My birthday was going to be a typical day. With the chaos of life, I was ok with the fact that we were all simply too busy to do anything to celebrate. Just having so many reach out with a desire to celebrate was enough.
Ok, let's be real, just having boys big enough to bring in the trash cans for me was enough. Truly, it's so great they're all so willing and able.
This little man has such drive - I love it!
The morning of Fran took the boys to school while I ran to Walmart and then the church to get ready for our Relief Society activity that night. Visiting Teaching interviews, to be exact, not real exciting. But, there we were setting up. From there I went to my favorite spot to run and it felt so good. Once home I discovered flowers delivered from my parents. This picture does not do justice to that arrangement. Those with the ones Fran and Jacob brought over that morning made the house smell divine.
From there, the day went on as usual. Drop offs. Pick ups. Homework. Gymnastics. But at Gymnastics, Nikki surprised me with flowers and a gift card. H&M, of course. I've been dying to go since they opened one up in Valencia. It was such a sweet surprise from my awesome friend.
After gymnastics Andi and I met up with my parents for a half hour dinner at sushi before I had to run her home and head over to the church. It was a bit of a bummer to have the activity on the night of my birthday but I was actually enjoying myself. The night was going smoothly and then BAM....
Fran and Helena walked in carrying cupcakes and all started singing, "Happy Birthday". Fran was quite amused with the shade of red on my face - I swear, ever since college I have easily blushed when the center of attention. I can't stand this! I digress...
At this point, Fran is whispering in my ear, "get your stuff, let's go." Helena is nodding her head telling me she has things covered. I'm staring at my responsibilities not being able to leave them and then I'm being pushed out of the room.
Once out the door, I no longer felt the pull to my responsibilities.
BUT, it wasn't all so smooth. I found out Cory was missing. No one knew where he was. He was supposed to be leaving an appointment at 3:30pm that afternoon and at this point, four hours later, no one had heard from him. I called Andrew to tell him as we were all pretty nervous about the possibilities. The phone call to Andrew brought back vivid memories of my conversation with Andrew the morning Wes passed. Andrew, speechless, me, in denial. Andrew hung up on me and I assumed he was going to begin calling Cory. The funny thing is, everyone had been trying to call him. At that point, Cody and Casey were on there way to Topanga, with guns in tow, to try to find their brother. It's nuts where your mind wanders. About five minutes later, Andrew called me to tell me he got a hold of Cory. The relief. Fran, Lauren, myself, we were all teary eyed as we heard he was ok. And go figure, he had no clue the commotion he had caused. The clients he thought were a no show, showed up and they had a great meeting. The problem was he had no cell service and didn't think to find a way to check in with anyone.
With Cory found, we were now ready to head to my surprise and celebrate.
I received my first H&M gift card at gymnastics. My second at church. My third in Fran's car.
Off to H&M we went. But the surprises didn't end there - Becky, Nikki and Michalle were there waiting for us. It was such a great way to end my day. I roamed and shopped without a worry. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday outing. Although, some were missed and of course we would have loved to have them there also. Next year ;)
We finished the evening with dessert and water at BJ's. "Is pepsi ok?". "No, no it is not!".
Friday afternoon Cole and I meet up with my awesome peeps for a birthday lunch at Jersey Mike's. I'm so grateful for these girls and their love and support over the years. Their friendship has never wavered and I know this is tough to come by.
Saturday morning we had the treat of having Andrew and Ryan join us at hockey. They have to miss every week because of the time conflict and so we decided that because Ryan had a double header, it'd be nice to have someone coach the first game for Andrew so he could see one of Jackson's games. He hasn't been for a while and Jackson's abilities on the rink have grown drastically. It was so great he was able to make it. And better yet, he and Ryan were even able to make it to half time of Ryan's first game.
We experience a first that day. Jackson's game ended in a shoot out. The storm clouds rolled in, the sun slipped behind and the fan stood on their feet. It was super intense and super exhilarating. The team had a blast and really cheered for one another. The best part was Jackson's coach - he knows just what to say when things don't go well. Jackson's strength isn't his aim and so here he was, his turn, and he missed. But his coach was so positive, so uplifting, you would have thought Jackson did score. In the end, his team won and they were all super stoked.
That night we took the kids to their grandma grandpa sleepover and Andrew and I headed to Burbank, again. A few weeks back we saw a Comedy Club and so we decided to try it out. We were there early but starving and so we ate alone in the patio. It was such a nice night and so what we needed. I wasn't thrilled with the show but then again, I'm super tough to please when it comes to comedy. I like smart wit. I like creativity. I don't like vulgarity used simply for shock value. It needs to be done well. These guys were truly amateurs and it made me crave a play or anything in a theater. Afterwards we roamed the Burbank night life and hit up Coffee Bean because one, it's better than Starbucks and two, we needed something to help us stay awake past 10pm. Yes, true story. We also hit Target on the way home because nothing says date night like roaming Target at all hours of the night. It always blows my mind when you see kids in there crying and parents all frustrated with them. HELLO, do you not think they're going to act out when they're ridiculously tired?
Sunday morning Andrew ran to Acton to get the kids and I showered and cleaned the house. Jill arrived a bit early so we had a chance to chat while I cleaned before all the kids came and raised the noise level a notch. Jill requested last year that she carve pumpkins with us this year. I was so happy when she remembered and contacted us to make it happen. I love the effort she puts into building relationships with the kids and with us. Tristan, Bauer and Chris were able to join us and I really hope this becomes a tradition. The fact is, I'm not real creative. My kids got that crave and desire from their father so to have others here, other creative ones, really made it all so great. I enjoyed watching while they all went to work.
*Note to self: don't leave pumpkins outside the night before you plan to carve them - it'll freeze your hand off!
Sunday afternoon we met up with my family for a birthday linner at Kishos. Everyone was there. Everyone. It's great that we're getting to this point after some tough years. It was so great being able to celebrate with everyone and I'm so grateful for all the efforts made.
All the kids could talk about on the way there was the burning tower of onions.
It was such a blessed weekend. Shoot, I just remembered I started that birthday journal last year. Guess I should get on that, huh! Happy Birthday to me - it was a good one!
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