Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday To You, Happy Birthday To You, Happy Birthday Dear Dad, Oldest Daughter and Me, Happy Birthday To You!

Yes, it’s true, today I am 41. Birthdays, to me, are like New Years to some people. Some people use a new year as a marker to make resolutions or changes. I don’t. I consider birthdays the markers of time.

My father and I shared a birth date. (Not the same year, of course) Our birthday parties were always combined and I admit, being young and silly at the time, I hated that. I wanted my own party, my own cake and my own day like everybody else seemed to have. My dad, on the other hand, thought sharing a birthday was the cat’s meow, so I never really said anything.

My dad passed away shortly before my thirteenth birthday. While I’m 100% sure my mom did something for my 13th birthday, I can’t even remember it. I just remember thinking it was going to be too difficult to ever celebrate my birthday again. So I didn’t until I turned 21.

Because of my school situation, my friends at that time were all a year to two older than I was. For quite a while, I wasn’t able to go out with them a lot and now that I was finally old enough, I was going to a bar. It was fun and I thought that maybe I should start celebrating at least the “big birthdays” again. Should have, would have, could have...I didn’t.

Almost three weeks overdue and seven hours before my 25th birthday, my oldest daughter was born. I know that technically it wasn’t the same day, but it was close enough. I declared my birthday celebrations over because I wanted my daughter to have her own “day”.

People close to me always thought this was ridiculous, but I wouldn’t budge unless it was a "big one" and due to an unfortunate error made during a surgical procedure, I ended up spending my 30th birthday in the hospital. Not much celebrating to be done there.

Last year, when I turned 40, the hubby insisted enough was enough. The hubby never insists, so I felt obligated to oblige. I had a 40th birthday bash at my house and I had a fabulous time.

After the party, Oldest Daughter (who is a big fan of birthdays) asked me why I never celebrate mine. I told her it’s because of how I used to feel and I wanted her to have her own day. To my surprise, she told me that she always thought it was cool we shared a birthday and that I was being a dork. I think she’s cool for teaching me that being silly isn’t just wasted on the young.

Right here and now, my resolution is that I am officially going to celebrate my birthday every single year. This S A T U R D A Y night, I am gonna rock it up, roll it up, do it all and have a ball. My normally “in bed by 8:30 PM friends” better sleep in that day because I have a lot of birthdays with which to catch up.

I am a “sap” and I always look through pictures on big events like anniversaries and birthdays. I was looking through my daughter’s pictures and wondered how she went from looking like this on her first birthday....


To this...Sweet Sixteen....in the blink of an eye.



Oldest Daughter was amazed because there must be thousands of photos in my box and I am in almost none of them. She set the ones I am in aside and there’s really only a few. Due to a flood at my mom’s house, there are next to no pictures remaining from when I was little and I’m always the photographer now. It is what it is.

Since I always admire the photos other people post on their blogs, I thought I’d do something a little different with this blog entry and birthday and share some of mine. Kind of a "Rock Chick, This Is Your Life", if you will...

This is a picture of my parents on their wedding day. I look like my mom.


This is the only picture I have of my dad and I together and it was taken on my 1st birthday on a trip to a petting zoo.


This is the only picture I have of me in the toddler era. You have to love the 60's. A time when people thought nothing of taking a TV tray, covering it with fabric and calling it a TV stand.


This is my sister, my grandfather and I. I was 5. I'm sure of this because my mom made me wear this dress in my official Kindergarten photo. I don't have the picture, but I remember strongly disliking the dress. My sister doesn't look too happy in hers, either :)


Here I am at 15 during a high school performance as "Bonnie" in Anything Goes. "Bonnie" was pushing away a supposedly drunken character during a dance routine. My mom says it's a fine reflection of my friendly, yet "back off", personality.


Which must be very true, because here I am just last week. I had to assume the same "Bonnie" dance pose with this drunken character while out dancing with my friends. No matter how old you get, some things never change.


One of my favorite parts of high school was being in the swing/dance choir. Here I am Junior Year during a practice. (I am bottom left)


I hate my wedding pictures, but I love this picture of JW and I. It was taken the night we got engaged. It was 1992, but there are still remnants of my big 80's hair.


Then came the kiddos. I have two all-time favorite pictures of all four kids together. The first is from Halloween 1998.


And this one...from Easter 1999. The exact personality of each of the kids is completely visible on each of their faces in this picture.


Just to get you up to speed, this one was taken this past Easter. I've long given up trying to get a picture of all four kids with their eyes open at the same time.


And finally, we figured out a way to get all of us...well, most of us anyway, into one picture. PhotoBooth on my Mac! Everyone was supposed to say cheese, I swear!


Keep Smiling! I know I will!