40

Looking in the mirror this morning, I see gray hairs, wrinkles AND acne.  So far I'm not all that impressed with 40.

But celebrating my birthday was fun anyway!  On Thursday night my parents hosted a dinner for all my siblings and their spouses and my grandmother and it was a relaxing and lovely evening.

Then Friday morning I was awoken with the news that a friend of mine had dropped by with breakfast for us. So in my scrubby pajamas and bed-head I came out to see Deb and her kids waiting for me with flowers and cinnamon rolls, and they promptly broke into a loud, off-key (on purpose) version of Happy Birthday.  What a way to start the day!

 Then after breakfast my kids were excited to give me their gifts.

And throughout the day I found them re-wrapping various things to give me.  I loved this one that Milo presented to me, wrapped in scrap paper he found.  I asked him what he wrote and he said, "D and 2 M's for "Dear Mom."

I loved getting birthday greetings, phone calls, messages, etc., all day -- including a video montage from our awesome next-door neighbors.  Amusing, to say the least!

For dinner Pete made lasagna (in his words: "the best lasagna I've ever eaten") and he and the kids made me a very tasty cake.

So even though I was just starting to get used to the fact that I was thirty-something and now I have to make a mentally-jarring shift that I'm even older than that, I am thankful for this blessed life.  And hey, the Mayans were wrong and we're all still here, so that's something to celebrate, too.

(The best gift I got, though, came from my son this past week, who saw me come down the stairs wearing some new clothes and said, "Mom, you look pretty!  You look like you're, like, 15 or something!")