Birthday Eve

We are in the thick of birthday season around here: Ben and Dorothy in March, Jack in April, me in May, and Harry in June. Then we catch our breath for a couple of months and celebrate Cooper in September.  (And this will be Cooper's first friend party this year with his sweet little preschool friends-- I mean, I am assuming they will be sweet and little). But first tomorrow!  Tomorrow is my birthday!  Yay! My favorite!

Ben took Harry to his Music Man rehearsal, and I made myself an ugly but hopefully delicious birthday cookie cake.  The boys are very excited to eat it for breakfast, and who can blame them??

I am definitely not expecting any gifts tomorrow because I am getting a 90-minute massage in the morning (a fabulous gift), and we are going on vacation in less than 2 weeks and you would not believe all the clothes I have been buying myself (being too large for all my old summer clothes has some advantages).  But I am expecting a lovely day:  waking up early to work out, eating cookie cake for breakfast with the fam, going to my massage, spending the day at work finishing up my summer class, proctoring an exam, and meeting with the 2014 TAs one more time, coming home to put all the kids to bed, going out with Ben to our favorite birthday bar.  It sounds perfect in theory-- cross your fingers that it;s that good in practice.

I say this every year, but every year it's true:  THIS is the year that I really feel old. 3 dozen years?!  That's a lot of years.  And I have accomplished a lot-- a wonderful marriage, a PhD, 4 gorgeous kids-- but I also feel like I have been blithely squandering my time, figuring I am so young that I have lots of time before I need to focus on any major accomplishments.  So maybe this will be the year that I get serious about getting serious.

36 will be the year I will:

Finally lose 18 pounds (For real-- I mean it this time.  I am on the right track-- tonight I knew I would eat tons of cookie dough and frosting while making my cake, so I skipped dinner.  Erm.  Okay-- for realz I am getting serious about getting in shape).
WRITE A NOVEL (I am not fucking around.  I am going to dedicate AT LEAST 4 hours a week to writing.  I know that's not enough time to write  a whole book, but Ben and I talked about it, and we can't find more time right now, but we are hoping that some will open up once I start ).
Run a race (Shut up-- I am serious.  I do between 3.3 and 3.5 miles a morning in 40 minutes or less, so 3.1 is totally doable).
Perform something somewhere (This one is not as fully formed as the rest, but I am thinking about it).

So there you have it-- remind me on my next birthday eve to check on the status of this list, huh?

Dorothy loves to play dress up: