The day before my birthday.

Yup tomorrow is my 35th birthday. 24 years ago tomorrow was the day I brought home my very first baby, K, and just 3 years ago I was heavily pregnant with my last baby, M. It's funny how for me birthdays make me really look at my life and count my blessings. 5 years ago on my 30th birthday I got my Mom and J to rent me a nice hotel room with a huge tub and I went out for dinner and a movie with J and then spent the night, alone, in the hotel room. Trust me for a Mom that is a huge luxury!! I enjoyed it a great deal. While I was there all alone (and realizing just how boring being alone was) I took stock to see how I really felt about turning 30.

I decided that even though my 20s were behind me that I was very happy with where my life had ended up...now I'm half way thru my 30s and I have to say that not much has changed in my outlook on my life. I have a wonderful man who goes to work everyday, comes home every night, doesn't smoke, doesn't drink and treats me wonderful. I have 3 beautiful children who love one another and me and show it everyday in many ways. They are healthy and happy and kind (most of the time) and smart (most of the time). I have a wonderful old dog(15 years old) who shows me everyday that life can be enjoyed even when you're old, half blind, half deaf and have a hard time moving around and a nice soft cat who has all the attitude of the teenagers I'm going to be dealing with in a couple more years! My Mom is still alive and (relatively) healthy and she loves me too...every bit as much as I love my kids. I also have a good friend who makes time for me even in her hectic life and I always enjoy our talks even when I don't always agree with her...she makes me think deeply and hard, everyone needs a friend like that!

There are many things in my life that I am grateful for but I've found that it's the people in my life that make it worth living no matter how frustrated or fed up I get some days. If I didn't have them in my life I would just be an alone, bitter woman and lets face it; there are enough of them on this planet already!!

So tomorrow I am spending the day with the people I love. No big fancy parties for me (and I wouldn't like that anyway) but a wonderful morning and lunch out with my man, an afternoon with my Mom and M and an evening out with my best friend C. I can't wait!!

Just to show you that I'm still a nut, here's a song I really like. The video is from some cartoon or other...but I just love this version of Happy Birthday by Weird Al :)