36 and loving it....

today i am 36. 

happy birthday to me!

do you examine yourself in the mirror on your birthday to see if you look different?  checking for a new gray hair?  or another wrinkle that is gracing your face?  or maybe another chin appeared overnight?  or maybe your rear has dropped an inch?  i know i can't be the only one who does this, right?

i woke up this morning looked in the mirror and took a step back.  looking back at me was a pizza face with bloodshot, puffy eyes.  this woman's hair had a huge rat's nest poking out from the left side and the right side was all over the place.  who the heck is in my mirror?  i took a step towards the mirror, leaned in over the sink and stared at that woman.  oh yeah that is me.  wow 36 looks rough!

there is a really good reason for the i drank all 100 bottles of beer on the wall, haggared look.  i hadn't really slept.  i went to bed with excellent intentions of getting a solid 8 hours.  however my children had other plans.  after the 15th trip upstairs to console my buddy who was suffereing from fever nightmares i decided to drag him down to my bed.  shortly after i got his sweat soaked clothes changed and safely snuggled in my bed, my daughter came in crying i don't want to sleep upstairs all by myself.

i have always thought i have a lot of patience, but something happens to me between the hours of 1:00 and 4:00 am.  i lose every ounce, i mean every ounce, of patience i have.  when my daughter came in crying the only thing i could say to her was so help me if you don't have it figured it out in 5 minutes...  i am sure this was delivered in a demon possessed gruff voice, but i'm telling you something happens to me that is beyond my control.  at some point during the constant starts and stops of sleeping we all drifted off.  only to be woken by my alarm, chirping happily that it is the start of another day.  oh my goodness, i was so not ready for that. 

as you can see the day didn't start off exactly as i had planned, but like a trooper i turned it around, got the kids up, turned myself into a birthday goddess and made it out the door on time.  i thought i was doing pretty good until bethy said what is wrong with your eyes?  they are all puffy and bloodshot.  gotta love the honesty that only your closest friends share with you.  she didn't ask me about the teenage acne that was spreading across my chin, i guess she could tell by my expression that i could only take so much. 

overall the day was great.  my kiddos sent me on a scavenger hunt in the morning for my birthday note.  i had to work, but my coworkers had a little celebration complete with red velvet cake, flowers and coffee.  the ladies took me out for pizza and beer, they sure do know me.  i met up with a friend after dinner with the ladies for a nightcap.  it really was a great day.