My first day as 40-something

Yep. It happened. At 8:01 this morning I officially turned 40. Funny. I don't feel any older than I did yesterday. Well, that's not entirely true. I'm actually feeling pretty crappy right now due to a cold that I had been fighting all weekend. Over the weekend I was pretty much winning the battle, but now I'd say the cold and I are about even. And now Hope seems to have the sniffles.

BUT...despite this cold thing, 40 is great so far. In my last post I told you that Mark felw my friend Marsha up from Dallas to surprise me. What a great surprise and what a great time I had with her. The bad part about her coming is that she always has to go home. I don't really like that so much. But Marsha wasn't the only surprise my husband (and my Mother-in-Law) had up his sleeve for the weekend. Marsha, Hope and I went out for brunch and did an errand on Saturday. When we got home we were all tired so we thought a nap was in order. Hope had just gotten asleep and I was almost there myself when I heard the dogs barking. I sprang out of bed to get to the door before someone could ring the doorbell and wake Hope up. It was my sister!!! She drove up from LaCrosse to surprise me. That was so wonderful. So Marsha, JoEllen and I sat around and talked. After a little while Hope woke up and entertained us. We talked a lot about my sister's (and her youngest son, Shane) upcoming trip to Thailand! Lucky ducks!! Jo's oldest son (Barry) is living is South Korea right now and taking all these great trips. He's taking Jo and Shane to Thailand for Jo's 50th birthday. Anyway...later Sat. afternoon the doorbell rang again. It was my Mom, my sister Alison, brother-in-law John, niece Sophie and nephew Jack. Another surprise!!! We all went out for supper that night and then Marsha and I went to the hotel where they were staying and had girls time with the beautiful cake she made me (I'll get pictures of the weekend on here soon). But the surprises didn't stop there. I found out when I read through the bulletin at church on Sunday morning that there was an open house for me on Sunday afternoon. Sheesh!! I guess turning 40 is a big deal. LOL Then I was surprised when people from my former congregation came to wish me a happy birthday. It was just a wonderful, wonderful weekend. I couldn't have asked for a better celebration!

Now for my actual birthday: it started out with Ian Punnett (talk show host extraordinaire) wishing me the best day ever!! Mark sent Ian an email asking that Ian wish me the best day ever. Ian gave me crap about giving Mark a bad time about being almost 50. It was funny. When that was done I went to pick up the phone to tell Mark thank you (he's away for job stuff) and the phone rang. It was Mark's aunt Donna who lives in Minnesota. She was listening to the station and called to wish me a Happy Birthday. Then when Hope woke up she sang happy birthday to me. That was the best! Other great events of the day: nice cards from special people in my life, a visit at the office from Mark, Gail and little Hope H., great lunch with my friend David, and calls from my sister Jo, my Mom and Marsha, and new pictures of little Isaiah Daniel. He is SOOOOOOO cute!!!

Ya know what?? This next decade in my life is going to be the bomb!! I already love being 40. I truly am blessed. I know I don't deserve all these wonderful people in my life, Lord, but thank you for putting them here for me to enjoy. Help me to be a blessing to them as they are a blessing to me.

Now it's time for this old fart to go to bed! Old fart?? Nope!! Young 'un (as they'd say in Texas). Pictures of the weekend to come.

OH...one more really important thing: my Mom told me that Ali heard from Andrew! He's alive. YEAH!!! Well, not that we thought he wasn't alive, but I guess he's only allowed 1 phone call during bootcamp. It's probably a good thing she wasn't home when he called because the message said, "Mom, it's Andrew. If you're there, DON'T pick up the phone!" Can't they let a guy talk to his Mommy?? He wasn't very clear on the message so she couldn't understand his address. She's going to contact Andrew's recruiter. Hopefully he'll be able to get Andrew's address for us so we can bombard him with letters. I want to send him Packer articles from the paper since the Packers rock (at least so far this season). Go Pack, Go!!

Now it's good night!