40

It is shortly after midnight on May 30. I am 40 years old today. We are celebrating this weekend several times, which I am excited about. Tonight (Friday), Hubby, B1, B2, and I are going to the Cardinal baseball game. Before the game, we are going to meet 2 friends at the Spaghetti Factory, which is one of my favorite restaurants. I love going to the Cardinal game on my birthday! Growing up, my dad would try to get seats from his company every year on or as close to my birthday as possible so we could go. It was great.

Saturday night, some friends of ours are going out to the Landing to celebrate. We are going to start with dinner at Hannigan's and then play it by ear after that. Should be a fun time!

Sunday, my parents, brother, and the 4 of us are going to the Cheesecake Factory, another favorite restaurant of mine.

I have put together a list of some of the significant things that have happened in each of my 40 years thus far. They are:

1 – Celebrated my first birthday and probably began walking!
2 – My brother entered my life one month before my 2nd birthday
3 – I most likely began Sunday School sometime during this year. My Grandpa Jack died just before I turned 3. I wish I could remember him.....sounds like he was a great guy.
4 - Can't remember anything from this year.
5 – Began the thirteen looooong years of public school education!
6 – In first grade, I clearly remember an experience I had with math, grouping numbers by 10’s.
7 – In second grade, I had some trouble with separation anxiety at school and my teacher was so kind to me.
8 – I had Miss Becker for 3rd grade, a lady who had taught my parents as well! Also, we moved into the house where my parents still live.
9 – In fourth grade, I was Mrs. Cange’s “Student of the Week” during both the first week of school AND the last week of school. I was proud to be the very first one of the school year!
10 – In fifth grade, I got my first “C.” I was rather mortified and didn’t really like Mrs. Moore very much. The “C” was in social studies. My Grandpa Dotty died right at the end of 5th grade. He and my grandma built the house we currently live in.
11 – I remember that for my 11th birthday, my Grandma Philipine gave me a silver charm bracelet, which is still in my jewelry box today.
12 – I got contact lenses the summer after I turned twelve. I was also a cheerleader during this school year.
13 – Oh, the teenage years. I didn’t make cheerleading but I survived. Instead, I kept the stat book for the away basketball games. And I was salutatorian of my 8th grade class.
14 – The beginning of high school and going to school with kids from Marine and Troy, which was a HUGE switch for us St. Jacob kids!
15 – This was my sophomore year of high school. I had a boyfriend from St. Louis who I dated for almost a year.
16 – The driver’s license! It seems I was the one who drove on the weekends most of the time. My parents were cooler than my friends’ parents because all of them had to be home at midnight. I didn’t have to be home until 12:30. That way, since I was usually the one driving, I could take them home (most of the time in Troy) and still be home by my own curfew.
17 – My senior year of high school. I remember doing a lot of thinking about “life” during this time.
18 – Graduated from Triad and began attending Eastern Illinois University.
19 – This was the summer I began working at Dairy Queen in Highland and became friends with Hubby and many more people who are still a very vital part of my life.
20 – Hubby and I began dating a couple months before my 20th birthday.
21 – On my 21st birthday, I was still at EIU (the semester had ended and I was going to “intersession” which was a 3.5 week session during which time I took 2 classes). Hubby came up and visited me and we went to the local liquor store where I bought a bottle of wine. I think this day was one of the only times in my life when I actually WANTED to be carded!
22 – I graduated from EIU in December of this year.
23 – I started my first “real” job (post college) a few months before my 23rd birthday.
24 – Hubby and I got engaged on our 4th anniversary of dating, which was just a couple of months before my 24th birthday.
25 – We got married when I was 25.
26 – We moved into our current (and probably forever) house when I was 26 and we got our first pet, miniature dachshund Barney.
27 – I got pregnant with B1!
28 – I had B1!
29 – I began hating my job and Hubby began encouraging me to switch to a career in teaching.
30 – I got the best job in the world, teaching math at Triad High School!
31 – I got pregnant with AND had B2 during my 31st year.
32 – The new millennium and all the Y2K stuff, which didn’t happen
33 – This was 2001 and we all know what happened on 9/11 that year.
34 – B2 got pneumonia and had to spend a week at Cardinal Glennon. It wasn’t fun but I had full confidence in the doctors there and was never scared.
35 - We went to Walnut Grove, MN as a part of our vacation that summer. This town was made famous by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
36 – We went to Disney World and St. Petersburg, FL on vacation that summer – a trip I had literally been saving for since before B2 was conceived!
37 – We rented a cabin in Gatlinburg this summer and it was awesome!
38 – We went to Texas (Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas) this summer and had a better time than I think any of us expected
39 – My Grandma Philipine died in January of this year, Barney died in February, we got Shinza in April, and my mom got sick in December. We also went on vacation with my parents to Cedar Point, Cooperstown, and Niagara Falls, as well as 3 baseball stadiums along the way.
40 – My mom is slowly improving, which is the best birthday gift I could ask for.

I have had a great 40 years. I am such a lucky person to have a wonderful family, great friends, and a job I love (most days). I know I am truly blessed and hope that God gives me another 40 years to enjoy this life on earth.