Fort Hood.  I highly recommend reading the whole post, but the part I read says:

Ten years ago, I understood intuitively that it’s always good to get people together, even if you can’t predict exactly what the benefits will be. Though I couldn’t have articulated it at the time, one of my unspoken life mottos was:

Hang out with people in person.
Ask them about their lives — real questions, not small talk.
Watch the magic happen.

I told everyone that we were going to try to force some magic.  I'd written down 20 questions on pieces of paper and I told everyone to pick one.  The questions were things like, What do you want to accomplish in the next year? or What is your favorite book?  Then we took turns answering the questions.

It was so fun to hear the answers.  I think one of my favorites was Lassell's answer to "What would you do if you knew you could not fail?"  Her answer was, "buy a lottery ticket."

And guess what?  We had some magic happen!  Janell's question was "What is a talent that you are proud of?" Janell told about how she is a golfer and how it's helped her life.  Morgan said, "My son plays golf, but we haven't found him a teacher since we moved here." And I hurried and said, "Janell teaches lessons."  They exchanged phone numbers later. It was a cool little connection that might not have happened otherwise.

After we were done with our questions I told everyone that they could just enjoy talking the rest of the time.  And boy did everyone talk.  If there is one thing I know for sure it's that women need other women.  I loved hearing snippets of all the conversations.  I know a lot of friendships were strengthened and I'm sure that a few were formed.

Gradually everyone started to leave.  I'd made a little quote hand out thingy for everyone to take on their way out.  It was one of my all time favorite quotes.  I heard this for the first time 4 or 5 years ago and it changed the way I view my life.  It says:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

That's by Marianne Williamson buts its often incorrectly attributed to Nelson Mandela. 

I hoped that by coming together today my friends had been able to make their lights shine just a little bit brighter.  

I counted later and we'd had 17 women and 17 children there counting Veronica and me.

Most people had places to be, but there were still a few women around when it was time for me to pick my kids up from the bus.  My friend Melissa (I should say one of my many many many friends named Melissa) stayed around so her daughter could play with my girls for a little bit.  We had a good time chatting about our gardens and such.  

Then she left and the party was officially over.  We had left over food (I told you there would be left overs) for lunch and kind of did nothing the rest of the afternoon.  Brandon was on a morning flight schedule so he got home in the early afternoon.  He took over kid duty and I took some treats over to my friend Kara who has a newborn so she wasn't able to come to the party.  We visited for a little bit.  

Then I went up to the courthouse and stood in line forever so I could get a new copy of the Jeeps registration.  (It randomly disappeared when we had it in the house for something.)  Honestly, standing in that boring line was really good for me after all the talking and socializing I'd been doing all day.  I love people, but at my core I'm an introvert and I need silence and time alone to recharge.  

By the time I got home Brandon had already fed the kids dinner.  They played around for a little bit and then it was time to start working on the next big event - Valentine's Day!  I love that my birthday just flows right into my favorite holiday.

Brandon and I helped Charlotte and Lydia write their names on (about 5) Valentines.  I wrote Derrick's name on his.  Then we put candy onto the Valentines.  

Each kid's class told us to prepare Valentines for 20 kids.  So here's what 60 Valentines looks like all ready to go.  At first Charlotte and Lydia didn't get the concept of Valentines so they didn't want to give away any of their Valentines.  After I explained it about 20 times I think they are willing to trust me that they are going to get a whole bunch of Valentines and candy back in return.  They get to bring them home on Friday so we'll see how it goes.

Anyway, I had such a great birthday.  I also appreciated all the birthday wishes on Facebook.  I'm terrible at wishing people Happy Birthday so I'm always so touched when people say it to me.

I'm trying to think of a way to sum up this whole post.  I guess I should just say that I'm happy to be me and I'm happy to be 31. And I'm happy to have a great family and great friends. This year of my life is off to a great start.